About the Dominance of Mesopores in Physisorption in Amorphous Materials

Amorphous, porous materials represent by far the largest proportion of natural and men-made materials. Their pore networks consists of a wide range of pore sizes, including meso- and macropores. Within such a pore network, material moisture plays a crucial role in almost all transport processes. In the hygroscopic range, the pores are partially saturated and liquid water is only located at the pore fringe due to physisorption. Therefore, material parameters such as porosity or median pore diameter are inadequate to predict material moisture and moisture transport. To quantify the spatial distribution of material moisture, Hillerborg’s adsorption theory is used to predict the water layer thickness for different pore geometries. This is done for all pore sizes, including those in the lower nanometre range. Based on this approach, it is shown that the material moisture is almost completely located in mesopores, although the pore network is highly dominated by macropores. Thus, mesopores are mainly responsible for the moisture storage capacity, while macropores determine the moisture transport capacity, of an amorphous material. Finally, an electrical analogical circuit is used as a model to predict the diffusion coefficient based on the pore-size distribution, including physisorption.     

Identification of an activated catalyst in the iridium-catalyzed allylic amination and etherification. Increased rates, scope, and selectivity

Studies were conducted to determine possible intermediates in the highly enantioselective, iridium-catalyzed amination and etherification of allylic carbonates, and these studies revealed that cyclometalation of the phosphoramidite ligand is likely to generate the active catalyst. The square-planar [Ir(COD)(L1)Cl] (L1 = P(BINOL)(bisphenethylamine)) did not react with cinnamyl carbonate, but did react with amine to generate an Ir(I) trigonal bipyramidal complex coordinated by COD, a cyclometalated kappa2-phosphoramidite, and a kappa1-phosphoramidite. This complex reacted with phosphines to generate products from replacement of the kappa1-phosphoramidite. These cyclometalated complexes were highly active catalysts for allylic amination and etherification and retained the high selectivity of the original catalyst system. In addition, these complexes combined with [Ir(cod)Cl]2 catalyzed reactions of amines with lower loadings, catalyzed reactions of alkylamines and aromatic amines that did not react with the original catalyst system, and catalyzed reactions of phenoxides under milder conditions.     

Origin of high second- and third-order nonlinear optical response in ammonio/borato diphenylpolyene zwitterions: the remarkable role of polarized aromatic groups

We present a quantum-chemical analysis of the molecular structure and second- and third-order polarizabilities in a series of promising nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores, the zwitterionic ammonio/borato diphenylpolyenes, R3N+Ph(C=C)nPhB-R3, whose synthesis has been reported recently. The molecular geometries are obtained via MP2/6-31G optimization, while the NLO properties are calculated with the INDO Hamiltonian using the sum-over-states and finite-field real-space methods. The real-space approach allows the direct evaluation of the NLO-active segments of the molecules, while the sum-over-states results illustrate the virtual excitations and charge-transfer pathways that are essential in the NLO response. Both methods highlight the remarkable and unexpected result that it is the strongly polarized phenylene groups that play the key role in generating a high NLO response.     

Insights into the structure of cyclohexane from femtosecond degenerate four-wave mixing spectroscopy and ab initio calculations

In this paper, we report the use of femtosecond time-resolved degenerate four-wave mixing rotationally resolved spectroscopy to obtain very accurate structural information on the symmetric top cyclohexane. Apart from highlighting the versatility of this method in determining accurate structures of large and complex molecules without dipole moment, the present study also details the comparison of the experimentally determined rotational constant B(0) with that obtained from high-level ab initio calculations. The theoretical calculations, which were carried out at both the second-order M?ller-Plesset (MP2) and coupled-cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple substitutions [CCSD(T)] levels of theory, also take into account vibrational averaging effects. A detailed investigation of the vibrational averaging effects reveals that the corrections emerge from only the six highly symmetric A(1g) modes, a justification of which is provided by an analysis of these modes.     

