On the Extreme Oxidation States of Iridium

It has recently been suggested that the oxidation states of Ir run from the putative ?III in the synthesized solid Na₃[Ir(CO)₃] to the well‐documented +IX in the species IrO₄⁺. Furthermore, [Ir(CO)₃]^3? was identified as an 18‐electron species. A closer DFT study now finds support for this picture: The orbitals spanned by the 6s,6p,5d orbitals of the iridium are all occupied. Although some have considerable ligand character, the deviations from 18 e leave the orbital symmetries unchanged. The isoelectronic systems from Os^?IV to Au^?I behave similarly, suggesting further possible species. To paraphrase Richard P. Feynmann “there is plenty of room at the bottom”.     

N‐Arylation of Heterocycles Promoted by Cyclen Derivatives

An efficient copper‐catalyzed N‐arylation reactions of imidazole, indole, and triazole with aryl or heteroaryl halides using cyclen derivatives as efficient organic base and ligand at moderate temperature have been investigated. The cross‐couplings proceed smoothly with good to excellent yields.     

Altering the Position of Phenyl Substitution to Adjust Film Morphology and Memory Device Performance

In this study, two structural isomers α‐PBT and β‐PBT, which only differ in the phenyl substituent position on the quinoline chromophore, have been designed and successfully synthesized. The influences of substituent position on the film morphology and the storage performance of the devices were investigated. Both molecules employed in the memory devices exhibited same nonvolatile binary (write‐once‐read‐many‐times; WORM) characteristics, but the switch threshold voltage (Vth) of the β‐PBT‐based device was clearly lower than that of the α‐PBT‐based device. Simulation results demonstrate that the variation of the phenyl substituent position led to different intermolecular stacking styles and thus to varied grain sizes for each film morphology. This work illustrates that altering the phenyl substituent position on the molecular backbone could improve the quality of the film morphology and reduce power consumption, which is good for the rational design of future advanced organic memory devices (OMDs).     

A DFT study of CO<Subscript>2</Subscript> electrochemical reduction on Pb(211) and Sn(112)

Electrochemical reduction of CO2 has the benefit of turning greenhouse gas emissions into useful resources. We performed a comparative study of the electrochemical reduction of CO2 on stepped Pb(211) and Sn(112) surfaces based on the results of density functional theory slab calculations. We mapped out the potential energy profiles for electrochemical reduction of CO2 to formate and other possible products on both surfaces. Our results show that the first step is the formation of the adsorbed formate(HCOO*) species through an Eley-Rideal mechanism. The formate species can be reduced to HCOO- through a oneelectron reduction in basic solution, which produces formic acid as the predominant product. The respective potentials of forming HCOO* are predicted to be -0.72 and -0.58 V on Pb and Sn. Higher overpotentials make other reaction pathways accessible, leading to different products. On Sn(112), CO and CH4 can be generated at -0.65 V following formate formation. In contrast, the limiting potential to access alternative reaction channels on Pb(211) is -1.33 V, significantly higher than that of Sn.     

A multi-detector integrated automation system of routine INAA

An integrated automation system of routine instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) with three HPGe detectors has been built at China Institute of Atomic Energy. This system is mainly composed of sample counting system, pneumatic transfer system, software control and analysis systems, etc. The characteristics include more than 200 samples can be controlled for a batch of INAA with three detectors simultaneously, sample counting position can be optimized automatically according to the counting dead time, the real-time tracking and the high consistency between the spectrum and counting sample are possible to be realized through radio frequency identification tag.

     

Existence and uniqueness of perturbed reflected jump diffusion processes

In this article, we establish the existence of the solution to the càdlàg perturbed Skorohod problem. As an application, we obtain the existence and uniqueness of the solution to the perturbed reflected jump diffusion processes.     

Self-Assembly of Alkylammonium Chains on Montmorillonite: Effect of Interlayer Cations,CEC, and Chain Length

Recently, polymeric materials have been filled with synthetic or natural inorganic compounds in order to improve their properties. Especially, polymer clay nanocomposites have attracted both academic and industrial attention. Currently, the structure and physical phenomena of organoclays at molecular level are difficultly explained by existing experimental techniques. In this work, molecular dynamics (MD) simulation was executed using the CLAYFF and CHARMM force fields to evaluate the structural properties of organoclay such as basal spacing, interlayer density, energy and the arrangement of alkyl chains in the interlayer spacing. Our results are in good agreement with available experimental or other simulation data. The effects of interlayer cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺), the cation exchange capacity, and the alkyl chain length on the basal spacing and the structural properties are estimated. These simulations are expected to presage the microstructure of organo-montmorillonite and lead relevant engineering applications.     

E-Stilbene derivatives synthesized by stereoselective reductive coupling of benzylic gem-dibromide promoted by Cu/polyamine

Stereoselective reductive coupling reaction of benzylic gem-dibromide promoted by Cu/polyamine produces E-stilbene derivatives with high yield under mild conditions. It provides a short pathway to synthesize symmetrical and asymmetrical E-stilbene derivatives using cheap reagents and alkenyl-free starting material together with easy workup.