Neutron-activation determination of vanadium in oils and catalysts

Summary Vanadium in crude and residual oils and in catalysts at the concentration levels of 0.2–200 and 400–2000 ppm respectively has been determined by means of neutron-activation analysis based on measurement of the nuclide⁵²V. The aim was to apply the technique to industrial or general routine analysis. Four samples were analysed simultaneously in less than 15 minutes.

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Zusammenfassung In Rohöl, Rückstandöl und in Katalysatoren wurde Vanadin in Konzentrationen von 0,2 bis 200 bzw. 400 bis 2000 ppm mit Hilfe der Neutronenaktivierungsanalyse bestimmt, indem das Nuklid⁵²V gemessen wurde. Die Absicht war, dieses Verfahren für industrielle Routineanalysen anzuwenden. In weniger als 15 Minuten lassen sich gleichzeitig vier Proben analysieren.

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Work supported under the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Technical Assistance Programme.     

Structures and thermochemistry of ions formed by methane chemical ionization of Fe(CO)5. Site of protonation and determination of Fe?H and Fe?CO bond dissociation energies of HFe(CO)n+ ions

High-energy collisional activation mass spectrometry of HFe(CO)₅⁺ ions shows that Fe(CO)₅ is protonated on the iron atom rather than on one of the ligands. This finding is supported by ab initio quantum chemical calculations. The value of the proton affinity of Fe(CO)₅ was measured by high-pressure mass spectrometry to be 857 kJ mol^?1. The Fe? CO bond dissociation energies for HFe(CO)_n⁺ (n = 1–5) were measured by energy-variable low-energy collisional activation mass spectrometry. The Fe? H bond dissociation energies in HFe(CO)_n⁺ ions were also determined. A synergistic effect on the strengths of the Fe? H and Fe? CO bonds in HFe(CO)⁺ is noticed. It is demonstrated that the electronically unsaturated species HFe(CO)_n⁺ (n = 3, 4) formed in exothermic proton-transfer reactions with Fe(CO)₅ form adducts with CH₄. Adducts between C₂H₅⁺ or C₃H₅⁺ and Fe(CO)_n are observed. These adducts are probably formed in direct reactions between the respective carbocations and Fe(CO)₅.     

Stereoselektive Synthesen von substituierten Tricarbonyl[tris(methylen)methan]eisen(0)-Komplexen

Stereoselective Syntheses of Substituted Tricarbonyl[tris(methylen)methan]iron(0) Complexes The complexes 3 , 9 , 10 , 22 , and 23 with one, two, and three Me substituents at the tris(methylen)methane moiety have been synthesized from the (acyloxy-1,3-diene)(tricarbonyl)iron(0) complexes 1 , 4 , 5 , 20 , and 21 , respectively, by ionic hydrogenation with BF₃ and Et₃SiH at ?78° in CH₂C1₂. These reductions are completely stereoselective, and their course can be predicted by assuming a dominant stereoelectronic control of the reaction. Formation of the carbocationic intermediates 11 from 4 and 12 from 5 , e.g., takes place only if the dissociating O? C bond is antiperiplanar to the donor C(β)? Fe bond. Fast H-transfer then converts the intermediate 11 to 9 and 12 to 10 . The configurations of 17 and 20 can be deduced from the structure of 22 and those of 18 and 21 from that of 23 . An X-ray structure determination of (1R,4S)camphanoate (?)- 13 derived from alcohol (?)- 7 confirms the configuration of 5 deduced above, The structures of the complexes 9 and 10 , 22 and 23 were determined by their unique NMR spectra. The diastereoisomeric complexes 6 and 7 have been synthesized from aldehyde 8 with MeMgI, the diastereoisomers 17 and 18 analogously from 16 or from methyl ketone 19 by reduction with LiAlH₄. Optically active starting materials (+)- 1 , (?)- 13 , (+)- 20 , and (+)- 21 gave, by ionic hydrogenation, the complexes (?)-(3R)- 3 , (+)-(2S,4S)- 10 , (?)-(R,R, S)- 22 , and (?)-(R,R,R)- 23 respectively, with known absolute configurations.     

