The effect of confining ionic liquids (ILs) such as 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [C2C1Im][BF4] or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [C4C1Im][BF4] in silica matrices was investigated by high-pressure IR spectroscopy. The samples were prepared via the sol-gel method, and the pressure-dependent changes in the C–H absorption bands were investigated. No appreciable changes were observed in the spectral features when the ILs were confined in silica matrices under ambient pressure. That is, the infrared measurements obtained under ambient pressure were not sufficient to detect the interfacial interactions between the ILs and the porous silica. However, dramatic differences were observed in the spectral features of [C2C1Im][BF4] and [C4C1Im][BF4] in silica matrices under the conditions of high pressures. The surfaces of porous silica appeared to weaken the cation-anion interactions caused by pressure-enhanced interfacial IL-silica interactions. This confinement effect under high pressures was less obvious for [C4C1Im][BF4]. The size of the cations appeared to play a prominent role in the IL-silica systems.

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1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([C4MIM][PF6])/DNA and 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([C3MIM][PF6])/DNA mixtures were prepared and characterized by high-pressure infrared spectroscopy. Under ambient pressure, the imidazolium C2–H and C4,5–H absorption bands of [C4MIM][PF6]/DNA mixture were red-shifted in comparison with those of pure [C4MIM][PF6]. This indicates that the C2–H and C4,5–H groups may have certain interactions with DNA that assist in the formation of the ionic liquid/DNA association. With the increase of pressure from ambient to 2.5 GPa, the C2–H and C4,5–H absorption bands of pure [C4MIM][PF6] displayed significant blue shifts. On the other hand, the imidazolium C–H absorption bands of [C4MIM][PF6]/DNA showed smaller frequency shift upon compression. This indicates that the associated [C4MIM][PF6]/DNA conformation may be stable under pressures up to 2.5 GPa. Under ambient pressure, the imidazolium C2–H and C4,5–H absorption bands of [C3MIM][PF6]/DNA mixture displayed negligible shifts in frequency compared with those of pure [C3MIM][PF6]. The pressure-dependent spectra of [C3MIM][PF6]/DNA mixture revealed spectral features similar to those of pure [C3MIM][PF6]. Our results indicate that the associated structures of [C4MIM][PF6]/DNA are more stable than those of [C3MIM][PF6]/DNA under high pressures.

The effects of alkyl side-chain length on the interactions between imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) and β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) were studied at ambient pressure and up to 2.5GPa. No noticeable changes in the C-H band frequencies of 1-methyl-3-propylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate ([MPIM][PF6]) were observed upon β-CD addition under ambient pressure. Nevertheless, β-CD addition inhibited the formation of the [MPIM][PF6] aggregated structure under pressures of ≤0.7 GPa. As the pressure was raised to 1.1–2.5 GPa, [MPIM][PF6] aggregated and formed self-associated configurations. This pressure-induced dissociation was not detected in the 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and β-CD mixture ([BMIM][PF6]-β-CD) due to the long side chain in the [BMIM] cation. This indicates that the alkyl side-chain length of the imidazolium ILs plays a non-negligible role in controlling the order and strength of IL-β-CD interactions. It is well known that the validity of infrared spectroscopy for detecting the inclusion complexation is questionable in the literature. However, this study demonstrates that the combination of high pressure and IR spectroscopy may provide a suitable way to monitor the IL-β-CD interactions.

The nanoscale ion ordering of ionic liquids at confined interfaces under high pressures was investigated in this study. 1-Hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([HMIM][NTf2])/poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) (PVdF-co-HFP) and 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([EMIM][NTf2])/PVdF-co-HFP were prepared and characterized by using high-pressure infrared spectroscopy. Under ambient pressure, imidazolium C2–H and C4,5–H absorptions were blue-shifted in frequency due to the presence of PVdF-co-HFP. However, the absorption of anionic νa SO2 did not reveal any significant shifts in frequency upon dilution by PVdF-co-HFP. The experimental results suggest that PVdF-co-HFP disturbs the local structures of the imidazolium C–H groups instead of the anionic SO2 groups. The frequency shifts of C4,5–H became dramatic for the mixtures at high pressures. These results suggest that pressure-enhanced ionic liquid–polymer interactions may play an appreciable role in IL-PVdF-co-HFP systems under high pressures. The pressure-induced blue-shifts due to the PVdF-co-HFP additions were more obvious for the [HMIM][NTf2] mixtures than for [EMIM][NTf2] mixtures.

Abstract-First aid and immediate help are very important following an accident. The earlier the detection and treatment is carried out, the better the prognosis and chance of recovery of the patients. It is even more important when considering the elderly. Once the elderly have an accident, they not only physically injure their body, but also impair their mental and social ability, and may develop severe sequela. In the last few years, the continuously developed Android cell phone has been applied to many fields. Despite the nature of the GPS positioning system that the mobile phone currently uses, most applications used are SMS and file transfers. However, these biomedical measurement signals, passing through a transferring interface and uploading to the mobile, result the little really successful cases with the remote health care feasibility. This research will develop an Android cell phone which combines the functionality of an ECG, pulsimeter, SpO2, and BAD (Body Activity Detector) for real-time monitoring of the activity of a body. When an accident occurs, the signals go through Android smart phone, immediately notifying the remote ends and providing first time help.

Mixtures of polyethylene oxide (PEO, M.W.~900,000) and imidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) are studied using high-pressure Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. At ambient pressure, the spectral features in the C–H stretching region reveal that PEO can disturb the local structures of the imidazolium rings of [BMIM]+ and [HMIM]+. The pressure-induced phase transition of pure 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide ([BMIM]Br) is observed at a pressure of 0.4 GPa. Pressure-enhanced [BMIM]Br-PEO interactions may assist PEO in dividing [BMIM]Br clusters to hinder the aggregation of [BMIM]Br under high pressures. The C–H absorptions of pure 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bromide [HMIM]Br do not show band narrowing under high pressures, as observed for pure [BMIM]Br. The band narrowing of C–H peaks is observed at 1.5 GPa for the [HMIM]Br-PEO mixture containing 80 wt% of [HMIM]Br. The presence of PEO may reorganize [HMIM]Br clusters into a semi-crystalline network under high pressures. The differences in aggregation states for ambient-pressure phase and high-pressure phase may suggest the potential of [HMIM]Br-PEO (M.W.~900,000) for serving as optical or electronic switches.

Smart grid technology has attracted a lot of attention in the communication and power engineering communities because of its high efficiency and environmental friendly power production and delivery. Smart grid communication networks act as not only a bridge between the end power users and the utility but also a backbone of the entire smart grid system. It is a challenging task to deploy smart grid communication networks because of interference-intensive environment. The goal of this paper is to explore various issues on deployment of smart grid communication networks. The first half of this paper provides a survey on smart grid communication networks. The background of smart grid communication networks is introduced, and the IEEE 802.15.4g standard for smart utility networks is reviewed. In addition, the issues on network topology and routing protocols of smart utility networks are addressed, followed by the discussions on optimizing gateway deployment. Various methods for addressing coexistence issues in smart grid communication networks are presented. The second half of this paper is to propose a channel discovery algorithm exploiting the inherent CSMA/CA mechanism in the protocols. Because of the use of CSMA/CA mechanism and up-to-date channel status table, the proposed algorithm can quickly find an available channel for transmission when interferences occur.