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Top-Manager stehen seit einigen Jahren verstärkt im Visier der Medien. Durch die mediale Aufmerksamkeit erlangen sie einen Prominentenstatus, der in der angloamerikanischen Managementforschung zu schillernden Bezeichnungen wie Celebrity CEO oder Superstar CEO führt. Nadine Bültel widmet sich in ihrer Arbeit diesem neuartigen Star- Phänomen von Top-Managern und untersucht die Ursachen und Auswirkungen ihrer medialen Prominenz. Sie analysiert, wie Manager eine Starreputation aufbauen und welche Rolle die Medien hierbei spielen. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei auch die Frage, ob und warum Starmanager eine höhere Vergütung erhalten als ihre weniger prominenten Kollegen.
Block copolymers are receiving increasing attention in the literature. Reports on amphiphilic block copolymers have now established the basis of their self-assembly behavior: aggregate sizes, morphologies and stability can be explained from the absolute and relative block lengths, the nature of the blocks, the architecture and also solvent selectiveness. In water, self-assembly of amphiphilic block copolymers is assumed to be driven by the hydrophobic. The motivation of this thesis is to study the influence on the self-assembly in water of A b B type block copolymers (with A hydrophilic) of the variation of the hydrophilicity of B from non-soluble (hydrophobic) to totally soluble (hydrophilic). Glucose-modified polybutadiene-block-poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) copolymers were prepared and their self-assembly behavior in water studied. The copolymers formed vesicles with an asymmetric membrane with a glycosylated exterior and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) on the inside. Above the low critical solution temperature (LCST) of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide), the structure collapsed into micelles with a hydrophobic PNIPAM core and glycosylated exterior. This collapse was found to be reversible. As a result, the structures showed a temperature-dependent interaction with L-lectin proteins and were shown to be able to encapsulate organic molecules. Several families of double hydrophilic block copolymers (DHBC) were prepared. The blocks of these copolymers were biopolymers or polymer chimeras used in aqueous two-phase partition systems. Copolymers based on dextran and poly(ethylene glycol) blocks were able to form aggregates in water. Dex6500-b-PEG5500 copolymer spontaneously formed vesicles with PEG as the “less hydrophilic” barrier and dextran as the solubilizing block. The aggregates were found to be insensitive to the polymer's architecture and concentration (in the dilute range) and only mildly sensitive to temperature. Variation of the block length, yielded different morphologies. A longer PEG chain seemed to promote more curved aggregates following the inverse trend usually observed in amphiphilic block copolymers. A shorter dextran promoted vesicular structures as usually observed for the amphiphilic counterparts. The linking function was shown to have an influence of the morphology but not on the self-assembly capability in itself. The vesicles formed by dex6500-b-PEG5500 showed slow kinetics of clustering in the presence of Con A lectin. In addition both dex6500-b-PEG5500 and its crosslinked derivative were able to encapsulate fluorescent dyes. Two additional dextran-based copolymers were synthesized, dextran-b-poly(vinyl alcohol) and dextran-b-poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). The study of their self-assembly allowed to conclude that aqueous two-phase systems (ATPS) is a valid source of inspiration to conceive DHBCs capable of self-assembling. In the second part the principle was extended to polypeptide systems with the synthesis of a poly(N-hydroxyethylglutamine)-block-poly(ethylene glycol) copolymer. The copolymer that had been previously reported to have emulsifying properties was able to form vesicles by direct dissolution of the solid in water. Last, a series of thermoresponsive copolymers were prepared, dextran-b-PNIPAMm. These polymers formed aggregates below the LCST. Their structure could not be unambiguously elucidated but seemed to correspond to vesicles. Above the LCST, the collapse of the PNIPAM chains induced the formation of stable objects of several hundreds of nanometers in radius that evolved with increasing temperature. The cooling of these solution below LCST restored the initial aggregates. This self-assembly of DHBC outside any stimuli of pH, ionic strength, or temperature has only rarely been described in the literature. This work constituted the first formal attempt to frame the phenomenon. Two reasons were accounted for the self-assembly of such systems: incompatibility of the polymer pairs forming the two blocks (enthalpic) and a considerable solubility difference (enthalpic and entropic). The entropic contribution to the positive Gibbs free energy of mixing is believed to arise from the same loss of conformational entropy that is responsible for “the hydrophobic effect” but driven by a competition for water of the two blocks. In that sense this phenomenon should be described as the “hydrophilic effect”.
