A Facile Synthesis of Azidoformate via Chloroformate

This work synthesized chloroformates by slowly adding alcohols into a suspension of trichloromethyl chloroformate, instead of phosgene, along with activated charcoal in tetrahydrofuran. This chloroformylation yielded chloroformates in near quantitative yield. The subsequent reaction between chloroformates and sodium azide in dry acetone produced azidoformates in a high yield.     

A study of the combustion and fire-retardance behaviour of unsaturated polyester/phenolic resin blends

The thermal degradation and combustion behaviour of an interpenetrating network (IPN) structure of unsaturated polyester UP resin and a resole type of phenolic resin was studied. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) was used to monitor the degree of thermal decomposition for the UP/phenol IPN structure and the change of the oxygen index (OI) was used to describe the variation of the combustion behaviour. The smoke density was measured via a non-flaming process to detect the amount of smoke generated during the combustion. A homemade cone calorimetric dynamic flammability evaluation system was assembled to analyse the gas evolved and to measure the heat release rate (HRR) during the combustion. Under simulated conditions of a burning field at the temperature of 757°C, the variation of the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) and the HRR of the UP/phenol IPN structure were studied. The results show that modification of the essentially flammable UP resin by the phenol structure to form an IPN system cannot only remarkably improve the heat resistance but also help to suppress the smoke, toxic gas and heat release during the combustion.     

A Supramolecular Trap to Increase the Antibacterial Activity of Colistin

A strong interaction between colistin, a last‐resort antibiotic of the polymyxin family, and free lipopolysaccharide (LPS, also referred to as endotoxin), released from the Gram‐negative bacterial (GNB) outer membrane (OM), has been identified that can decrease the antibacterial efficacy of colistin, potentially increasing the dose of this antibiotic required for treatment. The competition between LPS in the GNB OM and free LPS for the interaction with colistin was prevented by using a supramolecular trap to capture free LPS. The supramolecular trap, fabricated from a subnanometer gold nanosheet with methyl motifs (SAuM), blocks lipid A, preventing the interaction between lipid A and colistin. This can minimize endotoxemia and maximize the antibacterial efficacy of colistin, enabling colistin to be used at lower doses. Thus, the potential crisis of colistin resistance could be avoided.     

THERMAL BEHAVIOR IN RECTANGULAR CHANNELS BY USING TRANSIENT LIQUID CRYSTAL METHOD

A series of experimental investigations by using the transient liquid crystal method on the studies related to the convective heat transfer in rectangular channels with different wall material types have been successfully performed. The results show that the local and average Nusselt numbers on the test channel surface for wall material type (II) are higher than those for wall material type (I). The effect of the steady-state air preheating temperature on average Nusselt numbers is not significant, while the average Nusselt numbers increase with increasing Reynolds number in a power of 0.627. Furthermore, two empirical Nu correlations for channels with wall material type (I) and type (II) are respectively proposed in this study.     

Synthesis and properties of novel triptycene‐based polyimides

Two new triptycene‐containing bis(ether amine)s, 1,4‐bis(4‐aminophenoxy)triptycene ( 4 ) and 1,4‐bis(4‐amino‐2‐trifluoromethylphenoxy)triptycene ( 6 ), were synthesized, respectively, from the nucleophilic chloro‐displacement reactions of p‐chloronitrobenzene and 2‐chloro‐5‐nitrobenzotrifluoride with 1,4‐dihydroxytriptycene in the presence of potassium carbonate, followed by palladium‐catalyzed hydrazine reduction of the dinitro intermediates. The bis(ether amine)s were polymerized with six commercially available aromatic tetracarboxylic dianhydrides to obtain two series of novel triptycene‐based polyimides 8a – f and 9a – f by using a conventional two‐step synthetic method via thermal and chemical imidizations. All the resulting polyimides exhibited high enough molecular weights to permit the casting of flexible and strong films with good mechanical properties. Incorporation of trifluoromethyl groups in the polyimide backbones improves their solubility and decreases their dielectric constants. The fluorinated polyimides 9d and 9f derived from diamine 6 with 4,4′‐oxydiphthalic anhydride and 2,2‐bis(3,4‐dicarboxyphenyl)hexafluoropropane dianhydride (6FDA), respectively, could afford almost colorless thin films. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Existence and Global Convergence of Periodic Solutions in Recurrent Neural Network Models with a General Piecewise Alternately Advanced and Retarded Argument

This paper is concerned with existence, uniqueness and global exponential stability of a periodic solution for recurrent neural network described by a system of differential equations with piecewise constant argument of generalized type (in short DEPCAG). The model involves both advanced and delayed arguments. Employing Banach fixed point theorem combined with Green’s function and DEPCAG integral inequality of Gronwall type, we obtain some novel sufficient conditions ensuring the existence as well as the global convergence of the periodic solution. Our results are new, extend and improve earlier publications. Several numerical examples and simulations are also given to show the feasibility of our results.     

