A short and efficient synthesis of (±)-β-cuparenone

A Wittig olefination-Claisen rearrangement strategy has been applied to achieve one of the shortest and efficient synthesis of (±)-β-cuparenone.     

On the scope of diastereoselective allylation of various chiral glyoxylic oxime ethers with allyltributylstannane in the presence of a Lewis acid and triallylaluminum

The nucleophilic allylation of various chiral auxiliaries derived glyoxylic oxime ethers was studied. The use of allyltributylstannane in the presence of a Lewis acid and triallylaluminum provided the corresponding homoallylic amines in high chemical yields (up to 89%) and excellent stereoselectivities (up to >99%). The stereochemical bias of the allylation is proposed.     

Spectroscopic analysis of CIGS2/CdS thin film solar cell heterojunctions on stainless steel foil

This paper presents a spectroscopic analysis of the interface between a CuIn_1−xGa_xS₂ (CIGS2) absorber and a CdS buffer layer on stainless steel foil by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), inverse photoemission spectroscopy (IPES) and photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). By combining these spectroscopic techniques, detailed information about the electronic and chemical properties of the CIGS2 surface and the CdS/CIGS2 interface can be obtained. The gallium concentration in CIGS2 films was found to increase continuously towards the Mo back contact. XPS analysis showed the presence of KCO₃ on the surface of CdS, deposited on etched and un-oxidized samples indicating diffusion of potassium. No potassium was observed on oxidized as well as samples having thicker CdS (50 nm) indicating the effectiveness of oxidation and chemical bath deposition (CBD) process in cleaning the sample surface effectively. In addition, investigation of the electronic level alignment at the interface has been carried out by combining PES and IPES. Conduction band offset of −0.45 (±0.15) eV and a valence band offset of −1.06 (±0.15) eV were measured. These unfavorable conditions limit efficiency of CIGS2 thin film solar cells.     

Quantitative Analysis of Homeopathic Mother Tincture of Boerhaavia diffusa Linn,by HPTLC Employing the Therapeutically Active Marker “Punarnavoside”

JPC – Journal of Planar Chromatography – Modern TLC -     

Mizoroki-Heck reaction, catalysis by nitrogen ligand Pd complexes and activation of aryl bromides

Nitrogen ligands are an excellent alternative for the traditional P-ligands in the Pd catalyzed Mizoroki-Heck reaction. Pd complexes of dimethyl glyoxime, 8-hydroxyquinoline, salen, picolinic acid, DAB ligands gave high yields of the E-cinnamates and E-stilbenes. Acetophenone oxime N,N-dimethybenzyl amine and ferrocenyl oxime palladacycle were better catalysts and comparable yields, TON (95,000) and TOF's (2500 h⁻¹) to P-ligand catalysts, were obtained. Aryl iodides, aryl bromides and in a few cases, aryl chlorides could be also be activated by these complexes by the use of Lewis acid and (C₄H₉)₄NI as additive. DAB ligands gave good yields with electron rich aryl bromides and the use of ionic liquid improved the yield. These metal complexes can be readily synthesized and the N-ligands possess the advantage of easy functional group modifications and convenient synthetic methods compared to P-ligands. The degradation reactions associated with P-ligands is not observed in the N-ligands, with comparable high thermal, moisture and air stability and insensitivity.     

Nobler than the Noblest: Noncubic Gold Microcrystallites

Conventional gold comprising the cubic lattice is universally known for its stability. However, well known to chemists and metallurgists, this nobility is challenged by reagents such as aqua regia, which dissolve gold to form a salt solution. Among metals, mercury blends with gold to form amalgam, otherwise transition metals such as copper tend to interact with gold surfaces in electrochemical media. Herein, we report a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the stability of Au microcrystallites bearing unconventional crystal lattices that exhibit enhanced stability towards Hg and aqua regia and practically no interaction with Cu during electroless plating. The unconventional gold is undoubtedly nobler.     

A Flexible Composite Mechanical Energy Harvester from a Ferroelectric Organoamino Phosphonium Salt

A new binary organic salt diphenyl diisopropylamino phosphonium hexaflurophosphate (DPDP?PF₆) was shown to exhibit a good ferroelectric response and employed for mechanical energy harvesting application. The phosphonium salt crystallizes in the monoclinic noncentrosymmetric space group Cc and exhibits an H‐bonded 1D chain structure due to N?H???F interactions. Ferroelectric measurements on the single crystals of DPDP?PF₆ gave a well‐saturated rectangular hysteresis loop with a remnant (P_r) polarization value of 6 μC cm^?2. Further, composite devices based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films for various weight percentages (3, 5, 7, 10 and 20 wt %) of DPDP?PF₆ were prepared and examined for power generation by using an impact test setup. A maximum output peak‐to‐peak voltage (V_PP) of 8.5 V and an output peak‐to‐peak current (I_PP) of 0.5 μA was obtained for the non‐poled composite film with 10 wt % of DPDP?PF₆. These results show the efficacy of organic ferroelectric substances as potential micropower generators.     

Relative symplectic caps, 4-genus and fibered knots

We prove relative versions of the symplectic capping theorem and sufficiency of Giroux’s criterion for Stein fillability and use these to study the 4-genus of knots. More precisely, suppose we have a symplectic 4-manifold X with convex boundary and a symplectic surface Σ in X such that ?Σ is a transverse knot in ?X. In this paper, we prove that there is a closed symplectic 4-manifold Y with a closed symplectic surface S such that (X,Σ) embeds into (Y,S) symplectically. As a consequence we obtain a relative version of the symplectic Thom conjecture. We also prove a relative version of the sufficiency part of Giroux’s criterion for Stein fillability, namely, we show that a fibered knot whose mondoromy is a product of positive Dehn twists bounds a symplectic surface in a Stein filling. We use this to study 4-genus of fibered knots in \(\mathbb {S}^{3} \). Further, we give a criterion for quasipositive fibered knots to be strongly quasipositive.