Synthesis and thermal behaviour of salicylaldimine-based liquid crystalline symmetrical dimers

A series of symmetrical dimers consisting of salicylaldimine moieties connected by flexible alkylene central spacer via ether linkages has been synthesized. In order to validate the empirical rule suggested by Date et al. to account for the smectic behaviour of such dimers, the chain length of the terminal alkoxy chain has been kept constant (C₈) while the number of methylene units in the central spacer was varied from C₃ to C₁₁. Another aim of the present investigation was to understand structure-property relationship in these dimers in which the salicylaldimine mesogenic segment has been used for the first time in dimers. The mesomorphic behaviour of these dimers was evaluated using optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry and the structure of some of the mesophases has been further investigated with the help of X-ray diffraction. Our studies reveal that the dimers consisting of 3 to 8 methylene units in the flexible spacer show only smectic (smectic C and smectic A) phases. For the dimers containing 4, 6 and 8 methylene units in the central spacer, a unique filament growth pattern has been observed in the smectic A phase while cooling from the isotropic phase. The dimers containing of C₉ to C₁₁ methylene groups exhibit the nematic phase in addition to smectic modifications. This observation indicates that when the terminal chains are shorter than the spacer, the tendency to form smectic phases is not fully extinguished but is perhaps reduced.     

Dielectric studies under high pressure on strongly polar liquid crystals exhibiting monolayer smectic A phase

Dielectric studies have been performed at elevated pressures on two compounds of a homologous series possessing a strongly polar terminal group and three phenyl rings in their molecular structure. This is the first high pressure dielectric study on such systems that exhibit a monolayer smectic A phase. Also notable is the fact that these compounds show a dual frequency response, a promising feature for fast liquid crystal display devices. The low frequency relaxation recorded in the nematic and smectic A phases is attributed to the reorientation of the molecules about the short axis. The temperature and pressure dependence of the relaxation frequency of this mode as well as the involved activation parameters are discussed. At a given relative temperature the relaxation frequency decreases as the pressure is increased. However, the parameter that characterizes the temperature dependences of the relaxation frequency, viz., the activation enthalpy, has a very weak dependence on pressure. In contrast, the activation volume shows a linear decrease with temperature.     

Oxidation of L-lysine by diperiodatocuprate (III) in aqueous alkaline medium by the stopped flow technique

The kinetics of oxidation of L-lysine by diperiodatocuprate (III) (DPC) in alkaline medium at a constant ionic strength of 0.15 mol/dm³ was studied spectrophotometrically. The reaction between DPC and L-lysine in an alkaline medium had a 1: 2 stoichiometry (L-lysine: DPC). The reaction was first order in [DPC] and less than first order in [L-lysine] and [alkali]. The addition of periodate had no effect on the rate of the reaction. The intervention of free radicals was observed in the reaction. The oxidation reaction in alkaline medium was shown to proceed via a DPC-L-lysine complex. The main products were identified by spot test and spectral studies. The reaction constants involved in different steps of the mechanism were calculated. The activation parameters with respect to the slow step of the mechanism were computed and discussed, and thermodynamic values were also determined. The article is published in the original.     

Heterocyclic nitrogen base adducts of nickel(II)–di(2,4-dibromophenyl)carbazonate

The title complex was prepared and characterized by elemental and spectral analyses. The formation constants of various heterocyclic nitrogen base adducts with the Ni^II–di(2,4-dibromophenyl)carbazonate have been determined in a monophase by spectrophotometry at 25 ± 0.1 °C. The monodenatate and bidentate bases form penta- and hexa-coordinated adducts respectively with 1:1 stoichiometry for the metal chelate-base, whereas the unsaturated monodentate bases form hexa-coordinated adducts with 1:2 stoichiometry. The behaviour of saturated heterocyclic bases such as pyrrolidine, piperidine, hexamethyleneimine and morpholine towards the metal chelate has been studied, and the results are discussed in terms of steric hindrance, basicity and ring structure.     

Phase behaviour of thermotropic banana-shaped compounds under pressure

The phase behaviour of two achiral bent core banana-shaped compounds, the hexyloxy (compound I) and decyloxy (compound II) members of the 1,3-phenylene bis[N-(2-hydroxy-4-n-alkoxybenzylidene)-4′-aminobenzoate] series was investigated under hydrostatic pressures up to 300?MPa using high pressure differential thermal analysis and light transmission methods. The reversible transition sequence crystal (Cr₁)–B₁ phase–isotropic liquid (I), observed at room pressure for compound I, remains in the pressure region up to c 70?MPa. At higher pressures a pressure-induced crystalline phase (Cr_i) appears between the Cr₁ and B₁ phases, its temperature region becoming wider with increasing pressure. The temperature vs. pressure phase diagram shows a triple point of 72.9?MPa and 160.3°C for the Cr₁, Cr_i and B₁ phases, indicating the lower limit of pressure for the Cr_i phase. In compound II the reversible transition sequence crystal (Cr₁)–B₂ phase–I is seen over the whole pressure region, and the temperature range of the B₂ phase remains unaltered. It is concluded that both the B₁ and B₂ banana phases are stable over the whole pressure region studied.     

