Live encapsulation of a Keggin polyanion in NH2-MIL-101(Al) observed by in situ time resolved X-ray scattering

The templating effect of the Keggin polyanion derived from phosphotungstic acid (PTA) during the synthesis of NH(2)-MIL-101(Al) has been investigated by means of in situ SAXS/WAXS. Kinetic analysis and structural observations demonstrate that PTA acts as a nucleation site and that it stabilizes the precursor phase NH(2)-MOF-235(Al). Surprisingly kinetics of formation are little changed.     

Encapsulation of transition metal atoms into carbon nanotubes: a supramolecular approach

A functionalised fullerene incorporating a double-chelating group binds transition metal cations and acts as an effective vehicle for delivering metals into carbon nanotubes.     

A Covalent Organic Framework with 4 nm open pores

The synthesis and characterization of a new mesoporous Covalent Organic Framework BTP-COF is described, the latter having fully accessible pores with an open diameter of 4.0 nm.     

Palladium(ii)-catalysed tandem cyclisation of electron-deficient aromatic enynes

A novel palladium(ii) catalysed tandem cyclisation of substituted 2-alkenylphenyl alkynones gives substituted 2-vinyl indenones and 6,5,6-fused tricyclic lactone skeletons (pyrones), in one-pot. Wagner-Meerwein-like rearrangements were observed which occur preferentially to conventional chloride-mediated chloropalladations of enynes.     

New Regional Editor

Thermal decomposition of an agrowaste, namely banana trunk fibers (BTF) were investigated by thermogravimetry (TG) and derivative thermogravimetry (DTG) up to 900 °C at different heating rates (from 5 to 100 °C/min). The BTF was subjected to modification by means of various known chemical methods (mercerization, acetylation, peroxide treatment, esterification, and sulfuric acid treatment). Various degradation models, such as the Kissinger, Friedman, and Flynn–Wall–Ozawa were used to determine the apparent activation energy. The obtained apparent activation energy values (149–210 kJ/mol) allow in developing a simplified approach to understand the thermal decomposition behavior of natural fibers as a function of polymer composite processing.     

Recent Applications of Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrophotometry in Herbal Medicine Analysis

Abstract

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is a fast and nondestructive analytical method. Associated with chemometrics, it is a powerful tool for the pharmaceutical industry. It is becoming a suitable technique for analysis of herbal medicine. This review focuses on the recent developments and updates for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of herbal medicine using FTIR. Moreover, it can be implemented during herbal drug development, in production for process monitoring, or in quality control laboratories.     

Mixed A p -A r Inequalities for Classical Singular Integrals and Littlewood–Paley Operators

We prove mixed A _p -A _r inequalities for several basic singular integrals, Littlewood–Paley operators, and the vector-valued maximal function. Our key point is that r can be taken arbitrarily big. Hence, such inequalities are close in spirit to those obtained recently in the works by T. Hytönen and C. Pérez, and M. Lacey. On one hand, the “A _p -A _∞” constant in these works involves two independent suprema. On the other hand, the “A _p -A _r ” constant in our estimates involves a joint supremum, but of a bigger expression. We show in simple examples that both such constants are incomparable. This leads to a natural conjecture that the estimates of both types can be further improved.     

On the Hausdorff volume in sub-Riemannian geometry

For a regular sub-Riemannian manifold we study the Radon-Nikodym derivative of the spherical Hausdorff measure with respect to a smooth volume. We prove that this is the volume of the unit ball in the nilpotent approximation and it is always a continuous function. We then prove that up to dimension 4 it is smooth, while starting from dimension 5, in corank 1 case, it is ${\mathcal {C}^{3}}$ (and ${\mathcal {C}^{4}}$ on every smooth curve) but in general not ${\mathcal {C}^{5}}$ . These results answer to a question addressed by Montgomery about the relation between two intrinsic volumes that can be defined in a sub-Riemannian manifold, namely the Popp and the Hausdorff volume. If the nilpotent approximation depends on the point (that may happen starting from dimension 5), then they are not proportional, in general.