Das Hauptziel dieser Arbeit ist das Verständnis der molekularen Kristallisation, sowohl mit als auch ohne polymere Additive, als einen mehrstufigen Prozess. Dieser beinhaltet eine transiente flüssig-flüssig Phasentrennung, die Nukleation von Nanokristallen in der dichten flüssigen Precursor-Phase so wie eine anschließende nanokristalline Selbstorganisation. Die Arbeit beginnt mit Untersuchungen an einem quaternären Modelsystem bestehend aus DL-Glutamat (Glu), Polyethylenimin (PEI), Wasser und Ethanol. Das Phasendiagramm dieses quaternären Systems wird durch Variation der Glu/PEI w/w und Wasser/EtOH v/v Verhältnisse bestimmt, wobei Präzpitat aus polymerinduzierten flüssigen Precursor, Koazervate oder homogene Mischungen erhalten werden Das thermodynamisch stabile Koazervat kann als Referenz für das Verständnis von flüssigen Precursorn angesehen werden, welche in der Natur metastabil und transient sind. Der mehrstufige Mechanismus der Glu-Präzipitation mit PEI als Additiv wird dann mittels Neutronen Kleinwinkelstreuung untersucht. Dies zeigt, dass die ursprünglich gebildeten flüssigen Precursor noch vor der Nukleation von Nanokristallen einen Wechsel von Wachstum und Koaleszenz durchlaufen. Die Ergebnisse aus optischer- und Eletronenmikroskopie zeigen, dass sowohl die flüssigen Precursor Superstrukturen ausbilden als auch, dass die Nukleation von Nanoplättchen in jedem einzelnen Precursor Tropfen von statten geht. Dies geschieht noch bevor sich die Nanoplättchen selbst in einer radialen Orientierung ausrichten. Diese Studie liefert die Kinetik der Präzipitation von organischen Stoffen in Gegenwart von polymeren Additiven. Eine ähnliche Vorgehensweise wie für die Herstellung von Mikrokügelchen kann für die Darstellung von gemusterten Filmen angewandt werden. Die homogene Nukleation von Nanopartikeln (NPs) findet während der Verdampfung einer quarternären DL-Lys·HCl-Polyacrylsäure-Wasser-Ethanol Dispersion auf einer hydrophilen Oberfläche statt. Die darauffolgende vollständige Verdampfung löst die Mesokristallisation eines kontinuierlichen sphärolithischen dünnen Films aus, welcher sich wiederum in einen mesokristallinen dünnen Film umwandelt. Mesokristalline Filme mit 4 Hierarchiestufen bzw. auch periodische Filme werden durch die Verdampfung der Mikrokügelchen-Dispersion erhalten. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Verdampfung eine einfache aber effektive Methode zur Herstellung von verschieden gemusterten hierarchischen Filmen darstellt. Nicht-klassische Kristallisation wird auch in der Abwesenheit von polymeren Additiven beobachtet. Wir verfolgen mittels Rasterkraftmikroskop (AFM) die Nukleation und das Wachstum einer neuen molekularen Schicht auf wachsenden DL-Glu·H2O Kristallen aus übersättigter Mutterlauge. Die Bildung einer neuen molekularen Schicht verläuft durch die Anlagerung von amorphen Nanopartikeln. Das Schrumpfen der NPs zusammen mit der strukturellen Änderung von dreidimensionalen NPs zu 2D Schichten wird während dieses Relaxationsprozesses beobachtet. Schließlich kommt es zu der Ausbildung einer neuen molekularen Schicht. Die Bildung einer molekularen Schicht durch die Anlagerung von Nanopartikeln aus der Lösung und die darauffolgende Relaxation liefert ein abweichendes Bild zu der bisher gängigen klassischen Theorie des Kristallwachstums.
