The book reviews photosynthetic water oxidation and proton-coupled electron transfer in photosystem, focusing on the molecular vibrations of amino acid residues and water molecules. Photosynthetic water oxidation performed by plants and cyanobacteria is essential for the sustenance of life on Earth, not only as an electron source for synthesizing sugars from CO2, but also as an O2 source in the atmosphere. Water oxidation takes place at the Mn4CaO5 cluster in photosystem II, where a series of electron transfer reactions coupled with proton transfer occur using light energy. The author addresses the unresolved mechanisms of photosynthetic water oxidation and relevant proton-coupled electron transfer reactions using a combined approach of experimental and computational methods such as Fourier transform infrared difference spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. The results show that protonation and hydrogen-bond structures of water molecules and amino acid residues in the protein play important roles in regulation of the electron and proton transfer reactions. These findings and the methodology make a significant contribution to our understanding the molecular mechanism of photosynthetic water oxidation.

Emulsifiers, also known as surfactants, are often added to processed foods to improve stability, texture, or shelf life. These additives are regulated by national agencies, such as the FDA, or multi-national authorities, such as the EEC or WHO. The amphiphilic molecules function by assisting the dispersion of mutually insoluble phases and stabilizing the resulting colloids, emulsions, and foams. Emulsifiers can interact with other food components such as carbohydrates, proteins, water, and ions to produce complexes and mesophases. These interactions may enhance or disrupt structures and affect functional properties of finished foods. In dairy processing, small molecule emulsifiers may displace dairy proteins from oil/water and air/water interfaces, which affects stability and properties of the foams and emulsions. In baked products, emulsifiers contribute to secondary functionalities, such as dough strengthening and anti-staling. Synthetic food emulsifiers suffer from the stigma of chemical names on a product's ingredient statement. Modern consumers are seeking products that are "all natural." Fortunately, there are a number of natural ingredients that are surface-active, such as lecithin, milk proteins, and some protein-containing hydrocolloids. Mayonnaise, for example, is stabilized by egg yolk. This book can serve as both a guide for professionals in the food industry to provide an understanding of emulsifier functionality, and a stimulus for further innovation. Students of food science will find this to be a valuable resource.

Computational Studies of Crystal Structure and Bonding, by Angelo Gavezzotti Cryo-Crystallography: Diffraction at Low Temperature and More, by Piero Macchi High-Pressure Crystallography, by Malcolm I. McMahon Chemical X-Ray Photodiffraction: Principles, Examples, and Perspectives, by Pance Naumov Powder Diffraction Crystallography of Molecular Solids, by Kenneth D. M. Harris

Over the last thirty years, the study of liquids containing polymers, surfactants, or colloidal particles has developed from a loose assembly of facts into a coherent discipline with substantial predictive power. These liquids expand our conception of what condensed matter can do. Such structured-fluid phenomena dominate the physical environment within living cells. This book teaches how to think of these fluids from a unified point of view showing the far-reaching effects of thermal fluctuations in producing forces and motions. Keeping mathematics to a minimum, the book seeks the simplest explanations that account for the distinctive scaling properties of these fluids. An example is the growth of viscosity of a polymer solution as the cube of the molecular weight of the constituent polymers. Another is the hydrodynamic radius of a colloidal aggregate, which remains comparable to its geometrical radius even though the density of particles in the aggregate becomes arbitrarily small. The book aims for a simplicity, unity and depth not found in previous treatments, and includes numerous figures, tables and problems. It will be an ideal textbook for teaching undergraduates in physical science how to understand soft matter, but will also be of interest to industrial scientists, who want to gain a broader understanding of soft matter systems.

