Metal bis(perfluorooctanesulfonyl)amides as highly efficient Lewis acid catalysts for fluorous biphase organic reactions

In fluorous biphase system, metal bis(perfluorooctanesulfonyl)amides are better Lewis acid catalysts than the analogous triflates toward either transesterifications, or direct esterifications, or Friedel-Crafts acylations or Baeyer-Villiger oxidations. These catalysts are selectively soluble in lower fluorous phase and can be recovered simply by phase separation. Furthermore, these catalysts can be reused without decrease of activity in most cases.     

A highly regioselective hydrophosphination of terminal alkynes with tetraphenyldiphosphine in the presence of palladium catalyst

A novel palladium-catalyzed hydrophosphination of alkynes with tetraphenyldiphosphine takes place regioselectively to provide vinylic phosphines, which undergo air-oxidation during workups, affording the corresponding vinylphosphine oxides in good yields.     

Determination of silicon in high-silicon electrical steel by ICP-AES with on-line sample electrolytic dissolution.

A flow-injection procedure combining electrolytic sample decomposition and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) is proposed in order to rapidly determine the content of silicon in high-silicon electrical steel. This system is characterized by sample decomposition through electrolysis directly coupled to ICP-AES. A steel sample is dissolved by electrolysis using a 6 mol L(-1) HCl solution as an electrolyte with a flow rate of 5 mL min(-1); the electrolyte containing a dissolved sample is subsequently introduced into ICP-AES via a nebulizer. The effects of the electrolysis current and the temperature on the decomposition of the sample were studied. Samples were electrolyzed under the condition of a 1.5 A constant current, at room temperature (25 degrees C) to avoid the hydrolysis of silicon to precipitate. Comparing the analytical results of steel samples obtained by this analytical system with those obtained by the gravimetric method, determined values agreed well quantitatively. The RSD of silicon at approximately 3% was 0.3% (n = 6).     

Dynamics of N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions

We study the structure of the moduli spaces of vacua and superpotentials of N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. By analyzing the instanton corrections, we compute the exact superpotentials and determine the quantum Coulomb and Higgs branches of the theories in the weak coupling regions. We find candidates for non-trivial N = 2 superconformal field theories at the singularities of the moduli spaces. The analysis is carried out explicitly for gauge groups U(N_c) and SU(N_c) with N _f flavors. We show that the field theory results are in complete agreement with the intersecting branes picture. We also compute the exact superpotentials for arbitrary gauge groups and arbitrary matter content.     

A quasi‐symmetric 2‐(49,9,6) design

Huffman and Tonchev discovered four non‐isomorphic quasi‐symmetric 2‐(49,9,6) designs. They arise from extremal self‐dual [50,25,10] codes with a certain weight enumerator. In this note, a new quasi‐symmetric 2‐(49,9,6) design is constructed. This is established by finding a new extremal self‐dual [50,25,10] code as a neighbor of one of the four extremal codes discovered by Huffman and Tonchev. A number of new extremal self‐dual [50,25,10] codes with other weight enumerators are also found. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Combin Designs 10: 173–179, 2002; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/jcd.10007     

Optical and structural properties of rare earth doped GaN quantum dots

We have studied the structural and optical properties of GaN quantum dots (QDs) doped with Tm and Eu. It has been found that the morphology of the dots was affected by the presence of the rare earth atoms. Differences in incorporation have also been pointed out, Eu being located inside the QDs while Tm is more likely to be found at the interface between GaN QDs and AlN matrix. Intense and sharp Eu- and Tm-related transition lines are observed in the photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence spectra of doped QDs, with no thermal quenching between 20 and 300 K. They exhibit a saturation effect with increasing excitation power, independently of the temperature. It is tentatively proposed that some transition lines in GaN:Tm QDs could be induced by the presence of the internal electric field.     

Synthesis and property of helical poly(phenylacetylene)s bearing chiral ruthenium complexes and real space imaging of meso- and nanoscopic structures by atomic force microscopy

Novel sets of helical poly(phenylacetylene)s bearing a chiral ruthenium (Ru) complex with opposite chirality (Δ and Λ forms) as a bulky pendant (poly- 1 and poly- 2 ) were synthesized through the polymerization of the corresponding optically pure phenylacetylenes with a rhodium catalyst, and their structures in solution and morphology on solid substrates were investigated with NMR, ultraviolet–visible, and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopies and with atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. The obtained cis–transoidal polymers (poly- 1 and poly- 2 ) showed characteristic Cotton effects in the region of metal-to-ligand charge transfer of the chiral Ru pendants. Poly- 1 and poly- 2 were thought to have a predominantly one-handed helical conformation induced by the chiral pendants. However, the apparent Cotton effects derived from the helically twisted π-conjugated polymer backbone could not be observed, probably because of the strong chiral chromophoric pendants. However, in the AFM images, the helical polymers adsorbed on mica could be easily discerned as isolated strands, and the visualization and discrimination of the right- and left-handed helical structures of the chiral polymers were achieved by high-resolution AFM imaging. On the basis of the AFM observations together with the CD measurements and computational calculation results, possible structures of poly- 1 and poly- 2 were examined. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 4621–4640, 2004     

Nature of mechanoradical formation and reactivity with oxygen in methacrylic vinyl polymers

The formation of mechanoradicals under anaerobic conditions and their reactivity with oxygen at room temperature is described for several methacrylic vinyl polymers. Observed electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra of the mechanoradicals formed were all essentially identical and are clearly assigned to a respective endchain radical. The ESR kinetics of the mechanoradical formation of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and polymethacrylamide (PMAAm) exhibit an interesting contrast; the progressive changes in the radical concentration in PMMA as a function of duration of milling gradually decrease after reaching a maximum value, while those of PMAAm show a parabolic increase. This discrepancy has been ascribed to mechanoradicals of PMAAm that are strongly stabilized by intermolecular and intramolecular doubly hydrogen-bonded networks among the amide groups. Such interactions also are to lower the reactivity of the mechanoradicals with oxygen. Thus, the mechanoradicals of both PMAAm and PMAA do not give a single peroxy radical, but rather a mixture of the mechanoradical and peroxy radical even after exposure to air, while the mechanoradicals of other polymers are rapidly converted to the corresponding peroxy radicals. Such a difference was observed in experiments on the mechanical fracture of such polymers under aerobic conditions.     

Bi-Soliton Propagation in Dispersion-Managed Line under the Influence of Third-Order Dispersion

We show that bi-soliton which is a periodically stationary pulse consisting of two peaks can propagate in a dispersion-managed line under the influence of third-order dispersion. Numerical averaging method is used to extract bi-soliton from a couple of Gaussian pulses and its stability is studied by a free propagation for a long distance.