The stereochemistry of cyclisation of n-t-butyldihydrocinnamamide to a β-lactam

Using a stereospecifically labelled precursor, the peroxide catalysed cyclisation of N-$\text{t}$-butyldihydrocinnamamide to the corresponding β-lactam was shown to proceed with complete loss of stereochemistry at the benzylic carbon atom.     

A new ac electrospray mechanism by Maxwell-Wagner polarization and capillary resonance

We report a new high-frequency (>10 kHz) ac electrospray that is capable of generating micron-sized electroneutral drops. Unlike its dc counterpart, the drops are not ejected continuously from a sharp Taylor cone but intermittently from a resonating meniscus at the orifice. We attribute the resonant frequency to the capillary-inertia vibration time of the meniscus and the drop ejection to the Maxwell-Wagner electric stress at the drop tip, which is observed to reverse its direction across a crossover frequency. Above this frequency, the oppositely directed Maxwell-Wagner force causes the liquid to recede up the microneedle as an apparent electrowetting effect.     

Thermodynamic clarification of the curious ferric/potassium ion exchange accompanying the electrochromic redox reactions of prussian blue, iron(III) hexacyanoferrate(II)

The recent Glasser-Jenkins method for lattice-energy prediction, applied to an examination of the solid-state thermodynamics of the cation exchanges that occur in electrochromic reactions of Prussian Blue, provides incisive thermodynamic clarification of an ill-understood ion exchange that accompanies particularly the early electrochromic cycles. A volume of 0.246 +/- 0.017 nm(3) formula unit(-1) for the ferrocyanide ion, Fe(II)[(CN)(6)],(4-) is first established and then used, together with other formula unit-volume data, to evaluate the changes of standard enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs energy in those ion-exchange reactions. The results impressively show by how much the exchange of interstitial Fe(3+) ions by alkali metal ions, usually exemplified by K+, is thermodynamically favored.