Tuning the charge flow between Marcus regimes in an organic thin-film device.

Marcus's theory of electron transfer, initially formulated six decades ago for redox reactions in solution, is now of great importance for very diverse scientific communities. The molecular scale tunability of electronic properties renders organic semiconductor materials in principle an ideal platform to test this theory. However, the demonstration of charge transfer in different Marcus regions requires a precise control over the driving force acting on the charge carriers. Here, we make use of a three-terminal hot-electron molecular transistor, which lets us access unconventional transport regimes. Thanks to the control of the injection energy of hot carriers in the molecular thin film we induce an effective negative differential resistance state that is a direct consequence of the Marcus Inverted Region.

Spin doping using transition metal phthalocyanine molecules.

Molecular spins have become key enablers for exploring magnetic interactions, quantum information processes and many-body effects in metals. Metal-organic molecules, in particular, let the spin state of the core metal ion to be modified according to its organic environment, allowing localized magnetic moments to emerge as functional entities with radically different properties from its simple atomic counterparts. Here, using and preserving the integrity of transition metal phthalocyanine high-spin complexes, we demonstrate the magnetic doping of gold thin films, effectively creating a new ground state. We demonstrate it by electrical transport measurements that are sensitive to the scattering of itinerant electrons with magnetic impurities, such as Kondo effect and weak antilocalization. Our work expands in a simple and powerful way the classes of materials that can be used as magnetic dopants, opening a new channel to couple the wide range of molecular properties with spin phenomena at a functional scale.

Hot electron attenuation of direct and scattered carriers across an epitaxial Schottky interface.

Hot electron transport of direct and scattered carriers across an epitaxial NiSi2/n-Si(111) interface, for different NiSi2 thickness, is studied using ballistic electron emission microscopy (BEEM). We find the BEEM transmission for the scattered hot electrons in NiSi2 to be significantly lower than that for the direct hot electrons, for all thicknesses. Interestingly, the attenuation length of the scattered hot electrons is found to be twice as large as that of the direct hot electrons. The lower BEEM transmission for the scattered hot electrons is due to inelastic scattering of the injected hot holes while the larger attenuation length of the scattered hot electrons is a consequence of the differences in the energy distribution of the injected and scattered hot electrons and the increasing attenuation length, at lower energies, of the direct hot electrons in NiSi2.

Protein profile of the allergenic pollen of Ipomoea fistulosa L.--a comparative study.

The pollen of Ipomoea fistulosa L. is an important aeroallergen of India. The pollen of this plant was collected from full bloomed flowers growing in different places of West Bengal, India. Protein content and profile were studied by SDS-PAGE. Skin-prick tests with pollen antigens of all the samples were also performed. Considerable variation in the protein content and profile was noted with the highest protein content in the collected sample of Calcutta showing highest number of protein bands (10) designated as IF1 to IF10 with their weights ranging between 31 kDa to 89 kDa and 3 bands (IF8, IF9 and IF10) having molecular weights less than 29 kDa. Skin-prick tests also revealed highest degree of sensitivity to the Calcutta sample giving positive response in 52% of the patients. Skin reactivity ranged between 1+ to 3+.

Analysis of the free amino acid content in pollen of nine Asteraceae species of known allergenic activity.

The study reports the free amino acid composition of the pollen of nine members of the family Asteraceae, i.e. Ageratum conyzoides L., Blumea oxyodonta DC., Eupatorium odoratum L., Gnaphalium indicum L., Mikania scandens Willd., Parthenium hysterophorus L., Spilanthes acmella Murr., Vernonia cinerea (L.) Lees. and Xanthium strumarium L. by thin layer chromatography. The amino acid content was found to vary from 0.5-4.0% of the total dry weight. Fourteen amino acids were identified, among which amino-n-butyric acid, aspartic acid and proline were present in almost all pollen samples. The other major amino acids present in free form included arginine, cystine, glutamic acid, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, ornithine, tryptophan and tyrosine.