Synthesis and characterization of VO–vanillin complex immobilized on MCM-41 and its facile catalytic application in the sulfoxidation reaction,and synthesis of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-ones and disulfides in green media

In this work, a vanillin complex is immobilized onto MCM-41 and characterized by FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, and BET techniques. This supported Schiff base complex was found to be an efficient and recoverable catalyst for the chemoselective oxidation of sulfides into sulfoxides and thiols into their corresponding disulfides (using hydrogen peroxide as a green oxidant) and also a suitable catalyst for the preparation of 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives in water at 90°C. Using this protocol, we show that a variety of disulfides, sulfoxides, and 2,3-dihydroquinazolin-4(1H)-one derivatives can be synthesized in green conditions. The catalyst can be recovered and recycled for further reactions without appreciable loss of catalytic performance.     

A DFT study on mechanisms of CO2 coupling with propargylic alcohols using alkali carbonates

The mechanisms of CO₂ coupling with the propargylic alcohol using alkali carbonates M₂CO₃ (M = Li, Na, K, Cs) have been investigated by means of density functional theory calculations. The calculations reveal that the target product tetronic acid (TA) is yielded through two stages: (a) the formation of the α-alkylidene cyclic carbonate (αACC) intermediate via Cs₂CO₃-mediated carboxylative cyclization of the propargylic alcohol with CO₂, and (b) the conversion of the αACC intermediate with Cs₂CO₃ to produce the cesium salt of the TA. Since the overall kinetic barriers for the two stages are comparable and affordable, the excellent chemoselectivity to the TA should be primarily originated from the high thermodynamic stability of the cesium salt of the TA. Moreover, relative to the TA, the possibility to yield the by-product acyclic carbonate can be excluded due to the both kinetics and thermodynamic inferiority. This result is different from the organic base-mediated reaction. Alternatively, our calculations predict that CsHCO₃ together generated with the cesium salt of the TA might also be an available mediating reagent for the incorporation of CO₂ with the propargylic alcohol. Compared to other alkali carbonates M₂CO₃ (M = Li, Na, K), the stronger basicity of Cs₂CO₃ and the lower ionic potential of cesium ion can raise the effective concentration of the αACC intermediate, and thus the conversion of the αACC intermediate into the cesium salt of the TA can be achieved with high yield.     

A new database and benchmark of the bond energies of noble-gas-containing molecules

We have developed a new database of structures and bond energies of 59 noble-gas-containing molecules. The structures were calculated by CCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVTZ methods and the bond energies were obtained using the CCSD(T)/complete basis set method. Many wavefunction-based and density functional theory methods have been benchmarked against the 59 accurate bond energies. Our results show that the MPW1B95, B2GP-PLYP, and DSD-BLYP functionals with the aug-cc-pVTZ basis set excel in predicting the bond energies of noble-gas molecules with mean unsigned errors (MUEs) of 2.0 to 2.1 kcal/mol. When combinations of Dunning's basis sets are used, the MPW1B95, B2GP-PLYP, DSD-BLYP, and BMK functionals give significantly lower MUEs of 1.6 to 1.9 kcal/mol. Doubly hybrid methods using B2GP-PLYP and DSD-BLYP functionals and MP2 calculation also provide satisfactory accuracy with MUEs of 1.4 to 1.5 kcal/mol. If the Ng bond energies and the total atomization energies of a group of 109 main-group molecules are considered at the same time, the MPW1B95/aug-cc-pVTZ single-level method (MUE = 2.7 kcal/mol) and the B2GP-PLYP and DSD-PLYP functionals with combinations of basis sets or using the doubly hybrid method (MUEs = 1.9-2.2 kcal/mol) give the overall best result.     

