Electron transfer between trans-dihydroxotetraoxoosmate(VIII) and thiosulfate. A kinetic study in aqueous alkaline media

The kinetics of oxidation of thiosulfate to tetrathionate by trans-dihydroxotetraoxoosmate(VIII) in aqueous alkaline media have been studied. The oxidation follows a rate expression where K_Os is the formation constant of trans-dihydroxotetraoxoosmate (VIII), and K₂ and k₃, respectively, represent the formation constants of the intermediate complex involving Os(VIII) and S₂O and its decomposition constant. The K_Os, K₂, and k₃ values have been computed to be (19.5 ± 3) dm³/mol, (6.12 ± 0.5) and (3.32 ± 0.3) × 10^?1 dm³/mol s at 303 K, and I = 0.32 mol/dm³, respectively. The rate law is consistent with a mechanism envisaging the equilibrium formation of an intermediate complex involving Os(VIII) and S₂O, followed by a rate-determining decomposition of the complex with concomitant electron transfer.     

TI(III) oxidation of alkenes and alkynes and Ru(III) catalysis in the oxidation of alkenes: A kinetic and mechanistic study

The oxidation of trans-stilbene, phenylacetylene, and diphenylacetylene by Tl(OAc)₃ in aqueous acetic acid medium in the presence of HClO₄ follows the rate law in [H⁺] of 0.1–1.0M, the [H⁺] dependence below 0.1M being marginal. The reactions are strongly dielectric dependent. The order of reactivity among the substrates is styrene > phenylacetylene and trans-stilbene > diphenylacetylene. A mechanism involving the oxythallation adduct by the Tl⁺(OAc)₂ species has been discussed. The use of Ru(III) as a homogeneous catalyst brings a change in the kinetic orders for trans-stilbene, the rate law being The formation constants K for the Ru(III)–alkene π complex at 40, 50, and 60°C are 90.14M^?1, 105.2M^?1, and 127.7M^?1, respectively. Interestingly the oxidation of phenylacetylene and diphenylacetylene does not undergo catalysis by Ru(III). The mechanism involving the metal–arene π complex is discussed.     

Charged-boson fluid at zero-temperature in the fractional dimensional space

In the fractional dimensional space, the ground state properties of the charged-boson fluid are studied in a theory which goes beyond the random phase approximation by including correlations through a static local-field-factor. The structure factor and static local field-factor are obtained in the self-consistent method. Qualitative agreement with the Monte Carlo results on static screening is achieved by imposing self-consistency on the compressibility of the fluid in addition to self-consistency on the structure factor. Using the structure factors obtained in these methods, several properties of the charged boson system such as the energy spectrum of elementary excitations, the pair-correlation function, the ground state energy, the pressure, the chemical potential and the compressibility are obtained in several dimensions including both integer and fractional values. Results obtained in the later method in two and three dimensional systems are close to the Monte Carlo and hypernetted-chain methods. The Wigner crystallisation in the lower dimensional system is found at higher density of bosons. However, it vanishes in any lower dimensional system whose dimension lies below 2.     

Anomalous excited-state dynamics of lucifer yellow CH in solvents of high polarity: evidence for an intramolecular proton transfer

The photophysics of the fluorescent probe Lucifer yellow CH has been investigated using fluorescence spectroscopic and computational techniques. The nonradiative rate is found to pass through a minimum in solvents of intermediate empirical polarity. This apparently anomalous behavior is rationalized by considering the possibility of predominance of different kinds of nonradiative processes, viz. intersystem crossing (ISC) and excited-state proton transfer (ESPT), in solvents of low and high empirical polarity, respectively. The feasibility of the proton transfer is examined by the structure determined by the density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The predicted energy levels based on the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) method in the gas phase identifies the energy gap between the S(1) and nearest triplet state to be close enough to facilitate ISC. Photophysical investigation in solvent mixtures and in deuterated solvents clearly indicates the predominance of the solvent-mediated intramolecular proton transfer in the excited state of the fluorophore in protic solvents.     

