1,10-Phenanthrolinium hydrogensquarate monohydrate—A non-centrosymmetric structure from two non-chiral agents

Four different dimethyltin(IV) complexes of Schiff bases derived from 2-amino-3-hydroxypyridine and different substituted salicylaldehydes have been synthesized. The compounds, with the general formula [Me₂Sn(2-OArCHNC₅H₃NO)], where Ar = –C₆H₃(5-CH₃) [Me₂SnL¹], –C₆H₃(5-NO₂) [Me₂SnL²], –C₆H₂(3,5-Cl₂) [Me₂SnL³], and –C₆H₂(3,5-I₂) [Me₂SnL⁴], were characterized by IR, NMR (¹H and ¹³C), mass spectroscopy and elemental analysis. Me₂SnL³ was also characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis and shows a fivefold C₂NO₂ coordination with distorted square pyramidal geometry. H₃C–Sn–CH₃ angles in the complexes were calculated using Lockhart's equations with the ¹J(^117/119Sn–¹³C) and ²J(^117/119Sn–¹H) values (from the ¹H-NMR and ¹³C-NMR spectra). The in vitro antibacterial and antifungal activities of dimethyltin(IV) complexes were also investigated.     

Harmonic Factorization and Reconstruction of the Elasticity Tensor

In this paper, we study anisotropic Hooke’s tensor: we propose a factorization of its fourth-order harmonic part into second-order tensors. We obtain moreover explicit equivariant reconstruction formulas, using second-order covariants, for transverse isotropic and orthotropic fourth-order harmonic tensors, and for trigonal and tetragonal fourth-order harmonic tensors up to a cubic fourth order covariant remainder.     

Monoclinic and triclinic polymorphs of 2-{5,5-dimethyl-3-[2-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)vinyl]cyclohex-2-enylidene}malononitrile-solid-state linear-polarized IR-spectroscopy, DFT calculations and vibrational analysis

The linear-dichroic infrared (IR-LD) spectroscopy of oriented solid samples as suspension in nematic liquid crystal have been carried out for experimental IR-band assignment and structural information of 2-{5,5-dimethyl-3-[2-(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)vinyl]cyclohex-2-enylidene} malononitrile polymorphs. The last data have been compared with known crystallographic ones, thus determining the validity of IR-LD spectral conclusions as well as its possibility to determination of Davydov's splitting effect and separation of pairs of maxima corresponding to non-equivalent molecules included in the unit cell of given compound. The experimental structural and spectroscopic data in our case are supported with theoretical DFT ones, obtaining both the electronic structure and vibrational frequencies in gas phase.     

Gas-diffusion flow injection determination of Hg(II) with chemiluminescence detection

A gas-diffusion flow injection method for the chemiluminescence detection of Hg(II) based on the luminol-H₂O₂ reaction was developed. The analytical procedure involved the injection of Hg(II) samples and standards into a 1.50 M H₂SO₄ carrier stream, which was subsequently merged with a reagent stream of 0.60% (w/v) SnCl₂ in 1.50 M H₂SO₄ to reduce Hg(II) to metallic Hg. The gas-diffusion cell was thermostated at 85 °C to enhance the vaporisation of metallic Hg. Mercury vapour, transported across the Teflon membrane of the gas-diffusion cell into the acceptor stream containing 1.00 × 10⁻⁴ M KMnO₄ in 0.30 M H₂SO₄, was oxidised back to Hg(II). The acceptor stream was merged with a reagent stream containing 2.50 M H₂O₂ in deionised water and then the combined stream was merged with another reagent stream containing 7.50 × 10⁻³ M luminol in 3.00 M NaOH at a confluence point opposite to the photomultiplier tube of the detection system. The chemiluminescence intensity of the luminol-H₂O₂ reaction was enhanced by the presence of Hg(II) in the acceptor stream. The corresponding increase was related to the original concentration of Hg(II) in the samples and standards. Under optimal conditions, the chemiluminescence gas-diffusion flow injection method was characterised by a linear calibration range between 1 μg L⁻¹ and 100 μg L⁻¹, a detection limit of 0.8 μg L⁻¹ and a sampling rate of 12 samples per hour. It was successfully applied to the determination of mercury in seawater and river samples.     

