The Hydrolysis of the Anhydride of 2-Cyano-2-phenylpropanoic Acid Triggers the Repeated Back and Forth Motions of an Acid–Base Operated Molecular Switch

This work aimed to render phenomenologically autonomous the otherwise stepwise operation of a catenane-based molecular switch, which is chemically triggered by the decarboxylation of 2-cyano-2-phenylpropanoic acid ( 2 ). Given that any amount of 2 in stoichiometric excess with respect to the catenane is consumed in a side reaction, the authors resorted to the corresponding anhydride 5 , the slow hydrolysis of which, due to adventitious water in dichloromethane, continuously produces in situ the actual fuel 2 . As a consequence, the machine does not require a reloading after each cycle, but switches back and forth as long as fuel is present.     

Molecular Engineering of Metal Alkoxides for Solution Phase Synthesis of High-Tech Metal Oxide Nanomaterials

The ‘bottom-up’ synthesis of inorganic nanomaterials with precision at the atomic/molecular level offers many opportunities for the design and improvement of the nanomaterials for various applications. Molecular engineering during soft chemical processing for the synthesis of functional nanomaterials enables the desired chemical and physical properties of the precursors, such as solubility or volatility, clean decomposition, control of stoichiometry for multimetallic species to name a few, and leads to easy control of uniform particle size distribution, stoichiometry…. This Minireview illustrates some important aspects of the molecular engineering in light of some recent developments from the molecular synthesis of nanomaterials involving non-silicon metal alkoxide systems for high-tech applications.     

Dissipative Dynamic Covalent Chemistry (DDCvC) Based on the Transimination Reaction

This work reports that the composition of a dynamic library (DL) of interconverting imines can be controlled over time in a dissipative fashion by the addition of an activated carboxylic acid used as a chemical fuel. When the fuel is added to the DL, which is initially under thermodynamic equilibrium, the composition of the mixture dramatically changes and a new, dissipative (out of equilibrium) state is reached that persists until fuel exhaustion. Thus, a transient dissipative dynamic library (DDL) is generated that, eventually, reverts back to the initial DL when the fuel is consumed, closing a DL→DDL→DL cycle. The larger the amount of added fuel, the longer the time spent by the system in the DDL state. The transimination reaction is shown to be an optimal candidate for the realization of a dissipative dynamic covalent chemistry (DDCvC).     

Kaon production at finite temperature and baryon density in an effective relativistic mean field model

We investigate the kaon production at finite temperature and baryon density by means of an effective relativistic mean-field model with the inclusion of the full octet of baryons. Kaons are considered taking into account of an effective chemical potential depending on the self-consistent interaction between baryons. The obtained results are compared with a minimal coupling scheme, calculated for different values of the anti-kaon optical potential.     

Thermoresponsive super water absorbent hydrogels prepared by frontal polymerization of N‐isopropyl acrylamide and 3‐sulfopropyl acrylate potassium salt

Super water absorbent polymer hydrogels were synthesized by frontal polymerization. These materials were obtained by copolymerizing N‐isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAAm) and 3‐sulfopropyl acrylate potassium salt (SPAK) in the presence of N,N′‐methylene‐bis‐acrylamide as a crosslinker. It was found that their swelling behavior in water can be easily tuned by using either the appropriate monomer ratio or the amount of the crosslinker used. Namely, the swelling ratio was found to range from about 1000% for the NIPAAm homopolymer in the presence of 5.0 mol % of crosslinker, up to 35,000% for the sample containing 87.5 mol % of SPAK and 1.0 mol % of crosslinker. The affinity toward water was also confirmed by contact angle analysis. Moreover, the obtained hydrogels exhibit a thermoresponsive behavior, with a lower critical solution temperature of about 28–30 °C. This value is close to that of poly(NIPAAm) but with a swelling capability that dramatically increases as the amount of SPAK increases. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Preparation of NiCoP-decorated g-C3N4 as an efficient photocatalyst for H2O2 production

Research on Chemical Intermediates - The development of high-efficiency economic photocatalyst for H2O2 production is of great significance for renewable energy technologies. Here, we use a...     

Two Faces of the Same Coin: Coupling X-Ray Absorption and NMR Spectroscopies to Investigate the Exchange Reaction Between Prototypical Cu Coordination Complexes

The satisfactory rationalization of complex reactive pathways in solution chemistry may greatly benefit from the combined use of advanced experimental and theoretical complementary methods of analysis. In this work, we combine X-Ray Absorption and ¹H NMR spectroscopies with state-of-the-art Multivariate Curve Resolution and theoretical analyses to gain a comprehensive view on a prototypical reaction involving the variation of the oxidation state and local structure environment of a selected metal ion coordinated by organic ligands. Specifically, we investigate the 2-cyano-2-phenylpropanoic acid reduction of the octahedral complex established by the Cu²⁺ ion with terpyridine to the tetrahedral complex formed by Cu⁺ and neocuproine. Through our interdisciplinary approach we gain insights into the nature, concentration time evolution and structures of the key metal (XAS measurements) and organic (¹H NMR measurements) species under reaction. We believe our method may prove to be useful in the toolbox necessary to understand the mechanisms of reactive processes of interest in solution.     

Erratum to: Classical $${\mathcal {W}}$$ W -Algebras and Generalized Drinfeld–Sokolov Hierarchies for Minimal and Short Nilpotents

Communications in Mathematical Physics -