2H‐Tetrakis(3,5‐di‐tert‐butyl)phenylporphyrin on a Cu(110) Surface: Room‐Temperature Self‐Metalation and Surface‐Reconstruction‐Facilitated Self‐Assembly

The adsorption behavior of 2H‐tetrakis(3,5‐di‐tert‐butyl)phenylporphyrin (2HTTBPP) on Cu(110) and Cu(110)–(2×1)O surfaces have been investigated by using variable‐temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. On the bare Cu(110) surface, individual 2HTTBPP molecules are observed. These molecules are immobilized on the surface with a particular orientation with respect to the crystallographic directions of the Cu(110) surface and do not form supramolecular aggregates up to full monolayer coverage. In contrast, a chiral supramolecular structure is formed on the Cu(110)–(2×1)O surface, which is stabilized by van der Waals interactions between the tert‐butyl groups of neighboring molecules. These findings are explained by weakened molecule–substrate interactions on the Cu(110)–(2×1)O surface relative to the bare Cu(110) surface. By comparison with the corresponding results of Cu–tetrakis(3,5‐di‐tert‐butyl)phenylporphyrin (CuTTBPP) on Cu(110) and Cu(110)–(2×1)O surfaces, we find that the 2HTTBPP molecules can self‐metalate on both surfaces with copper atoms from the substrate at room temperature (RT). The possible origins of the self‐metalation reaction at RT are discussed. Finally, peculiar irreversible temperature‐dependent switching of the intramolecular conformations of the investigated molecules on the Cu(110) surface was observed and interpreted.     

Microscopic coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism in Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe2As2

It is widely believed that, in contrast to its electron-doped counterparts, the hole-doped compound Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe(2)As(2) exhibits a mesoscopic phase separation of magnetism and superconductivity in the underdoped region of the phase diagram. Here, we report a combined high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction and volume-sensitive muon spin rotation study of Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe(2)As(2) showing that this paradigm does not hold true in the underdoped region of the phase diagram (0≤x≤0.25). Instead we find a microscopic coexistence of the two forms of order. A competition of magnetism and superconductivity is evident from a significant reduction of the magnetic moment and a concomitant decrease of the magnetoelastically coupled orthorhombic lattice distortion below the superconducting phase transition.     

Iron 10‐Thiacorroles: Bioinspired Iron(III) Complexes with an Intermediate Spin (S=3/2) Ground State

A first systematic study upon the preparation and exploration of a series of iron 10‐thiacorroles with simple halogenido (F, Cl, Br, I), pseudo‐halogenido (N₃, I₃) and solvent‐derived axial ligands (DMSO, pyridine) is reported. The compounds were prepared from the free‐base octaethyl‐10‐thiacorrole by iron insertion and subsequent ligand‐exchange reactions. The small N₄ cavity of the ring‐contracted porphyrinoid results in an intermediate spin (i.s., S=3/2) state as the ground state for the iron(III) ion. In most of the investigated cases, the i.s. state is found unperturbed and independent of temperature, as determined by a combination of X‐ray crystallography and magnetometry with ¹H NMR‐, EPR‐, and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Two exceptions were found. The fluorido iron(III) complex is inhomogenous in the solid and contains a thermal i.s. (S=3/2)→high spin (h.s., S=5/2) crossover fraction. On the other side, the cationic bis(pyridine) complex resides in the expected low spin (l.s., S=1/2) state. Chemically, the iron 10‐thiacorroles differ from the iron porphyrins mainly by weaker axial ligand binding and by a cathodic shift of the redox potentials. These features make the 10‐thiacorroles interesting ligands for future research on biomimetic catalysts and model systems for unusual heme protein active sites.     

Smoothing by mollifiers. Part II: nonlinear optimization

This article complements the paper (Jongen, Stein, Smoothing by mollifers part I: semi-infinite optimization J Glob Optim doi:), where we showed that a compact feasible set of a standard semi-infinite optimization problem can be approximated arbitrarily well by a level set of a single smooth function with certain regularity properties. In the special case of nonlinear programming this function is constructed as the mollification of the finite min-function which describes the feasible set. In the present article we treat the correspondences between Karush–Kuhn–Tucker points of the original and the smoothed problem, and between their associated Morse indices.      

Singular Perturbations of Limit Points with Application to Tubular Chemical Reactors

Singular perturbation techniques are used to study solutions of certain nonlinear boundary-value problems defined on domains with a circular hole of radius ε, in the limit ε → 0. Asymptotic expansions are constructed to describe the behavior of solutions at and near simple and double limit points (cusps). In particular, the behavior of axisymmetric solutions in an annular domain at limit points is investigated. The results are applied to two model problems arising in chemical-reactor theory. The asymptotic analysis predicts a surprisingly large sensitivity of limit points to the ε-domain perturbation considered here.     

Bis(BF2)-2,2'-bidipyrrins (BisBODIPYs): highly fluorescent BODIPY dimers with large stokes shifts

Four new dimeric bis(BF(2))-2,2'-bidipyrrins (bisBODIPYs), and their corresponding BODIPY monomers, have been prepared and studied with respect to their structural and photophysical properties. The solid-state molecular structure of the dimers and the relative orientation of the subunits have been revealed by an X-ray diffraction study, which showed that the molecules contain two directly linked BODIPY chromophores in a conformationally fixed, almost orthogonal arrangement. Two of the fluorine atoms are in close contact with each other and the (19)F NMR spectra show a characteristic through-space coupling in solution. The new chromophores all exhibit a clear exciton splitting in the absorption spectra with maxima at about 490 and 560 nm, and are highly luminescent with an intense emission band at around 640 nm. The Stokes shift, which is the difference between the maximum of the lowest-energy absorption band and the maximum of the emission band, has a typical value of 5 to 15 nm for simple BODIPYs, whereas this value increases to 80 nm or more for the dimers, along with a slight decrease in fluorescence quantum yields and lifetimes. These properties indicate potential uses of these new fluorophoric materials as functional dyes in biomedical and materials applications and also in model compounds for BODIPY aggregates.     

Facile intramolecular C(sp3)-H bond activation with PdII

The treatment of bis(4-tert-butylthiazolyl)isoindoline (4-tBuBTI) with palladium acetate results in the exclusive formation of an organometallic PdII compound with C-H activated t-butyl group and a hemilabile S-coordinated thiazole donor in cis-position.     

Improved fatty acid detection in micro-algae and aquatic meiofauna species using a direct thermal desorption interface combined with comprehensive gas chromatography-time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC x GC) with time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection is used to profile the fatty acid composition of whole/intact aquatic microorganisms such as the common fresh water green algae Scenedesmus acutus and the filamentous cyanobacterium Limnothrix sp. strain MRI without any sample preparation steps. It is shown that the technique can be useful in the identification of lipid markers in food-web as well as environmental studies. For instance, new mono- and diunsaturated fatty acids were found in the C(16) and C(18) regions of the green algae S. acutus and the filamentous cyanobacterium Limnothrix sp. strain MRI samples. These fatty acids have not, to our knowledge, been detected in the conventional one-dimensional (1D) GC analysis of these species due to either co-elution and/or their presence in low amounts in the sample matrix. In GC x GC, all congeners of the fatty acids in these microorganisms could be detected and identified due to the increased analyte detectability and ordered structures in the two-dimensional separation space. The combination of direct thermal desorption (DTD)-GC x GC-time-of-flight mass spectrometry (ToF-MS) promises to be an excellent tool for a more accurate profiling of biological samples and can therefore be very useful in lipid biomarker research as well as food-web and ecological studies.