Theoretical studies on the influence of metallic cations on ring opening of propylene oxide catalyzed by metal-salen complexes

We studied the ring opening of propylene oxide (PO) by salen-M coordinated OH⁻ group [M = Al(III), Sc(III), Cr(III), Mn(III), Fe(III), Co(II), Co(III), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), Ru(III) and Rh(III)]. The results show that the ring-opening energy barriers for M(II) complexes are much lower than those with M(III) complexes in the gas phase, and the barriers correlate linearly with the negative charges on the OH⁻ group and the Fukui function condensed on the OH⁻ group. The nucleophilicity ordering in the gas phase can be rationalized by the ratio of formal positive charges/radius of M cations. Solvent effect greatly increases the barriers of M(II) complexes but slightly changes the results of M(III) ones, making the barriers similar. Analysis indicates that the reaction heats are linearly proportional to the reverse reaction barriers. The relationships established here can be used to estimate the ring-opening barriers and to screen epoxide ring-opening catalysts.     

Quantum mechanical modeling of Zn-based spinel oxides: Assessing the structural,vibrational, and electronic properties

The structural, electronic, and vibrational properties of two leading representatives of the Zn-based spinel oxides class, normal ZnX₂O₄ (X = Al, Ga, In) and inverse Zn₂MO₄ (M = Si, Ge, Sn) crystals, were investigated. In particular, density functional theory (DFT) was combined with different exchange-correlation functionals: B3LYP, HSE06, PBE0, and PBESol. Our calculations showed good agreement with the available experimental data, showing a mean percentage error close to 3% for structural parameters. For the electronic structure, the obtained HSE06 band-gap values overcome previous theoretical results, exhibiting a mean percentage error smaller than 10.0%. In particular, the vibrational properties identify the significant differences between normal and inverse spinel configurations, offering compelling evidence of a structure-property relationship for the investigated materials. Therefore, the combined results confirm that the range-separated HSE06 hybrid functional performs the best in spinel oxides. Despite some points that cannot be directly compared to experimental results, we expect that future experimental work can confirm our predictions, thus opening a new avenue for understanding the structural, electronic, and vibrational properties in spinel oxides.     

Designing spirobifullerene core based three-dimensional cross shape acceptor materials with promising photovoltaic properties for high-efficiency organic solar cells

The development of organic electron acceptor materials is one of the key factors for realizing high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs). Nonfullerene electron acceptors, compared to traditional fullerene acceptor materials, have gained much impetus owing to their better optoelectronic tunabilities and lower cost, as well as higher stability. Therefore, 5 three-dimensional (3D) cross-shaped acceptor materials having a spirobifullerene core flanked with 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole are designed from a recently synthesized highly efficient acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ and are investigated in detail with regard to their use as acceptor molecules in OSCs. The density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT) calculations have been performed for the estimation of frontier molecular orbital (FMO) analysis, density of states analysis, reorganization energies of electron and hole, dipole moment, open-circuit voltage, photo-physical characteristics, and transition density matrix analysis. In addition, the structure-property relationship is studied, and the influence of end-capped acceptor modifications on photovoltaic, photo-physical, and electronic properties of newly selected molecules ( H1-H5 ) is calculated and compared with reference ( R ) acceptor molecule SF(BR) ₄ . The structural tailoring at terminals was found to effectively tune the FMO band gap, energy levels, absorption spectra, open-circuit voltage, reorganization energy, and binding energy value in selected molecules H1 to H5 . The 3D cross-shaped molecules H1 to H5 suppress the intermolecular aggregation in PTB7-Th blend, which leads to high efficiency of acceptor material H1 to H5 in OSCs. Consequently, better optoelectronic properties are achieved from designed molecules H1 to H5 . It is proposed that the conceptualized molecules are superior than highly efficient spirobifullerene core-based SF(BR) ₄ acceptor molecules and, thus, are recommended to experiments for future developments of highly efficient solar cells.     

