Low-temperature Liquids Research Articles

Justification of the possibility of using liquid artificial lung ventilation for the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome of toxic genesis

Introduction. Pulmonotoxicants are chemicals that cause bronchospasm and damage to the alveolar capillary membrane. Lesions of the respiratory system with pulmonotoxicants in industrial accidents are especially relevant at the present time. Existing methods of treatment for the defeat of pulmonotoxicants and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) are becoming ineffective, therefore, one of the tasks of modern medicine is to develop new methods of treating ARDS. One of these methods may be the creation of a "therapeutic window" by using perfluorocarbon (PFC) liquids. This article will present an experimental assessment of the use of liquid artificial lung ventilation (LALV) PFC liquids on the ARDS lung model. The study aims to explore the possibility of using liquid artificial lung ventilation to create a therapeutic window in the treatment of acute respiratory distress syndrome of a chemical nature. Materials and methods. The authors conducted a study on male Wistar rats aged 4 months, weighing 180–190 g. Toxic pulmonary edema was caused by endotracheal administration of 0.1 m HCl solution. The anesthetized patients were intubated using a cannula, after which the researchers intratracheally injected 0.1 M HCl solution at a dose of 2 ml/kg, a decrease in saturation below 80 was expected. Then the experts randomized the animals by weight into groups of 6 individuals each. They connected the animals of the control group to a ventilator. The animals of the experimental group were treated with PFC liquids for an hour, then transferred to a ventilator. Perfluorodecalin was used as a PFC liquid. The scientists recorded heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, rectal temperature, life expectancy and overall survival by group. Results. In the control group, after instillation of 0.1 M HCl solution and connection to a ventilator during the first 25–30 minutes, there was a gradual decrease in SpO2 to 74.0±5.6% (background — 95.0±3.5%) and an increase in heart rate to 182.0±8.6 beats/min., (background — 278.0±14.8 beats/min.) after which there was decompensation of the animal condition. In animals of the experimental group, after connecting to the LALV device, a sharp decrease in heart rate was recorded during the first 5 minutes to 61.0±8.5 beats/min. In turn, saturation did not change significantly throughout the LALV and was in the range from 95 to 100%. As a result of the experiments, it was noted that the average survival time in the experimental group was 256.0±34.5 minutes, which was significantly (p<0.001) more than 5 times higher than this indicator in the control animals — 45.3±4.3 minutes. There were no significant changes in the study of rectal temperature in the animals of the control group. In turn, the animals of the experimental group showed a sharp decrease in rectal temperature during the first 30 minutes from the beginning of LALV, on average by 5.8±1.60°С. As a result of the pathoanatomic autopsy, differences in lung mass coefficients were revealed in different groups. Thus, in the control group and the experimental groups, it was 1.67±0.06 and 2.4±0.045%, respectively. Conclusion. On the model of ARDS caused by endotracheal administration of 0.1M hydrochloric acid solution, it was shown that living with the use of PFC of low temperature liquids, unlike conventional mechanical ventilation, allows for a long time to maintain a stable condition of animals; evacuate a significant amount of edematous fluid from the lungs and thereby increase the duration of their survival. The data presented above indicate that the use of hypothermic LALV can be used to create a "therapeutic window" for ARDS, including its most severe form — the alveolar stage of toxic pulmonary edema. Ethics. Studies involving laboratory animals were conducted in compliance with the following regulations: the Helsinki Declaration of 2000 "On humane treatment of animals", Order No. 755 of the Ministry of Health of the USSR dated 08/12/1977 "Rules for carrying out work using experimental animals", Order No. 199n of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation dated 04/01/2016 "On approval of the rules of laboratory practice". The protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Izmerov Research Institute of Occupational Health. Protocol No. 4 dated May 25, 2022.

The Harmonic and Gaussian Approximations in the Potential Energy Landscape Formalism for Quantum Liquids.