Self-Healing Polymer-Based Systems presents all aspects of self-healing polymeric materials, offering detailed information on fundamentals, preparation methods, technology, and applications, and drawing on the latest state-of-the-art research. The book begins by introducing self-healing polymeric systems, with a thorough explanation of underlying concepts, challenges, mechanisms, kinetic and thermodynamics, and types of chemistry involved. The second part of the book studies the main categories of self-healing polymeric material, examining elastomer-based, thermoplastic-based, and thermoset-based materials in turn. This is followed by a series of chapters that examine the very latest advances, including nanoparticles, coatings, shape memory, self-healing biomaterials, ionomers, supramolecular polymers, photoinduced and thermally induced self-healing, healing efficiency, life cycle analysis, and characterization. Finally, novel applications are presented and explained. This book serves as an essential resource for academic researchers, scientists, and graduate students in the areas of polymer properties, self-healing materials, polymer science, polymer chemistry, and materials science. In industry, this book contains highly valuable information for R&D professionals, designers, and engineers, who are looking to incorporate self-healing properties in their materials, products, or components.

The main motivation for the organization of the Advanced Research Workshop in Belgirate was the promotion of discussions on the most recent issues and the future perspectives in the field of Solid State lonics. The location was chosen on purpose since Belgirate was the place were twenty years ago, also then under the sponsorship of NATO, the very first international meeting on this important and interdisciplinary field took place. That meeting was named "Fast Ion Transport in Solids" and gathered virtually everybody at that time having been active in any aspect of motion of ions in solids. The original Belgirate Meeting made for the first time visible the technological potential related to the phenomenon of the fast ionic transport in solids and, accordingly, the field was given the name "Solid State lonics." This field is now expanded to cover a wide range of technologies which includes chemical sensors for environmental and process control, electrochromic windows, mirrors and displays, fuel cells, high performance rechargeable batteries for stationary applications and electrotraction, chemotronics, semiconductor ionics, water electrolysis cells for hydrogen economy and other applications. The main idea for holding an anniversary meeting was that of discussing the most recent issues and the future perspectives of Solid State lonics just twenty years after it has started at the same location on the lake Maggiore in North Italy.

This book introduces readers to experimental techniques of general utility that can be used to practically and reliably determine nucleation rates. It also covers the basics of gas hydrates, phase equilibria, nucleation theory, crystal growth, and interfacial gaseous states. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in the field of hydrate nucleation. The formation of gas hydrates is a first-order phase transition that begins with nucleation. Understanding nucleation is of interest to many working in the chemical and petroleum industry, since nucleation, while beneficial in many chemical processes, is also a concern in terms of flow assurance for oil and natural gas pipelines. A primary difficulty in the investigation of gas hydrate nucleation has been researchers' inability to determine and compare the nucleation rates of gas hydrates across systems with different scales and levels of complexity, which in turn has limited their ability to study the nucleation process itself. This book introduces readers to experimental techniques that can be used to practically and reliably determine the nucleation rates of gas hydrate systems. It also covers the basics of gas hydrates, phase equilibria, nucleation theory, crystal growth, and interfacial gaseous states. Given its scope, the book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers in the field of hydrate nucleation.

Colloid-polymer mixtures are subject of intensive research due to their wide range of applicability, for instance in coatings and food-stuffs. This thesis constitutes a fundamental investigation towards a better control over the stability of such suspensions. Through the chapters, different key parameters governing the stability of colloid-polymer mixtures are explored. How the colloid (pigment) shape and the effective polymer-colloid affinity modulate the stability of the suspension are examples of these key parameters. Despise the mostly theoretical results presented, the thesis is written in a format accessible to a broad scientific audience. Some of the equations of state presented might of direct use to experimentalists. Furthermore, new theoretical insights about colloid-polymer mixtures are put forward. These include four-phase coexistences in effective two-component, quantification of depletant partitioning at high colloidal concentrations, multiple re-entrant phase behaviour of the colloidal fluid-solid coexistence, and a condition where polymers are neither depleted nor adsorbed from/to the colloidal surface.

This book is about the drift, diffusion, and reaction of ions moving through gases under the influence of an external electric field, the gas temperature, and the number density. While this field was established late in the 19th century, experimental and theoretical studies of ion and electron swarms continue to be important in such varied fields as atomic and molecular physics, aeronomy and atmospheric chemistry, gaseous electronics, plasma processing, and laser physics. This book follows in the rigorous tradition of well-known older books on the subject, while at the same time providing a much-needed overview of modern developments with a focus on theory. Graduate students and researchers new to this field will find this book an indispensable guide, particularly those involved with ion mobility spectrometry and the use of ion transport coefficients to test and improve ab initio ion-neutral interaction potentials. Established researchers and academics will find in this book a modern companion to the classic references.

