Preparation and Characterization of Mixed‐Valent Osmium Hexacyanoferrate/Silicomolybdate Hybrid Films and Their Electrocatalytic Properties

A polynuclear mixed‐valent osmium hexacyanoferrate/silicomolybdate film electrode has been prepared using repetitive cyclic voltammetry. The cyclic voltammograms have been recorded for the deposition of a mixed‐valent osmium hexacyanoferrate/silicomolybdate hybrid film directly from the mixture of Os³⁺, Fe(CN₆)^3?, and SiMo₁₂O₄₀^4? ions from the acidic aqueous solutions. The polynuclear mixed‐valent osmium hexacyanoferrate/silicomolybdate film exhibited four redox couples. The electrocatalytic properties of the osmium hexacyanoferrate/silicomolybdate film electrode have been studied. The modified electrode has shown good electrocatalytic properties towards the oxidation of dopamine, ascorbic acid, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and reduction of IO₃^?, Fe³⁺.     

Silicon-assisted ring opening of donor-acceptor substituted cyclopropanes. An expedient entry to substituted dihydrofurans

[reaction: see text]. (tert-butyldiphenylsilyl)methylcyclopropanes undergo ring opening to furnish substituted dihydrofurans in good to excellent yields on treatment with TiCl4 in dichoromethane. The silicon that assists the regioselective ring opening is retained in the product to allow further functional group manipulations.     

Diastereoselective aldol reactions of enolates generated from vicinally substituted trimethylsilylmethyl cyclopropyl ketones

[reaction: see text] Vicinally substituted trimethylsilylmethyl cyclopropyl ketones undergo facile desilylative ring opening with Lewis acids under mild conditions. The enolates, thus generated, undergo aldol addition with aldehydes and ketones. The diastereoselectivity of the reaction with aldehydes depends on the nature of the Lewis acid used. The resulting aldol product is easily converted into a substituted tetrahydrofuran derivative.     

Alumina Polished Glassy Carbon Electrode as a Simple Electrode for Lower Potential Electrochemical Detection of Dopamine in its Sub‐micromolar Level

The electrochemical behaviour of dopamine (DA) at a cleaned and alumina polished glassy carbon electrode (GCE) was studied using cyclic voltammetry (CV). The CV studies revealed that alumina polished GCE (AGCE) shows an enhanced oxidation peak current response with 217 mV negative potential shift towards DA than that of cleaned GCE. The differential pulse voltammetry result shows that the AGCE detects the DA in the linear concentration ranges from 0.15 to 25.25 µmol L^?1. The limit of detection was calculated as 0.046 µmol L^?1 with a sensitivity of 3.74 µA µmol L^?1 cm^?2 for the determination of DA. The fabricated AGCE shows a satisfactory selectivity, practicality along with appreciable repeatability and reproducibility.     

Role of Cloud Point of the Capping Agent (Nonionic Surfactant,Triton X-100) on the Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

The solution behavior of the nonionic surfactants below and above the cloud point (CP) is quite different. Below CP, a single phase of molecular or micellar solution exists, whereas above the CP, the solution separates into two phases: the first one is denser and smaller phase and contains most of the surfactant and the other one is relatively a voluminous aqueous phase and has surfactant concentration close to the critical micelle concentration (cmc). There are many reports available where nonionic surfactant is used as capping agent. But, to the best of our knowledge, there is no report on the CP's role on the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs). Therefore, it is very important to understand the role of the CP on the synthesis of NPs. In the present work, we report the role of the clouding of the nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 (using as capping agent) on the synthesis of AgNPs below and above the CP. The morphology of AgNPs was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), UV–Vis absorption, etc., techniques. Below the CP, spherical polydisperse particles of 12 ± 5 nm mean diameter were found, whereas above the CP, the aggregated particles with higher diameter were found.     

A Cell-Culture Technique to Encode Glyco-Nanoparticles Selectivity

Nanoparticles (NPs) embedded with bioactive ligands such as carbohydrates, peptides, and nucleic acid have emerged as a potential tool to target biological processes. Traditional in vitro assays performed under statistic conditions may result in non-specific outcome sometimes, mainly because of the sedimentation and self-assembly nature of NPs. Inverted cell-culture assay allows for flexible and accurate detection of the receptor-mediated uptake and cytotoxicity of NPs. By combining this technique with glyco-gold nanoparticles, cellular internalization and cytotoxicity were investigated. Regioselective glycosylation patterns and shapes of the NPs could tune the receptors′ binding affinity, resulting in precise cellular uptake of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). Two cell lines HepG2 and HeLa were probed with galactosamine-embedded fluorescent AuNPs, revealing significant differences in cytotoxicity and uptake mechanism in upright and invert in vitro cell-culture assay, high-specificity toward uptake, and allowing for a rapid screening and optimization technique.     