Magnetische Nanopartikel bieten ein großes Potential, da sie einerseits die Eigenschaften ihrer Bulk-Materialien besitzen und anderseits, auf Grund ihrer Größe, über komplett unterschiedliche magnetische Eigenschaften verfügen können; Superparamagnetismus ist eine dieser Eigenschaften. Die meisten etablierten Anwendungen magnetischer Nanopartikel basieren heutzutage auf Eisenoxiden. Diese bieten gute magnetische Eigenschaften, sind chemisch relativ stabil, ungiftig und lassen sich auf vielen Synthesewegen relativ einfach herstellen. Die magnetischen Eigenschaften der Eisenoxide sind materialabhängig aber begrenzt, weshalb nach anderen Verbindungen mit besseren Eigenschaften gesucht werden muss. Eisencarbid (Fe3C) kann eine dieser Verbindungen sein. Dieses besitzt vergleichbare positive Eigenschaften wie Eisenoxid, jedoch viel bessere magnetische Eigenschaften, speziell eine höhere Sättigungsmagnetisierung. Bis jetzt wurde Fe3C hauptsächlich in Gasphasenabscheidungsprozessen synthetisiert oder als Nebenprodukt bei der Synthese von Kohlenstoffstrukturen gefunden. Eine Methode, mit der gezielt Fe3C-Nanopartikel und andere Metallcarbide synthetisiert werden können, ist die „Harnstoff-Glas-Route“. Neben den Metallcarbiden können mit dieser Methode auch die entsprechenden Metallnitride synthetisiert werden, was die breite Anwendbarkeit der Methode unterstreicht. Die „Harnstoff-Glas-Route“ ist eine Kombination eines Sol-Gel-Prozesses mit einer anschließenden carbothermalen Reduktion/Nitridierung bei höheren Temperaturen. Sie bietet den Vorteil einer einfachen und schnellen Synthese verschiedener Metallcarbide/nitride. Der Schwerpunkt in dieser Arbeit lag auf der Synthese von Eisencarbiden/nitriden, aber auch Nickel und Kobalt wurden betrachtet. Durch die Variation der Syntheseparameter konnten verschiedene Eisencarbid/nitrid Nanostrukturen synthetisiert werden. Fe3C-Nanopartikel im Größenbereich von d = 5 – 10 nm konnten, durch die Verwendung von Eisenchlorid, hergestellt werden. Die Nanopartikel weisen durch ihre geringe Größe superparamagnetische Eigenschaften auf und besitzen, im Vergleich zu Eisenoxid Nanopartikeln im gleichen Größenbereich, eine höhere Sättigungsmagnetisierung. Diese konnten in fortführenden Experimenten erfolgreich in ionischen Flüssigkeiten und durch ein Polymer-Coating, im wässrigen Medium, dispergiert werden. Desweiteren wurde durch ein Templatieren mit kolloidalem Silika eine mesoporöse Fe3C-Nanostruktur hergestellt. Diese konnte erfolgreich in der katalytischen Spaltung von Ammoniak getestet werden. Mit der Verwendung von Eisenacetylacetonat konnten neben Fe3C-Nanopartikeln, nur durch Variation der Reaktionsparameter, auch Fe7C3- und Fe3N-Nanopartikel synthetisiert werden. Speziell für die Fe3C-Nanopartikel konnte die Sättigungsmagnetisierung, im Vergleich zu den mit Eisenchlorid synthetisierten Nanopartikeln, nochmals erhöht werden. Versuche mit Nickelacetat führten zu Nickelnitrid (Ni3N) Nanokristallen. Eine zusätzliche metallische Nickelphase führte zu einer Selbstorganisation der Partikel in Scheiben-ähnliche Überstrukturen. Mittels Kobaltacetat konnten, in Sphären aggregierte, metallische Kobalt Nanopartikel synthetisiert werden. Kobaltcarbid/nitrid war mit den gegebenen Syntheseparametern nicht zugänglich.
