Distorted Porphyrins with High Stability: Synthesis and Characteristic Electronic Properties of Mono- and Di-Nuclear Tricarbonyl Rhenium Tetraazaporphyrin Complexes

Mono- and di-nuclear tricarbonyl Re(I) tetraazaporphyrin complexes ( Re₁TAP and Re₂TAP ) are investigated and compared with Re(I) phthalocyanine complexes ( Re₁Pc and Re₂Pc ). Although Re₂Pc is unstable in polar solvents, and easily undergoes demetallation reaction, the coordination of the TAP ligand significantly improves the tolerance toward polar solvents, affording more stability to Re₂TAP . Additionally, the incorporation of [Re(CO)₃]⁺ unit(s) and the TAP ligand results in remarkable positive shifts in both oxidation and reduction potentials. Consequently, the more positive oxidation potentials of the ReTAP complexes significantly increase the tolerance toward oxidation, while the reduction potential indicates that Re₂TAP is suitable for a soluble electron acceptor. In contrast to Re₁Pc and Re₂Pc , Re₁TAP and Re₂TAP show unique broad Q bands, which can be attributed to the admixture of the π-π* and metal-to-ligand charge transfer characters, owing to the lowered π orbital energy in the TAP complexes. This study is useful for controlling electronic properties and realizing high stability in Pc analogues.     

Construction of Helical Structures with Multiple Fused Anthracenes: Structures and Properties of Long Expanded Helicenes

Polycyclic aromatic compounds consisting of four or five fused anthracene units were synthesized by PtCl₂-catalyzed cycloisomerization as novel long expanded helicenes. These compounds have helical structures with significant stacking of the terminal anthracene moieties at 0.33 nm interlayer distance. In the UV-vis and fluorescence spectra, the absorption and emission bands were red-shifted as the number of fused anthracene units was increased. The characteristic broad and long-lived emission bands of the long analogues are explained by the excimer-like stabilization of the excited state. These photophysical data as well as their cyclic voltammetric data are discussed on the basis of the π-conjugation and interlayer π⋅⋅⋅π interactions in the molecular structures and the molecular orbitals. The barrier and mechanism of helical inversion are also reported.     

Quarkonia at Finite T: An Approach Based On QCD Sum Rules and the Maximum Entropy Method

Quarkonium spectral functions at finite temperature are studied, making use of a recently developed method of analyzing QCD sum rules by the maximum entropy method. This approach enables us to directly obtain the spectral function from the sum rules, without having to introduce any specific assumption about its functional form. QCD sum rules for heavy quarkonia incorporate finite temperature effects in form of changing values of the various gluonic condensates that appear in the operator product expansion. These changes depend on the energy density and pressure at finite temperature, which we extract from quenched lattice QCD calculations. As a result, it is found that the charmonium ground states of both S-wave and P-wave channels dissolve into the continuum already at temperatures around or slightly above the critical temperature T _c , while the bottomonium states are less influenced by temperature effects, surviving up to about 2.5 T _c or higher for S-wave and about 2.0 T _c for P-wave states.     

Preparation of polymethyl methacrylate with well-controlled stereoregularity by anionic polymerization in an ionic liquid solvent

This study investigates the effect of ionic liquids (ILs) on the anionic polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA). Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), an isotactic polymer, is prepared by anionic polymerization at a high reaction temperature with an IL that acts as both solvent and additive. The most plausible reaction mechanism is determined using ¹H NMR and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. The electrostatic interaction between MMA and the IL increases the apparent steric hindrance in MMA, resulting in the isotactic PMMA.     

Nonlinear diffusion equations driven by the p(·)-Laplacian

This paper is concerned with nonlinear diffusion equations driven by the p(·)-Laplacian with variable exponents in space. The well-posedness is first checked for measurable exponents by setting up a subdifferential approach. The main purposes are to investigate the large-time behavior of solutions as well as to reveal the limiting behavior of solutions as p(·) diverges to the infinity in the whole or in a subset of the domain. To this end, the recent developments in the studies of variable exponent Lebesgue and Sobolev spaces are exploited, and moreover, the spatial inhomogeneity of variable exponents p(·) is appropriately controlled to obtain each result.     

Tentative Comparison of Tube Radial Distribution Chromatography and CZE

Tube radical distribution chromatography (TRDC) uses an untreated open tubular capillary tube and a ternary mixture of solvents (water and hydrophilic/hydrophobic organic solvents) as a carrier solution. A model analyte mixture comprising 1-naphthol, 1-naphthoic acid, 1-naphthalenesulfonic acid, 2,6-naphthalenedisulfonic acid, and 1,3,6-naphthalenetrisulfonic acid was examined by the TRDC and capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) systems that comprised mainly a capillary tube and a detector. In the TRDC system the elution order of analytes could be changed by altering the component ratios of the solvents, whereas in the CZE system the elution order was changed by altering the electroosmotic flow direction. The experimental data obtained provide clues about the features and utility of TRDC as a new separation method.     

Membrane-based microchannel device for continuous quantitative extraction of dissolved free sulfide from water and from oil

Underground fluids are important natural sources of drinking water, geothermal energy, and oil-based fuels. To facilitate the surveying of such underground fluids, a novel microchannel extraction device was investigated for in-line continuous analysis and flow injection analysis of sulfide levels in water and in oil. Of the four designs investigated, the honeycomb-patterned microchannel extraction (HMCE) device was found to offer the most effective liquid–liquid extraction. In the HMCE device, a thin silicone membrane was sandwiched between two polydimethylsiloxane plates in which honeycomb-patterned microchannels had been fabricated. The identical patterns on the two plates were accurately aligned. The extracted sulfide was detected by quenching monitoring of fluorescein mercuric acetate (FMA). The sulfide extraction efficiencies from water and oil samples of the HMCE device and of three other designs (two annular and one rectangular channel) were examined theoretically and experimentally. The best performance was obtained with the HMCE device because of its thin sample layer (small diffusion distance) and large interface area. Quantitative extraction from both water and oil could be obtained using the HMCE device. The estimated limit of detection for continuous monitoring was 0.05 μM, and sulfide concentrations in the range of 0.15–10 μM could be determined when the acceptor was 5 μM FMA alkaline solution. The method was applied to natural water analysis using flow injection mode, and the data agreed with those obtained using headspace gas chromatography-flame photometric detection. The analysis of hydrogen sulfide levels in prepared oil samples was also performed. The proposed device is expected to be used for real time survey of oil wells and groundwater wells.