RESUMEN
Litchi is a highly perishable fruit. Ripe litchi fruit loses quality quickly as they hang on tree, giving a very short hanging life and thus harvest period. This study attempted to explore the roles of cytokinin in regulating fruit ripening and senescence of litchi and examine the possibility of applying cytokinin in "on-tree storage" of the fruit. Exogenous cytokinin, forchlorfenuron (CPPU), was applied at 20 mg L-1 7 weeks after full bloom on litchi (Litchi chinensis cv. Feizixiao) fruit clusters. Color parameters, chlorophylls, anthocyanins, fruit and fruit part weights, total soluble solutes (TSSs), soluble sugars, organic acids, non-anthocyanin flavonoids, ethanol, and also CPPU residue in fruit were traced. CPPU residue was higher but decreased faster in the pericarp than in the aril, where it maintained < 10 µg kg-1. CPPU had no significant effect on fruit weight but tended to increase pericarp weight. The treatment suppressed chlorophyll loss and anthocyanin accumulation in the pericarp, increased non-anthocyanin flavonoids in the aril, but had no significant effects on non-anthocyanin flavonoids in the pericarp and total sugar and organic acids in the aril. As the commercially ripe fruit hanged on tree, TSSs, total sugar, and sucrose decreased with ethanol and acetic acid accumulation in the aril. CPPU significantly suppressed the loss of sucrose and total sugar and the accumulation of ethanol and acetic acid in the aril and inhibited malondialdehyde accumulation in the pericarp of the overripe fruit. Soluble invertase, alcohol dehydrogenase, and pyruvate decarboxylase (PDC) activity and gene expression in the aril were downregulated by CPPU. The results suggest that cytokinin partially suppresses the ripening process in litchi and is effective to slow quality loss in the overripe fruit on tree.
RESUMEN
High-pressure experiments usually expect a hydrostatic condition, in which the physical properties of materials can be easily understood by theoretical simulations. Unfortunately, non-hydrostatic effect is inevitable in experiments due to the solidification of the pressure transmitting media under high pressure. Resultantly, non-hydrostaticity affects the accuracy of the experimental data and sometimes even leads to false phenomena. Since the non-hydrostatic effect is extrinsic, it is quite hard to analyze quantitatively. Here, we have conducted high pressure experiments on the layered BiCuXO (X = S and Se) single crystals and quantitatively analyzed their pronounced non-hydrostatic effect by high throughput first-principles calculations and experimental Raman spectra. Our experiments find that the BiCuXO single crystals sustain the tetragonal structure up to 55 GPa (maximum pressure in our experiment). However, their pressure-dependent Raman shift and electric resistance show anomalous behaviors. Through optimization of thousands of crystal structures in the high throughput first-principles calculations, we have obtained the evolution of the lattice constants under external pressures, which clearly substantiates the non-hydrostatical pressure exerted in BiCuXO crystals. Our work indicates that the high throughput first-principles calculations could be a handy method to investigate the non-hydrostatic effect on the structural and electronic properties of materials in high pressure experiments.
RESUMEN
Recently the layered oxide semiconductor Bi2O2Se was hotly explored for its ultrahigh mobility and ultrafast photo-response whose physical origins need to be further explored or elucidated. Here, we have grown halogen (Cl, Br, I) doped and un-doped Bi2O2Se single crystals by a melt-solidification method. Comparative electrical transport characterizations and detailed data-analysis substantiate that the electron-electron scattering is the major source of resistivity in un-doped Bi2O2Se crystals; however, in halogen-doped Bi2O2Se crystals, electron-electron scattering is only effective at low temperature (<60 K) and subsequently electron-phonon-interaction scattering is dominated to resistivity. Hall measurement and analysis show that electron concentration of halogen-doped Bi2O2Se (â¼1020 cm-3) is one-order higher than un-doped one (â¼1019 cm-3), but the carrier mobility of halogen-doped Bi2O2Se at 2 K (â¼102 cm2 V-1 s-1) is reduced by more than two orders than un-doped ones (â¼104 cm2 V-1 s-1). Three kinds of relaxation time (due to the impurity scattering, electron-electron scattering and electron-phonon scattering), calculated by linear-response theory and electron-/phonon-dispersion, are in agreement with experimental results quantitatively. The scattering mechanism evolution from sole electron-electron scattering (un-doped Bi2O2Se) to electron-phonon scattering (doped Bi2O2Se) at high temperature (>60 K) is attributed to the net effect of decreased screened Coulomb-interaction and increased Fermi energy in halogen-doped Bi2O2Se. This work may provide clues of physical origins of superior electrical/photoelectrical properties of Bi2O2Se.
RESUMEN
In this paper, we report on the transport and magnetic properties of layered oxytelluride BiCuTeO polycrystals with slight mixed valence of Cu. The temperature-dependent electrical resistivity reveals degenerate semiconductor behavior (similar to metals). Under the action of an external magnetic field, the BiCuTeO polycrystal sample exhibits unsaturated magnetic resistance (MR) of about 8% at 2 K and 9 Tesla. The Hall resistivities show nonlinear behavior, suggesting the coexistence of both electrons and holes in the sample. When the temperature is decreased to around 110 K, the dominant carriers are changed from electrons to holes from the viewpoint of electrical transport, which is supported by the calculated temperature-dependent Fermi energy. Meanwhile, at low temperatures (<100 K), the impurity magnetic moment formed by a small amount of positive divalent copper exhibits short-range magnetism (a spin-glass-like feature), which gives rise to a narrow magnetic hysteresis loop. Our work may benefit in-depth understanding of physical properties of BiCuTeO-based materials.