Flow Injection Analysis of Iodate Reduction on PEDOT Modified Electrode

Poly‐(3,4‐ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) films were electrodeposited by cyclic voltammetry on glassy carbon electrode at different anodic potentials in the range of 1.0–1.5 V (Ag/AgCl) and its electrocatalytic properties towards reduction of iodate were reported. The effect of the pH of the solution on the response of PEDOT electrode towards iodate also studied. The modified electrode was employed successfully as an amperometric sensor for iodate in a flow injection apparatus. The repeatability of the method for 14 injections of a μM iodate solution was 7%. Interference from other oxidant anions such as nitrate was not noticeable, whereas bromate, chlorate and nitrite interfere at slight levels.     

Vibrational Spectroscopic Study of N-[4-[1-Hydroxy-2-[(1-Methyl Ethyl) Amino] Ethyl] Phenyl] Methane Sulfonamide

The vibrational spectral analysis was carried out by using FT-Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy in the range 4 000～400 and 4 000～400 cm-1 respectively, for N-[4-[1-hydroxy-2-[(1-methyl ethyl) amino] ethyl] phenyl] methane sulfonamide (HPAEPMS) molecule. Theoretical calculations were performed by ab initio Density Functional Theory (DFT) method using 6-31G(d,p) basis set. The complete vibrational assignments of wavenumbers were made on the basis of potential energy distribution (PED). The results of the calculations were applied to simulated spectra of the title compound, which show excellent agreement.     

Synthesis and characterization of low-spin and cation radical complexes of ruthenium(III) of a tridentate pyridine bis-amide ligand

Using a tridentate bis-amide ligand 2,6-bis(N-phenylcarbamoyl)pyridine (H(2)L), in its deprotonated form, a new mononuclear ruthenium(III) complex [Et(4)N][RuL(2)] x H(2)O (1) has been synthesized. Structural analysis reveals that the RuN(6) coordination comprises four deprotonated amide-N species in the equatorial plane and two pyridine-N donors in the axial positions, imparting a tetragonally compressed octahedron around Ru. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a ruthenium(III) complex coordinated solely by two tridentate deprotonated peptide ligands has been synthesized and structurally characterized. When examined by cyclic voltammetry, complex 1 displays in MeCN/CH(2)Cl(2) solution three chemically/electrochemically reversible redox processes: a metal-centered reductive Ru(III)-Ru(II) couple (E(1/2) = -0.84/-0.89 V vs SCE) and two ligand-centered oxidative responses (E(1/2) = 0.59/0.60 and 1.05/1.05 V vs SCE). Isolation of a dark blue one-electron oxidized counterpart of 1, [RuL(2)] x H(2)O (2), has also been readily achieved. The complexes have been characterized by analytical, solution electrical conductivity, IR, electronic absorption and EPR spectroscopy, and temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility measurements. For complex 1, a weak and broad transition within the t(2g) level has been identified at approximately 1400 nm and supported by EPR spectral analysis (S = (1)/(2)). Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility data provide unambiguous evidence that in 2 strong antiferromagnetic coupling of the S = (1)/(2) ruthenium atom with the S = (1)/(2) ligand pi-cation radical leads to an effectively S = 0 ground state ((1)H NMR spectra in CDCl(3) solution).     

Main-chain liquid crystalline copolymers: synthesis and comparative study of the mesomorphic properties and non-linear optical properties

Linear main-chain polymers (P1, P2 and P3) have been synthesised and characterised. The polymers were designed to understand the rigidity of the mesogen’s linking groups and its effect on transition temperature. The liquid crystalline behaviour of these polymers was investigated using polarised optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. All polymers exhibited phase transition on heating and cooling runs. The mesophase stability decreases with the decrease of rigidity of the second mesogen (P2>P1>P3). Similarly, the enthalpy and entropy changes are dependent on the rigidity of the second mesogen (Mesogen B). Polymer P1 undergoes photoisomerisation under UV-visible light irradiation and it attains a photo-stationary state at 275 s. This provides an opportunity to investigate the third-order non-linear optical properties. The non-linear behaviour of polymer P1 in chloroform presents a distinct deviation in a different concentration, where polymer P1 also exhibits a negative non-linear refractive index. Thus, polymer P1 can be used as a potential candidate for optical device applications such as optical limiters.