Facilitated sulfate transfer across the nitrobenzene-water interface as mediated by hydrogen-bonding ionophores.

Facilitated SO4(2-) transfers by hydrogen bond-forming ionophores are investigated across the nitrobenzene (NB)-water interface by using polarography with a dropping electrolyte electrode. Bis-thiourea 1, alpha,alpha'-bis(N'-p-nitrophenylthioureylene)-m-xylene, is found to significantly facilitate the transfer of the highly hydrophilic SO4(2-) whereas its counterpart, N-(p-nitrophenyl)-N'-propylthiourea (ionophore 2), cannot. In contrast to the predominant formation of a 1:1 complex with SO4(2-) in the bulk NB phase, the SO4(2-) transfer assisted by 1 is indeed based on the formation of a 1:2 complex between SO4(2-) and ionophore, even under the condition of [SO4(2-)]aq > [1]org. Such an exclusive formation of the 1:2 (SO4(2-) to ionophore) complex at the NB-water interface is not observed with structurally similar bis-thiourea 3, alpha,alpha'-bis(N'-phenylthioureylene)-m-xylene, where p-nitrophenyl moietes of bis-thiourea 1 are simply replaced by phenyl groups. The facilitated transfer of SO4(2-) with bis-thiourea 1 is further compared to that of HPO4(2-) and H2PO4- across the NB-water interface, which was previously shown to be assisted by 1 through the formation of the 1:1 and 2:1 (anion to ionophore) complexes, respectively. On the basis of these examinations, unique binding behaviors of hydrogen bond-forming ionophores at the NB-water interface are discussed, with a view towards development of ionophore-based anion-selective chemical sensors.     

Polymerization of acrylamide initiated with pinacol–ceric ion redox system

Polymerization of acrylamide initiated with a pinacol–ceric ion redox system was investigated. The polymer obtained was found to contain one cerium atom in a polymer molecule. It was considered that the cerium atom was introduced into the polymer molecule by the termination reaction as there is no cerium atom in the initiating radical in the present system. A similar termination reaction was attained by ferric ion but not by cerous ion. The metal ion was considered to terminate the polymerization to form a stable polymer. Some considerations on the structure of the reaction product relating to the polymerization mechanism were discussed.     

Second-order nonlinear optical properties from poled silicate channel-waveguide

Thin film waveguides of germanosilicate glass are fabricated byrf-sputtering. Second-order nonlinearity ofd ₃₃=3.2 pm/V is obtained from electrically poled film, and the lifetime of the nonlinearity is found to be310 years. The poled channel-waveguide is prepared and the Cerenkov-type phase-matched frequency doubling is successfully observed.     

A concise route to (-)-kainic acid

A concise route to (-)-kainic acid from enantiopure (+)-cis-4-carbobenzoxyamino-2-cyclopentenol has been devised by employing concurrent Chugaev syn-elimination and intramolecular ene reaction as the key step.     

Tensammetric determination of microgram amounts of vanadium by catalytic oxidation of o-aminophenol

A tensammetric method is proposed for the determination of microgram amounts of vanadium, based on catalysis of the oxidation of o-aminophenol with sodium chlorate in acidic solution (pH 2.0). The oxidation product gives a very sensitive tensammetric wave; under optimum conditions, the wave-height is proportional to the concentration of va vanadium. From 0.2 to 3.0 mug of vanadium can be determined in a final volume of 50 ml. Mo(VI), W(VI), Mn(VII), Ce(IV) and large amounts of Al(III) and Fe(III) cause positive errors, and Hg(II) and thiosulphate negative errors. Interference from Fe(III), Al(III) and Cu(II) can be eliminated by solvent with oxine at about pH 8.0.     

A study of two dimensional smectic layer structure

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis of two dimensional smectic layer structure is presented to clarify the layer distortion between two chevrons directed towards opposite directions. From numerical computations, it is found that a parallelogram region appears between two antiparallel chevrons for a sufficiently large molecular tilt and thick sample. The elastic free energy density is found to concentrate near the boundaries of the kinks of the layer structure. In addition the field effect on such a pair of chevrons is presented to show that it is efficient to apply an electric field so as to obtain a quasi-bookshelf structure.     

Fabrication and evaluation of photonic metamaterial crystal

Many researching efforts have been reported to seek various fundamental LC resonance structures, recently. But still the Split Ring Resonator (SRR) is the most famous and major fundamental LC-resonance structure used in the metamaterial. We employed SRR structure as the fundamental LC-resonance mechanism to fabricate photonic crystal with periodic arrangement of two different metamaterial areas composed from SRR arrays on the dielectric substrate. We developed Photonic Metamaterial Crystal (PMC) to realize the more advanced and versatile functions of the metamaterial by 1 dimensional or 2 dimensional periodic arranging of two metamaterial sections which have different dispersion properties due to the different size of SRR structures each other. In this paper, we report the fabrication process, estimation of PMC properties and some possible future application prospects, for instance the PMC waveguide structures and nonlinear properties of PMC observed as selective LC-resonant properties in Raman mapping analysis of PMC. These are quite interesting characters of PMC and the attractive applications as the PMC devices.     

Sonochemically synthesized core-shell structured Au–Pd nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe2O3 particles

A sample of Au–Pd bimetallic nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe₂O₃ was synthesized in a sonochemically one-pot process. The structural analyses of the synthesized sample were performed by the techniques of X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and UV–vis spectrometry. Results indicated that the synthesized sample formed a core-shell structure in which a gold core was surrounded by a thin palladium shell. The reaction rate constant for the hydrogenation of cyclohexene of the present sample showed higher value than that of Pd nanoparticles supported on γ-Fe₂O₃ and core-shell structured Au–Pd nanoparticles supported on SiO₂. The present sample is a promising catalyst material which has a high catalytic activity.