Regioselective side-chain as well as nuclear monobromination of aromatic substrates with N-bromosuccinimide using phosphotungstic acid supported on zirconia as a heterogeneous catalyst

Regioselective monobromination of aromatic substrates with N-bromosuccinimide has been achieved in excellent isolated yields (84–98%) using phosphotungstic acid supported on zirconia as a novel heterogeneous catalyst. The catalyst has been characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), surface area and acidity measurements. Remarkably, the new catalyst system described brought about the side-chain bromination of aromatics to afford bromomethyl arenes in excellent yields (86–98%) without the need for a radical initiator. Recovery and recylability of the catalyst have been well established.     

Self-assembled monolayers on Au microelectrodes

Long chain alkanethiols self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed on Au microelectrodes showed higher sensitivity towards defects than the same monolayers on macroelectrodes. The analysis of cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) experiments performed on covered microelectrodes were consistent with the formation of pinholes of about 10 nm in diameter. Moreover, the EIS data exhibited a specific behavior that was interpreted invoking the short circuiting of the pinholes impedance by the surrounding surface of the microelectrode in the high frequency domain, whereas in the low frequencies, the surface covered by the SAM was assume to act as an insulator.     

Molekulare Zusammensetzung von flüssigem Schwefel. Teil: 3 Quantitative Analyse im Bereich 115–350°C

Molecular Composition of Liquid Sulfur. Part 3: Quantitative Analysis in the Temperature Region 115–350°C Relative concentrations of S₆, S₇, S₈, S_x (x > 8) and S_μ (insoluble sulfur) in equilibrium melts of elemental sulfur have been determined from i. r. and Raman spectra. At the freezing point (115°C) the melt consists of 0.6% S₆, 2.8% S₇, 1.5% S_x, and 95.1% S₈. – The solubility of S₇ in CS₂ has been determined at −77 to −26°C; the solubilities of both S₇ and S₈ in CS₂ are considerably enhanced by the presence of S_x. The thermal decomposition of S₈ and S_μ formation from S₆, S₇, and S_x has been investigated.     

Flocculation of silver iodide sols by hydrolysed cations in the presence of a non-ionic surface active agent

Summary Previous studies have indicated that non-ionic surface active agents, such as n-dodecylhexaoxyethylene glycol monoether, confer considerable protection on silver iodide sols to flocculation by inorganic cations. In the present study the effects of hydrolysis of the flocculating cations, lanthanum, aluminium and thorium have been examined. It was found that with the hydrolysed cations the protective action of the non-ionic surface active agent was considerably diminished. It was deduced that the hydrolysed species are more strongly adsorbed than the nonionic surface active agent and either displace the latter from the surface or form species which are large enough to cause flocculation by interparticle bridging.

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Zusammenfassung Vorausgehende Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, daß nichtionische oberflächenaktive Substanzen wie n-Dodecylhexaoxyäthylen-glykol-monoäther beträchtliche Schutzwirkung Silberjodidsolen gegenüber Flokkung durch anorganische Kationen verleihen. In der vorliegenden Untersuchung wird die Wirkung der Hydrolyse flockender Kationen, Lanthan, Aluminium und Thorium, geprüft. Es wurde gefunden, daß durch die hydrolisierten Kationen die Schutzwirkung der nichtionischen oberflächenaktiven Substanz beträchtlich vermindert wird. Daraus ist zu schließen, daß die hydrolisierte Ionenart stärker als das nichtoberflächenaktive Agens adsorbiert wird und deshalb das letztere von der Oberfläche entfernt wird oder genügend große interpartikuläre Brücken, bildet, um Flockung zu verursachen.

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With 6 figures and 1 table     

Das dielektrische Verhalten von Polyäthern zwischen Mikrowellen- und Infrarot-Gebiet

Zusammenfassung Es wurde die Absorption und Dispersion verschiedener Polyäther im Mikrowellengebiet und im fernen IR untersucht. Mit wachsender Sauerstoffzahl in der Kette werden die Torsions- und Biegeschwingungen wachsend IR-aktiv. Ihre Frequenzlagen ändern sich mit dem zunehmend polaren Charakter der Struktur. Die Analogie zwischen der Verschiebung der Schwingungsfrequenzen und dem Verlauf der Schmelztemperaturen wird diskutiert.Mit zunehmend polarem Charakter steigen der Temperaturkoeffizient der Molpolarisation und die Differenz (–n ²) der Dielektrizitätskonstanten im Mikrowellengebiet und im optischen Bereich stark an. Ein Vergleich mit der Höhe der Dispersionsstufen im fernen IR und deren Temperaturabhängigkeit ergab, daß diese zusätzliche Polarisation nicht allein durch die IR-aktiven Banden bedingt ist. Sie muß gekoppelt sein mit dem ebenfalls stark anwachsenden Untergrundverlust im gesamten mm- und sub-mm-Gebiet.

