Electrochemical synthesis of metal complexes of schiff bases: The crystal structure of bis{2-[(4-methylphenyl)iminomethyl]pyrrolato}copper(II)

The electrochemical oxidation of anodic nickel, copper, zinc or cadmium in acetonitrile solutions of Schiff bases (HL) derived from H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde and substituted anilines gives compounds of general formula ML₂. The crystal structure of bis{2-[(4-methylphenyl)iminomethyl]pyrrolato}copper(II) has been determined by X-ray diffraction. The compound crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/n with a = 9.356(2), b = 16.697(2), c = 14.145(2) Å and β = 108.47(2)°. The crystal structure consists of monomeric molecules in which the central CuN₄ unit has distorted square-planar geometry with a dihedral angle of 25.8(3)° between the coordination planes. The IR, ¹H NMR and UV-visible spectra of the complexes are discussed and related to the structure.     

Macroporous ZrO2 ceramics prepared from colloidally stable nanoparticles building blocks and organic templates

ZrO2 macroporous materials with well-ordered structures were prepared using nano-ZrO2 particles as the building materials and polystyrene spheres as the organic templates. A well-dispersed nano-ZrO2 suspension with a narrow particle size distribution was prepared by deagglomeration of as-received nano-ZrO2 powders via ultrasonication, and then centrifugation was performed to remove agglomerated bigger particles. Negatively charged polystyrene spheres were uniformly coated with positively charged nano-ZrO2 particles by means of electrostatic attraction at pH 4. Green samples were prepared by slip casting from colloidally stable suspension of nano-ZrO2 coated polystyrene spheres. ZrO2 macroporous materials with well-ordered microstructure derived from the nano-ZrO2 coated polystyrene spheres.     

A new method for assigning the CO stretching bands in cis-disubstituted octahedral metal carbonyl complexes

The paper describes a method for assigning the CO stretching bands in cis-disubstituted metal carbonyls of the types L₂M(CO)₄, (LL)M(CO)₄, LL′M(CO)₄ and (LL′)M(CO)₄. The method was based on the parameter δ, defined as δ=(λ₁−λ₂)/(λ₁+λ₂−2λ₄) where λ₁, λ₂ and λ₄ are the λ parameters of the a₁⁽¹⁾, a₁⁽²⁾ and b₂ modes, respectively. For a large number of complexes with the above general formulas, the average value of δ was found to be 0.62, with a standard deviation of 0.02. It was shown that this range of δ can be used as a criterion of the correct band assignment for the complexes understudy.     

Mass spectra of benzenesulfonylhydrazides

The mass spectrometry of substituted benzenesulfonylhydrazides (X.C₆H₄.SO₂NHNH₂) has been studied, with X = p-CH₃, H, p-CH₃O and p-Br. The intensities of [X? C₆H₄SO₂]⁺ and [X? C₆H₄]⁺ follow the Hammett relationship [In(Z/Z₀) =ρδp⁺] with ρ of 0.375 and 2.37, respectively.     

Study by thermal analysis of mortars belonging to wall paintings corresponding to some historical buildings of Sevillian art

Mortars taken from the walls of three historical buildings in Seville: Pond of Patio de las Doncellas in Real Alcazar of Seville, the Monastery of Santa Maria de las Cuevas and the Church of El Salvador were investigated. The techniques employed were thermogravimetry (TG), differential thermal analysis (DTA), XRD, FTIR, SEM with EDAX, Bernard calcimeter, granulometry, mercury intrusion porosimetry and mechanical strength tests. The majority of the studied mortars consist of calcite and silica. Gypsum was detected in samples of four mortars from the Santa Maria de las Cuevas Monastery and two from the El Salvador Church, whose samples were taken from the upper layers of the walls, but gypsum was not detected in the internal mortars layers. Only in two of the samples of the Monastery, the presence of cellulosic material as an organic additive was detected. All the studied mortars could be regarded hydraulic, so much by results from ratios between mass loss due to CO₂ and H₂O, hydraulic module and assays of compressive strength. The values obtained by these three techniques are related, providing good agreements between them. These results give useful information that aids in understanding the technology of historic mortars, and how to plan the restoration of these wall paintings.     

Intramolecular basis set superposition error effects on the planarity of benzene and other aromatic molecules: a solution to the problem

Recently, the surprising result that ab initio calculations on benzene and other planar arenes at correlated MP2, MP3, configuration interaction with singles and doubles (CISD), and coupled cluster with singles and doubles levels of theory using standard Pople's basis sets yield nonplanar minima has been reported. The planar optimized structures turn out to be transition states presenting one or more large imaginary frequencies, whereas single-determinant-based methods lead to the expected planar minima and no imaginary frequencies. It has been suggested that such anomalous behavior can be originated by two-electron basis set incompleteness error. In this work, we show that the reported pitfalls can be interpreted in terms of intramolecular basis set superposition error (BSSE) effects, mostly between the C-H moieties constituting the arenes. We have carried out counterpoise-corrected optimizations and frequency calculations at the Hartree-Fock, B3LYP, MP2, and CISD levels of theory with several basis sets for a number of arenes. In all cases, correcting for intramolecular BSSE fixes the anomalous behavior of the correlated methods, whereas no significant differences are observed in the single-determinant case. Consequently, all systems studied are planar at all levels of theory. The effect of different intramolecular fragment definitions and the particular case of charged species, namely, cyclopentadienyl and indenyl anions, respectively, are also discussed.     

The numerical integration of relative equilibrium solutions. The nonlinear Schrodinger equation

We analyse different error propagation mechanisms for conservativeand nonconservative time-integrators of nonlinear Schrödingerequations. We use a geometric approach based on interpretingwaves as relative equilibria.     

New azo‐azomethine‐based transition metal complexes: Synthesis,spectroscopy, solid‐state structure,density functional theory calculations and anticancer studies

A novel tetradentate azo‐Schiff base ligand (H₂L) was synthesized by 2:1 molar condensation of an azo‐aldehyde and ethylenediamine. Its mononuclear Cu(II), Ni(II), Co(II) and Zn(II) complexes were prepared and their structures were confirmed using elemental analysis, NMR, infrared and UV–visible spectroscopies and molar conductivity measurements. The results suggest that the metal ion is bonded to the tetradentate ligand through phenolic oxygens and imine nitrogens of the ligand. The solid‐state structures of the azo‐Schiff base ligand and its Cu(II) complex were determined using single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction studies. The azo‐Schiff base ligand lies on a crystallographic inversion centre and thus the asymmetric unit contains half of the molecule. X‐ray data revealed that keto–amine tautomer is favoured in the solid‐state structure of the ligand. In the structure of the Cu(II) complex, the Cu(II) ion is coordinated to two phenolate oxygen atoms and two imine nitrogen atoms of the azo‐Schiff base ligand with approximate square planar geometry. The anticancer activity of the synthesized complexes was investigated for human cancer cell line (MCF‐7) and cytotoxicity of the synthesized compounds was determined against mouse fibroblast cells (L929). The ligand and its complexes were found to show antitumor activity. The synthesized metal complexes were optimized at the B3LYP/LANL2DZ level and a new theoretical formula for MCF‐7 cells was also derived.