In this thesis chemical reactions under hydrothermal conditions were explored, whereby emphasis was put on green chemistry. Water at high temperature and pressure acts as a benign solvent. Motivation to work under hydrothermal conditions was well-founded in the tunability of physicochemical properties with temperature, e.g. of dielectric constant, density or ion product, which often resulted in surprising reactivity. Another cornerstone was the implementation of the principles of green chemistry. Besides the use of water as solvent, this included the employment of a sustainable feedstock and the sensible use of resources by minimizing waste and harmful intermediates and additives. To evaluate the feasibility of hydrothermal conditions for chemical synthesis, exemplary reactions were performed. These were carried out in a continuous flow reactor, allowing for precise control of reaction conditions and kinetics measurements. In most experiments a temperature of 200 °C in combination with a pressure of 100 bar was chosen. In some cases the temperature was even raised to 300 °C. Water in this subcritical range can also be found in nature at hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. On the primitive earth, environments with such conditions were however present in larger numbers. Therefore we tested whether biologically important carbohydrates could be formed at high temperature from the simple, probably prebiotic precursor formaldehyde. Indeed, this formose reaction could be carried out successfully, although the yield was lower compared to the counterpart reaction under ambient conditions. However, striking differences regarding selectivity and necessary catalysts were observed. At moderate temperatures bases and catalytically active cations like Ca2+ are necessary and the main products are hexoses and pentoses, which accumulate due to their higher stability. In contrast, in high-temperature water no catalyst was necessary but a slightly alkaline solution was sufficient. Hexoses were only formed in negligible amounts, whereas pentoses and the shorter carbohydrates accounted for the major fraction. Amongst the pentoses there was some preference for the formation of ribose. Even deoxy sugars could be detected in traces. The observation that catalysts can be avoided was successfully transferred to another reaction. In a green chemistry approach platform chemicals must be produced from sustainable resources. Carbohydrates can for instance be employed as a basis. They can be transformed to levulinic acid and formic acid, which can both react via a transfer hydrogenation to the green solvent and biofuel gamma-valerolactone. This second reaction usually requires catalysis by Ru or Pd, which are neither sustainable nor low-priced. Under hydrothermal conditions these heavy metals could be avoided and replaced by cheap salts, taking advantage of the temperature dependence of the acid dissociation constant. Simple sulfate was recognized as a temperature switchable base. With this additive high yield could be achieved by simultaneous prevention of waste. In contrast to conventional bases, which create salt upon neutralization, a temperature switchable base becomes neutral again when cooled down and thus can be reused. This adds another sustainable feature to the high atom economy of the presented hydrothermal synthesis. In a last study complex decomposition pathways of biomass were investigated. Gas chromatography in conjunction with mass spectroscopy has proven to be a powerful tool for the identification of unknowns. It was observed that several acids were formed when carbohydrates were treated with bases at high temperature. This procedure was also applied to digest wood. Afterwards it was possible to fermentate the solution and a good yield of methane was obtained. This has to be regarded in the light of the fact that wood practically cannot be used as a feedstock in a biogas factory. Thus the hydrothermal pretreatment is an efficient means to employ such materials as well. Also the reaction network of the hydrothermal decomposition of glycine was investigated using isotope-labeled compounds as comparison for the unambiguous identification of unknowns. This refined analysis allowed the identification of several new molecules and pathways, not yet described in literature. In summary several advantages could be taken from synthesis in high-temperature water. Many catalysts, absolutely necessary under ambient conditions, could either be completely avoided or replaced by cheap, sustainable alternatives. In this respect water is not only a green solvent, but helps to prevent waste and preserves resources.