This textbook offers a strong introduction to the fundamental concepts of materials science. It conveys the quintessence of this interdisciplinary field, distinguishing it from merely solid-state physics and solid-state chemistry, using metals as model systems to elucidate the relation between microstructure and materials properties. Mittemeijer's Fundamentals of Materials Science provides a consistent treatment of the subject matter with a special focus on the microstructure-property relationship. Richly illustrated and thoroughly referenced, it is the ideal adoption for an entire undergraduate, and even graduate, course of study in materials science and engineering. It delivers a solid background against which more specialized texts can be studied, covering the necessary breadth of key topics such as crystallography, structure defects, phase equilibria and transformations, diffusion and kinetics, and mechanical properties. The success of the first edition has led to this updated and extended second edition, featuring detailed discussion of electron microscopy, supermicroscopy and diffraction methods, an extended treatment of diffusion in solids, and a separate chapter on phase transformation kinetics. "In a lucid and masterly manner, the ways in which the microstructure can affect a host of basic phenomena in metals are described.... By consistently staying with the postulated topic of the microstructure - property relationship, this book occupies a singular position within the broad spectrum of comparable materials science literature .... it will also be of permanent value as a reference book for background refreshing, not least because of its unique annotated intermezzi; an ambitious, remarkable work." G. Petzow in International Journal of Materials Research. "The biggest strength of the book is the discussion of the structure-property relationships, which the author has accomplished admirably.... In a nutshell, the book should not be looked at as a quick 'cook book' type text, but as a serious, critical treatise for some significant time to come." G.S. Upadhyaya in Science of Sintering. "The role of lattice defects in deformation processes is clearly illustrated using excellent diagrams . Included are many footnotes, 'Intermezzos', 'Epilogues' and asides within the text from the author's experience. This ..... soon becomes valued for the interesting insights into the subject and shows the human side of its history. Overall this book provides a refreshing treatment of this important subject and should prove a useful addition to the existing text books available to undergraduate and graduate students and researchers in the field of materials science." M. Davies in Materials World.

These proceedings gather carefully selected, peer-reviewed contributions from the International Conference on Pure and Applied Chemistry (ICPAC 2018). The event, the latest installment in a biennial conference series, was held in July 2018 in Mauritius. The respective chapters in this unique collection reflect a wide range of fundamental and applied research in the chemical sciences and various interdisciplinary subjects. In addition to reviews, they highlight cutting-edge advances.

The past three decades have witnessed the great success of lithium-ion batteries, especially in the areas of 3C products, electrical vehicles, and smart grid applications. However, further optimization of the energy/power density, coulombic efficiency, cycle life, charge speed, and environmental adaptability are still needed. To address these issues, a thorough understanding of the reaction inside a battery or dynamic evolution of each component is required. Microscopy and Microanalysis for Lithium-Ion Batteries discusses advanced analytical techniques that offer the capability of resolving the structure and chemistry at an atomic resolution to further drive lithium-ion battery research and development. * Provides comprehensive techniques that probe the fundamentals of Li-ion batteries. * Covers the basic principles of the techniques involved as well as its application in battery research. * Describes details of experimental set-ups and procedure for successful experiments. This reference is aimed at researchers, engineers, and scientists studying lithium-ion batteries including chemical, materials, and electrical engineers, as well as chemists and physicists.

Cold Fusion: Advances in Condensed Matter Nuclear Science provides a concise description of the existing technological approaches in cold fusion or low energy nuclear reaction engineering. It handles the chemistry, physics, materials, and various processes involved in cold fusion, and provides a critical analysis of obtained theoretical and experimental results. The book has a very international appeal with the editor from France and an international pool of chapter authors from academia and industry. This book is an indispensable resource for researchers in academia and industry connected with combustion processes and synthesis all over the world.

