Self-assembly of amphiphilic hexapyridinium cations at the air/water interface and on HOPG surfaces.

Mono- and multilayers of a novel amphiphilic hexapyridinium cation with six eicosyl chains (3) are spread at the air/water interface as well as on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). On water, the monolayer of 3 is investigated by recording surface pressure/area and surface potential/area isotherms, and by Brewster angle microscopy (BAM). Self-organized tubular micelles with an internal edge-on orientation of molecules form at the air/water interface at low surface pressure whereas multilayers are present at high surface pressure, after a phase transition. Packing motifs suggesting a tubular arrangement of the constituting molecules were gleaned from atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigations of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers being transferred on HOPG at different surface pressures. These LB film structures are compared to the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 3 formed via adsorption from a supersaturated solution, which is studied by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM). On HOPG the SAM of 3 consists of nanorods with a highly ordered edge-on packing of the aromatic rings and an arrangement of alkyl chains which resembles the packing of molecules at the air/water interface at low surface pressure. Additional details of the molecular packing were gleaned from single-crystal X-ray structure analysis of the hexapyridinium model compound 2b, which possesses methyl instead of eicosyl residues.     

Binukleare Nickel(0)-Alkin-Koordinationsverbindungen – Zusammenhang zwischen Ligandperipherie und supramolekularer Struktur

Binuclear Nickel(0) Alkyne Coordination Compounds – Correlation between Ligand Periphery and Supramolecular Structure Reaction of Ni(cdt: 1,5,9-cyclododecatriene) with functionalized alkynes and subsequent reaction with ethylenediamines gives binuclear compounds of the type (diamine)Ni(μ-alkyne)Ni(alkyne). Compounds with alkyne-diols (N?N)Ni₂(HOR¹R²C? C?C? CR¹R²OH)₂ show supramolecular structures in which two identical intramolecular and one intermolecular hydrogen bonds are realized. 1 and 2 (chelate ligand in each case N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine, TMEDA, in 1 R¹ = R² = Me, in 2 R¹ = R² = Et) polymer-like chains are built up by connecting the binuclear units. Via two intermolecular hydrogen bonds per organometallic unit in 1 and via one intermoleculare hydrogen bond in 2 the chains are connected to give double chains. By substitution of one methyl group of TMEDA by hydrogen ( 3 : R¹ = R² = Me) a polymerlike network is produced by connecting the polymer-like chains. In compound 4 in which one of the methyl groups of TMEDA is substituted by CH₂CH₂NMe₂ the polymer-like chains remain unconnected. In 5 (diamine = TMEDA, alkyne = (CH₃)₃C? C?C? CMe₂OH) one intermolecular hydrogen bond per organometallic unit is observed forming again polymer-like chains that are independent of each other.     

Oral malodor,assessed by closed-loop,gas chromatography,and ion-trap technology

A method is described for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in saliva and tongue coating samples. The techniue is based on an off-line preconcentration step by means of a closed-loop trapping system followed by gas chromatography-ion trap detection. With the closed-loop technique, the volatile organic compounds(VOCs) are released from the matrix and trapped on an adsorbent without interference of water. The VOCs are released from the adsorbent into the gas chromatograph by thermdesorption. After separation, identification of the compounds is performed by ion trap technology. By this technique 82 compounds could be demonstrated in saliva and tongue coating samples. The technique is also used to demonstrate the formation of volatile bacterial fermentation compounds when a protein substrate is added to tongue coating samples. It is considered a very promising tool in further research on oral malodor.     

Synthese und Charakterisierung von Aquapentachloroplatinaten(IV) – Struktur von [K(18-Krone-6)][PtCl5(H2O)]

Synthesis and Characterization of Aquapentachloroplatinates(IV) – Structure of [K(18-crown-6)][PtCl₅(H₂O)] The crown ether complex of the aquapentachloroplatinic acid of the composition [H₁₃O₆][PtCl₅(H₄O₂)] · 2(18-cr-6) ( 2 ) reacts with K₂CO₃ and [NⁿBu₄]OH in aqueous solution to give [K(18-cr-6)][PtCl₅(H₂O)] ( 5 a ) and [NⁿBu₄][PtCl₅(H₂O)] · ¹/₂ (18-cr-6) · H₂O ( 5 b ), respectively. Both compounds were characterized by microanalysis, vibrational (IR, Raman) and NMR (¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁹⁵Pt) spectroscopy. The X-ray structure analysis of 5 a (orthorhombic, pnma; a = 16,550(4), b = 18,044(3), c = 7,415(1) Å; Z = 4; R1 = 0,0183; wR2 = 0,0414) reveals that the crystal is threaded by chains built up of [PtCl₅(H₂O)]^? and [K(18-cr-6)]⁺ units. There are tight K …? Cl contacts (d(K? Cl1)) = 3,0881(9) Å and O_W? H? O_cr hydrogen bridges (d(O1 …? O2) = 2,806(3) Å) between these units. The coordination polyhedron [PtCl₅O] has approximately C_4v symmetry.     

Molecular dynamics investigation of the pressure induced B1 to B2 phase transitions of RbBr

The pressure induced transformation of rubidium bromide from the NaCl (B1) to the CsCl (B2) type structure is elucidated by means of molecular dynamics simulations. Two different approaches were followed. The “conventional” procedure of applying pressures, which are increased successively, leads to a phase transformation at a critical pressure of 80-85 kbar. This is 16-17 times the experimental value. On the other hand, the phase transition is studied by path sampling molecular dynamics simulations. This approach allows investigating the process at 5 kbar, i.e. it does not require over-driving. At this pressure the system takes pathways related to the route proposed by Bürger, exclusively. In the runs in which an over-pressurization of 80 kbar is applied, we instead observe both the Bürger mechanism and the route proposed by Watanabe et al.     

Basis-independent potential energy curves for the neutral diatomics of Li,Na and K evaluated by means of Hartree-Fock and different density functional potentials

Summary The solution of the Schrödinger equation for diatomic molecules when the finite element method is used gives the possibility to evaluate highly accurate basis-independent potential energy curves. In this work such types of numerically accurate potential energy curves on the HF level have been evaluated for Li₂, Na₂ and K₂ and could be used as benchmarks in the optimization of basis sets. A comparison between recent LCAO HF calculations in which extended basis sets are used and the accurate values determined in this work show that there is a difference in total energy of 4×10^–5 and 10^–3 a.u. for Li, Li₂, and Na, Na₂, respectively. Evaluated dissociation energies are, however, due to the cancellation of numerical errors in much better agreement. Further, it is found that different exchange correlation potentials for the heavier molecules such as those given by von Barth-Hedin and Vosko, Wilk and Nusair reproduce experimental properties such as dissociation energies, vibrational frequencies almost as well as those achieved with advanced CI methods. TheX potential gives accurate bond lengths for Na₂ and K₂, whereas the dissociation energies are too small.     

Nanoscale organization of a phthalocyanine-fullerene system: remarkable stabilization of charges in photoactive 1-D nanotubules

Induction of self-organization between zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and C60 moieties in a novel amphiphilic ZnPc-C60 salt results in uniformly nanostructured 1-D nanotubules. Their photoreactivity, in terms of ultrafast charge separation (i.e., approximately 1012 s-1) and ultraslow charge recombination (i.e., approximately 103 s-1), is remarkable. In addition, the observed ZnPc*+-C60*- lifetime of 1.4 ms implies, relative to that of the monomeric ZnPc-C60 ( approximately 3 ns), an impressive stabilization of 6 orders of magnitude.