The molybdenum blue reaction for the determination of orthophosphate revisited: Opening the black box

The molybdenum blue reaction, used predominantly for the determination of orthophosphate in environmental waters, has been perpetually modified and re-optimised over the years, but this important reaction in analytical chemistry is usually treated as something of a 'black box' in the analytical literature. A large number of papers describe a wide variety of reaction conditions and apparently different products (as determined by UV–visible spectroscopy) but a discussion of the chemistry underlying this behaviour is often addressed superficially or not at all. This review aims to rationalise the findings of the many 'optimised' molybdenum blue methods in the literature, mainly for environmental waters, in terms of the underlying polyoxometallate chemistry and offers suggestions for the further enhancement of this time-honoured analytical reaction.     

1,1,1‐Trichloro‐3‐(1‐phenethylamino‐ethylidene)‐ pentane‐2,4‐dione—synthesis,spectroscopic, theoretical and structural elucidation

1,1,1‐Trichloro‐3‐(1‐phenethylamino‐ethylidene)‐pentane‐2,4‐dione is spectroscopically and structurally elucidated by means of linear‐polarized IR spectroscopy (IR‐LD) of oriented solids as a colloidal suspension in nematic liquid crystal. Structural information and IR‐spectroscopic assignment are supported by quantum chemical calculations at MP2 and B3LYP level of theory and 6‐311++G** basis set. The geometry is characterized with an inramolecular hydrogen bond of NH^…O?C with length of 2.526 Å and a NHO angle of 140.5(1)°. The NH? C(CH₃)C?C? C?O(CH₃) fragment is nearly flat with a maximal deviation of total planarity of 10.4°. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A tensor artificial viscosity using a finite element approach

We derive a tensor artificial viscosity suitable for use in a 2D or 3D unstructured arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) hydrodynamics code. This work is similar in nature to that of Campbell and Shashkov [1]; however, our approach is based on a finite element discretization that is fundamentally different from the mimetic finite difference framework. The finite element point of view leads to novel insights as well as improved numerical results. We begin with a generalized tensor version of the Von Neumann–Richtmyer artificial viscosity, then convert it to a variational formulation and apply a Galerkin discretization process using high order Gaussian quadrature to obtain a generalized nodal force term and corresponding zonal heating (or shock entropy) term. This technique is modular and is therefore suitable for coupling to a traditional staggered grid discretization of the momentum and energy conservation laws; however, we motivate the use of such finite element approaches for discretizing each term in the Euler equations. We review the key properties that any artificial viscosity must possess and use these to formulate specific constraints on the total artificial viscosity force term as well as the artificial viscosity coefficient. We also show, that under certain simplifying assumptions, the two-dimensional scheme from [1] can be viewed as an under-integrated version of our finite element method. This equivalence holds on general distorted quadrilateral grids. Finally, we present computational results on some standard shock hydro test problems, as well as some more challenging problems, indicating the advantages of the new approach with respect to symmetry preservation for shock wave propagation over general grids.     

PARALLEL AUXILIARY SPACE AMG FOR H（curl） PROBLEMS

In this paper we review a number of auxiliary space based preconditioners for the second order definite and semi-definite Maxwell problems discretized with the lowest order Nedelec finite elements. We discuss the parallel implementation of the most promising of these methods, the ones derived from the recent Hiptmair-Xu （HX） auxiliary space decomposition [Hiptmair and Xu, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 45 （2007）, pp. 2483-2509]. An extensive set of numerical experiments demonstrate the scalability of our implementation on large-scale H（curl） problems.     

Microstructure and Magnetic Behaviour of Nanosized Fe3O4 Powders and Polycrystalline Films

 The object of investigation were the magnetic interactions in nanostructured Fe₃O₄ assemblies of two kinds (powder and film) where particles of similar size present nearly uniform domains in a close to planar arrangement with spacings sufficient for magnetic interactions. We discuss the use of the soft-chemistry method, i.e. the modified ‘ferrite plating’ (MFP) technique, for the synthesis of polycrystalline films of magnetite with nanosized crystallites.