I came across the phrase "Silicone Rubber/Paraffin@Silicon Dioxide" also written as $\ce{SR/pa@SiO2}$, utilising the @
symbol.
How can I understand what this means?
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Sign up to join this communityI came across the phrase "Silicone Rubber/Paraffin@Silicon Dioxide" also written as $\ce{SR/pa@SiO2}$, utilising the @
symbol.
How can I understand what this means?
The at symbol @ universally means "at the site" or "at the rate of". It is routinely used in supramolecular chemistry to denote guest@host relationship because
In the context of the paper by Guo et al. [1] you are referring to, paraffin is encapsulated inside $\ce{SiO2}$ shell (obtained in situ), and these silicon dioxide particles were then embedded in silicone rubber matrix. Here, in the notation SR/Pa@SiO2 the forward slash "/" implies composite material (phase separator), and the at sign "@" refers to host-guest interactions as mentioned before. Here is a brief infographics I roughly created with Inkscape to illustrate the concept:
An obligatory reference quotation [2, p. 203]:
3.6.17 At Symbol (@)
The at symbol ( @ ) is most commonly used in email addresses. Its modern use is primarily in accounting (where it means “at the rate of”) and should not be used in scientific writing as a substitute for “at.”
Two legitimate uses of the at symbol are
- In chemical formulae, the @ is used to denote trapped atoms or molecules. For instance, $\ce{La@C60}$ means lanthanum inside a fullerene cage.
- In genetics, an at symbol after a gene symbol indicates that it is part of a gene cluster.
@
before, but I couldn't find it. However, I found a meta post, and a comment by Loong. This might contain some information worth adding here.
$\endgroup$
– Martin - マーチン♦
Feb 22 '20 at 15:47
@
notation. Examples: chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/63900/…, chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/24427/…,
$\endgroup$
– Tyberius
May 21 '20 at 21:26