Nanoporous carbon materials are widely used in industry as adsorbents or catalyst supports, whilst becoming increasingly critical to the developing fields of energy storage / generation or separation technologies. In this thesis, the combined use of carbohydrate hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) and templating strategies is demonstrated as an efficient route to nanostructured carbonaceous materials. HTC is an aqueous-phase, low-temperature (e.g. 130 – 200 °C) carbonisation, which proceeds via dehydration / poly-condensation of carbon precursors (e.g. carbohydrates and their derivatives), allowing facile access to highly functional carbonaceous materials. Whilst possessing utile, modifiable surface functional groups (e.g. -OH and -C=O-containing moieties), materials synthesised via HTC typically present limited accessible surface area or pore volume. Therefore, this thesis focuses on the development of fabrication routes to HTC materials which present enhanced textural properties and well-defined porosity. In the first discussed synthesis, a combined hard templating / HTC route was investigated using a range of sacrificial inorganic templates (e.g. mesoporous silica beads and macroporous alumina membranes (AAO)). Via pore impregnation of mesoporous silica beads with a biomass-derived carbon source (e.g. 2-furaldehyde) and subsequent HTC at 180 oC, an inorganic / carbonaceous hybrid material was produced. Removal of the template component by acid etching revealed the replication of the silica into mesoporous carbonaceous spheres (particle size ~ 5 μm), representing the inverse morphological structure of the original inorganic body. Surface analysis (e.g. FTIR) indicated a material decorated with hydrophilic (oxygenated) functional groups. Further thermal treatment at increasingly elevated temperatures (e.g. at 350, 550, 750 oC) under inert atmosphere allowed manipulation of functionalities from polar hydrophilic to increasingly non-polar / hydrophobic structural motifs (e.g. extension of the aromatic / pseudo-graphitic nature), thus demonstrating a process capable of simultaneous control of nanostructure and surface / bulk chemistry. As an extension of this approach, carbonaceous tubular nanostructures with controlled surface functionality were synthesised by the nanocasting of uniform, linear macropores of an AAO template (~ 200 nm). In this example, material porosity could be controlled, showing increasingly microporous tube wall features as post carbonisation temperature increased. Additionally, by taking advantage of modifiable surface groups, the introduction of useful polymeric moieties (i.e. grafting of thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)) was also demonstrated, potentially enabling application of these interesting tubular structures in the fields of biotechnology (e.g. enzyme immobilization) and medicine (e.g. as drug micro-containers). Complimentary to these hard templating routes, a combined HTC / soft templating route for the direct synthesis of ordered porous carbonaceous materials was also developed. After selection of structural directing agents and optimisation of synthesis composition, the F127 triblock copolymer (i.e. ethylene oxide (EO)106 propylene oxide (PO)70 ethylene oxide (EO)106) / D-Fructose system was extensively studied. D-Fructose was found to be a useful carbon precursor as the HTC process could be performed at 130 oC, thus allowing access to stable micellular phase. Thermolytic template removal from the synthesised ordered copolymer / carbon composite yielded functional cuboctahedron single crystalline-like particles (~ 5 μm) with well ordered pore structure of a near perfect cubic Im3m symmetry. N2 sorption analysis revealed a predominantly microporous carbonaceous material (i.e. Type I isotherm, SBET = 257 m2g-1, 79 % microporosity) possessing a pore size of ca. 0.9 nm. The addition of a simple pore swelling additive (e.g. trimethylbenzene (TMB)) to this system was found to direct pore size into the mesopore size domain (i.e. Type IV isotherm, SBET = 116 m2g-1, 60 % mesoporosity) generating pore size of ca. 4 nm. It is proposed that in both cases as HTC proceeds to generate a polyfuran-like network, the organised block copolymer micellular phase is essentially “templated”, either via hydrogen bonding between hydrophilic poly(EO) moiety and the carbohydrate or via hydrophobic interaction between hydrophobic poly(PO) moiety and forming polyfuran-like network, whilst the additive TMB presumably interact with poly(PO) moieties, thus swelling the hydrophobic region expanding the micelle template size further into the mesopore range.