Ideas of Quantum Chemistry, Volume Two: Interactions highlights the motions and systems in quantum chemistry and the models and tools used to assess them, thus giving detailed insights into the behaviors underlying quantum chemistry. Using an innovative structure to show the logical relationships between different topics, systems and methods, it answers questions and emphasizes knowledge using practical examples. Beginning with a review of the orbital model of electronic motion in periodic systems, the book goes on to explore the correlation of electronic motions, density functional theory (DFT), electric and magnetic fields, intermolecular interactions, chemical reactions and information processing. This third release has been updated and revised to cover the latest developments in the field. It can be used on its own as a guide to key interactions and tools or in combination with Volume Two to give a complete overview of the field.

Energy and feedstock materials for the chemical industry are in increasing demand and, with constraints related to the availability and use of oil, the energy and chemical industry is undergoing considerable changes. In recent years, major restructuring has occurred in the oil, petrochemical, and chemical industry, with increasing attention devoted to the use of natural gas, methane in particular, as a chemical feedstock rather than just as a fuel. The conversion of remote natural gas into liquid fuels or other transportable chemicals is a challenge to industrial catalysis. Few processes exist so far with the major ones involving the conversion of natural gas to synthesis gas by steam reforming, CO2 reforming, or partial oxidation, followed by the syntheses of methanol, hydrocarbons (Fischer-Tropsch synthesis), or ammonia.

In this book, a comprehensive overview of the field of processing natural gas is given, through a series of chapters written by leading scientists and engineers in the field. New developments are discussed and current work relevant to the area is shown by a series of recent works by researchers working in this and related fields.

Transport and Surface Phenomena provides an overview of the key transfers taking place in reactions and explores how calculations of momentum, energy and mass transfers can help researchers develop the most appropriate, cost effective solutions to chemical problems. Beginning with a thorough overview of the nature of transport phenomena, the book goes on to explore balances in transport phenomena, including key equations for assessing balances, before concluding by outlining mathematical methods for solving the transfer equations. Drawing on the experience of its expert authors, it is an accessible introduction to the field for students, researchers and professionals working in chemical engineering. The book and is also ideal for those in related fields such as physical chemistry, energy engineering, and materials science, for whom a deeper understanding of these interactions could enhance their work.

This book presents the most important advances in the class of topological materials and discusses the topological characterization, modeling and metrology of materials. Further, it addresses currently emerging characterization techniques such as optical and acoustic, vibrational spectroscopy (Brillouin, infrared, Raman), electronic, magnetic, fluorescence correlation imaging, laser lithography, small angle X-ray and neutron scattering and other techniques, including site-selective nanoprobes. The book analyzes the topological aspects to identify and quantify these effects in terms of topology metrics. The topological materials are ubiquitous and range from (i) de novo nanoscale allotropes of carbons in various forms such as nanotubes, nanorings, nanohorns, nanowalls, peapods, graphene, etc. to (ii) metallo-organic frameworks, (iii) helical gold nanotubes, (iv) Moebius conjugated polymers, (v) block co-polymers, (vi) supramolecular assemblies, to (vii) a variety of biological and soft-matter systems, e.g. foams and cellular materials, vesicles of different shapes and genera, biomimetic membranes, and filaments, (viii) topological insulators and topological superconductors, (ix) a variety of Dirac materials including Dirac and Weyl semimetals, as well as (x) knots and network structures. Topological databases and algorithms to model such materials have been also established in this book. In order to understand and properly characterize these important emergent materials, it is necessary to go far beyond the traditional paradigm of microscopic structure-property-function relationships to a paradigm that explicitly incorporates topological aspects from the outset to characterize and/or predict the physical properties and currently untapped functionalities of these advanced materials. Simulation and modeling tools including quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, 3D visualization and tomography are also indispensable. These concepts have found applications in condensed matter physics, materials science and engineering, physical chemistry and biophysics, and the various topics covered in the book have potential applications in connection with novel synthesis techniques, sensing and catalysis. As such, the book offers a unique resource for graduate students and researchers alike.

The creation of molecular materials that have desired electrical conductance and magnetic properties demands the precise arrangement of molecules in the solid state. Such controlled arrangement has been achieved very elegantly by supramolecular chemists, especially those practising crystal engineering. This book, which presents articles by foremost experts in crystal engineering, molecular conductors and magnetic magnetism, reveals the results of an interdisciplinary union that may well have a profound influence on the future of materials science. Theoretical studies reveal potential areas of interest for those investigating molecular conductors and magnets, as well as materials that exhibit both properties. A unique survey of the state of the art appealing to all those doing research in supramolecular chemistry and materials science.

