541 research outputs found
Stereoelectronic effects on the binding of neutral Lewis bases to CdSe nanocrystals
Using P-31 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, we monitor the competition between tri-nbutylphosphine (Bu3P) and various amine and phosphine ligands for the surface of chloride terminated CdSe nanocrystals. Distinct P-31 NMR signals for free and bound phosphine ligands allow the surface ligand coverage to be measured in phosphine solution. Ligands with a small steric profile achieve higher surface coverages (Bu3P = 0.5 nm(-2), Me2P-n-octyl = 2.0 nm(-2), NH2Bu = >3 nm(-2)) and have greater relative binding affinity for the nanocrystal (binding affinity: Me3P > Me2P -n-octyl similar to Me2P -n-octadecyl > Et3P > Bu3P). Among phosphines, only Bu 3 P and Me2P-n-octyl support a colloidal dispersion, allowing a relative surface binding affinity (K-rel) to be estimated in that case (K-rel = 3.1). The affinity of the amine ligands is measured by the extent to which they displace Bu3P from the nanocrystals (K-rel: H2NBu similar to N-n-butylimidazole > 4-ethylpyridine > Bu3P similar to HNBu2 > Me2NBu > Bu3N). The affinity for the CdSe surface is greatest among soft, basic donors and depends on the number of each ligand that bind. Sterically unencumbered ligands such as imidazole, pyridine, and n-alkylamines can therefore outcompete stronger donors such as alkylphosphines. The influence of repulsive interactions between ligands on the binding affinity is a consequence of the high atom density of binary semiconductor surfaces. The observed behavior is distinct from the self-assembly of straight-chain surfactants on gold and silver where the ligands are commensurate with the underlying lattice and attractive interactions between aliphatic chains strengthen the binding
Scaling Cosmologies of N=8 Gauged Supergravity
We construct exact cosmological scaling solutions in N=8 gauged supergravity.
We restrict to solutions for which the scalar fields trace out geodesic curves
on the scalar manifold. Under these restrictions it is shown that the axionic
scalars are necessarily constant. The potential is then a sum of exponentials
and has a very specific form that allows for scaling solutions. The scaling
solutions describe eternal accelerating and decelerating power-law universes,
which are all unstable. An uplift of the solutions to 11-dimensional
supergravity is carried out and the resulting timedependent geometries are
discussed. In the discussion we briefly comment on the fact that N=2 gauged
supergravity allows stable scaling solutions.Comment: 17 pages; referenced added, reportnr changed and some corrections in
section
Continuous Nucleation and Size Dependent Growth Kinetics of Indium Phosphide Nanocrystals
Aminophosphines derived from N,N′-disubstituted ethylenediamines (R–N(H)CH2CH2N(H)–R; R = ortho-tolyl, phenyl, benzyl, iso-propyl, and n-octyl) were used to adjust the kinetics of InP nanocrystal formation by more than 1 order of magnitude. Ultraviolet–visible absorption and 31P nuclear magnetic resonance measurements demonstrate that the rate of nanocrystal formation is limited by the precursor reactivity. At low temperature (180 °C), crystal nucleation is concurrent with growth throughout the reaction, rather than occurring in a burst at early times. The low temperature produces a narrow range of small sizes (d = 4.2–4.9 nm) regardless of the precursor used. Higher temperatures (up to 270 °C) promote growth to larger sizes (d ≤ 7.8 nm), shorten the nucleation period, and create conditions where the final size is controlled by the precursor conversion reactivity. The temperature dependence is proposed to arise from growth kinetics that slow as the nanocrystal size increases, a novel surface attachment limited size distribution-focusing mechanism. Such a mechanism supports a narrow size distribution without separating the nucleation and growth phases
De Sitter vacua from N=2 gauged supergravity
Typical de Sitter (dS) vacua of gauged supergravity correspond to saddle
points of the potential and often the unstable mode runs into a singularity. We
explore the possibility to obtain dS points where the unstable mode goes on
both sides into a supersymmetric smooth vacuum. Within N=2 gauged supergravity
coupled to the universal hypermultiplet, we have found a potential which has
two supersymmetric minima (one of them can be flat) and these are connected by
a de Sitter saddle point. In order to obtain this potential by an Abelian
gauging, it was important to include the recently proposed quantum corrections
to the universal hypermultiplet sector. Our results apply to four as well as
five dimensional gauged supergravity theories.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figure, add refs and corrected typo
The non-abelian D-brane effective action through order
Requiring the existence of certain BPS solutions to the equations of motion,
we determine the bosonic part of the non-abelian D-brane effective action
through order . We also propose an economic organizational
principle for the effective action.Comment: 12 pages, 2 figures, JHEP styl
p-branes on the waves
We present a large family of simple, explicit ten-dimensional supergravity
solutions describing extended extremal supersymmetric Ramond-Ramond p-branes
embedded into time-dependent dilaton-gravity plane waves of an arbitrary
(isotropic) profile, with the brane world-volume aligned parallel to the
propagation direction of the wave. Generalizations to the non-extremal case are
not analyzed explicitly, but can be pursued as indicated.Comment: 11 pages; v.2 minor notation changes, minor typos corrected
(published version
Critical and Non-Critical Einstein-Weyl Supergravity
We construct N=1 supersymmetrisations of some recently-proposed theories of
critical gravity, conformal gravity, and extensions of critical gravity in four
dimensions. The total action consists of the sum of three separately off-shell
supersymmetric actions containing Einstein gravity, a cosmological term and the
square of the Weyl tensor. For generic choices of the coefficients for these
terms, the excitations of the resulting theory around an AdS_4 background
describe massive spin-2 and massless spin-2 modes coming from the metric;
massive spin-1 modes coming from a vector field in the theory; and massless and
massive spin-3/2 modes (with two unequal masses) coming from the gravitino.
These assemble into a massless and a massive N=1 spin-2 multiplet. In critical
supergravity, the coefficients are tuned so that the spin-2 mode in the massive
multiplet becomes massless. In the supersymmetrised extensions of critical
gravity, the coefficients are chosen so that the massive modes lie in a
"window" of lowest energies E_0 such that these ghostlike fields can be
truncated by imposing appropriate boundary conditions at infinity, thus leaving
just positive-norm massless supergravity modes.Comment: 29 page
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