The potential energy landscape (PEL) formalism has been used in the past to describe the behavior of classical low-temperature liquids and glasses. Here, we extend the PEL formalism to describe the behavior of liquids and glasses that obey quantum mechanics. In particular, we focus on the (i) harmonic and (ii) Gaussian approximations of the PEL, which have been commonly used to describe classical systems, and show how these approximations can be applied to quantum liquids/glasses. Contrary to the case of classical liquids/glasses, the PEL of quantum liquids is temperature-dependent, and hence, the main expressions resulting from approximations (i) and (ii) depend on the nature (classical vs quantum) of the system. The resulting theoretical expressions from the PEL formalism are compared with results from path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations of a monatomic model liquid. In the PIMC simulations, every atom of the quantum liquid is represented by a ring-polymer. Our PIMC simulations show that at the local minima of the PEL (inherent structures, or IS), sampled over a wide range of temperatures and volumes, the ring-polymers are collapsed. This considerably facilitates the description of quantum liquids using the PEL formalism. Specifically, the normal modes of the ring-polymer system/quantum liquid at an IS can be calculated analytically if the normal modes of the classical liquid counterpart are known (as obtained, e.g., from classical MC or molecular dynamics simulations of the corresponding atomic liquid).

Unusual Melting Trend in an Alkali Asymmetric Sulfonamide Salt Series: Single-Crystal Analysis and Modeling.

Developing low-melting alkali salts is of interest for both battery electrolytes and inorganic ionic liquids. In this study, we report a series of asymmetric alkali-metal sulfonamide salts based upon the (3-methoxypropyl)((trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl)amide (MPSA) anion. This family of salts features an unusual melting point trend, where the melting point of the salts decreases as the cation increases in size from Li to K but then the melting point increases as the cation further increases in size from K to Cs. Analyses of single crystals reveal that the unusual higher melting points of RbMPSA and CsMPSA in comparison to KMPSA can be attributed to the greater cation-cation distances as well as the increased rigidity of anion-cation coordination due to an increase in cyclic structures in comparison to KMPSA. Exceptionally, KMPSA features a very low melting point of only 50.79 ± 0.31 °C. This low melting point can be attributed to a relatively high degree of disorder, an unusual uncoordinated ether moiety, and a very short K-K distance of only 3.4348(7) Å among other factors, which is supported by the low cohesive energy and small elastic moduli among the rest according to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The low melting point of KMPSA makes it interesting for low-temperature ionic liquids.

Применение низкотемпературных технологий для предотвращения аварийных ситуаций на море и реках при добыче, эксплуатации и транспортировке углеводородного сырья

The paper highlights the chemically hazardous objects of marine and river infrastructure: offshore drilling platforms and oil production platforms; pipelines transporting liquid and gaseous hydrocarbon fuels along the sea bottom and above the ground; marine tankers transporting oil, fuel oil, gaseous and liquid ammonia; coastal terminals handling and shipping hydrocarbon raw materials, distillation products; gas producing plants and oil refineries; storage facilities for chemi-cally hazardous substances, etc. There are proposed new technologies for combating oil emissions during deep-water drilling, as well as for safe ways of transporting hydrocarbons through subsea pipelines and by oil tankers. These technologies are based on the methods of using low-temperature freons and cryogenic liquids. There are considered the methods of using machine cooling technologies, where the cascade refrigeration units work on various refrigerants, as well as using solid carbon dioxide and liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen having a low boiling point (about minus 196C) has a higher rate of seawater freezing and forms stable ice layers on flat and cylindrical surfaces. There are given the examples of the experimental data to determine the growth rate of ice in the water frozen by liquid nitrogen. There has been given the chart of an underwater cryo-cuvette consisting of a metal panel with sockets, heat-insulated barrels, a tank for storing liquid nitrogen, 
 a nozzle for filling the cryoagent, adjusting eyebolts, an object for freezing and transportation, and a safety valve. The underwater cryo-cuvette is designed to work with barrel-shaped objects. Envi-ronmental safety of transportation and production of natural hydrocarbon raw materials is signifi-cantly improved in the course of operation of the new technologies.

