Analysis of curing reaction of liquid-crystalline epoxy compositions by using temperature-modulated DSC TOPEM®

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The curing behaviour of the composition of a liquid-crystalline diepoxy monomer (LCEM) with the central triaromatic mesogenic group was studied using...     

A new torsion-rotation fitting program for molecules with a sixfold barrier: Application to the microwave spectrum of toluene

A new program is described for fitting rotation-torsion energy levels in molecules like toluene, in which the frame (C₆H₅) has C_2v symmetry and the methyl top has C_3v symmetry, i.e., for molecules where the internal rotation barrier is expanded in cos6nα, where α is the internal rotation angle and n = 1,2,…. The program is based on the theoretical framework developed by Sørensen and Pedersen in their application of the Longuet-Higgins permutation-inversion group G₁₂ to the microwave spectrum of CH₃NO₂. It is specifically designed for sixfold barrier molecules, and allows the user to select almost any symmetry-allowed torsion-rotation term for inclusion in the fitting Hamiltonian. This program leads to a very successful fit of transitions in the microwave spectrum of toluene characterized by J ? 30, K_a ? 12, and by the free-rotor quantum number ∣m∣ ? 3. In these fits we included both published and rather extensive unpublished new measurements, for which fits using other torsion-rotation programs have not been very successful. The fit presented here uses 28 parameters to give an overall standard deviation of 7.4 kHz for 372 line frequencies, and results in a much improved value for the sixfold barrier for toluene, V₆ = 13.832068(3) cal mol⁻¹.     

Hydrogen Bond Cooperativity and the Three‐Dimensional Structures of Water Nonamers and Decamers

Broadband rotational spectroscopy of water clusters produced in a pulsed molecular jet expansion has been used to determine the oxygen atom geometry in three isomers of the nonamer and two isomers of the decamer. The isomers for each cluster size have the same nominal geometry but differ in the arrangement of their hydrogen bond networks. The nearest neighbor O? O distances show a characteristic pattern for each hydrogen bond network isomer that is caused by three‐body effects that produce cooperative hydrogen bonding. The observed structures are the lowest energy cluster geometries identified by quantum chemistry and the experimental and theoretical O? O distances are in good agreement. The cooperativity effects revealed by the hydrogen bond O? O distance variations are shown to be consistent with a simple model for hydrogen bonding in water that takes into account the cooperative and anticooperative bonding effects of nearby water molecules.     

Electric dipole moments of acrylonitrile and of propionitrile measured in supersonic expansion

New determinations of the ground-state electric dipole moments of acrylonitrile and propionitrile have been made from Stark effect measurements at conditions of supersonic expansion. The measurements were made on selected Stark lobes of fully resolved hyperfine components of several lowest-J rotational transitions. The results are μ_a = 3.821(3) D, μ_b = 0.687(8) D, μ_tot = 3.882(3) D for acrylonitrile, and μ_a = 3.816(3) D, μ_b = 1.235(1) D, μ_tot = 4.011(3) D for propionitrile. The new value of μ_b for acrylonitrile is appreciably different from those reported previously and it has been substantiated by both ab initio calculations and relative intensity measurements. The new dipole moment implies a considerable revision in the calculated intensities of the strongest THz-region rotational transitions of acrylonitrile, to 59% of previous values.     

Long-Term Cultured Hairy Roots of Chicory—A Rich Source of Hydroxycinnamates and 8-Deoxylactucin Glucoside

Foam fractionation is a promising method for separation and concentration of biochemicals. It is simple, easily scalable, inexpensive, and environment friendly. Foam fractionation thus represents an alternative to the traditional methods used for immunoglobulin enrichment. However, little, if any, literature exists documenting the utilization of foam fractionation in the enrichment of immunoglobulins. Milk were utilized as an immunoglobulin source to serve as examples of a real system in this study. The investigation examined the effects of varying five different process parameters: the initial pH value, the initial concentration of immunoglobulin, the nitrogen flow rate, the column height, and the foaming time. Experimental results demonstrated that immunoglobulin could effectively be enriched from milk by foam fractionation. The maximum enrichment ratio with pretreatment (using pH 4.6 precipitation) was 6.30 along with a more than 92 % recovery for IgG and an enrichment ratio of 5.1 with 85 % recovery for IgM.     

Rotational spectrum of trans-trans diethyl ether in the ground and three excited vibrational states

We report the results of a comprehensive reinvestigation of the rotational spectrum of diethyl ether based on broadband millimetre-wave spectra recently recorded at The Ohio State University and in Warsaw, covering the frequency region 108-366 GHz. The data set for the ground vibrational state of trans-trans diethyl ether has been extended to over 2000 lines and improved spectroscopic constants have been determined. Rotational spectra in the first excited vibrational states of the three lowest vibrational modes of trans-trans-diethyl ether, ν₂₀, ν₃₉, and ν₁₂ have been assigned. The v₂₀ = 1 and v₃₉ = 1 states are near 100 cm⁻¹ in vibrational term value and are coupled by a strong c-axis Coriolis interaction, which gives rise to many spectacular manifestations in the rotational spectrum. All of these effects have been successfully fitted for a dataset comprising over 3000 transitions, leading to precise determination of the energy difference between these states, (ΔE/hc)=10.400222(5) cm⁻¹. A newly developed software package for assignment and analysis of broadband spectra is described and made available.     

High resolution scanning tunneling spectroscopy of ultrathin Pb on Si(1 1 1)-(6 × 6) substrate

The electronic structure of Si(1 1 1)-(6 × 6)Au surface covered with submonolayer amount of Pb is investigated using scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Already in small islands of Pb with thickness of 1 ML Pb_(1 1 1) and with the diameter of only about 2 nm we detected the quantized electronic state with energy 0.55 eV below the Fermi level. Similarly, the I(V) characteristics made for the Si(1 1 1)-(6 × 6)Au surface reveal a localized energy state 0.3 eV below the Fermi level. These energies result from fitting of the theoretical curves to the experimental data. The calculations are based on tight binding Hubbard model. The theoretical calculations clearly show prominent modification of the I(V) curve due to variation of electronic and topographic properties of the STM tip apex.