Ionic liquids as reagents and solvents in conjunction with microwave heating: rapid synthesis of alkyl halides from alcohols and nitriles from aryl halides

We show that using ionic liquids as reagents in conjunction with microwave heating it is possible to prepare primary alkyl halides from the corresponding alcohols rapidly. Using ionic liquids as solvents in conjunction with microwave heating it is possible to prepare aryl nitriles from the corresponding aryl bromides or iodides. The scope and limitations of using microwave-promotion as a tool in these reactions is discussed.     

Exciton Molecules in Quantum Wells: Influence of the Well Width Fluctuations

The influence of the well width fluctuations on the dependence of the binding energy of excitonic complexes in quantum wells is studied by using the path-integral Monte-Carlo technique. The results are compared with available experimental data and a good agreement is found.Postdoctoral researcher of FWO-Vlaanderen     

Electric Instability in <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>-CdTe:In Layers with <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis>-Shaped Voltage-Current Characteristics

A switching of the S-type in the 20–200 μm thick polycrystalline n-CdTe:In layers with resistance of 10³–10⁶ Ω·cm is studied. The electric instability in the layers is found to be due to the electron-thermal breakdown mechanism. The dependence of the switching threshold parameters on the intensity of exposure can be used for fabrication of infrared-radiation controlled electric switches on the basis of n-CdTe:In layers. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 6, pp. 28–30, June, 2005.     

A short and efficient synthesis of (+)-disparlure and its enantiomer

A short and highly efficient approach was applied for the total synthesis of the gypsy moth sex pheromone (+)-disparlure and its enantiomer from isopropylidene D- and L-erythrose, using a common strategy.     

The “corset effect” of spin-lattice relaxation in polymer melts confined in nanoporous media

Linear polyethylene oxides with molecular weightsM _w of 1665 and 10170 confined in pores with variable diameters in a solid methacrylate matrix were studied by proton field-cycling nuclear magnetic resonance relaxometry. The pore diameter was varied in the range of 9–57 nm. In all cases, the spin-lattice relaxation time shows a frequency dependence close toT ₁∞ v^3/4 in the range ofv=3·10^?1-2·10¹ MHz as predicted by the tube-reptation model. This protonT ₁ dispersion essentially reproduces that found in a previous deuteron study (R. Kimmich, R.-O. Seitter, U. Beginn, M. Möller, N. Fatkullin: Chem. Phys. Lett. 307, 147, 1999). As a feature particularly characteristic for reptation, this finding suggests that reptation is the dominating chain dynamics mechanism under pore confinement in the corresponding time range. The absolute values of the spin-lattice relaxation times indicate that the diameter of the effective tubes in which reptation occurs is much smaller than the pore diameters on the time scale of spin-lattice relaxation experimens. An estimation leads to a valued ^*～0.5 nm. The impenetrability of the solid pore walls, the uncrossability of polymer chains (“excluded volume”) and the low value of the compressibility in polymer melts create the “corset effect” which reduces the lateral motions of polymer chains to a microscopic scale of only a few tenths of a nanometer.     

effect of surface modification on the properties of hydrogen-sensitive GaAs-based Schottky diodes

The surface of hydrogen-sensitive GaAs Schottky diodes is modified by nonpolishing etching and by producing quantum wells and quantum dots in the space-charge region of the semiconductor. The sensitivity to hydrogen is found to increase by a factor of 8–37 after the etching and by two or three orders of magnitude after the introduction of quantum wells and dots. It is shown that the increased sensitivity is associated with the lowering of the barrier at the Pd/GaAs interface, the retardation of hydrogen diffusion into GaAs due to the presence of strained quantum-size layers, and an increase in the recombination current. The presence of the recombination component is supported by luminescence from the quantum wells and quantum dots, as well as from the GaAs substrate. The etch composition is shown to be a decisive factor in raising the sensitivity.     

Radiative lifetimes in Ce I and Ce II

New radiative lifetime measurements based on time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence techniques are reported for 18 even-parity levels belonging to the 4f5d^26p and 4f ²5d ² configurations of Ce I and 6 even-parity levels belonging to the 5d^26s, 4f5d6p, and 4f6s6p configurations of Ce II. Free neutral and singly ionized cerium atoms were produced by laser ablation. The Ce I and Ce II levels range in energy from 26 545 to 29 102 cm^-1, and 42 573 to 48 152 cm^-1, respectively. Received 25 September 2002 Published online 4 March 2003