Simulation of the Microgravity Effect on Wettability of Solids with Different Liquids

The dependence of contact angles on gravity in conditions simulating reduced gravitational force is studied. The contact angles for various solid–liquid systems are measured using both lowtemperature liquids (water, glycerin, hyposulfite, phosphoric acid) and metal melts (tin, silver). It is found that gravity has no effect on the contact angle when solids are wetted by liquids. The final answer to the question how gravity influences the contact angle can be given after experiments performed in conditions of a space station.

Electrochemical performance of silicon nanostructures in low-temperature ionic liquids for microelectronic applications

Successful implementation of silicon nanostructures as suitable electrodes for microcapacitors performing at low temperatures (down to −40 °C) has been realized.

Configurational entropy of polar glass formers and the effect of electric field on glass transition.

A model of low-temperature polar liquids is constructed that accounts for the configurational heat capacity, entropy, and the effect of a strong electric field on the glass transition. The model is based on the Padé-truncated perturbation expansions of the liquid state theory. Depending on parameters, it accommodates an ideal glass transition of vanishing configurational entropy and its avoidance, with a square-root divergent enumeration function at the point of its termination. A composite density-temperature parameter ρ(γ)/T, often used to represent combined pressure and temperature data, follows from the model. The theory is in good agreement with the experimental data for excess (over the crystal state) thermodynamics of molecular glass formers. We suggest that the Kauzmann entropy crisis might be a signature of vanishing configurational entropy of a subset of degrees of freedom, multipolar rotations in our model. This scenario has observable consequences: (i) a dynamical crossover of the relaxation time and (ii) the fragility index defined by the ratio of the excess heat capacity and excess entropy at the glass transition. The Kauzmann temperature of vanishing configurational entropy and the corresponding glass transition temperature shift upward when the electric field is applied. The temperature shift scales quadratically with the field strength.

Isotope shifts in spectra of molecular liquids

In the IR absorption spectra of low-temperature molecular liquids, we have observed anomalously large isotope shifts of frequencies of vibrational bands that are strong in the dipole absorption. The same effect has also been observed in their Raman spectra. At the same time, in the spectra of cryosolutions, the isotope shifts of the same bands coincide with a high accuracy (±(0.1–0.5) cm–1) with the shifts that are observed in the spectra of the gas phase. The difference between the spectra of examined low-temperature systems is caused by the occurrence of resonant dipole–dipole interactions between spectrally active identical molecules. The calculation of the band contour in the spectrum of liquid freon that we have performed in this work taking into account the resonant interaction between states of simultaneous transitions in isotopically substituted molecules can explain this effect.

Thermal Convection of a Non-Fourier Fluid in a Vertical Slot

The instability of steady natural convection of a non-Fourier fluid of the single-phase lagging (SPL) type between two vertical surfaces maintained at different temperatures is studied. SPL fluids possess a relaxation time, which reflects the delay in the response of the heat flux and the temperature gradient. The SPL model is particularly relevant to low-temperature liquids, ultrafast processes, and nanofluids (with a retardation time added in this case). Linear stability analysis is employed to obtain the critical state parameters, such as critical Grashof numbers. For intermediate Prandtl numbers (Pr = 7.5), when non-Fourier level exceeds a certain value, the neutral stability curve comprises a Fourier branch and an oscillatory branch. In this case, oscillatory convection increasingly becomes the mode of preference, compared to both conduction and stationary convection. Critical Grashof number decreases for fluids with higher non-Fourier levels.

Meso-scale wrinkled coatings to improve heat transfers of surfaces facing ambient air

Meso-scale (micrometer-to submillimeter-scale) wrinkled surfaces coated on steel sheets used in outdoor storage and transport facilities for industrial low-temperature liquids were discovered to efficiently increase convective heat transfer between ambient air and the surface. The radiative and convective heat transfer coefficients of various wrinkled surfaces, which were formed by coating steel sheets with several types of shrinkable paints, were examined. The convective heat transfer coefficient of a surface colder than ambient air monotonically changed with average height difference and interval distance of the wrinkle undulation, where the proportions were 0.0254 and 0.0054 W/m2/K/μm, respectively. With this wrinkled coating, users can lower the possibility of condensation and reduce rust and maintenance cost of facilities for industrial low-temperature liquids. From the point of view of manufacturers, this coating method can be easily adapted to conventional manufacturing processes.

