Defective hierarchical porous copper-based metal-organic frameworks synthesised via facile acid etching strategy

Introducing hierarchical pore structure to microporous materials such as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) can be beneficial for reactions where the rate of reaction is limited by low rates of diffusion or high pressure drop. This advantageous pore structure can be obtained by defect formation, mostly via post-synthetic acid etching, which has been studied extensively on water-stable MOFs. Here we show that a water-unstable HKUST-1 MOF can also be modified in a corresponding manner by using phosphoric acid as a size-selective etching agent and a mixture of dimethyl sulfoxide and methanol as a dilute solvent. Interestingly, we demonstrate that the etching process which is time- and acidity- dependent, can result in formation of defective HKUST-1 with extra interconnected hexagonal macropores without compromising on the bulk crystallinity. These findings suggest an intelligent scalable synthetic method for formation of hierarchical porosity in MOFs that are prone to hydrolysis, for improved molecular accessibility and diffusion for catalysis.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure

The physical and structural effects of 1-MCP on four different apple cultivars during storage

The impact of the ethylene inhibitor, 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP), on four apple cultivars (Braeburn, Fuji, Jazz and Golden Delicious) over 150 days of storage at 2 °C was assessed. Proton transfer reaction quadrupole mass spectrometry (PTR-QUAD-MS) was used to monitor changes in VOC composition, while texture analysis and X-ray microcomputer tomography (µ-CT) scanning were used to study microstructural changes. The application of 1-MCP on apples reduced VOC emissions, concurrently maintaining a firmer texture compared to the untreated apples at each time point. The µ-CT scanning revealed how changes in specific morphological characteristics such as anisotropy, connectivity and porosity, size and shape, as well as the interconnectivity of intracellular spaces (IS) influenced texture even when porosity was similar. Additionally, this study showed that the porosity and connectivity of IS were associated with VOC emission and increased simultaneously. This study highlights how the morphological parameters of an apple can help explain their ripening process during long-term storage and how their microstructure can influence the release of VOC

Dynamical invariants in non-Markovian quantum state diffusion equation

We find dynamical invariants for open quantum systems described by the non-Markovian quantum state diffusion (QSD) equation. In stark contrast to closed systems where the dynamical invariant can be identical to the system density operator, these dynamical invariants no longer share the equation of motion for the density operator. Moreover, the invariants obtained with from bi-orthonormal basis can be used to render an exact solution to the QSD equation and the corresponding non-Markovian dynamics without using master equations or numerical simulations. Significantly we show that we can apply these dynamic invariants to reverse-engineering a Hamiltonian that is capable of driving the system to the target state, providing a novel way to design control strategy for open quantum systems.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

The Structure on Invariant Measures of C1C^1 generic diffeomorphisms

Let $\Lambda$ be an isolated non-trival transitive set of a $C^1$ generic diffeomorphism f\in\Diff(M). We show that the space of invariant measures supported on $\Lambda$ coincides with the space of accumulation measures of time averages on one orbit. Moreover, the set of points having this property is residual in $\Lambda$ (which implies the set of irregular$^+$ points is also residual in $\Lambda$). As an application, we show that the non-uniform hyperbolicity of irregular$^+$ points in $\Lambda$ with totally 0 measure (resp., the non-uniform hyperbolicity of a generic subset in $\Lambda$) determines the uniform hyperbolicity of $\Lambda$

Solutions of the Ginsparg-Wilson Relation

We analyze general solutions of the Ginsparg-Wilson relation for lattice Dirac operators and formulate a necessary condition for such operators to have non-zero index in the topologically nontrivial background gauge fields.Comment: 6 pages, latex, no figures, set T to 1 in eqs. (10)--(13

Effect of mono- and divalent extra-framework cations on the structure and accessibility of porosity in chabazite zeolites

Chabazite (CHA), one of the most common zeolite framework types, has a remarkable capacity to accommodate a wide range of different cations within the unique CHA framework. This has led to CHA being applied extensively in ion exchange, and studied for highly selective gas sorption, most notably through a trapdoor mechanism. Here, we report the systematic study of a series of six chabazite zeolites (i.e.K-CHA, Cs-CHA, Ca-CHA, Ba-CHA, Sr-CHA and Zn-CHA) obtained by subjecting the parent chabazite (KNa-CHA) to exchange operations with cations of different valences and atomic radii. These samples were examined using numerous techniques and it was found that the differences in valence and size between extra-framework cations exert a significant effect on the abundance of these cations positioned in the framework, resulting in differing nitrogen sorption ability measured in the synthesised chabazite zeolites. These findings will help to understand how the zeolite counter-cation affects the ability of the CHA material to selectively sequester and separate gases through the use of the trapdoor mechanism.</p

Sound absorption in Hilbert Fractal and Coiled Acoustic Metamaterials

We describe here a class of acoustic metamaterials with fractal Hilbert space-filling and coiled geometry with equal tortuosity for noise mitigation. Experiments are performed using a four-microphone impedance tube and benchmarked against non-viscous and viscothermal Finite Element models related to configurations spanning up to five fractal/geometry orders. We show that the acoustic absorption can be predicted by the resonance of the cavities associated to the tortuous paths. For a given fractal/geometry order, the acoustic absorption at specific frequencies is also enhanced by maximising the difference between the minimum and maximum fluid particle velocity of the air inside the patterns. These principles can be used to design high-performance acoustic metamaterials for sound absorption over broad frequency ranges.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, Submitted to Applied Physics Letter