铋化物发光玻璃中银表面等离激元对铒离子的发光增强作用

局域表面等离激元可以由自由空间的光直接激发,这也是局域表面等离激元的优点所在。研究铋化物发光玻璃中纳米银颗粒的表面等离激元对铒离子发光的增强效应、进一步的提高铋化物发光玻璃中铒离子的发光性能很有意义。首先,测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃与(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的吸收谱,发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃在约600.0 nm处有一个较弱的宽的银表面等离激元共振吸收峰。同时发现两者都有典型的铒离子的吸收峰,它们的吸收几乎完全一样:在波峰形状、峰值强度和峰值波长等方面都很相近。测量了(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃和(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的激发谱,发现有位于379.0,406.0,451.0,488.0和520.5 nm的5个550.0 nm可见光的可见激发谱峰,和位于379.0,406.5,451.0,488.5,520.5,544.0,651.5和798.0 nm的8个1531.0 nm红外光的红外激发谱峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的4I 15/2→4G 11/2,4I 15/2→2H 9/2,4I 15/2→(4F 3/2,4F 5/2),4I 15/2→4F 7/2,4I 15/2→2H 11/2,4I 15/2→4S 3/2,4I 15/2→4F 9/2和4I 15/2→4I 9/2跃迁的吸收峰,通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外激发谱的最大增强依次分别是238%和133%。最后,测量了它们的发光谱,发现有位于534.0,547.5和658.5 nm的三组可见发光峰,容易指认出依次为Er 3+的2H 11/2→4I 15/2,4S 3/2→4I 15/2,4F 9/2→4I 15/2荧光跃迁。还发现红外发光峰位于978.0和1531.0 nm,依次为Er 3+的4I 11/2→4I 15/2和4I 13/2→4I 15/2的荧光跃迁。通过测量发现(A)Er 3+(0.5%)Ag(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃相对于(B)Er 3+(0.5%):铋化物发光玻璃样品的可见和红外发光谱的最大增强依次分别是215%和138%。对于银表面等离激元增强铒离子发光的机理,认为主要为纳米银颗粒的局域表面等离激元共振,造成金属纳米结构附近产生的局域电场的强度要远大于入射光的电场强度,从而导致了金属纳米结构对入射光产生强烈的吸收和散射,进而导致了荧光的增强;即局域表面等离子体共振局域场的场增强效应。     

石墨烯纳米网电导特性的能带机理：第一原理计算

通过第一原理电子结构计算来研究有序多孔纳米网的电导特性变化的能带机理.能带结构分析结果表明:石墨烯纳米网超晶格(3m,3n)(m和n为整数)的电子本征态在布里渊区中心点发生四重简并;碳空位孔洞规则排列形成的石墨烯纳米网具有由简并态分裂形成的宽度可调带隙,无论石墨烯的两个子晶格是否对等.在具有磁性网孔阵列的石墨烯纳米网中,反铁磁耦合使对称子晶格的反演对称性增加了一项量子限制条件,导致能带结构在K点的二重简并态分裂成带隙.通过控制网孔密度能够有效调节石墨烯纳米网的带隙宽度,为实现新一代石墨烯纳米电子器件提供了理论依据.     

Analytical formulas for complex permittivity of periodic composites. Estimation of gain and loss enhancement in active and passive composites

ABSTRACT

The asymptotic homogenization method is applied to complex dielectric periodic composites. An equivalence to coupled dielectric problems with real coefficients is shown. This is similar to a piezoelectric problem: an out-plane mechanical displacement and an in-plane electric potential establishing a correspondence principle. Closed-form formulas for the complex dielectric effective tensor in the case of a square array of circular inclusions embedded in a matrix are given. These formulas are written in terms of a real and symmetric matrix which facilitates the implementation of the computational scheme. We also get similar formulas for multilayered complex dielectric composites. The real closed-form formulas are advantageous for estimating gain and loss enhancement properties of active and passive composites in certain volume fraction intervals. Numerical computations are performed and the results are compared with other approaches showing the usefulness of the obtained formulas. This may be of interest in the context of metamaterials.