Determination of Strong Absorption Band Profiles of Low-Temperature Liquids from Reflection Spectra: The ν3 Band of Liquefied Tetrafluoromethane (CF4).

An experimental unit for recording the combined reflection-absorption spectra of low-temperature liquids was designed and manufactured and an algorithm for obtaining the extinction coefficient was developed. The manufactured experimental unit and the algorithm were tested by recording, for the first time, the absorption spectrum of liquefied CF4. The band parameters derived from the experimental data are compared with estimates available in the literature.

Multiple Ordering Transitions in a Liquid Stabilized by Low Symmetry Structures

We present a numerical study of a lattice model of a liquid characterized by a low-symmetry favored local structure. We find that the freezing point is depressed far enough to reveal an exotic liquid-liquid transition characterized by the appearance of an extended chirality, prior to freezing. The ordered liquid can be readily supercooled to zero temperature, as the combination of critical slowing down and competing crystal polymorphs results in a dramatically slow crystallization process. These results provide an explicit scenario by which the ordering of a liquid can proceed via an intermediate liquid-liquid transition, a scenario that may prove helpful in the analysis of low temperature liquids interacting by more realistic interactions.

Thermal convection of non-Fourier fluids. Linear stability

The natural convection of non-Fourier fluids is examined. These fluids possess a relaxation time that reflects the delay in the response of the heat flux with respect to the temperature gradient. Non-Fourier fluids span a wide range of applications, including low-temperature liquids, nanofluids, convection in nano-devices, and fluids subjected to fast heat transfer processes. The constitutive equation for heat flux is frame invariant. For small relaxation time, the neutral stability curve comprises a Fourier branch and an oscillatory branch, intersecting at some wavenumber. Both stationary and oscillatory convection become equally probable as the relaxation time increases, suggesting the existence of a bistable mode. With increasing relaxation time, oscillatory convection becomes increasingly the mode of preference, at the expense of both conduction and stationary convection, with increasing roll size. Although the oscillation frequency decreases monotonically with roll size, it exhibits a maximum against the relaxation time. Finally, the parallels between non-Fourier and non-Newtonian effects are emphasized at the formulation and phenomenological levels.

Time versus temperature rescaling for coarse grain molecular dynamics simulations

Coarse graining procedures are intended to well reproduce the structure of a material while increasing the simulations efficiency. However, the dynamics usually accelerates with coarse graining and a scaling procedure has to be used for dynamical data calculations. Most often a simple time-scaling coefficient is used for this purpose. However, for low temperature liquids this simple scaling procedure is questionable. Because supercooled liquids in their approach to the glass transition temperature do not follow a simple dynamics. In order to test if this scaling procedure is still pertinent at low temperature, we use molecular dynamics simulations of a coarse grain model of the methylmethacrylate molecule compared to simulations with the All atom model. We compare two different rescaling procedures, a time rescale and a temperature rescale procedure. Using these two procedures we compare the behaviors of the mean square displacements, the incoherent scattering functions, the self and distinct part of the Van Hove correlation functions and the non-Gaussian parameters. Results show that the temperature rescaling procedure reproduces well the All atom dynamical data at low temperatures, while the time rescaling procedure is correct only in the Brownian regime. We also find that the melting and the glass-transition temperatures are relatively well reproduced with the temperature rescaling procedure.