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Summary Absorption and dispersion of several polyethers were measured in the microwave region and in the far infrared. The torsional vibrations become increasingly iractive with increasing number of oxygens in the chain. Their frequencies shift, too, in a manner analogues to the variation of the melting temperatures.The temperature coefficient of the mol polarization at 32 GHz and the difference (–n ²) between microwave and optical dielectric constant rise rapidly with increasing polar character of the structure. It was tried to correlate (–n ²) with the overall absorption of the skeletal vibrations. Height and temperature dependence of the far ir dispersion show, however, that the larger part of this additional polarization cannot be accounted for by the resonance absorption bands. It must be correlated with the background loss which extends over the whole mm and sub-mm range and also increases rapidly with increasingly polar structure.

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Mit 10 Abbildungen in 14 Einzeldarstellungen und 2 Tabellen     

Ion Association in Lanthanide Chloride Solutions

A better understanding of the solution chemistry of the lanthanide (Ln) salts in water would have wide ranging implications in materials processing, waste management, element tracing, medicine and many more fields. This is particularly true for minerals processing, given governmental concerns about lanthanide security of supply and the drive to identify environmentally sustainable processing routes. Despite much effort, even in simple systems, the mechanisms and thermodynamics of Ln^III association with small anions remain unclear. In the present study, molecular dynamics (MD), using a newly developed force field, provide new insights into LnCl₃(aq) solutions. The force field accurately reproduces the structure and dynamics of Nd³⁺, Gd³⁺ and Er³⁺ in water when compared to calculations using density functional theory (DFT). Adaptive-bias MD simulations show that the mechanisms for ion pairing change from dissociative to associative exchange depending upon cation size. Thermodynamics of association reveal that whereas ion pairing is favourable, the equilibrium distribution of species at low concentration is dominated by weakly bound solvent-shared and solvent-separated ion pairs, rather than contact ion pairs, reconciling a number of contrasting observations of Ln^III–Cl association in the literature. In addition, we show that the thermodynamic stabilities of a range of inner sphere and outer sphere coordination complexes are comparable and that the kinetics of anion binding to cations may control solution speciation distributions beyond ion pairs. The techniques adopted in this work provide a framework with which to investigate more complex solution chemistries of cations in water.     

N-Heterocyclic Olefins as Electron Donors in Combination with Triarylborane Acceptors: Synthesis,Optical and Electronic Properties of D–π–A Compounds

N-heterocyclic olefins (NHOs), relatives of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs), exhibit high nucleophilicity and soft Lewis basic character. To investigate their π-electron donating ability, NHOs were attached to triarylborane π-acceptors (A) giving donor (D)–π–A compounds 1 – 3 . In addition, an enamine π-donor analogue ( 4 ) was synthesized for comparison. UV–visible absorption studies show a larger red shift for the NHO-containing boranes than for the enamine analogue, a relative of cyclic (alkyl)(amino) carbenes (CAACs). Solvent-dependent emission studies indicate that 1 – 4 have moderate intramolecular charge-transfer (ICT) behavior. Electrochemical investigations reveal that the NHO-containing boranes have extremely low reversible oxidation potentials (e.g., for 3 , =−0.40 V vs. ferrocene/ferrocenium, Fc/Fc⁺, in THF). Time-dependent (TD) DFT calculations show that the HOMOs of 1 – 3 are much more destabilized than that of the enamine-containing 4 , which confirms the stronger donating ability of NHOs.     

Design and characterization of a homodimeric antiparallel coiled coil

We report the first successful design of a self-associating antiparallel coiled coil, APH. The simultaneous application of Coulombic and hydrophobic components results in a decided preference for the antiparallel alignment as judged by HPLC, sedimentation equilibrium, and chemical denaturation data. The designed peptide is of comparable stability to naturally occurring leucine zipper peptides and can be expressed in bacteria. These properties of APH suggest potential in vivo protein fusion and biomaterials applications.