nifedipine (nif), a 1,4-dihydropyridine calcium channel antagonist, undergoes photo-degradation to dehydro-nifedipine (dnif) upon exposure to ultraviolet (uv) light and to the nitroso analogue of dehydro-nifedipine (ndnif) when exposed to sunlight or some kinds of artificial lights. nif photo-degradation products do not contribute to clinical activity, thus prevention of photo-degradation of ni...

Benzene can be activated by visible light (λ > 455 nm) in the presence of TiO(2), which leads to formation of carbonaceous polymeric deposits on the titania surface. These photosynthesized surface-modified materials exhibit enhanced photoactivity in degradation of phenolic compounds, particularly under visible light irradiation.

Photocatalytic water splitting is a new technology for the conversion and utilization of solar energy and has a potential prospect. One important aspect of enhancing the photocatalytic efficiency is how to improve the electron-hole separation. Up to now, there is still no ideal strategy to improve the electron-hole separation. In this article, for metal-free organic photocatalysts, we propose a...

In recent years many works are aimed at finding a method of controllable switching between hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of a surface. The hydrophilic surface state is generally determined by its energy. Change in the surface energy can be realized in several different ways. Here we report the ability to control the surface wettability of zirconium dioxide nano-coatings by changing the comp...

We numerically investigated the performance of an achromatic polarization-preserving beam displacer that was proposed by Galvez [Opt. Lett.26,971(2001)]. First, the four-prism configuration of the Galvez scheme is verified by simulation. We examined the extension of wavelength beyond visible light by considering the corresponding power loss. The degree of polarization is also considered. The to...

Density functional theory simulations show that modifying rutile TiO(2) with metal oxide nanoclusters produces composite materials with potential visible light photocatalytic activity.

In constructing the percept of transparency, the visual system must decompose the light intensity at each image location into two components one for the partially transmissivc surface, the other for the underlying surface seen through it. Theories of perceptual transparency have typically assumed that this decomposition is defined quantitatively in terms of the inverse of some physical model (t...

The development of an easily synthesized, modular, and tunable organic photoswitch that responds to visible light has been a long-standing pursuit. Herein we provide a detailed account of the design and synthesis of a new class of photochromes based on furfural, termed donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASAs). A wide variety of these derivatives are easily prepared from commercially available s...

Kerr effect accounts for the change in refractive index of a material with the light intensity and appears in all known optical materials. In this work we analyze Kerr effect in structured superluminal media (e.g some specific types of resonators). We show that Kerr effect in these structures can be cancelled or even reversed (in comparison with the Kerr effect of the material composing the str...