Electron Localization and Radiation Chemistry of Amides

Alkylamides (such as N,N'-dimethylformamide, N,N'-diethylformamide, and N,N'-dimethylacetamide) are aprotic solvents that are widely used in organic synthesis. These polar molecules have no electron affinity, and it is believed that irradiated liquid and solid amides stabilize excess electrons as cavity-type species analogous to hydrated and ammoniated electrons. In this study, we use isotope substitution and EPR spectroscopy to demonstrate that, in frozen amides, the suspected "cavity electron" is, in fact, a solvent-stabilized monomer anion. Our observations call into question other attributions of such features in the literature, both in low temperature solids and room temperature liquids. We also provide a general scheme describing amide radiolysis, as the related amides are used as metal ion extracting agents in nuclear separations.

The study of the kinetics of water spreading on solid phases of carbon allotropic materials

Kinetics of water spreading on the surface of solid phases of various carbon materials has been first studied with the use of high-speed video filming (up to 1200 frames per second). It has been found that rates of low-temperature liquid and metal melts spreading and wetting the surface of solid phases are close in time (the process length is 10−2–10−3s) and in both the cases the spreading occurs in an inert mode. It has been shown that at the final stages the spreading of low-temperature liquids occurs at a viscous mode (10–30 min) caused by the presence of an adsorbed layer (coat) on the solid phase surface due to the environment.

A semiclassical study of the thermal conductivity of low temperature liquids

The conventional classical energy current auto-correlation function has been extended into a quantum mechanical version and then approximated by the linearized semiclassical initial value representation approach. Comparison of the thermal conductivity to simulation results shows that about 15% quantum correction to the classical molecular dynamics results for liquid neon are quantitatively predicted. For liquid para-hydrogen the quantum effects are sufficiently large that the linearized semiclassical approach is only 20% accurate, while for both liquid He(4) and He(3) the thermal conductivity disagrees by a factor of 2, although exchange effects appear to play a minor role.

Instrumentation for structure measurements on highly non-equilibrium materials

Containerless techniques (levitation) completely eliminate contact with the sample. This unique sample environment allows deep supercooling of many liquids and avoids contamination of high-temperature melts. Recent experiments at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) high-energy beamline 11 ID-C used aerodynamic levitation with laser beam heating and acoustic levitation with cryogenic cooling. By using these two methods, liquids were studied over much of the temperature range from −40 to +2500°C. This paper briefly describes the instrumentation and its use and is illustrated with examples of measurements on molten oxides and low-temperature liquids.

Electrochemical properties of the system of Ag—1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide low-temperature ionic liquid—silver bromide

The methods of potentiometry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, and gravimetry were used to study the electrochemical behavior of a silver electrode in low-temperature ionic liquids of BMImBr and BMImBr—AgBr, and also the process of cathodic reduction of Ag(I) compounds out of a BMImBr—AgBr melt. It is shown that an AgBr film is formed on the silver surface and its properties are determined by the ionic liquid composition. It is found that the process of silver electrodeposition from a BMImBr—AgBr binary alloy occurs irreversibly, at a high current efficiency (up to 100%) and a good quality of the deposit at low current densities. At 70°C, the transfer coefficients of the cathodic process (α = 0.56 and 0.16) and diffusion coefficients (D Ag(I) = 0.48 × 10−7 cm2/s and 3.3 × 10−7 cm2/s) of silver-containing ions are determined in ionic liquids with the AgBr concentration of 0.81 and 1.53 mol/kg BMImBr, accordingly.

Modeling of band shapes in the low-temperature molecular liquid spectra affected by resonance dipole–dipole interaction

The band shape theory of the vibrational transitions accompanied by an excitation of a strongly IR-active fundamental is elaborated for low-temperature molecular liquids with an account for strong intermolecular resonance dipole–dipole interactions. The developed model of a liquid uses the regular (fcc structure) crystal whose structure is then destroyed by introducing random, normally distributed displacements of particle positions, by assigning arbitrary molecular orientations as well as a varied number of randomly distributed vacancies. This model was applied to several molecular liquids ( CF 4 , SiF 4 , SF 6 , CF 3 Cl, and CF 3 Br ) , those having triply degenerate modes were studied more in detail.