Michael addition reactions between various nucleophilic glycine equivalents and (S,E)-1-enoyl-5-oxo-N-phenylpyrrolidine-2-carboxamide,an optimal type of chiral Michael acceptor in the asymmetric synthesis of β-phenyl pyroglutamic acid and related compounds

(S)-5-Oxo-N-phenyl-1-[(E)-3-phenylacryloyl]pyrrolidine-2-carboxamide, easily prepared from inexpensive and readily available, in both enantiomeric forms, glutamic/pyroglutamic acid was designed as an optimal type of chiral Michael acceptor for reactions with a series of nucleophilic glycine equivalents. A study of the corresponding Michael addition reactions revealed that the new generation of modular glycine derivatives, as a counterpart to the Michael acceptor, provides for operationally convenient preparation of β-phenyl pyroglutamic acids and related compounds with virtually complete chemical and stereochemical outcomes.     

Kinetic study of the reactions of p‐nitrophenyl acetate and p‐nitrophenyl benzoate with oximate nucleophiles

The reactions of p‐nitrophenyl acetate (PNPA) and p‐nitrophenyl benzoate (PNPB) with α‐nucleophile oximates, that is, butane 2,3‐dione monoximate, pralidoximate, and other oximates have been studied in the presence of different cationic surfactants. The first‐order rate constant increases with increasing surfactant concentration. The extent of acceleration is dependent on the head group structure of surfactants. The PNPA is more reactive than PNPB toward all the nucleophiles at higher concentration of surfactants. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 41: 57–64, 2009     

Kinetic determination of trace amounts of thiosulfate based on its inhibitory effect

The sulfur containing ligand viz., thiosulfate is found to inhibit the Ag(I) catalyzed substitution of cyanide in hexacyanoferrate(II) by phenylhydrazine. The inhibitory effect of thiosulfate is attributed due to its tendency to form complexes with Ag(I), leading to the production of inhibitor-catalyst complexes. The reactions, followed spectrophotometrically in aqueous medium at 488 nm, was possible by the increase in absorbance of the cherry-red product, [Fe(CN)₅PhNHNH₂]^3- at pH 2.8 (±0.02), at 30 (±0.1) °C, and an ionic strength (μ) of 0.02 M (KNO₃). The linear calibration curves were obtained using the absorbance measured at different times (A_t) and thiosulfate concentrations under specified conditions. The calculated detection limit was 4.9 × 10^-7 M. The Michaelis-Menten constant (K_m) and equilibrium constants for the formation of complexes between catalyst and inhibitor (K_CI), and the catalyst and substrate (K_S) were computed from the kinetic data. A general mechanistic scheme is proposed for this reaction.     

Effects of positron density and temperature on ion acoustic dressed solitons in an electron–positron–ion plasma

Ion acoustic dressed solitons in a three component plasma consisting of cold ions, hot electrons and positrons are studied. Using reductive perturbation method, Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation and a linear inhomogeneous equation, governing respectively the evolution of first and second order potentials are derived for the system. Renormalization procedure of Kodama and Taniuti is used to obtain nonsecular solutions of these coupled equations. It is found that electron–positron–ion plasma system supports only compressive solitons. For a given amplitude of soliton on increasing the positron concentration, velocity of the KdV as well as dressed soliton increases. For any arbitrary values of soliton's amplitude and positron concentration, velocity of the dressed soliton is found to be larger than that of the KdV soliton. For small amplitude of solitons, the width of KdV as well as dressed soliton decreases as positron concentration increases and width of dressed soliton is found to be larger than that of the KdV soliton. However, for a large value of soliton's amplitude as concentration of positrons increases, instead of decreasing width of dressed soliton starts to increase.     

Plasma treatment of polyester fabric to impart the water repellency property

Polyester fabric is treated with DCDMS solution by two methods: dipping the fabric directly in DCDMS solution for different intervals and dipping the fabric in DCDMS solution after its exposure into RF plasma chamber for different durations at optimized exposure power conditions. The physical properties of polyester fabric treated with DCDMS in the presence or absence of air plasma have been compared with control fabric. Different characterization techniques like scanning electron microscope, attenuated total reflectance-IR and Dataflash 100 colour measurement spectrophotometer are used to assess the surface morphology, composition and change in colour parameters. Water repellency property of both untreated and modified polyester fabric is studied using AATCC test method 39 (1971). The effectiveness of the water repellency property of modified polyester fabric is checked by repeated washing up to ten cycles. This article was presented at the Second International Conference on the Frontiers of Plasma Physics and Technology, 21–25 February 2005, Goa, India.     

Absence of single-particle Bose-Einstein condensation at low densities for bosons with correlated hopping

Motivated by the physics of mobile triplets in frustrated quantum magnets, the properties of a two-dimensional model of bosons with correlated hopping are investigated. A mean-field analysis reveals the presence of a pairing phase without single-particle Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) at low densities for sufficiently strong correlated hopping, and of an Ising quantum phase transition towards a BEC phase at larger density. The physical arguments supporting the mean-field results and their implications for bosonic and quantum spin systems are discussed.     

Superconducting transition temperature of a V:Ta alloy

The low concentration Green function theory has been used to study the effect of tantalum impurity on lattice specific heat and temperature of transition of vanadium. The electron-phonon interaction as well as electron-impurity scattering have been taken into consideration.     

Cylindrically symmetric Brans-Dicke fields. II

The nonstatic cylindrically symmetric metric of Einstein-Rosen is considered, and a class of rigorous solutions for the Brans-Dicke scalar-tensor theory in the presence of source-free electromagnetic field is obtained. Since the Brans-Dicke scalar fields coupled with source-free electromagnetic fields are conformal to zero-mass fields combined with source-free electromagnetic fields of Einstein's gravitational theory, the solutions of the present work have been subjected to conformal transformation. These have been found to be the solutions of the coupled zero-mass and electromagnetic cylindrically symmetric fields described by Marder's metric.