ABSTRACT
The melt-back process has a significant effect on the quality of solution-grown SiC crystals. However, the phenomena surrounding the SiC dissolution into the molten alloy during the melt-back process have not been clarified. In this study, the behavior of 4H-SiC dissolution into molten alloy was investigated by using high-temperature in situ observation and subsequent KOH etching, and the effects of different doping conditions and crystal polarity were studied. Local dissolutions with hexagonal pyramid-shape originating from threading screw dislocation (TSD) were observed on the C face of n-type SiC with light nitrogen doping. Our analysis of their behavior revealed that the process was governed by the spiral dissolution. In addition to the dissolution at TSD, local dissolutions at threading-edge dislocations were observed on the Si face of the same crystal. The shape of the local dissolution at the dislocation was significantly affected by the doping conditions and the polarity of the SiC crystal. This local dissolution may occur during the melt-back process, suggesting that it is important to promote the dissolution while maintaining a smooth interface through the selection of the seed crystal and by keeping the degree of interface undersaturation small.
ABSTRACT
Valence band dispersions of single-crystalline SnS1-xSex solid solutions were observed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The hole effective masses, crucial factors in determining thermoelectric properties, were directly evaluated. They decrease slightly with increasing Se content in the low Se composition range but sharply in the high Se composition range.
ABSTRACT
A thermophilic pectate lyase, Pel SWU, was isolated from a culture filtrate of Bacillus sp. RN1 isolated from a hot spring in Ranong Province, Thailand. The enzyme was purified to homogeneity using cation-exchange and hydrophobic column chromatographies. The molecular mass of Pel SWU was estimated to be 33 kDa. The specific substrate was demethylated galacturonic acid. The enzyme was stable at pH 4.0-10.0 and at temperatures up to 70 degrees C in the presence of calcium and polygalacturonic acid (PGA). The optimum pH and temperature were 10.0 and 90 degrees C. The pel gene encoding Pel SWU was 1,023 bp, which corresponds to 341 amino acids. The properties of the recombinant enzyme was similar to those of Bacillus Pel SWU. Unsaturated di- and trigalacturonic acids were formed mainly as the final products of degradation by Pel SWU, as revealed by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography (HPAEC) and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) analyses. This thermophilic pectate lyase should be useful in the degradation of pectin networks at high temperature.