Synthesis of 2-amino-4-pyrimidinones from resin-bound guanidines prepared using bis(allyloxycarbonyl)-protected triflylguanidine

We have synthesized novel heterocyclic compounds from resin-bound guanidines. For this purpose, an amine immobilized on a solid support was acylated with protected amino acids. Following the deprotection, the liberated amines were guanidinylated utilizing a new member of the family of diurethane-protected triflyl guanidine reagents, N,N'-bis(allyloxycarbonyl)-N' '-triflylguanidine. The deprotected guanidines were subsequently regioselectively cyclized with beta-keto esters yielding novel compounds containing heterocyclic structures in high purities.     

Optically and thermally induced electron transfer pathways in hexakis[4-(N,N-diarylamino)phenyl]benzene derivatives

The optically and thermally induced electron transfer pathways of highly symmetrical (D(3)) hexaarylbenzene systems with six triarylamine redox sites have been investigated. Owing to slightly different local redox potentials, the radical trication could be selectively generated by electrochemical methods. This trication shows a strong intervalence charge-transfer band in the near infrared (NIR) that was measured by spectroelectrochemistry and analysed using multi-dimensional Mulliken-Hush theory. Quantum chemical AM1 CI calculations indicate that there is no optically induced concerted three-electron transfer that transforms the ground state into a state in which all three positively charged triarylamine moieties change place with their neutral neighbours. The potential energy surface of the ground state was constructed by using quadratic potentials. From this potential surface it is apparent that there is also no thermally allowed concerted three-electron transfer pathway. Instead, three consecutive one-electron transfer steps are necessary for this process.     

Silylanions: inversion barriers and NMR chemical shifts

Alpha-substituent effects on inversion barriers and NMR chemical shifts have been studied on a set of silyl anions, [X(3-n)Y(n)Si](-) (X, Y=H, CH(3), and SiH(3)). The MP2/6-31+G* optimized structures show a pattern of increasing inversion barriers with augmenting numbers of methyl substituents. The highest barrier of 48.5 kcalmol(-1) is obtained for the (CH(3))(3)Si(-) ion. The silyl group displays the opposite effect by decreasing the inversion barrier to a minimum of 16.3 kcalmol(-1) in (SiH(3))(3)Si(-). The influence of counterions on these barriers is probed by addition of a lithium or potassium cation. In most cases, a decrease of the energy barriers with respect to the bare anions is observed. The (29)Si NMR chemical shifts calculated at the IGLO-DFT and GIAO-MP2 level of theory are also analyzed in view of the substituents and counterions.     

Self-organization of chalcogen-containing cyclic alkynes and alkenes to yield columnar structures

Close contacts between chalcogen atoms in cyclic dienes and diynes are used to create columnar structures in the solid state. Rigid and fairly planar cycles with chalcogen centers are the preconditions for forming those columnar structures.     

Zinc Substitution of Cobalt in Vitamin B12: Zincobyric acid and Zincobalamin as Luminescent Structural B12‐Mimics

Replacing the central cobalt ion of vitamin B₁₂ by other metals has been a long‐held aspiration within the B₁₂‐field. Herein, we describe the synthesis from hydrogenobyric acid of zincobyric acid ( Znby ) and zincobalamin ( Znbl ), the Zn‐analogues of the natural cobalt‐corrins cobyric acid and vitamin B₁₂, respectively. The solution structures of Znby and Znbl were studied by NMR‐spectroscopy. Single crystals of Znby were produced, providing the first X‐ray crystallographic structure of a zinc corrin. The structures of Znby and of computationally generated Znbl were found to resemble the corresponding Co^II‐corrins, making such Zn‐corrins potentially useful for investigations of B₁₂‐dependent processes. The singlet excited state of Znby had a short life‐time, limited by rapid intersystem crossing to the triplet state. Znby allowed the unprecedented observation of a corrin triplet (E^T=190 kJ mol^?1) and was found to be an excellent photo‐sensitizer for ¹O₂ (Φ_Δ=0.70).