Self-consistent relativistic effective core potentials for transition metal atoms: Cu,Ag, and Au

A development of the RECP method for the case of transition and rare earth elements is suggested. New terms with projectors on the occupation numbers ofd andf outermost shells respectively (which can be determined in SCF iterations) are added to the standard RECP operator and the corresponding self-consistent RECP terms are generated for atoms Cu, Ag and Au. Significant improvement is achieved in reproduction of atomic excitation energies as compared with the conventional shape-consistent RECP calculation.     

Addition of α,α-dichloropropionitrile to unsaturated compounds under conditions of metallocomplex initiation

,-Dichloropropionitrile reacts with unsaturated compounds in the presence of complex initiating systems based on metal carbonyls. The systems based on iron pentacarbonyl are the most efficient.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 8, pp. 1595–1596, August, 1995.The work was financially supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 93-03-04497).     

Metal island coated polymer sensor for direct determination of the volume effect of chaotropic agents

A new optical sensor is presented, based on the analyte reaction resulting in swelling and shrinking of a thin polymer layer. Changing the concentration of ions in a new bisazide photo-cross-linked poly(vinylpyrrolidone) polymer results in a concentration-dependent volume change of the hydrated gel. The volume response of the sensor induced by different ions is fully reversible over more than 250 cycles. The response of the device depends on the type, the charge and the concentration of the ions. The sensor material is part of an optical thin film system which transforms the variations in volume of the polymer into spectral information. The steady state of the sensor response is obtained within 60 s. The response time is mainly limited by the pump rate, the back pressure and the total volume of the system but not by the swelling of the sensor polymer. A comparative study of ion effects has demonstrated a fundamental correlation of the polymer swelling properties with the Hofmeister series of chaotropic agents. Thus it is concluded that the photopolymer, which is solubilized in aqueous solutions by the interaction of its amide structure with the solvent, behaves like the backbone amide structure of proteins.     

Molecular dynamics of cyclic and linear poly(dimethylsiloxanes)

Dielectric spectroscopy (10^–1 Hz to 10⁷ Hz) has been employed to study the molecular dynamics of a series of cyclic and linear polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) of various molecular weights ranging from 300 to 10 000 g/mol in the temperature range above the glass transition (from 130 K to 190 K). The observed -relaxation depends strongly on both molecular weight and structure of the samples. For linear PDMS oligomers, the -relaxation shifts towards lower temperatures with decreasing molecular weight in good accordance with the Fox-Flory-model. Cyclic PDMS reveals a qualitatively different molecular weight dependence: for a given temperature the -relaxation time increases with decreasing ring length, but has a maximum for small oligomers (degree of polymerizationn6). The shape of relaxation curves and, with it, the relaxation time distribution is independent from length and architecture of the chains The observed experimental findings are in qualitative agreement with dynamic Monte-Carlo simulations.Dedicated to Prof. E.W. Fischer on the occasion of his 65th birthday Fast macht' das WLF ihn krank, jetzt raucht er wieder, Gott sei Dank! (frei nach Wilhelm Busch)     

A new biomaterial,hen egg shell membrane,to eliminate heavy metal ion from their dilute waste solution

The egg shell membrane (ESM) is an intricate lattice network of stable and water-insoluble fibers with high surface area. ESM accumulates and eliminates various heavy metal ions from dilute aqueous solution with high affinity and in short contact time, depending on pH and characteristics of the individual ion. Under certain conditions, the level of precious ions, Au, Pt, and Pd accumulation approaches 55, 25, and 22% of dry wt of ESM, respectively. Also uranium uptake 30% of that of ESM. Experiments suggested that ESM is promising to use for the purpose of removal/recovery of metals and water pollution control.     

Ion chromatographic determination of alkali and alkaline earth metals in mineral waters

Summary The rapid, simultaneous, suppressed ion chromatographic determination of alkali, alkaline earth metals and ammonium in highly mineralized waters has been examined using the novel cation exchange IonPac CS12 column. General ability for the determination of lithium, sodium, ammounium, potassium, magnesium, calcium and strontium in concentrations from a few g to several mg per liter was studied. The relative standard deviations of retention times of all seven cations were below 0.7% and the relative standard deviations of the measurements of peak areas and peak heights were mostly below 5%. Six natural mineral waters of different types were selected for evaluation of the method. It was not possible to determine lithium in the one run and ammonium usually partially coelutes with sodium precluding quantitative determination. Strontium was undetectable because of the necessary dilutions. All the reltionships between peak areas and concentrations or peak height and concentrations were linear and there was also no evidence of the effect of different matrices on the slope of regression lines.     