Lyotropic liquid-crystalline mesophases of [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2-C12EO10-CTAB-H2O and [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2-C12EO10-SDS-H2O systems

The mixture of two surfactants (C12EO10-CTAB and C12EO10-SDS) forms lyotropic liquid-crystalline (LLC) mesophases with [Zn(H2O)6](NO3)2 in the presence of a minimum concentration of 1.75 H2O per C12EO10. The metal ion/C12EO10 mole ratio can be increased up to 8.0, which is a record high metal ion density in an LLC mesophase. The metal ion concentration can be increased in the medium by increasing the CTAB/C12EO10 or SDS/C12EO10 mole ratio at the expense of the stability of the LLC mesophase. The structure and some thermal properties of the new mesophase have been investigated using XRD, POM, FTIR, and Raman techniques.     

Dipodal ferrocene-based adsorbate molecules for self-assembled monolayers on gold

1,1'-Difunctionalised ferrocene derivatives have been studied, which contain groups suitable for chemisorption on gold substrates, namely -NC, -PR(2) as well as a range of sulfur-containing units like -NCS, -SR, and thienyl. Thin films on gold have been fabricated from solution with most of these adsorbate species. Film thickness, composition and structure were investigated primarily by X-ray photoelectron and near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy. The quality of self-assembled monolayers fabricated from 1,1'-diisocyanoferrocene (1) and 1,1'-diisothiocyanatoferrocene (2) turned out to be superior to that of films based on the other adsorbate species investigated. In addition to the surface coordination behaviour of 1 towards gold substrates, relevant aspects of the molecular coordination chemistry of 1 have also been addressed, including the synthesis and characterisation of [(mu-1){Cr(CO)(5)}(2)], [Ag(2)(mu-1)(2)](NO(3))(2) x H(2)O and [(mu-1)(AuCl)(2)]. The crystal structure of the gold complex is governed by aurophilic interactions and can be taken as a model for the arrangement of 1 in self-assembled monolayers on gold.     

Parallel Integer Optimization for Crew Scheduling

Performance aspects of a Lagrangian relaxation based heuristic for solving large 0-1 integer linear programs are discussed. In particular, we look at its application to airline and railway crew scheduling problems. We present a scalable parallelization of the original algorithm used in production at Carmen Systems AB, Göteborg, Sweden, based on distributing the variables. A lazy variant of this approach which decouples communication and computation is even useful on networks of workstations. Furthermore, we develop a new sequential active set strategy which requires less work and is better adapted to the memory hierarchy properties of modern RISC processors. This algorithm is also suited for parallelization on a moderate number of networked workstations.     

Synthesis of Mesoporous Lithium Titanate Thin Films and Monoliths as an Anode Material for High‐Rate Lithium‐Ion Batteries

Mesoporous Li₄Ti₅O₁₂ (LTO) thin film is an important anode material for lithium‐ion batteries (LIBs). Mesoporous films could be prepared by self‐assembly processes. A molten‐salt‐assisted self‐assembly (MASA) process is used to prepare mesoporous thin films of LTOs. Clear solutions of CTAB, P123, LiNO₃, HNO₃, and Ti(OC₄H₉)₄ in ethanol form gel‐like meso‐ordered films upon either spin or spray coating. In the assembly process, the CTAB/P123 molar ratio of 14 is required to accommodate enough salt species in the mesophase, in which the Li^I/P123 ratio can be varied between molar ratios of 28 and 72. Calcination of the meso‐ordered films produces transparent mesoporous spinel LTO films that are abbreviated as Cxx‐yyy‐zzz or CAxx‐yyy‐zzz (C=calcined, CA=calcined–annealed, xx=Li^I/P123 molar ratio, and yyy=calcination and zzz=annealing temperatures in Celsius) herein. All samples were characterized by using XRD, TEM, N₂‐sorption, and Raman techniques and it was found that, at all compositions, the LTO spinel phase formed with or without an anatase phase as an impurity. Electrochemical characterization of the films shows excellent performance at different current rates. The CA40‐350‐450 sample performs best among all samples tested, yielding an average discharge capacity of (176±1) mA h g^?1 at C/2 and (139±4) mA h g^?1 at 50 C and keeping 92 % of its initial discharge capacity upon 50 cycles at C/2.