Tetrakis(4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzene)porphyrinato]manganese(III) acetate as a novel carrier for a selective iodide PVC membrane electrode.

[5,10,15,20-Tetrakis(4-N,N-dimethylaminobenzene)porphyrinato]Mn(III) acetate (MnTDPAc) was applied as an ionophore for an iodide-selective PVC membrane electrode. The influences of the membrane composition, pH of the test solution and foreign ions on the electrode performance were investigated. The sensor exhibited not only excellent selectivity to iodide ion compared to Cl- and lipophilic anions such as ClO4- and salicylate, but also a Nernstian response with a slope of -59.4 +/- 1.2 mV per decade for iodide ions over a wide concentration range from 1.0 x 10(-2) to 7.5 x 10(-6) M at 25 degrees C. The potentiometric response was independent of the pH of the solution in the pH range of 2 - 8. The electrode could be used for at least 2 months without any considerable divergence in the potential. Good selectivity for iodide ion, a very short response time, simple preparation and relatively long-term stability were the silent characteristics of this electrode. It was successfully used as an indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration of iodide ions, and also in the determination of iodide from seawater samples and drug formulations.     

Kinetic study of the oxidation of ethanol by 3,4-lutidine chromium(VI) peroxide in dichloromethane solution

The oxidation kinetics of ethanol with 3,4-lutindine chromium(VI) peroxide (LCP) were investigated by monitoring the absorbance change at 565 nm in dichloromethane solution. The reaction had a first-order dependence on oxidant and a fractional (one half) dependence on reactant. The stoichiometric ratio between LCP and ethanol was 1 : 2. The activation parameters were determined from temperature dependence of the reaction rate. It was found that the cleavage of the peroxide groups of LCP is primarily responsible for the oxidant of ethanol to acetaldehyde. Based on the kinetic results obtained (including deuterium isotope effect) a plausible mechanism is proposed. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

An Efficient Four‐component Synthesis of Spiro[indoline‐pyrazolo[4′,3′:5,6]pyrido[2,3‐d]pyrimidine]triones

A four‐component reaction in the presence of Alum [KAl(SO₄)₂·12H₂O] as an inexpensive and reusable catalyst using the ionic liquid as an effective green reaction media is reported.     

Effect of three vitrification methods on development of two-cell mouse embryos

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of three vitrification procedures [conventional straw (CS), open pulled straw (OPS) and closed pulled straw (CPS)] on the development of two-cell mouse embryos. Two-cell mouse embryos were randomly divided into vitrified and non-vitrified control groups. Embryos in the vitrified group were cryopreserved within a combination of 5.5 M ethylene glycol and 1M sucrose as cryoprotectants, loaded within three different straws (CS, OPS and CPS) and warmed in stepwise sucrose solutions. The survived embryos from each procedure were cultured in human tubal fluid (HTF). The non-vitrified control embryos were also cultured in the same manner. The rates of the development in all the groups were daily determined and statistically compared. On day 4 of the cultivation period, several expanded blastocysts from each group were randomly selected and stained either with propidium iodide (PI) and bisbenzimide or with terminal transferase- mediate DNA end labeling (TUNEL) Technique. The mean number of the inner cell mass (ICM), trophoectoderm (TE), necrotic and apoptotic cells were counted and statistically compared. The survival rate of embryos in CPS was significantly higher than that in OPS and CS. The rate of hatched blastocysts did not differ in the three vitrification procedures, but in comparison with that of the control, CS and OPS showed a significant reduction. The mean number of ICM and TE decreased in CS and OPS, whereas in CPS it was almost identical to that of the control. The incidence of apoptosis and necrosis appeared to be almost similar in all the groups. In conclusion, CPS seems to be an effective, easy and rapid method for the cryopreservation of two-cell mouse embryos.     

Thermodynamic properties of the mixtures of some ionic liquids with alcohols using a simple equation of state

In the present work, we have used a simple equation of state called the GMA EoS to calculate the density of three ionic liquid mixtures including 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolum hexafluorophosphate, [BMIM] [PF₆] + methanol, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolum tetrafluoroborate, [BMIM] [BF₄] + methanol, and [BMIM] [BF₄] + ethanol at different temperatures, pressures, and compositions. The isothermal compressibility, excess molar volumes, and excess Gibbs molar energy of these mixtures have been computed using this equation of state. The values of statistical parameters show that the GMA EoS can predict these thermodynamic properties very well within the experimental errors. The results show that isothermal compressibility of ionic liquids is lower than alcohols and the effect of temperature and pressure on the isothermal compressibility of ionic liquids is lower than alcohols. The excess molar volumes and excess molar Gibbs energy for these ionic liquid mixtures with alcohols are all negative at various temperatures and pressures over the whole composition range. The results have been interpreted in terms of intermolecular interactions and structural factors of the ionic liquids and alcohols.     

Improved photonic crystal directional coupler with short length

We investigate a photonic crystal (PC) waveguide coupler which is formed by two closely spaced linear waveguides in a two-dimensional triangular lattice of air holes. Our study shows that shifting one row of the air holes between the waveguides affects the dispersion curves of the guided modes and if the triangular lattice of air holes between the waveguides is replaced by a rectangular lattice, this modification results in an ultra-short coupling structure with coupling length less than 3a, where a is the lattice constant. Also, we investigate the effect of changing the radii of air holes that are adjacent to or between the waveguides on the coupling length and show that increasing the radius of air holes between the waveguides decreases the coupling length. We analyze the output spectrum of an ultra-short channel drop filter designed based on this structure.     

On the performance of density functional schemes for computing the static dipole polarizability of 4d transition-metal monohalides

This article presents the static dipole polarizabilities of 4d transition-metal monohalides in the framework of density functional theory. The behavior of a large number of density functionals, including various types of the local spin density approximation (LSDA), the generalized gradient approximation (GGA), meta GGA (MGGA), hybrid GGA (HGGA), and hybrid meta GGA (HMGGA), has been assessed in polarizability calculations. The highly accurate CCSD(T) methodology is used to benchmark a variety of functionals. Our results indicate that there is a large variation in performance of the various functionals of each type in the calculation of the dipole polarizability. It turned out that, in the LSDA class, SVWN5 gives better results than SVWN3 for the reference values. Of the GGA methods, BP86 and BPW91 give the best results for our data set, followed by G96LYP. The TPSS functional is the best method of the MGGA class, followed by the VSXC and BB95 functionals. Moreover, the B98 and mPW1PW91 functionals are the best methods of the HGGA lineage, predicting the most accurate static dipole polarizabilities. Finally, TPSS1KCIS and PBE1KCIS are the best methods of the HMGGA functionals for that purpose. In general, it was found that the HGGA and HMGGA functionals provide the best performance.