Synthesis and polymerizations of methyl 3,3-difluorocyclobutene-1-carboxylate and methyl 3,3,4,4-tetrafluorocyclobutene-1-carboxylate

Two new monomers, methyl 3,3-difluorocyclobutene-1-carboxylate (MDFC) and methyl 3,3,4,4-tetrafluorocyclobutene-1-carboxylate (MTFC), were synthesized. Under free radical conditions, MDFC gave homopolymer; MTFC did not. Copolymerizations of these monomers showed them to behave as very electron-deficient monomers, MTFC more so than MDFC. MDFC copolymerized with various vinyl ethers and styrenes to give high yields of almost 1:1 copolymers. Acrylonitrile copolymerized in lower yield with less incorporation of MDFC; trimethylethylenetricarboxylate did not copolymerize. Bicyclobutane-1-carbonitrile copolymerized well. MTFC copolymerized with the very electron-rich monomers t-butyl vinyl ether and p-methoxystyrene, leading to alternating and nearly alternating copolymers, respectively, and even styrene tended to give almost 1:1 copolymers. Acrylonitrile gave only polyacrylonitrile, and trimethylethylenetricarboxylate did not react with MTFC under free radical conditions. The reaction of MTFC with the electron-rich monomers t-butyl vinyl ether and p-methoxystyrene occurred spontaneously via charge transfer complexes. Thermally, the copolymers were rather stable, those of MTFC more so than those of MDFC.     

ZP8, a neuronal zinc sensor with improved dynamic range; imaging zinc in hippocampal slices with two-photon microscopy

The synthesis of a difluorofluorescein monocarboxaldehyde platform and its use for preparing ZP8, a new member of the Zinpyr family of neuronal Zn(2+) sensors, are described. By combining an aniline photoinduced electron transfer (PET) switch and an electron-withdrawing fluorescein scaffold, ZP8 displays reduced background fluorescence and improved dynamic range compared to previous ZP probes. The bright sensor undergoes an 11-fold increase in fluorescence intensity upon Zn(2+) complexation (Phi = 0.03-0.35) with high selectivity over cellular concentrations of Ca(2+) and Mg(2+). In addition, sensors in the ZP family have been utilized for optical imaging in biological samples using two-photon microscopy (TPM). The cell-permeable ZP3 probe is capable of identifying natural pools of labile Zn(2+) within the mossy fiber synapses of live hippocampal slices using TPM, establishing the application of this technique for monitoring endogenous Zn(2+) stores.     

Radiation-induced emulsion copolymerization of tetrafluoroethylene with propylene. IV. Effects of emulsifier concentration and dose rate

Radiation-induced emulsion copolymerization of tetrafluoroethylene with propylene was carried out by batch operation with an initial molar ratio of tetrafluoroethylene to propylene of 3.0 in the emulsifier concentration range of 0.1 to 3.0% and in the dose rate range of 2 × 10⁴ to 2 × 10⁵ R/hr. The effects of emulsifier concentration and dose rate on the polymerization rate and the number-average degree of polymerization are discussed in comparison with the Smith-Ewart theory. The polymerization rate is proportional to the 0.26 power of emulsifier concentration and to the 0.7 power of dose rate. The degree of polymerization is independent of the emulsifier concentration and the dose rate above the critical micelle concentration (CMC) of the emulsifier. These results are not in agreement with the Smith-Ewart theory. It is explained that the termination reaction is a degradative chain transfer of propagating radicals to propylene. On the other hand, the copolymerization in emulsion occurs either below the CMC or in the absence of emulsifier. Under these conditions, however, it is impossible to obtain a copolymer of high molecular weight at a high rate of polymerization because of the presence of a small number of polymer particles formed and the short interval of chain growth in the polymer particle.     

Change in spin state and enhancement of redox reactivity of photoexcited states of aromatic carbonyl compounds by complexation with metal ion salts acting as Lewis acids. Lewis acid-catalyzed photoaddition of benzyltrimethylsilane and tetramethyltin via photoinduced electron transfer

The lowest excited state of aromatic carbonyl compounds (naphthaldehydes, acetonaphthones, and 10-methylacridone) is changed from the n,pi triplet to the pi,pi singlet which becomes lower in energy than the n,pi triplet by the complexation with metal ions such as Mg(ClO(4))(2) and Sc(OTf)(3) (OTf = triflate), which act as Lewis acids. Remarkable positive shifts of the one-electron reduction potentials of the singlet excited states of the Lewis acid-carbonyl complexes (e.g., 1.3 V for the 1-naphthaldehyde-Sc(OTf)(3) complex) as compared to those of the triplet excited states of uncomplexed carbonyl compounds result in a significant increase in the redox reactivity of the Lewis acid complexes vs uncomplexed carbonyl compounds in the photoinduced electron-transfer reactions. Such enhancement of the redox reactivity of the Lewis acid complexes leads to the efficient C-C bond formation between benzyltrimethylsilane and aromatic carbonyl compounds via the Lewis-acid-promoted photoinduced electron transfer. The quantum yield determinations, the fluorescence quenching, and direct detection of the reaction intermediates by means of laser flash photolysis experiments indicate that the Lewis acid-catalyzed photoaddition reactions proceed via photoinduced electron transfer from benzyltrimethylsilane to the singlet excited states of Lewis acid-carbonyl complexes.     