Towards greener stationary phases : thermoresponsive and carbonaceous chromatographic supports
(2011)
Polymers which are sensitive towards external physical, chemical and electrical stimuli are termed as ‘intelligent materials’ and are widely used in medical and engineering applications. Presently, polymers which can undergo a physical change when heat is applied at a certain temperature (cloud point) in water are well-studied for this property in areas of separation chemistry, gene and drug delivery and as surface modifiers. One example of such a polymer is the poly (N-isopropylacrylamide) PNIPAAM, where it is dissolved well in water below 32 oC, while by increasing the temperature further leads to its precipitation. In this work, an alternative polymer poly (2-(2-methoxy ethoxy)ethyl methacrylate-co- oligo(ethylene glycol) methacrylate) (P(MEO2MA-co-OEGMA)) is studied due to its biocompatibility and the ability to vary its cloud points in water. When a layer of temperature responsive polymer was attached to a single continuous porous piece of silica-based material known as a monolith, the thermoresponsive characteristic was transferred to the column surfaces. The hybrid material was demonstrated to act as a simple temperature ‘switch’ in the separation of a mixture of five steroids under water. Different analytes were observed to be separated under varying column temperatures. Furthermore, more complex biochemical compounds such as proteins were also tested for separation. The importance of this work is attributed to separation processes utilizing environmentally friendly conditions, since harsh chemical environments conventionally used to resolve biocompounds could cause their biological activities to be rendered inactive.
Conventional energy sources are diminishing and non-renewable, take million years to form and cause environmental degradation. In the 21st century, we have to aim at achieving sustainable, environmentally friendly and cheap energy supply by employing renewable energy technologies associated with portable energy storage devices. Lithium-ion batteries can repeatedly generate clean energy from stored materials and convert reversely electric into chemical energy. The performance of lithium-ion batteries depends intimately on the properties of their materials. Presently used battery electrodes are expensive to be produced; they offer limited energy storage possibility and are unsafe to be used in larger dimensions restraining the diversity of application, especially in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). This thesis presents a major progress in the development of LiFePO4 as a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries. Using simple procedure, a completely novel morphology has been synthesized (mesocrystals of LiFePO4) and excellent electrochemical behavior was recorded (nanostructured LiFePO4). The newly developed reactions for synthesis of LiFePO4 are single-step processes and are taking place in an autoclave at significantly lower temperature (200 deg. C) compared to the conventional solid-state method (multi-step and up to 800 deg. C). The use of inexpensive environmentally benign precursors offers a green manufacturing approach for a large scale production. These newly developed experimental procedures can also be extended to other phospho-olivine materials, such as LiCoPO4 and LiMnPO4. The material with the best electrochemical behavior (nanostructured LiFePO4 with carbon coating) was able to delive a stable 94% of the theoretically known capacity.
The creation of complex polymer structures has been one of the major research topics over the last couple of decades. This work deals with the synthesis of (block co-)polymers, the creation of complex and stimuli-responsive aggregates by self-assembly, and the cross-linking of these structures. Also the higher-order self-assembly of the aggregates is investigated. The formation of poly-2-oxazoline based micelles in aqueous solution and their simultaneous functionalization and cross-linking using thiol-yne chemistry is e.g. presented. By introducing pH responsive thiols in the core of the micelles the influence of charged groups in the core of micelles on the entire structure can be studied. The charging of these groups leads to a swelling of the core and a decrease in the local concentration of the corona forming block (poly(2-ethyl-2-oxazoline)). This decrease in concentration yields a shift in the cloud point temperature to higher temperatures for this Type I thermoresponsive polymer. When the swelling of the core is prohibited, e.g. by the introduction of sufficient amounts of salt, this behavior disappears. Similar structures can be prepared using complex coacervate core micelles (C3Ms) built through the interaction of weakly acidic and basic polymer blocks. The advantage of these structures is that two different stabilizing blocks can be incorporated, which allows for more diverse and complex structures and behavior of the micelles. Using block copolymers with either a polyanionic or a polycationic block C3Ms could be created with a corona which contains two different soluble nonionic polymers, which either have a mixed corona or a Janus type corona, depending on the polymers that were chosen. Using NHS and EDC the micelles could easily be cross-linked by the formation of amide bonds in the core of the micelles. The higher-order self-assembly behavior of these core cross-linked complex coacervate core micelles (C5Ms) was studied. Due to the cross-linking the micelles are stabilized towards changes in pH and ionic strength, but polymer chains are also no longer able to rearrange. For C5Ms with a mixed corona likely network structures were formed upon the collapse of the thermoresponsive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm), whereas for Janus type C5Ms well defined spherical aggregates of micelles could be obtained, depending on the pH of the solution. Furthermore it could be shown that Janus micelles can adsorb onto inorganic nanoparticles such as colloidal silica (through a selective interaction between PEO and the silica surface) or gold nanoparticles (by the binding of thiol end-groups). Asymmetric aggregates were also formed using the streptavidin-biotin binding motive. This is achieved by using three out of the four binding sites of streptavidin for the binding of one three-arm star polymer, end-functionalized with biotin groups. A homopolymer with one biotin end-group can be used to occupy the last position. This binding of two different polymers makes it possible to create asymmetric complexes. This phase separation is theoretically independent of the kind of polymer since the structure of the protein is the driving force, not the intrinsic phase separation between polymers. Besides Janus structures also specific cross-linking can be achieved by using other mixing ratios.