Key features: Organised and centred around analysis techniques, not traditional Mechanics and E&M. Presents a unified approach, in a different order, meaning that the same laboratories, equipment, and demonstrations can be used when teaching the course. Demonstrates to students that the analysis and concepts they are learning are critical to the understanding of biological systems.

The Aqueous Chemistry of Polonium and the Practical Application of its Thermochemistry provides a thermochemical database and derived pH-potential diagrams to give readers a better understanding of polonium behavior. The book provides an introduction to polonium and its physical and chemical properties, as well as a detailed overview of polonium's chemical thermodynamics. Drawing on the knowledge of expert authors, the book provides key insights for those working with polonium across a range of different fields, from mining industry professionals and analytical chemists, to environmental remediation scientists.

Describes extensively the design and microfabrication of nanosensors based on nanotechnological tools. Provides a wide range of bioplatforms based on e.g., carbon nanostructures and Describes extensively a large number of application as a part of Nanomaterial based biosensors.

The series Topics in Current Chemistry Collections presents critical reviews from the journal Topics in Current Chemistry organized in topical volumes. The scope of coverage is all areas of chemical science including the interfaces with related disciplines such as biology, medicine and materials science. The goal of each thematic volume is to give the non-specialist reader, whether in academia or industry, a comprehensive insight into an area where new research is emerging which is of interest to a larger scientific audience. Each review within the volume critically surveys one aspect of that topic and places it within the context of the volume as a whole. The most significant developments of the last 5 to 10 years are presented using selected examples to illustrate the principles discussed. The coverage is not intended to be an exhaustive summary of the field or include large quantities of data, but should rather be conceptual, concentrating on the methodological thinking that will allow the non-specialist reader to understand the information presented. Contributions also offer an outlook on potential future developments in the field.

The extended and revised edition of this textbook provides essential information for a comprehensive upper-level graduate course on the crystalline growth of semiconductor heterostructures. Heteroepitaxy is the basis of today's advanced electronic and optoelectronic devices, and it is considered one of the most important fields in materials research and nanotechnology. The book discusses the structural and electronic properties of strained epitaxial layers, the thermodynamics and kinetics of layer growth, and it describes the major growth techniques: metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy, molecular-beam epitaxy, and liquid-phase epitaxy. It also examines in detail cubic and hexagonal semiconductors, strain relaxation by misfit dislocations, strain and confinement effects on electronic states, surface structures, and processes during nucleation and growth. Requiring only minimal knowledge of solid-state physics, it provides natural sciences, materials science and electrical engineering students and their lecturers elementary introductions to the theory and practice of epitaxial growth, supported by references and over 300 detailed illustrations. In this second edition, many topics have been extended and treated in more detail, e.g. in situ growth monitoring, application of surfactants, properties of dislocations and defects in organic crystals, and special growth techniques like vapor-liquid-solid growth of nanowires and selective-area epitaxy.

This thesis presents several related advances in the field of nonequilibrium quantum thermodynamics. The central result is an ingenious proof that the local temperature and voltage measurement in a nonequilibrium system of fermions exists and is unique, placing the concept of local temperature on a rigorous mathematical footing for the first time. As an intermediate step, a proof of the positivity of the Onsager matrix of linear response theory is given -- a statement of the second law of thermodynamics that had lacked an independent proof for 85 years. A new experimental method to measure the local temperature of an electron system using purely electrical techniques is also proposed, which could enable improvements to the spatial resolution of thermometry by several orders of magnitude. Finally, a new mathematically-exact definition for the local entropy of a quantum system in a nonequilibrium steady state is derived. Several different measures of the local entropy are discussed, relating to the thermodynamics of processes that a local observer with varying degrees of information about the microstates of the system could carry out, and it is shown that they satisfy a hierarchy of inequalities. Proofs of the third law of thermodynamics for generic open quantum systems are presented, taking into account the entropic contribution due to localized states. Appropriately normalized (per-state) local entropies are defined and are used to quantify the departure from local equilibrium.