Oxidation of organic compounds by hydrogen peroxide using polymer-anchored azo-metal catalysts

Polymer-anchored azo complexes of Cu(II) and Ni(II) were synthesized by the reaction of chloromethylated polystyrene, 3-aminophenol, and 1-nitroso-2-naphthol with the metal chlorides. The catalytic activities of these complexes were studied in the oxidation of various organic substrates including alkenes, alcohols, alkanes, and sulfides with 30 % aqueous hydrogen peroxide. The structures of both catalysts have been investigated by physiochemical methods. Both catalysts proved to be very stable and could be reused more than five times without significant loss of activity. Furthermore, these catalysts require very mild reaction conditions.     

Zinc Chloride as an Efficient Catalyst for Chemoselective Dimethyl Acetalization

Commercially available anhydrous zinc chloride has been found to be a highly efficient catalyst for dimethyl acetalization in high yields by treatment of aldehydes and ketones with trimethyl orthoformate in methanol-cyclohexane at reflux temperature.     

Use of a recyclable poly(<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-vinyl carbazole) palladium(II) complex catalyst: Heck cross-coupling reaction under phosphine-free and aerobic conditions

A poly(3,6-dibenzaldimino N-vinyl carbazole) Pd(II) complex has been synthesized and characterized by physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques. The complex was found to be highly active toward hydrogenation reactions of various organic substrates under atmospheric pressure at ambient temperature. A tentative reaction mechanism is proposed on the basis of kinetic studies and isolation of reactive intermediates. The catalyst shows good conversion rates, thermal stability and recyclability.     

Ultrahigh energy cosmic rays,cosmological constant,and theta vacua

We propose that the origin of ultrahigh energy cosmic rays beyond the Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin cutoff and the origin of small cosmological constant can both be explained by vacuum tunneling effects in a theory with degenerate vacua and fermionic doublets. By considering the possibility of tunneling from a particular winding number state, accompanied by violation of some global quantum number of fermions, the small value of the vacuum dark energy and the production of high energy cosmic rays are shown to be related. We predict that the energy of such cosmic rays should be at least 5x10(14) GeV.     

Open air O-arylation reaction of phenols with aryl halides catalyzed by polymer-anchored copper(II) complexes

Two copper complexes were synthesized from macroporous chloromethylated polystyrene beads. The first one was prepared by sequential attachment of imidazole and copper acetate with chloromethylated polystyrene-divinyl benzene copolymer, and the second one was prepared from 4-vinylpyridine and copper acetate with chloromethylated polystyrene-divinyl benzene copolymer. These catalysts showed excellent catalytic activity in O-arylation reaction of aryl halides with phenol in dimethylsulfoxide using potassium carbonate at 130 °C under open air conditions to give diaryl ethers in high yields. Less reactive aryl bromides and aryl chlorides have also been shown to react with phenols to give good yields of the diaryl ethers. The effects of various parameters such as solvent, catalyst from different copper salt and base on the reaction system were studied. The reaction is applicable to a wide variety of substituted aryl halides and phenols with different steric and electronic properties. These catalysts were recovered by simple filtration, and the reusability experiments showed that these catalysts can be used five times without much loss in the catalytic activity.     

Patterns in Ge cluster growth on clean and oxidized Si(111)-(7 × 7) surfaces

Ge atoms have been deposited on domain-patterned clean Si(111)-(7 × 7) and oxidized Si(111)-(7 × 7) surfaces. Clustering of Ge from the deposited Ge adatoms on these two kinds of surfaces shows contrasting patterns. On the clean Si surface, clustering predominantly occurs on domain boundaries, which include step edges on two sides. This leaves small domains denuded. Ge diffusion length has been estimated from the size of these denuded domains. For large domains, additional clustering is observed within the domains. For the oxidized Si surface, the pattern formation is in sharp contrast with that for the clean Si surface. In this case the domain boundaries remain relatively empty and there is strong clustering within the domains leading to the formation of dense Ge nanoislands within the domains. This contrasting pattern formation has been explained via a reaction diffusion model.     

Magnetic behavior of Eu(3)Ni(4)Ga(4): antiferromagnetic order and large magnetoresistance

The results of the magnetic susceptibility, isothermal magnetization, heat capacity, electrical resistivity and magnetoresistance measurements on polycrystalline Eu(3)Ni(4)Ga(4) are presented. Eu(3)Ni(4)Ga(4) forms in Na(3)Pt(4)Ge(4)-type cubic crystal structure (space group [Formula: see text]). The temperature dependence of the magnetic susceptibility of Eu(3)Ni(4)Ga(4) confirms the divalent state (Eu(2+)) of Eu ions with an effective magnetic moment μ(eff)?=?7.98?μ(B). At low fields, e.g.?at 0.01?T, a magnetic phase transition to an antiferromagnetically ordered state occurs at T(N)?=?10.9?K, which is further confirmed by the temperature dependence of the heat capacity and electrical resistivity. The field dependence of isothermal magnetization at 2?K reveals the presence of two field induced metamagnetic transitions at H(c1) and H(c2)?=?0.55 and 1.2?T, respectively and a polarized phase above H(PO)?=?1.7?T. The reduced jump in the heat capacity at the transition temperature, ΔC|(T(N))?=?13.48?J/mol-Eu?K would indicate an amplitude modulated (AM) antiferromagnetic structure. An interesting feature is that a large negative magnetoresistance, MR?=?[ρ(H)?-?ρ(0)]/ρ(0), is observed in the vicinity of magnetic transition even up to 2T(N). Similar large magnetoresistance has been observed in the paramagnetic state in some Gd and Eu based alloys and has been attributed to the magneto-polaronic effect.     

Study of thickness-dependent magnetic and transport properties of Fe/Al nanostructures

The paper presents magnetic and transport properties of compositionally modulated Fe/Al multilayer structures (MLS), with an overall atomic concentration ratio of Fe:Al = 3:1, 2:1 and 1:1. All MLS show soft ferromagnetic behaviour at room temperature (RT) with an in-plane easy axis of magnetization. In each case, coercivity increases continuously and magnetization decreases with an increase in temperature due to enhancement in the anisotropy as a result of non-uniform and disordered formation of thin intermixed (dead) FeAl layer at the interfaces. The Curie temperature obtained for the MLS is much less than that of bcc Fe but is well above RT. The observed magnetic behaviour is mainly attributed to the formation of different FeAl phases and increase in anti-ferromagnetic interlayer coupling with addition of Al. The formation of these phases is also supported by resistivity results. The results of this research enabled us to understand that by controlling of layers thickness and temperature in multilayer systems, the nanogranular thin films with good resistive and soft magnetic properties can be obtained.     

Gauge-invariant inflaton in the minimal supersymmetric standard model

We argue that all the necessary ingredients for successful inflation are present in the flat directions of the Minimally Supersymmetric Standard Model. We show that out of many gauge-invariant combinations of squarks, sleptons, and Higgs bosons, there are two directions, LLe and udd, which are promising candidates for the inflaton. The model predicts more than 10(3) e-foldings, with an inflationary scale of H(inf) approximately O(1-10) GeV, provides a tilted spectrum with an amplitude of delta(H) approximately 10(-5) and a negligible tensor perturbation. The temperature of the thermalized plasma could be as low as T(rh) approximately O(1-10) TeV. Parts of the inflaton potential can be determined independently of cosmology by future particle physics experiments.