Structure and electrochemical properties of carbon aerogels polymerized in the presence of Cu

Copper-loaded organic aerogels were prepared by sol–gel polymerization of resorcinol and formaldehyde in a solution of Cu(NO₃)₂. Carbon aerogels derived from the heat-treatment of the organic precursor kept their particulate structure, according to TEM observations. The particle size in Cu-loaded carbon aerogel samples becomes larger with a higher concentration of Cu incorporated into their texture, due to the presence of Cu²⁺ rather than the pH conditions in the sol–gel process. The nitrogen adsorption measurement of Cu-loaded samples showed their characteristic pore structure, i.e., a combination of microporosity and mesoporosity both developed in their texture. Especially, their advanced microporosity, which was still found after carbonization at 1273 K, was very unique, considering that micropores in organic aerogels often decreased in size during heat-treatment around this temperature range. This microporosity could be related to their stacking structure of aromatic layers revealed by STAC–XRD analysis, indicating a looser packing of aromatic layers in their structure. Application of Cu-loaded samples to electric double-layer capacitor is also discussed from the viewpoint of the amount of Cu as well as the pore structure of the samples.     

Blue photo‐ and electroluminescence based on poly(2‐benzoyl‐1,4‐phenylene) and poly(2,5‐dibenzoyl‐1,4‐phenylene)

Poly(2‐benzoyl‐1,4‐phenylene) (PBP) and poly(2,5‐dibenzoyl‐1,4‐phenylene) (PDBP) were synthesized by coupling polymerization using a Ni catalyst of 2,5‐dichlorobenzophenone and 2,5‐dichloro‐1,4‐dibenzophenone, respectively. These polymers are soluble in common organic solvents, have high thermal stability and show bright blue photoluminescence. Light‐emitting diodes fabricated with these polymers as the active layer emit blue electroluminescence with wavelength at 433 nm for PBP and 475 nm for PDBP. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Free-radical polymerization of vinyl esters using fluoroalcohols as solvents: Effect of monomer structure on stereochemistry

Free-radical polymerization of vinyl esters including vinyl propionate (VPr), vinyl isobutylate (ViBu), vinyl 2,2-dimethylbutylate (VDMB), vinyl 2,2-dimethylvalerate (VDMV), vinyl 2,2-bis(trifluoromethyl)propionate (VF6Pi), and vinyl benzoate (VBz) was carried out using fluoroalcohols as solvents, and the tacticity of the obtained polymers was determined by NMR analysis of the produced poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The polymerization of VPr, ViBu, VDMB, and VDMV, which are bulkier than VAc, in fluoroalcohols afforded polymers rich in heterotacticity (up to mr = 61%) similar to that of vinyl pivalate (VPi) whereas VAc is known to give a syndiotactic polymer under the reaction conditions used here. The polymerization of VF6Pi, which is the bulkiest among the monomers used in this study, gave a polymer rich in syndiotacticity in bulk and in fluoroalcohols regardless of the structure of the solvents. On the other hand, the polymerization of VBz in fluoroalcohols gave polymers with a higher isotacticity (up to mm = 33%) than bulk polymerization. Thus the monomer structure strongly affected the stereochemistry of the free-radical polymerization of vinyl esters in fluoroalcohols. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 2677–2683, 1999     

Gas permeation properties of poly(silamine) membrane

The gas permeation characteristics of poly(silamine) membrane, which consists of alternating 3,3-dimethyl-3-silapentane and N,N′-diethylethylenediamine units in the main chain, were investigated. Though poly(silamine) shows high flexibility (glass transition temperature of −88°C), the gas permeabilities were much lower than those of other rubbery polymers such as poly(dimethylsiloxane) and natural rubber. The activation energies of diffusion in poly(silamine) were much higher than that of natural rubber. On the basis of these results, we propose a model such that the interaction between the Si atom and gas molecules (O₂ and N₂) prevents the free diffusion of the gas molecule in the poly(silamine) membrane. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Estimating Distributions of Parameters in Nonlinear State Space Models with Replica Exchange Particle Marginal Metropolis–Hastings Method

Extracting latent nonlinear dynamics from observed time-series data is important for understanding a dynamic system against the background of the observed data. A state space model is a probabilistic graphical model for time-series data, which describes the probabilistic dependence between latent variables at subsequent times and between latent variables and observations. Since, in many situations, the values of the parameters in the state space model are unknown, estimating the parameters from observations is an important task. The particle marginal Metropolis–Hastings (PMMH) method is a method for estimating the marginal posterior distribution of parameters obtained by marginalization over the distribution of latent variables in the state space model. Although, in principle, we can estimate the marginal posterior distribution of parameters by iterating this method infinitely, the estimated result depends on the initial values for a finite number of times in practice. In this paper, we propose a replica exchange particle marginal Metropolis–Hastings (REPMMH) method as a method to improve this problem by combining the PMMH method with the replica exchange method. By using the proposed method, we simultaneously realize a global search at a high temperature and a local fine search at a low temperature. We evaluate the proposed method using simulated data obtained from the Izhikevich neuron model and Lévy-driven stochastic volatility model, and we show that the proposed REPMMH method improves the problem of the initial value dependence in the PMMH method, and realizes efficient sampling of parameters in the state space models compared with existing methods.