Kinetics and mechanism of uncatalysed and ruthenium(III) catalysed oxidation of allyl alcohol by diperiodatoargentate(III) in aqueous alkaline medium

The oxidation of allyl alcohol by diperiodatoargentate(III) (DPA) is carried out both in the absence and presence of ruthenium(III) catalyst in alkaline medium at 298 K and a constant ionic strength of 1.1 mol dm^?3 was studied spectrophotometrically. The oxidation products in both the cases were acrolein and Ag(I), identified by spectral studies. The stoichiometry is same in both the cases, that is, [AA]/[DPA] = 1:1. The reaction shows first order in [DPA] and has less than unit order dependence each in both [AA] and [Alkali] and retarding effect of [IO] in both the catalysed and uncatalysed cases. The order in [Ru(III)] is unity. The active species of DPA is understood to be as monoperiodatoargentate(III) (MPA) in both the cases. The uncatalysed reaction in alkaline medium has been shown to proceed via a MPA–allyl alcohol complex, which decomposes in a rate determining step to give the products. In catalysed reaction, it has been shown to proceed via a Ru(III)‐allyl alcohol complex, which further reacts with one molecule of MPA in a rate determining step to give the products. The reaction constants involved in the different steps of the mechanisms were calculated for both reactions. The catalytic constant (K_c) was also calculated for catalysed reaction at different temperatures. The activation parameters with respect to slow step of the mechanisms were computed and discussed for both the cases. The thermodynamic quantities were also determined for both reactions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of benz[e] indole and benz[g] indole carboxaldehydes

The Vilsmeier-Haack formylation reaction and several additional reactions have been employed to prepare a variety of benz[e]- and benz[g] indole-2- and 3-carboxaldehydes. Similar conditions have been utilized to prepare several 2,3-disubstituted benz[g] indole-5-carboxaldehydes.     

Ruthenium(III)-catalysed oxidation of thiocyanate by periodate in aqueous alkaline medium; autocatalysis in catalysis

The oxidation of thiocyanate by periodate has been studied in alkaline media. A micro quantity of Ru^III is sufficient to catalyse the reaction. The active catalytic species and oxidant in the reaction are understood to be [Ru(H₂O)₅OH]²⁺ and IO⁻ ₄. The autocatalysis exhibited by one of the products, cyanate, is attributed to adduct formation between cyanate and periodate. A composite mechanism and rate law are proposed. The reaction constants involved in the mechanism are evaluated. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A study of the rate-controlled constrained-equilibrium dimension reduction method and its different implementations

The Rate-Controlled Constrained-Equilibrium (RCCE) method is a thermodynamic based dimension reduction method which enables representation of chemistry involving n _s species in terms of fewer n _r constraints. Here we focus on the application of the RCCE method to Lagrangian particle probability density function based computations. In these computations, at every reaction fractional step, given the initial particle composition (represented using RCCE), we need to compute the reaction mapping, i.e. the particle composition at the end of the time step. In this work we study three different implementations of RCCE for computing this reaction mapping, and compare their relative accuracy and efficiency. These implementations include: (1) RCCE/TIFS (Trajectory In Full Space): this involves solving a system of n _s rate-equations for all the species in the full composition space to obtain the reaction mapping. The other two implementations obtain the reaction mapping by solving a reduced system of n _r rate-equations obtained by projecting the n _s rate-equations for species evaluated in the full space onto the constrained subspace. These implementations include (2) RCCE: this is the classical implementation of RCCE which uses a direct projection of the rate-equations for species onto the constrained subspace; and (3) RCCE/RAMP (Reaction-mixing Attracting Manifold Projector): this is a new implementation introduced here which uses an alternative projector obtained using the RAMP approach. We test these three implementations of RCCE for methane/air premixed combustion in the partially-stirred reactor with chemistry represented using the n _s=31 species GRI-Mech 1.2 mechanism with n _r=13 to 19 constraints. We show that: (a) the classical RCCE implementation involves an inaccurate projector which yields large errors (over 50%) in the reaction mapping; (b) both RCCE/RAMP and RCCE/TIFS approaches yield significantly lower errors (less than 2%); and (c) overall the RCCE/TIFS approach is the most accurate, efficient (by orders of magnitude) and robust implementation.