Kinetics and mechanisms of halide ion catalysis of CO substitution reactions in Os3(CO)12 and Ru3(CO)12 metal carbonyl clusters

The results of kinetic studies on ligand substitution in [M₃(CO)₁₁X]^– complexes (M = Ru, Os; X = Cl, Br, I) are summarized. The [Os₃(CO)₁₁X]^– complexes react with PPh₃ under mild conditions to initially yield monosubstituted products [Os₃(CO)₁₀(PPh₃)X]^–. The rate of CO substitution obeys a first-order equation with respect to the concentration of the complex and does not depend on the ligand concentration. The rates of the reactions decrease in the order Cl > Br > I withH values increasing from 15 to 18 kcal mol^–1 and S values varying from –19 to –13 cal mol^–1 K^–1. The enhanced reactivities of these complexes as well as the low activation energies and negative activation entropies are discussed in terms of the effects of -X bridge formation on the transition state of the reaction. Reactions of PPN[Ru₃(CO)_11–x (Cl)] (PPN is the bis(triphenylphosphine)iminium cation;x=0, 1) and PPN[Ru₃(CO)₉(₃-I)] with alkynes are also reported. The reactivities of alkynes follow the order BuCCH PhCCH EtCCEt PhCCPh. The higher rates of the reactions of monosubstituted acetylenes compared with those of their disubstituted analogs are explained by agostic interaction between the metal atom and the C-H bond in the reaction transition state and by steric effects. The results obtained attest that the reaction with alkynes occursvia intermediates containing halide bridges and that ₃-halide complexes are more reactive than ₂-halide complexes.Translated fromIzvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 9, pp. 1540–1545, September, 1994.This work was supported by a Presidential Grant from Northwestern University. One of the authors (F. Basolo) wishes to thank Academician M. E. Vol'pin for the invitation to participate in the Workshop The Modern Problems of Organometallic Chemistry (INEOS-94) and Academician O. M. Nefedov for the invitation to publish a review in theRussian Chemical Bulletin.     

Pressure effect on grain boundary wetting at various temperatures

Bicrystals of Fe-6 at.% Si alloy containing <001> 5 tilt grain boundaries with a deposited zinc layer have been annealed at various hydrostatic pressure at four temperatures between 700° and 905°C. After the anneals the dihedral angle of the grain boundary groove formed at the site of the grain boundary intersection with the solid-melt interphase boundary has been measured. The transition from complete to incomplete wetting of the grain boundary by the zinc-rich melt (dewetting phase transition) has been found to occur as the pressure increased at all temperatures studied. The temperature dependence of the dewetting transition pressure p _w has been determined. That dependence has a minimum at a temperature of 790°C, which is close to the peritectic temperature in the Fe–Zn system (782°C). A thermodynamic analysis of the wetting phenomena in the two-component system, based on Becker's regular solution model for the surface tension of the interphase boundary, explains the minimum in the p _w (T) dependence.     

Determination of heavy metal concentration in feed and permeate streams of polymer enhanced ultrafiltration process

Polymer enhanced ultrafiltration (PEUF) is a newly developed method for the removal of heavy metals from aqueous solutions. This method was applied for the removal of mercury and cadmium with the presence of polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a water soluble polymer. After ultrafiltration experiments for metal–polymer mixtures, two separate streams, namely, retentate and permeate, former of which contains mainly metal–polymer complex and free polymer molecules while latter of which mainly contains free metal ions, were obtained. At the end of PEUF experiments, performance of operation was determined by concentration analyses which was achieved by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) applied in a different way for permeate and retentate streams considering the effect of presence of polymer. For mercury analysis, cold vapor AAS was applied. It was observed that the presence of PEI did not affect the atomic absorption signal when 10% HCl was added to the sample solutions. For calcium and cadmium, flame AAS was used. It was observed that change in PEI concentration results in change in measured concentration of calcium and cadmium. Therefore, two new approaches were developed for accurate measurement of concentrations of calcium and cadmium. It was also observed that presence of other metals did not affect the accuracy of the measurement of a particular metal in the concentration range studied.     

On the electrostatic and steric similarity of lactam compounds and the natural substrate for bacterial cell-wall biosynthesis

Summary Electrostatic and structural properties of a set of -lactam, -lactam and nonlactam compounds have been analyzed and compared with those of a model of the natural substrate d-alanyl-d-alanine for the carboxy- and transpeptidase enzymes. This first comparison of the electrostatic properties has been based on a distributed multipole analysis of high-quality ab initio wave functions of the substrate and potential antibiotics. The electrostatic similarity of the substrate and active compounds is apparent, and contrasts with the electrostatic properties of the noninhibitors. This has been quantified to give a reasonable correlation with the MIC (Minimum Concentration for Inhibition) and with kinetic data (k₂/K) in accordance with the model for interaction of the lactam compounds with dd-peptidase. These correlations provide a better prediction of antibacterial activity than purely structural criteria.