The needs for sustainable energy generation, but also a sustainable chemistry display the basic motivation of the current thesis. By different single investigated cases, which are all related to the element carbon, the work can be devided into two major topics. At first, the sustainable synthesis of “useful” carbon materials employing the process of hydrothermal carbonisation (HC) is described. In the second part, the synthesis of heteroatom - containing carbon materials for electrochemical and fuel cell applications employing ionic liquid precursors is presented. On base of a thorough review of the literature on hydrothermolysis and hydrothermal carbonisation of sugars in addition to the chemistry of hydroxymethylfurfural, mechanistic considerations of the formation of hydrothermal carbon are proposed. On the base of these reaction schemes, the mineral borax, is introduced as an additive for the hydrothermal carbonisation of glucose. It was found to be a highly active catalyst, resulting in decreased reaction times and increased carbon yields. The chemical impact of borax, in the following is exploited for the modification of the micro- and nanostructure of hydrothermal carbon. From the borax - mediated aggregation of those primary species, widely applicable, low density, pure hydrothermal carbon aerogels with high porosities and specific surface areas are produced. To conclude the first section of the thesis, a short series of experiments is carried out, for the purpose of demonstrating the applicability of the HC model to “real” biowaste i.e. watermelon waste as feedstock for the production of useful materials. In part two cyano - containing ionic liquids are employed as precursors for the synthesis of high - performance, heteroatom - containing carbon materials. By varying the ionic liquid precursor and the carbonisation conditions, it was possible to design highly active non - metal electrocatalyst for the reduction of oxygen. In the direct reduction of oxygen to water (like used in polymer electrolyte fuel cells), compared to commercial platinum catalysts, astonishing activities are observed. In another example the selective and very cost efficient electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen peroxide is presented. In a last example the synthesis of graphitic boron carbon nitrides from the ionic liquid 1 - Ethyl - 3 - methylimidazolium - tetracyanoborate is investigated in detail. Due to the employment of unreactive salts as a new tool to generate high surface area these materials were first time shown to be another class of non - precious metal oxygen reduction electrocatalyst.
Mathematical modeling of biological phenomena has experienced increasing interest since new high-throughput technologies give access to growing amounts of molecular data. These modeling approaches are especially able to test hypotheses which are not yet experimentally accessible or guide an experimental setup. One particular attempt investigates the evolutionary dynamics responsible for today's composition of organisms. Computer simulations either propose an evolutionary mechanism and thus reproduce a recent finding or rebuild an evolutionary process in order to learn about its mechanism. The quest for evolutionary fingerprints in metabolic and gene-coexpression networks is the central topic of this cumulative thesis based on four published articles. An understanding of the actual origin of life will probably remain an insoluble problem. However, one can argue that after a first simple metabolism has evolved, the further evolution of metabolism occurred in parallel with the evolution of the sequences of the catalyzing enzymes. Indications of such a coevolution can be found when correlating the change in sequence between two enzymes with their distance on the metabolic network which is obtained from the KEGG database. We observe that there exists a small but significant correlation primarily on nearest neighbors. This indicates that enzymes catalyzing subsequent reactions tend to be descended from the same precursor. Since this correlation is relatively small one can at least assume that, if new enzymes are no "genetic children" of the previous enzymes, they certainly be descended from any of the already existing ones. Following this hypothesis, we introduce a model of enzyme-pathway coevolution. By iteratively adding enzymes, this model explores the metabolic network in a manner similar to diffusion. With implementation of an Gillespie-like algorithm we are able to introduce a tunable parameter that controls the weight of sequence similarity when choosing a new enzyme. Furthermore, this method also defines a time difference between successive evolutionary innovations in terms of a new enzyme. Overall, these