Electrospun tin-carbon nanocomposite as anode material for all solid state lithium-ion batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - All-solid-state batteries represent the next generation of electrochemical energy storage systems. A tin-carbon nanocomposite material is prepared by the...     

Aromaticity and Diatropicity of Polyacenequinododimethides

Typical polyacenequinododimethides exist only in a single classical structure. These hydrocarbons are moderately aromatic and diatropic, although they have no aromatic conjugated circuits. This apparent dichotomy was resolved with our graph theory of aromaticity and magnetotropicity. Many nonconjugated circuits were found to contribute collectively to aromaticity and diatropicity. For individual molecules, local aromaticity increases with distance from the exo‐methylene groups. This fact indicates that the conjugated‐circuit model is not always applicable to semibenzenoid hydrocarbons such as polyacenequinododimethides.     

Aromaticity and magnetotropicity of dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes

Most dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes are predicted to be moderately aromatic and diatropic, although they have no (4n + 2)-site conjugated circuits. We applied our graph theory of aromaticity and magnetotropicity to these molecules and found that these anomalous properties arise from a set of non-conjugated circuits, which contribute collectively to aromaticity and diatropicity. This result indicates that the conjugated circuit model is not always applicable to such non-alternant hydrocarbons. Dianions of dicyclopenta-fused polyacenes are more aromatic than their respective neutral species, because they are iso-pi-electronic with aromatic polyacenes.     

Macrocyclic conjugation pathways in porphyrins

Macrocyclic aromaticity is the most important concept in porphyrinoid chemistry. Bond resonance energy (BRE) for any pi-bond linking adjacent pyrrolic or other rings represents the stabilization energy due to macrocyclic aromaticity. We found that a main conjugation pathway associated with macrocyclic aromaticity can be traced by choosing a pi-bond with a larger BRE at every bifurcation of the pi-network. All pi-bonds located along the main conjugation pathway are intensified with large positive BREs compared with those located along the bypasses. On the other hand, a main destabilization pathway associated with macrocyclic antiaromaticity can be traced by choosing a pi-bond with a smaller BRE at every bifurcation of the pi-network. Macrocyclic conjugation pathways thus determined are fully consistent with the chemical shifts of protons attached to the macrocycle.     

A simple method for estimating the superaromatic stabilization energy of a super-ring molecule

A simple graph-theoretical method is proposed for readily estimating the degree of extra stabilization due to macrocyclic conjugation (superaromaticity). This method is based theoretically on the concept of circuit resonance energy previously defined for cyclic pi systems. We confirmed that kekulene and related super-ring molecules are essentially nonsuperaromatic, with very small superaromatic stabilization energies.     

Comparison of immunization strategies in geographical networks

The epidemic spread and immunizations in geographically embedded scale-free (SF) and Watts-Strogatz (WS) networks are numerically investigated. We make a realistic assumption that it takes time which we call the detection time, for a vertex to be identified as infected, and implement two different immunization strategies: one is based on connection neighbors (CN) of the infected vertex with the exact information of the network structure utilized and the other is based on spatial neighbors (SN) with only geographical distances taken into account. We find that the decrease of the detection time is crucial for a successful immunization in general. Simulation results show that for both SF networks and WS networks, the SN strategy always performs better than the CN strategy, especially for more heterogeneous SF networks at long detection time. The observation is verified by checking the number of the infected nodes being immunized. We found that in geographical space, the distance preferences in the network construction process and the geographically decaying infection rate are key factors that make the SN immunization strategy outperforms the CN strategy. It indicates that even in the absence of the full knowledge of network connectivity we can still stop the epidemic spread efficiently only by using geographical information as in the SN strategy, which may have potential applications for preventing the real epidemic spread.     

Circuit resonance energy: a key quantity that links energetic and magnetic criteria of aromaticity

Energetic and magnetic criteria of aromaticity are different in nature and sometimes make different predictions as to the aromaticity of a polycyclic pi-system. Thus, some charged polycyclic pi-systems are aromatic but paratropic. We derived the individual circuit contributions to aromaticity from the magnetic response of a polycyclic pi-system and named them circuit resonance energies (CREs). Each CRE has the same sign and essentially the same magnitude as the corresponding cyclic conjugation energy (CCE) defined by Bosanac and Gutman. Such CREs were found to play a crucial role in associating the energetic criteria for determining the degree of aromaticity with the magnetic ones. We can now interpret both energetic and magnetic criteria of aromaticity consistently in terms of CREs. Ring-current diamagnetism proved to be the tendency of a cyclic pi-system to retain aromatic stabilization energy (ASE) at the level of individual circuits.     

Interdisciplinary challenges in the study of power grid resilience and stability and their relation to extreme weather events

This topical issue collects contributions to the interdisciplinary study of power grid stability in face of increasing volatility of energy production and consumption due to increasing renewable energy infeed and changing climatic conditions. The individual papers focus on different aspects of this field and bring together modern achievements from various disciplines, in particular complex systems science, nonlinear data analysis, control theory, electrical engineering, and climatology. Main topics considered here are prediction and volatility of renewable infeed, modelling and theoretical analysis of power grid topology, dynamics and stability, relationships between stability and complex network topology, and improvements via topological changes or control. Impacts for the design of smart power grids are discussed in detail.     

Timing matters in foreign exchange markets

We show using nonlinear time series analysis that the timing of trades in foreign exchange markets has significant information. We apply a set of methods for analyzing point process data developed in neuroscience and nonlinear science. Our results imply that foreign exchange markets might be chaotic and have short-term predictability.     

Precise measurement of the CP violation parameter sin2φ1 in B0→(cc¯)K0 decays

We present a precise measurement of the CP violation parameter sin2φ1 and the direct CP violation parameter A(f) using the final data sample of 772×10(6) BB[over ˉ] pairs collected at the Υ(4S) resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy e(+)e(-) collider. One neutral B meson is reconstructed in a J/ψK(S)(0), ψ(2S)K(S)(0), χ(c1)K(S)(0), or J/ψK(L)(0) CP eigenstate and its flavor is identified from the decay products of the accompanying B meson. From the distribution of proper-time intervals between the two B decays, we obtain the following CP violation parameters: sin2φ1=0.667±0.023(stat)±0.012(syst) and A(f)=0.006±0.016(stat)±0.012(syst).