Microwave‐assisted polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with dibromoarylene

The Pd‐catalyzed polycondensation of 4‐octylaniline with various dibromoarylenes was carried out under microwave heating. Microwave heating led to a decrease in the reaction time and an increase in the molecular weight of the polymers as compared to conventional heating. Microwave heating also allowed the catalyst loading to be reduced to 1 mol %, yielding polymerization results that were comparable to those under conventional heating and 5 mol % catalyst. Investigations regarding field‐effect transistors and organic photovoltaic cells using the obtained poly(arylamine) with azobenzene units revealed that increasing the molecular weight of the polymer led to improved device performance, including hole mobility and power conversion efficiency. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 536–542     

Simultaneous determination of serotonin and 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid in human urine by automated precolumn derivatization and semi-microbore column liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection.

An improved high-performance liquid-chromatographic (HPLC) assay for the simultaneous determination of serotonin (5-HT) and 5-hydroxyindole-3-acetic acid (5-HIAA) in human urine is reported. Following the automated precolumn derivatization of urinary 5-HT and 5-HIAA with benzylamine, the derivatives are separated by isocratic elution on a reversed-phase C18 semi-microbore column, and are fluorometrically detected at an excitation wavelength of 345 nm and an emission wavelength of 480 nm. The detection limits of 5-HT and 5-HIAA are 7 and 5 nmol/l in urine (0.7 and 0.5 fmol/20-microl injection). The proposed automatic method permits a highly selective and sensitive determination of 5-HT and 5-HIAA in human urine without any sample purification.     

InGaAs/InAlAs Five Layer Asymmetric Coupled Quantum Well (FACQW) for Ultra-Wideband Ultrafast Optical Modulators

An InGaAs/InAlAs five-layer asymmetric coupled quantum well (FACQW) is expected to show very large electrorefractive index change. n in a wideband transparency region. Band structures of the FACQW are analyzed with Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian. The electrorefractive characteristics of the FACQW are discussed.     

Photocarrier injection and the I-V characteristics of La0.8Sr0.2MnO3/SrTiO3:Nb heterojunctions

Oxide heterojunctions made of p-type La_0.8Sr_0.2MnO₃ (LSMO) and niobium-doped n-type SrTiO₃ (STO:Nb) have been fabricated by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique and characterized under UV light irradiation by measuring the current-voltage, photovoltaic properties and the junction capacitance. It is shown that the heterojunctions work as an efficient UV photodiode, in which photogenerated holes in the STO:Nb substrate are injected to the LSMO film. The maximum surface hole density Q/e and external quantum efficiency γ are estimated to be 8.3×10¹² cm⁻² and 11% at room temperature, respectively. They are improved significantly in a p-i-n junction of LSMO/STO/STO:Nb, where Q/e and γ are 3.0×10¹³ cm⁻² and 27%, respectively.     

Cluster model study of lightp-shell Λ-hypernuclei with OBE-based effective ΛN interaction

The structures of the lightp-shell hypernuclei \({}_\Lambda ^6 He,{}_\Lambda ^7 Li,{}_\Lambda ^9 Liand{}_\Lambda ^9 Be\) are studied by using a realistic effectiveΛN interaction (YNG), and compared to those with the use of the simple one-range Gaussian (ORG) interaction. The YNG interaction, which simulates theΛNG-matrix for the Nijmegen OBE modelD, is characterized by the inner repulsive core and the density-dependence along with the space-exchange and spin-spin components. The framework we adopt is the microscopic α +x + Λ (x=n, d, t or α) three-cluster model, where nucleon antisymmetrization is exactly treated. The characteristic behaviors ofΛ?x andΛ?(αx) interactions derived from the YNG are displayed and discussed. In spite of the remarkable characteristic of YNG, the calculated energy levels of the four hypernuclei are very similar to those previous obtained by using the simple ORG interaction. The stabilization and contraction of the hypernuclear system due to the glue-like role ofΛ-particle persists in the present calculation, though the repulsive core of theΛN interaction tends to prevent from too much contraction.     

Synthesis of substituted polymethylenes by radical polymerization of alkyl N,N-dialkylfumaramates and maleamates: Relative reactivity of the isomers

Bulk polymerization of alkyl N,N-dialkylfumaramates (FAE) and maleamates (MAE) was performed in the presence of a radical initiator. It has been found that FAE is more reactive than MAE when the reactivity of the two geometrical isomers was compared for their homo- and copolymerizations. From investigation on the effect of ester and N-substituents of these monomers, it has been found that the isopropyl ester shows a higher reactivity than the methyl ester and that N-ethyl and n-butyl substitution gives polymers with high molecular weight of more than several thousands. The resulting substituted polymethylenes from FAE and MAE were characterized and compared with each other. The isomerization of MAE to FAE with morpholine as an isomerization catalyst and monomer-isomerization radical polymerization were also investigated.     

Three-component coupling of acylphosphonates and two carbonyl compounds promoted by low-valent samariums: one-Pot synthesis of beta-hydroxyphosphonates

Three-component coupling of acylphosphonates and two carbonyl compounds leading to beta-hydroxyphosphonates has been achieved with low-valent samariums. Thus, acylphosphonates reacted with aldehydes in the presence of semicatalytic amounts of samarium metal or SmI(2) to give acyloxyphosphonates in good yields. The second coupling reaction of the acyloxyphosphonates with aldehydes or ketones promoted by SmI(2) afforded beta-hydroxyphosphonates instead of olefins. Moreover, these two reactions could be carried out in one pot.