simulations generate putative time-courses of the evolutionary walk on the metabolic network. By a time-series analysis, we find that the acquisition of new enzymes appears in bursts which are pronounced when the influence of the sequence similarity is higher. This behavior strongly resembles punctuated equilibrium which denotes the observation that new species tend to appear in bursts as well rather than in a gradual manner. Thus, our model helps to establish a better understanding of punctuated equilibrium giving a potential description at molecular level. From the time-courses we also extract a tentative order of new enzymes, metabolites, and even organisms. The consistence of this order with previous findings provides evidence for the validity of our approach. While the sequence of a gene is actually subject to mutations, its expression profile might also indirectly change through the evolutionary events in the cellular interplay. Gene coexpression data is simply accessible by microarray experiments and commonly illustrated using coexpression networks where genes are nodes and get linked once they show a significant coexpression. Since the large number of genes makes an illustration of the entire coexpression network difficult, clustering helps to show the network on a metalevel. Various clustering techniques already exist. However, we introduce a novel one which maintains control of the cluster sizes and thus assures proper visual inspection. An application of the method on Arabidopsis thaliana reveals that genes causing a severe phenotype often show a functional uniqueness in their network vicinity. This leads to 20 genes of so far unknown phenotype which are however suggested to be essential for plant growth. Of these, six indeed provoke such a severe phenotype, shown by mutant analysis. By an inspection of the degree distribution of the A.thaliana coexpression network, we identified two characteristics. The distribution deviates from the frequently observed power-law by a sharp truncation which follows after an over-representation of highly connected nodes. For a better understanding, we developed an evolutionary model which mimics the growth of a coexpression network by gene duplication which underlies a strong selection criterion, and slight mutational changes in the expression profile. Despite the simplicity of our assumption, we can reproduce the observed properties in A.thaliana as well as in E.coli and S.cerevisiae. The over-representation of high-degree nodes could be identified with mutually well connected genes of similar functional families: zinc fingers (PF00096), flagella, and ribosomes respectively. In conclusion, these four manuscripts demonstrate the usefulness of mathematical models and statistical tools as a source of new biological insight. While the clustering approach of gene coexpression data leads to the phenotypic characterization of so far unknown genes and thus supports genome annotation, our model approaches offer explanations for observed properties of the coexpression network and furthermore substantiate punctuated equilibrium as an evolutionary process by a deeper understanding of an underlying molecular mechanism.
The Casimir-Polder interaction between a single neutral atom and a nearby surface, arising from the (quantum and thermal) fluctuations of the electromagnetic field, is a cornerstone of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED), and theoretically well established. Recently, Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs) of ultracold atoms have been used to test the predictions of cQED. The purpose of the present thesis is to upgrade single-atom cQED with the many-body theory needed to describe trapped atomic BECs. Tools and methods are developed in a second-quantized picture that treats atom and photon fields on the same footing. We formulate a diagrammatic expansion using correlation functions for both the electromagnetic field and the atomic system. The formalism is applied to investigate, for BECs trapped near surfaces, dispersion interactions of the van der Waals-Casimir-Polder type, and the Bosonic stimulation in spontaneous decay of excited atomic states. We also discuss a phononic Casimir effect, which arises from the quantum fluctuations in an interacting BEC.
Der Pferdepensionsvertrag
(2011)
Die Rolle der plastidären APT Synthase in der Regulation des photosynthetischen Elektronenflusses
(2011)
Interaction of land surface processes and the atmophere in the Arctic - senitivities and extremes
(2011)
Regulation of potassium channels in plants : biophysical mechanisms and physiological implacations
(2011)
Das europäische Kurzberichterstattungsrecht im Lichte der Richtlinie über audivisuelle Mediendienste
(2011)