Intercalation materials for lithium rechargeable batteries

An overview is given of intercalation materials for both the negative and the positive electrodes of lithium batteries, including the results of our own research. As well as lithium metal as a negative electrode, we consider insertion materials based on aluminium alloys. In the case of the positive electrode metal-oxides based on manganese, nickel and cobalt are discussed. Received: 27 May 1997 / Accepted: 30 July 1997     

Regiochemical Control and Suppression of Double Bond Isomerization in the Heck Arylation of 1-(Methoxycarbonyl)-2,5-dihydropyrrole

Arylation of 1-(methoxycarbonyl)-2,5-dihydropyrrole under standard Heck reaction conditions produces a mixture of compounds. The olefin undergoes two types of palladium-catalyzed reactions: (a) arylation to provide C-3 arylated derivatives and (b) competing double bond isomerization. Addition of silver carbonate and thallium acetate fully suppressed the isomerization, and good yields of C-3 substituted compounds were achieved after arylation with aryl halides. With regard to aryl triflates as arylating agents, addition of lithium chloride was necessary to promote the Heck reaction. This additive excluded the use of silver and thallium salts, but high regioselectivity and good yields could be obtained by employing tri-2-furylphosphine as ligand. Arylation was rendered both regioselective and enantioselective (58% ee) with 1-naphthyl triflate as substrate utilizing a (R)-BINAP/thallium acetate combination. The C-3 arylated enamides were converted further into the corresponding 3-arylpyrrolidines.     

Wismutmonojodid BiJ,eine Verbindung mit Bi(O) und Bi(II)

Bismuth Monoiodide, a Compound with Bi(O) and Bi(II) Bismuth monoiodide was synthesized in closed tubes from the elements as well as from Bi and HgI₂ as a black coloured crystalline compound. With increasing temperature BiI passes two transitions. α-BiI is stable below 370 K and changes to β-BiI by a martensitic transition. γ-BiI is the stable modification above 564 K and decomposes at 585 K peritectically to BiI₃ and a lower iodide. All three modification crystallize in the monoclinic space group C2/m. The structures (single crystal studies) of α-BiI and β-BiI are characterized by onedimensional infinite chains [Bi₄I₄] with covalent bonds but only weak interactions in between. The [Bi₄I₄]-chains are built up by two completely different Bi atoms. Bi(A) is only bonded to three Bi whereas Bi(B) has bonds to one Bi and four I. The average bond lengths are Bi? Bi = 304.5 pm and Bi? I = 313.7 pm respectively. The configuration of the Bi(A) atoms is typical for Bi^O and that one of the Bi(B) atoms is characteristic for Bi²⁺ with the electron configuration s²p¹. Therefore, α-BiI and β-BiI are mixed valence compounds [Bi^OBi²⁺I₄]. The structures are variants of the simple cubic polonium type of structure and differ in the stacking of connected units. The structures and their transitions, the possible configurations for monohalides BiX on principle as well as the energy balances of the disproportionation of Bi⁺ are discussed together in detail.     

Investigation of a cylindrical chemosorptive denuder for sampling and phase separation of toluene diisocyanate aerosols

A cylindrical chemosorptive denuder in series with a glass fibre filter has been evaluated for sampling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) aerosols. The sampler is designed for measuring personal exposure to diisocyanates. Several denuder coatings and derivatising reagents were investigated. Dimethylpolysiloxane (SE-30) and 5% phenyl dimethylpolysiloxane (SE-54) with either dibutylamine (DBA) or dipentylamine (DPeA) as derivatising reagents yielded the lowest vapour breakthrough (the amount (%) of the vapour that passes through the denuder), close to values predicted by theory. Immobilisation of the SE-30 denuder coating by in-situ cross-linking yielded comparable results. With an SE-30/DBA-coated denuder operating within an airflow range of 100–500 mL min^–1, the phase separation was shown to be consistent with theoretical predictions derived by use of the Gormley–Kennedy equation. This provides a means of calculating the vapour breakthrough and correcting experimentally obtained values with regard to vapour–particulate phase distribution, suggesting that the denuder can provide accurate phase-distribution measurements. The SE-30/DBA denuder can be used over a concentration range spanning nearly six orders of magnitude. Its capacity is sufficient to perform 15-min exposure measurements of a TDI aerosol with air concentrations as high as 1,700 g m^–3, 40 times higher than the Swedish occupational exposure limit (OEL). At the other end of the range, the estimated limit of detection (LOD) was less than 2 ng m^–3 for both the vapour and the aerosol phases when LC–ESI–MS–MS was used for chemical analysis.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material for this article is available at     

Cycloaddition reactions of 2,3-didehydrothiophene generated by flow vacuum thermolysis of thiophene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride

Flow vacuum thermolysis (FVT) of thiophene-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride ($\text{2}$) in the presence of 2,3-dimethylbutadiene ($\text{6}$) gives, in addition to 5,6-dimethylthianaphthene ($\text{9}$). small quantities of a dihydrodimethylthianaphthene ($\text{12}$) and another dimethylthianaphthene ($\text{13}$) which is probably also formed by dehydrogenation of $\text{12}$ with chloranil. The partial structures of these minor products are consistent with their being formed by a [2+2]-cycloaddition between $\text{6}$ and an intermediate aryne, 2,3-didehydrothiophene ($\text{1}$), followed by a rearrangement of the resulting adduct $\text{11}$ and dehydrogenation. FVT of $\text{2}$ in the presence of 2,5- ($\text{17b}$) or 3,4-dimethylthiophene ($\text{17c}$) also gave a mixture of the dimethylthianaphthenes ($\text{18}$$\text{22}$, $\text{23}$) which can be rationalized as arising by a [4+2]- and two [2+2]-cycloadditions of the aryne $\text{1}$ to the thiophenes $\text{17}$ with subsequent desulfurization. The lack of equilibration of the products $\text{18}$, $\text{22}$ and $\text{23}$, was demonstrated and their origin as a function of the structure and reactivity of the aryne $\text{1}$ discussed.     

Proteome Analysis of Aflibercept Intervention in Experimental Central Retinal Vein Occlusion

Aflibercept is a frequently used inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the treatment of macular edema following central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Retinal proteome changes following aflibercept intervention in CRVO remain largely unstudied. Studying proteomic changes of aflibercept intervention may generate a better understanding of mechanisms of action and uncover aspects related to the safety profile. In 10 Danish Landrace pigs, CRVO was induced in both eyes with an argon laser. Right eyes were treated with intravitreal aflibercept while left control eyes received isotonic saline water. Retinal samples were collected 15 days after induced CRVO. Proteomic analysis by tandem mass tag-based mass spectrometry identified a total of 21 proteins that were changed in content following aflibercept intervention. In retinas treated with aflibercept, high levels of aflibercept components were reached, including the VEGF receptor-1 and VEGF receptor-2 domains. Fold changes in the additional proteins ranged between 0.70 and 1.19. Aflibercept intervention resulted in a downregulation of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) (fold change = 0.84) and endoplasmin (fold change = 0.91). The changes were slight and could thereby not be confirmed with less precise immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Our data suggest that aflibercept had a narrow mechanism of action in the CRVO model. This may be an important observation in cases when macular edema secondary to CRVO is resistant to aflibercept intervention.     

Anomalous curie response of impurities in quantum-critical spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnets

We consider a magnetic impurity in two different S=1/2 Heisenberg bilayer antiferromagnets at their respective critical interlayer couplings separating Néel and disordered ground states. We calculate the impurity susceptibility using a quantum Monte Carlo method. With intralayer couplings in only one of the layers (Kondo lattice), we observe an anomalous Curie constant C*, as predicted on the basis of field-theoretical work [S. Sachdev, Science 286, 2479 (1999)10.1126/science.286.5449.2479]. The value C* = 0.262 +/- 0.002 is larger than the normal Curie constant C=S(S+1)/3. Our low-temperature results for a symmetric bilayer are consistent with a universal C*.     

Transition from a two-dimensional superfluid to a one-dimensional Mott insulator

A two-dimensional system of atoms in an anisotropic optical lattice is studied theoretically. If the system is finite in one direction, it is shown to exhibit a transition between a two-dimensional superfluid and a one-dimensional Mott insulating chain of superfluid tubes. Monte Carlo simulations are consistent with the expectation that the phase transition is of Kosterlitz-Thouless type. The effect of the transition on experimental time-of-flight images is discussed.     

Optimal estimation of the diffusion coefficient from non-averaged and averaged noisy magnitude data

The magnitude operation changes the signal distribution in MRI images from Gaussian to Rician. This introduces a bias that must be taken into account when estimating the apparent diffusion coefficient. Several estimators are known in the literature. In the present paper, two novel schemes are proposed. Both are based on simple least squares fitting of the measured signal, either to the median (MD) or to the maximum probability (MP) value of the Probability Density Function (PDF). Fitting to the mean (MN) or a high signal-to-noise ratio approximation to the mean (HS) is also possible. Special attention is paid to the case of averaged magnitude images. The PDF, which cannot be expressed in closed form, is analyzed numerically. A scheme for performing maximum likelihood (ML) estimation from averaged magnitude images is proposed. The performance of several estimators is evaluated by Monte Carlo (MC) simulations. We focus on typical clinical situations, where the number of acquisitions is limited. For non-averaged data the optimal choice is found to be MP or HS, whereas uncorrected schemes and the power image (PI) method should be avoided. For averaged data MD and ML perform equally well, whereas uncorrected schemes and HS are inadequate. MD provides easier implementation and higher computational efficiency than ML. Unbiased estimation of the diffusion coefficient allows high resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and may therefore help solving the problem of crossing fibers encountered in white matter tractography.