Thiazolidine-2,4-dione in benzoylation reaction

Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds - The direction of the benzoylation reaction of thiazolidine-2,4-dione under the conditions of basic and general acid catalysis was studied. It was shown that...     

[UF6]2−: A Molecular Hexafluorido Actinide(IV) Complex with Compensating Spin and Orbital Magnetic Moments

The first structurally characterized hexafluorido complex of a tetravalent actinide ion, the [UF₆]^2? anion, is reported in the (NEt₄)₂[UF₆]?2 H₂O salt ( 1 ). The weak magnetic response of 1 results from both U^IV spin and orbital contributions, as established by combining X‐ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) spectroscopy and bulk magnetization measurements. The spin and orbital moments are virtually identical in magnitude, but opposite in sign, resulting in an almost perfect cancellation, which is corroborated by ab initio calculations. This work constitutes the first experimental demonstration of a seemingly non‐magnetic molecular actinide complex carrying sizable spin and orbital magnetic moments.     

Cavity‐Photon‐Induced High‐Order Transitions between Ground States of Quantum Dots

It is shown that quantum electromagnetic transitions to high orders are essential to describe the time‐dependent path of a nanoscale electron system in a Coulomb blockade regime when coupled to external leads and placed in a 3D rectangular photon cavity. The electronic system consists of two quantum dots embedded asymmetrically in a short quantum wire. The two lowest in energy spin degenerate electron states are mostly localized in each dot with only a tiny probability in the other dot. In the presence of the leads, a slow high‐order transition between the ground states of the two quantum dots is identified. The Fourier power spectrum for photon–photon correlations in the steady state shows a Fano type of resonance for the frequency of the slow transition. Full account is taken of the geometry of the multilevel electronic system, and the electron–electron Coulomb interactions together with the para‐ and diamagnetic electron–photon interactions are treated with step‐wise exact numerical diagonalization and truncation of appropriate many‐body Fock spaces. The matrix elements for all interactions are computed analytically or numerically exactly.     

Rheological and sensory properties of toothpastes

Complex rheological trends of several commercially available and lab-made prototype toothpastes are reported. The flow curves are generated using the rotational rheometers with a series of rheological procedures, comprising of stress ramps, creep-recovery, stepped-shear rates, and dynamic oscillatory strain sweeps performed on toothpastes. Intricacies due to the history and the effects of pre-conditioning of the samples are discussed. However, the main goal of this work was to identify the correlations between the rheological measurements and the consumer-perceived properties of toothpastes. Shape retention and stringiness are the main sensory properties of interest that were identified and evaluated by the panelists. A custom-built experimental setup is used to quantify shape retention of a toothpaste ribbon on a brush and on a flat surface in a test which resonates with the popular slump test. It is demonstrated that the degree of shape retention correlates with the yield stress and the instantaneous viscosity. A comparison of yield stresses obtained using different methods in relation to degree of shape retention is presented. An experimental setup designed to measure stringiness of toothpastes is delineated. The stringiness measured with this device correlates well with human perception and also with the slope of the flow curve, i.e., the higher the degree of shear thinning, the less stringy the pastes tend to be. For lab-made prototype toothpastes, basic structure-property relations are established in terms of correlations between the three formulation variables: thickening silica, Xanthan gum, and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC).

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Graphical abstract Two important consumer perceived properties of toothpastes: shape retention and stringiness

     

Ground state of an exciton in a three-dimensional parabolic quantum dot: Convergent perturbative calculation

Working in the effective-mass approximation, we apply a powerful convergent perturbative technique of Turbiner's to the calculation of the ground state energy and the wave function of an exciton confined to a three-dimensional parabolic quantum dot. Unlike the usual Rayleigh–Schrödinger perturbation theory, Turbiner's approach works well even in the regime of strong coupling and does not require the knowledge of the full solution to the undisturbed problem. The second-order convergent calculation presented below is in excellent agreement with the results of exact numerical simulations for a wide range of system's confinement parameters.     

Emergence of Quantum Mechanics from Theory of Random Fields

Our aim in this paper is to enlighten the possibility to treat quantum mechanics as emergent from a kind of classical physical model, in spite of recent remarkable experiments demonstrating a violation of the Bell inequality. To proceed in a rigorous way, we use the methodology of ontic–epistemic modeling of physical phenomena. This methodology is rooted in the old Bild conception about theoretical and observational models in physics. This conception was elaborated in the fundamental works of Hertz, Boltzmann, and Schrödinger. Our ontic model (generating the quantum model) is of the random field type, prequantum classical statistical field theory (PCSFT). We present a brief review of its basic features without overloading the presentation by mathematical details. Then we show that the Bell inequality can be violated not only at the epistemic level, i.e., for observed correlations, but even at the ontic level, for classical random fields. We devote the important part of the paper to an analysis of the internal energy structure of prequantum random fields and their coupling with the background field of subquantum fluctuations. Finally, we present a unified picture of the microworld based on the composition of prequantum random fields from elementary fluctuations. Since quantum systems are treated as the symbolic representation of prequantum fields, this picture leads to a unifying treatment of all quantum systems as special blocks of elementary fluctuations carrying negligibly small energies.     

Dynamics of systems on the nanoscale

Various aspects of the structure formation and dynamics of animate and inanimate matter on the nanoscale is a highly interdisciplinary field of rapidly emerging research interest by both experimentalists and theorists. The International Conference on Dynamics of Systems on the Nanoscale (DySoN) is the premier forum to present cutting-edge research in this field. It was established in 2010 and the most recent conference was held in Bad Ems, Germany in October of 2016. This Topical Issue presents original research results from some of the participants, who attended this conference.     

Regimes of radiative and nonradiative transitions in transport through an electronic system in a photon cavity reaching a steady state

We analyze how a multilevel many‐electron system in a photon cavity approaches the steady state when coupled to external leads. When a plunger gate is used to lower cavity photon dressed one‐ and two‐electron states below the bias window defined by the external leads, we can identify one regime with nonradiative transitions dominating the electron transport, and another regime with radiative transitions. Both transitions trap the electrons in the states below the bias bringing the system into a steady state. The order of the two regimes and their relative strength depends on the location of the bias window in the energy spectrum of the system and the initial conditions.

     

Synthesis,Crystal Structure,and Luminescence of Cadmium(II) and Silver(I) Coordination Polymers Based on 1,3-Bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)adamantane

Coordination polymers with a new rigid ligand 1,3-bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)adamantane (L) were prepared by its reaction with cadmium(II) or silver(I) nitrates. Crystal structure of the coordination polymers was determined using single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Silver formed two-dimensional coordination polymer [Ag(L)NO₃]_n, in which metal ions are linked by 1,3-bis(1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)adamantane ligands, coordinated by nitrogen atoms at positions 2 and 4 of 1,2,4-triazole rings. Layers of the coordination polymer consist of rare 18- and 30-membered {Ag₂L₂} and {Ag₄L₄} metallocycles. Cadmium(II) nitrate formed two kinds of one-dimensional coordination polymers depending on the metal-to-ligand ratio used in the synthesis. Coordination polymer [Cd(L)₂(NO₃)₂]_n was obtained in case of a 1:2 M:L ratio, while for M:L = 2:1 product {[Cd(L)(NO₃)₂(CH₃OH)]·0.5CH₃OH}_n was isolated. All coordination polymers demonstrated ligand-centered emission near 450 nm upon excitation at 370 nm.