Chiral Interlocked Corrole Dimers Directly Linked at Inner Carbon Atoms of Confused Pyrrole Rings

A facile synthetic strategy towards conformationally stable chiral chromophores based on dimeric porphyrinoids has been established. A peculiar class of face-to-face intramolecularly interlocked corrole dimers were formed by the oxidative C−C coupling linked at the inner carbon sites upon simple treatment of copper(II) ions. Their intrinsic electronic structures were modulated by the peripheral corrole ring annulations, which lead to distinct optical properties and redox profiles. The stereogenic carbon centers implemented in the confused corrole skeleton provided a rationale for designing novel chiral materials.     

Rank 2 Ample Vector Bundles on Some Smooth Rational Surfaces

Several classification results for ample vector bundles of rank 2 on Hirzebruch surfaces, and on Del Pezzo surfaces, are obtained. In particular, we classify rank 2 ample vector bundles with _c2 less than seven on Hirzebruch surfaces, and with _c2 less than four on Del Pezzo surfaces.     

Temporal analysis of products (TAP) study on oxygen storage properties over Pt−Rh/CeO2 catalyst

The oxygen storage capacity of CeO₂, Ce_0.9Pr_0.1O₂, Pt?Rh/CeO₂ and Pt?Rh/Ce_0.9Pr_0.1O₂ was investigated by conventional GC pulse method and transient pulse techniques. It is shown that incorporation of PrO_y into CeO₂ matrix strongly promotes oxygen storage capacity (OSC) measured using the transient pulse technique. The improvement of OSC at low temperature is observed in Pt?Rh loaded onto CeO₂ and Ce?Pr catalysts.     

Construction of a new multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer

A new type of multi-turn time-of-flight mass spectrometer was constructed, consisting of four cylindrical electric sectors and 28 electric quadrupole lenses, the size of the vacuum chamber being 60 x 70 x 20 cm. It was demonstrated that the mass resolution can be increased according to the number of cycles of the ions through the ion optical system.     

Stability of porphyrin-calix[4]arene complexes analyzed by electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

The stability of some porphyrin-calix[4]arene sodium-ion complexes were determined by a collision-activated decomposition (CAD) method utilizing electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS). Comparing the values of E(1/2), the collision energy at which the relative intensity of the complex ion is 0.5, we found that the porphyrin-calix[4]arene complex with the higher value of E(1/2) corresponded to that with the larger association constant (Kass), as measured by 1H-NMR in CDCl3. Both our ESI-MS and NMR studies proved that the number of hydrogen bonds and the rigidity of the calix[4]arene stabilized the complex. The ESI-MS technique could be successful in screening the binding affinity in host-guest systems with a small amount of sample.     

Complex formation of amphiphilic polymers with azo dyes and their photoviscosity behavior

The hydrophobic interaction of amphiphilic copolymers, which contain 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate(HEMA) and 1vinyl-2-pyrrolidone (VPy), with Methyl Orange (MO) was compared with that of HEMA-acrylamide (AAm) copolymers to deduce the correlation between their complexation ability in a photochromic azo dye and the photoviscosity effect in aqueous copolymer/dye complex solution. On the basis of the dialysis data and fluorometric analysis it appeared that the complexation dependence on HEMA content in the copolymers was due to the hydrophobic interaction between the polymer and the dye. For a comparable HEMA content AAm copolymers bound less MO than VPy copolymers. It was confiied by photoviscosity measurements that the conformation of the complex composed of photochromic azo dye and HEMA copolymer changed reversibly in response to the photo- and thermal isomerization of the dye. In HEMA-AAm copolymer systems the photoviscosity effect was small compared with that of HEMA-VPy copolymer systems. From these results it was concluded that the complexation ability of polymers due to the hydrophobic interaction was an important factor in producing a large photoinduced conformational change in water.     

Preparation and properties of sol-gel coating films

The present state of our knowledge on sol-gel coating films has been reviewed. A qualitative discussion is made on the limit of the film thickness which can be achieved in the sol-gel method and the factors affecting the film thickness. Considering that properties of the film are intimately related to the microstructure, types of microstructures accomplished by the sol-gel coating are introduced with examples.     

A new reforming process based on CH4 decomposition using a hydrogen-permeating membrane reactor

A new reforming process was studied using Ni/SiO₂ with a hydrogen-permeating membrane reactor. Nickel catalyst supported on SiO₂ is highly active for CH₄?H₂O?O₂ reaction in membrane reactor and the reaction close to CH₄+0.35O₂+1.3H₂O→CO₂+3.3H₂ proceeds at 873 K. Since the selectivity to carbon and CO₂ increased and decreased with decreasing contact time respectively, it is considered that the reaction was started by decomposition of CH₄ followed by oxidation of C and water shift reaction. Therefore, the reaction mechanism was different from so-called autothermal reforming (ATR) reaction.     

Sugar-anionic clay composite materials: intercalation of pentoses in layered double hydroxide

The intercalation of non-ionized guest pentoses (ribose and 2-deoxyribose) into the Mg-Al and Zn-Al layered double hydroxides (LDHs) was carried out at 298 K by the calcination-rehydration reaction using the Mg-Al and Zn-Al oxide precursors calcined at 773 K. The resulting solid products reconstructed the LDH structure with incorporating pentoses, and the maximum amount of ribose intercalated by the Mg-Al oxide precursor was approximately 20 times that by the Zn-Al oxide precursor. The ribose/Mg-Al LDH was observed to have the expanded LDH structure with a broad (003) spacing of 0.85 nm. As the thickness of the LDH hydroxide basal layer is 0.48 nm, the interlayer distance of the ribose/Mg-Al LDH is 0.37 nm. This value corresponds to molecular size of ribose in thickness (0.36 nm), supporting that ribose is horizontally oriented in the interlayer space of LDH. The maximum amount of ribose intercalated by the Mg-Al oxide precursor was approximately 5 times that of 2-deoxyribose. Ribose is substituted only by the hydroxyl group at C-2 position for 2-deoxyribose. Therefore, the number of hydroxyl group of sugar is essentially important for the intercalation of sugar molecule into the LDH, suggesting that the intercalation behavior of sugar for the LDH was greatly influenced by hydrogen bond between hydroxyl group of the intercalated pentose and the LDH hydroxide basal layers.