Combined Photoredox and Iron Catalysis for the Cyclotrimerization of Alkynes

Successful combinations of visible‐light photocatalysis with metal catalysis have recently enabled the development of hitherto unknown chemical reactions. Dual mechanisms from merging metal‐free photocatalysts and earth‐abundant metal catalysts are still in their infancy. We report a photo‐organo‐iron‐catalyzed cyclotrimerization of alkynes by photoredox activation of a ligand‐free Fe catalyst. The reaction operates under very mild conditions (visible light, 20 °C, 1 h) with 1–2 mol % loading of the three catalysts (dye, amine, FeCl₂).     

Acetamidine complexes as catalysts for ethylene polymerization

The reaction of (2,6-diisopropyl-phenyl)-acetimidoyl chloride or (2,6-dimethyl-phenyl)-acetimidoyl chloride with 2,6-dimethylaniline in the presence of triethylamine yields a mixture of isomers N′-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenylimino)-ethyl]-N-(2,6-dimethyl)-acetamidine (1a) and N-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenylimino)-ethyl]-N′-(2,6-dimethyl)-acetamidine (1b), and N,N′-bis-(2,6-dimethyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-dimethyl-phenylimino)ethyl)]-acetamidine (2), respectively. The addition of isomers (1a + 1b) to nickel (II) dibromide 2-methoxyethyl ether, (NiBr₂[O(C₂H₄OMe)₂]) gives a mixture of new nickel complexes, [NiBr₂{N′-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenylimino)-ethyl]-N-(2,6-dimethyl)-acetamidine}] (3a) and [NiBr₂{N-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-diisopropyl-phenylimino)-ethyl]-N′-(2,6-dimethyl)-acetamidine}] (3b). Similarly, ligand 2 reacts with nickel (II) dibromide 2-methoxyethyl ether to afford the complex [NiBr₂{N,N´-bis-(2,6-dimethyl-phenyl)-N-[1-(2,6-dimethyl-phenylimino)ethyl)]-acetamidine}] (4). The structures of the ligands and nickel complexes have been determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction.The addition of MAO to these complexes generates catalytically active species for the homopolymerization of ethylene. The polymer products are high molecular weight (80-169 K). At temperatures of up to 60 °C both catalysts are a single site giving a monomodal molecular weight distribution. However, at 70 °C the mixture (3a + 3b) shows a bimodal molecular weight distribution.     

A miniature chemiresistor sensor for carbon dioxide

A carpet-like nanostructure of polyaniline (PANI) nanothin film functionalized with poly(ethyleneimine), PEI, was used as a miniature chemiresistor sensor for detection of CO₂ at room temperature. Good sensing performance was observed upon exposing the PEI–PANI device to 50–5000 ppm CO₂ in presence of humidity with negligible interference from ammonia, carbon monoxide, methane and nitrogen dioxide. The sensing mechanism relied on acid–base reaction, CO₂ dissolution and amine-catalyzed hydration that yielded carbamates and carbonic acid for a subsequent pH detection. The sensing device showed reliable results in detecting an unknown concentration of CO₂ in air.     

Online Microreactor Titanium Dioxide RPLC-LTQ-Orbitrap MS Automated Platform for Shotgun Analysis of (Phospho) Proteins in Human Amniotic Fluid

Biomarkers in amniotic fluid (AF) include both non-modified and phosphorylated proteins and can be used in the diagnosis of pregnancy-associated pathologic conditions. In this work, an integrated LC–MS method for selective, sensitive and reproducible analysis of phosphorylation in proteins has been applied to AF. Online digestion of (phospho) proteins was coupled with the selective enrichment on a TiO₂ trap, and separated by RPLC–MSⁿ of both normal and phosphorylated produced peptides. First, an AF-pooled sample was analyzed and a general map of contained proteins and biomarkers was derived in a single run. Then, individual AF samples were analyzed with a downscaled platform with improved sensitivity. On purpose, a trypsin-based CIM^® minidisk was used for online digestion of AF. The obtained protein profile was highly consistent with the one obtained with traditional off-line digestions. Moreover, the use of a specific phospho-enrichment tool followed by LTQ-Orbitrap, enhanced the confidence in the determination of protein phosphorylation state and phosphorylation sites. The phosphorylation sites of IGFBP-1 and osteopontin present in the AF of two individual samples were monitored with a total of 24 and 17 phosphopeptides, respectively, encoding for 12 putative novel phosphorylation sites in addition to known sites.     

Dinuclear copper(I) complexes with hexaaza macrocyclic dinucleating ligands: structure and dynamic properties

The synthesis and structural and spectroscopic characterization of a family of copper(I) complexes, containing a dinucleating hexaaza macrocyclic ligand, of general formula [Cu(2)(L)(X)(2)](2+) (L = Me2p, Me2m, Me3p, or Me3m; X = MeCN, n-PrCN, CO, t-BuNC, or PPh(3)) is described. This family of complexes contains ligands that differ from one another in the number of methylenic units linking the tertiary amines and in the meta or para substitution of their aromatic rings. The structural characterization in the solid-state includes a single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis of [Cu(2)(Me2p)(CO)(2)](2+) and of [Cu(2)(Me2m)(t-BuNC)(2)](2+). In solution, those complexes are structurally characterized through NMR spectroscopy that also allows us to put forward and establish their fluxional behavior. Theoretical calculations at the DFT level have also been performed in order to further analyze the relative energy of the different potential isomers as well as to gain insight into their chemical properties. Finally, the influence of the hexaaza ligands over different structural aspects as well as on its potential chemical reactivity is discussed.     

Irregular Solutions of Linear Degenerate Elliptic Equations

We give examples of discontinuous solutions and of unbounded solutions of linear isotropic degenerate elliptic equations. Discontinuous solutions exist even when both the maximum eigenvalue and the inverse of the minimum eigenvalue of the matrix of the coefficients are in the intersection of all the Lp spaces.     

Units of ℤ(Cp × C2) and ℤ(Cp × C2 × C2)

The goal of this article is to describe a multiplicatively independent set, which generates the group of units of the integral group ring ?G, where G is either the cyclic group of order 2p or C₂ × C₂ × C_p, for a prime number p that satisfies some suitable conditions that will be specified later.     

Commutative <Emphasis Type="Italic">C</Emphasis>*-Algebras of Toeplitz Operators on Complex Projective Spaces

We prove the existence of commutative C*-algebras of Toeplitz operators on every weighted Bergman space over the complex projective space \mathbbPⁿ\mathbb(C){{\mathbb{P}^n}\mathbb{(C)}}. The symbols that define our algebras are those that depend only on the radial part of the homogeneous coordinates. The algebras presented have an associated pair of Lagrangian foliations with distinguished geometric properties and are closely related to the geometry of \mathbbPⁿ\mathbb(C){{\mathbb{P}^n}\mathbb{(C)}}.     

Intrinsic Lipschitz Graphs Within Carnot Groups

A Carnot group is a connected, simply connected, nilpotent Lie group with stratified Lie algebra. We study the notions of intrinsic graphs and of intrinsic Lipschitz graphs within Carnot groups. Intrinsic Lipschitz graphs are the natural local analogue inside Carnot groups of Lipschitz submanifolds in Euclidean spaces, where “natural” emphasizes that the notion depends only on the structure of the algebra. Intrinsic Lipschitz graphs unify different alternative approaches through Lipschitz parameterizations or level sets. We provide both geometric and analytic characterizations and a clarifying relation between these graphs and Rumin’s complex of differential forms.