Bi‐channel Surface Acoustic Wave Gas Sensor for Carbon Disulfide and Methanol Vapors in Polymer Plants

A C₆₀‐polyphenylacetylene (C₆₀‐PPA) and polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coated two‐channel surface acoustic wave (SAW) crystal gas sensor with a homemade computer interface for data acquisition and data processing was developed and employed to detect carbon disulfide (CS₂) and methanol (CH₃OH) vapors in polymer plants. The frequency of surface acoustic wave oscillator decreases due to the adsorption of gas molecules on the coated materials of the SAW sensor. Six coating materials (C₆₀‐PPA, nafion, PPA, crytand [2,2], polyethene glycol and PVP) were used to adsorb and detect carbon disulfide and methanol gases. Adsorption of all the six coating materials to CS₂ and CH₃OH was found to be physical adsorption. The C₆₀‐PPA coated SAW detector exhibited more sensitive to CS₂ than the other coating materials. In contrast, the PVP coated SAW detector was more sensitive to CH₃OH than the other coating materials. With the two‐channel SAW sensor, the C₆₀‐PPA coated SAW showed a good detection limit of 0.4 ppm and good reproducibility with RSD of 3.37 % (n=10) for CS₂. Similarly, the PVP coated SAW also showed a good detection limit of 0.05 ppm and good reproducibility, with RSD of 0.86 % (n=10) for CH₃OH. The interference effect of other organic molecules on the SAW detection system was negligible, except for the irreversible adsorption of C₆₀‐PPA to propylamine. The frequency signals from the two‐channel SAW sensor array C₆₀‐PPA and PVP coatings were processed by a back‐propagation artificial neural network (BPN) and multiple regression analysis (MRA). Thus a two‐channel SAW sensor array with BPN and MRA has been successfully applied for the qualitative and quantitative analyses of CS₂ and CH₃OH in mixtures.     

New SmCG phases in a hydrogen-bonded bent-core liquid crystal featuring a branched siloxane terminal group

In this study, we synthesized three analogous bent-core molecules, a hydrogen-bonded complex and a covalent-bonded compound with branched siloxane units (H-SiO and C-SiO, respectively) and a hydrogen-bonded complex with an alkyl unit (H-Alk), and investigated the effects of the hydrogen bonding and branched siloxane terminal units on their mesomorphic properties. The covalent-bonded compound C-SiO and the hydrogen-bonded complex H-Alk exhibited typical SmCP phases; in contrast, the hydrogen-bonded complex H-SiO exhibited a series of general tilt smectic (SmCG) phases with highly ordered layer structures (i.e., SmC?G(2)P(F)-USmCG(2)P(A)-SmCG(2)P(F)-SmCGP(F) upon cooling). During the SmCG-type phase transition process, a 2D-modulated ribbon structure transferred into highly ordered layers via undulated layers, as the hydrogen-bonding strength increased with reduced temperatures. As the SmCG domains were aligned under dc electric fields, a gradual decrease in the leaning angle from ca. 60° to 50° (while the tilt angle kept at ca. 31°) could be determined by in situ wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). Combined with Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopic data, our results suggest that the change in the leaning angle was governed by the competition of the hydrogen bonds and microsegregation of siloxane units within the bilayer structure of the hydrogen-bonded complex H-SiO. In addition, the ferroelectric-(antiferroelectric)-ferroelectric transitions proven by the switching current responses in the SmCG-type phases of H-SiO reveal that the polar switching occurred through collective rotations around the long axis of H-SiO. Therefore, novel SmCG phases with a series of highly ordered 2D-structures were induced by the effects of the hydrogen bonding and branched terminal siloxane unit in the bent-core hydrogen-bonded LC complex H-SiO.     

Gold(I)‐Catalyzed Highly Diastereo‐ and Enantioselective Cyclization–[4+3] Annulation Cascades between 2‐(1‐Alkynyl)‐2‐alken‐1‐ones and Anthranils

This work reports gold‐catalyzed [4+3]‐annulations of 2‐(1‐alkynyl)‐2‐alken‐1‐ones with anthranils to yield epoxybenzoazepine products with excellent exo‐diastereoselectivity (dr>25:1). The utility of this new gold catalysis is manifested by applicable substrates over a broad scope. More importantly, the enantioselective versions of these [4+3]‐cycloadditions have been developed satisfactorily with chiral gold catalysts under ambient conditions (DCM, 0 °C); the ee levels range from 88.0–99.9 %. With DFT calculations, we postulate a stepwise pathway to rationalize the preferable exo‐stereoselection.