Modification of Polylactide Nonwovens with Carbon Nanotubes and Ladder Poly(silsesquioxane)

Electrospun nonwovens of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) modified with multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) and linear ladder-like poly(silsesquioxane) with methoxycarbonyl side groups (LPSQ-COOMe) were obtained. MWCNT and LPSQ-COOMe were added to the polymer solution before the electrospinning. In addition, nonwovens of PLLA grafted to modified MWCNT were electrospun. All modified nonwovens exhibited higher tensile strength than the neat PLA nonwoven. The addition of 10 wt.% of LPSQ-COOMe and 0.1 wt.% of MWCNT to PLLA increased the tensile strength of the nonwovens 2.4 times, improving also the elongation at the maximum stress.     

Current air quality analytics and monitoring: A review

This review summarizes the different tools and concepts that are commonly applied in air quality monitoring. The monitoring of atmosphere is extremely important as the air quality is an important problem for large communities. Main requirements for analytical devices used for monitoring include a long period of autonomic operation and portability. These instruments, however, are often characterized by poor analytical performance. Monitoring networks are the most common tools used for monitoring, so large-scale monitoring programmes are summarized here. Biomonitoring, as a cheap and convenient alternative to traditional sample collection, is becoming more and more popular, although its main drawback is the lack of standard procedures. Telemonitoring is another approach to air monitoring, which offers some interesting opportunities, such as ease of coverage of large or remote areas, constituting a complementary approach to traditional strategies; however, it requires huge costs.     

A Mechanistic Study on the Oxidative Degradation of Dibenzazepine Derivatives by Manganese(III) Complexes in Acidic Sulfate Media

The oxidative degradation of tricyclic antidepressants (TCA) was studied in the presence of a large excess of the oxidizing agent manganese(III) and its reduced form manganese(II) sulfate in acidic media. The products were detected and identified using UV–vis, ESI‐MS, IR, and EPR methods. The mechanism of the reaction was studied for the following two classes of TCA: 10,11‐dihydro‐5H‐dibenz[b, f]azepines and dibenz[b, f]azepines. The oxidative degradation between dibenz[b, f]azepines and the manganese(III) ions resulted in the formation of substituted acridine with the same substituent as in the origin dibenz[b, f]azepine derivative. The pseudo–first‐order rate constants (k_obs) were determined for the degradation process. The dependences of the observed rate constants on the [Mn^III] with a zero intercept were linear. The reaction between 10,11‐dihydro‐5H‐dibenz[b, f]azepines, and the manganese(III) sulfate ion resulted in oxidative dehydrogenation, which proceeded via the formation of the following two intermediates: a free organic radical and a dimer. Further oxidation of the second intermediate led to a positively charged radical dimer as the single final product. Linear dependences of the pseudo–first‐order rate constants (k_obs) on the [Mn^III] with a zero intercept were established for the degradation of 10,11‐dihydro‐5H‐dibenz[b, f]azepines. The observed rate constants were dependent on the [H⁺] and independent of the [TCA] within the excess concentration range of the manganese(III) complexes used in the isolation method. The radical product of the degradation of 10,11‐dihydro‐5H‐dibenz[b, f]azepines was not stable in the aqueous solution and was subsequently transformed to a nonradical dimer in the next slower step. The observed rate constants were independent of the [Mn^III], independent of the [H⁺] and increased slightly with increasing TCA concentrations when TCA was used in excess. The mechanistic consequences of all of these results are discussed.     

Mono-Aryl/Alkylthio-Substituted (Hetero)acenes of Exceptional Thermal and Photochemical Stability by the Thio-Friedel–Crafts/Bradsher Cyclization Reaction

The highly substituted mono-aryl/alkylthio-(hetero)acenes prepared in this study have been found to be thermally more stable (T_decomp.=331–354 °C) than the known di-aryl/alkylthio-substituted acenes by an average of 25 °C. They are also much more photostable at 254 and 365 nm (in both argon and air) than the parent anthracene and other reported anthracenes. The most photostable aryl/alkylthio-anthracenes at 254 nm were found to be 60–70 (in air) and 130 (in argon) times more stable in solution than the unsubstituted anthracene, and much more stable than known EDG/EWG-substituted anthracenes (EDG=electron-donating group, EWG=electron-withdrawing group) with an extended aromatic core. Furthermore, the acenes showed significantly higher photostability at 365 nm in both air and argon. The anthracenes were obtained by the novel thio-Friedel–Crafts/Bradsher cyclization reaction of hitherto unknown [o-(1,3-dithian-2-yl)aryl](aryl)methyl thioethers. The developed approach provides a general access to mono-aryl/alkylthio-substituted (hetero)acene frameworks containing at least three fused (hetero)aromatic rings. The characteristic feature of this approach, which leads to highly substituted acenes, is that the substituents, unlike in other methods, may be introduced at an early stage of the synthesis. DFT and TD-DFT calculations confirmed the stabilizing role of the aryl/alkylthio substituent in the mono-aryl/alkylthio-substituted anthracenes, which are the most stable anthracenes prepared to date. Their high photostability is mainly due to the quenching of singlet oxygen by the acene and the quenching of the acene S₁ state by molecular oxygen.     

On the application of slip boundary condition on curved boundaries

Hydrodynamic simulations of sloshing phenomena often involve the application of slip boundary condition at the wetted surfaces. If these surfaces are curved, the ambiguous nature of the normal vector in the discretized problem can interfere with the application of such a boundary condition. Even the use of consistent normal vectors, preferred from the point of view of conservation, does not assure good approximation of the continuum slip condition in the discrete problem, and non‐physical recirculating flow fields may be observed. As a remedy, we consider the Navier slip condition, and more successfully, the so‐called BC‐free boundary condition. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Combined intra-intermolecular criss-cross cycloaddition of a new fluorinated unsymmetrical allenylazine with alkynes

The reaction of a new fluorinated unsymmetrical allenylazine with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate and phenylacetylene affords the combined intra-intermolecular criss-cross cycloaddition products, 2,3-disubstituted-1,10-diazatricyclo[5.2.1.0^4,10]deca-2,6-diene derivatives. The products contain three fused five-membered rings with two nitrogen atoms within an unsaturated heterocyclic system. The structures were assigned using 2D NMR correlations and in the case of the phenylacetylene adduct by X-ray structure analysis.     

Dynamical dark energy models – dynamical system approach

We study the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker model with dynamical dark energy modelled in terms of the equation of state p _X = w _X (a(z)) ρ _X in which the coefficient w _X is parameterized by the scale factor a or redshift z. We use methods of qualitative analysis of differential equations to investigate the space of all admissible solutions for all initial conditions on the two-dimensional phase plane. We show advantages of representing this dynamics as a motion of a particle in the one-dimensional potential V(a). One of the features of this reduction is the possibility of investigating how typical big rip singularities are in the future evolution of the model. The properties of potential function V can serve as a tool for qualitative classification of all evolution paths. Some important features like resolution of the acceleration problem can be simply visualized as domains on the phase plane. Then one is able to see how large is the class of solutions (labelled by the inset of the initial conditions) leading to the desired property.