Study of the asymmetric nuclear matter with pion dressing

We discuss here a self-consistent method to calculate the properties of the cold asymmetric nuclear matter. The nuclear matter is dressed with s-wave pion pairs. The nucleon-nucleon (N-N) interaction is mediated by these pion pairs, ∞ and ρ mesons. The parameters of these interactions are calculated selfconsistently to obtain the saturation properties like equilibrium binding energy, pressure, compressibility and symmetry energy. The computed equation of state is then used in the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) equation to study the mass and radius of a neutron star containing pure neutron matter.     

On the minimum degree,edge-connectivity and connectivity of power graphs of finite groups

In this paper, the minimum degree of power graphs of certain cyclic groups, abelian p-groups, dihedral groups and dicyclic groups are obtained. It is ascertained that the edge-connectivity and minimum degree of power graphs are equal, and consequently, the minimum disconnecting sets of power graphs of the aforementioned groups are determined. In order to investigate the equality of connectivity and minimum degree of power graphs, certain necessary conditions for finite groups and a necessary and su?cient condition for finite cyclic groups are obtained. Moreover, the equality is discussed for the power graphs of abelian p-groups, dihedral groups and dicyclic groups.     

Phase transformation of ZrO2 nanoparticles produced from zircon

This article focuses on the phase transformation of zirconia (ZrO₂) nanoparticles produced from zircon using a bottom-up approach. The influence of mechanical milling and thermal annealing on crystalline phase transformation of ZrO₂ nanoparticles was explored. It was found that the iron oxide, as an inherent impurity present in ZrO₂ nanoparticles, produced from zircon stabilises the cubic phase after calcination at 600°C. The stabilised cubic phase of ZrO₂ nanoparticles was disappeared and transformed into partial tetragonal and monoclinic phases after mechanical milling. The phase transformation occurred on account of the crystal defect induced by high-energy mechanical milling. The destabilisation of cubic phase into monoclinic phase was observed after the thermal annealing of ZrO₂ nanoparticles at 1000°C. The phase transitions observed are correlated to the exclusion of iron oxide from the zirconia crystal structure.     

Growth and luminescence properties of large‐scale zinc oxide nanotetrapods

Large‐scale zinc oxide (ZnO) nanotetrapods have been grown on p‐type Si (111) substrate by oxidizing zinc pieces in air by thermal evaporation technique without the presence of any catalyst. The size and morphology of the nanostructures was found to depend on experimental parameters. The grown nanostructures were characterized by X‐ray Diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), High Resolution TEM (HRTEM) and analysis of elemental composition was done by Energy Dispersive X‐ray analysis (EDX). The EDX spectrum shows that the grown product contains Zn and O only. The X‐ray diffraction pattern indicates that the microstructure of the obtained products is typical hexagonal wurtzite ZnO. The optical properties were studied using room temperature PL spectroscopy which indicates that the products are of high optical quality and the near band edge UV transition peak intensity increases with decrease in tetrapod size. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Transition-Metal-Free Heterocyclic Carbon-Boron Bond Formation

Heteroaryl boronic acids and esters are extremely important and valuable intermediates because of their wide application in the synthesis of marketed drugs and bioactive compounds. Over the last couple of decades, the construction of highly important heteroaryl carbon-boron bonds has created huge attention. The transition-metal-free protocols are more green, less sensitive to air and moisture, and also economically advantageous over the transition-metal-based protocols. The transition-metal-free C−H borylation of heteroarenes and C−X (X=halogen) borylation of heteroaryl halides represents an excellent approach for their synthesis. Also, various cyclization and alkyne activation protocols have been recently established for their synthesis. The goal of this review article is to summarize the existing literature and the current state of the art for transition-metal-free synthesis of heteroaryl boronic acid and esters.