Phosphine-mediated [4 + 2] annulation of bis(enones): a Lewis base catalyzed "mock Diels-Alder" reaction

Lewis-base-catalyzed cycloisomerization of bis(enones) to decalins has been demonstrated as an alternative to the traditional Lewis acid catalyzed Diels-Alder cycloaddition. In this process, a trialkylphosphine mediates both bond formation steps in two distinct catalytic cycles. The single-pot operation generates two carbon-carbon bonds and up to five contiguous stereocenters in one step, starting from achiral, aliphatic substrates; eight examples are provided. [reaction: see text]     

Transparent Conducting Films in the Zn--Sn--O Tie Line

Two Er³⁺/Yb³⁺ monolithic silica-alumina xerogels doped with different Yb³⁺ concentrations were prepared by sol–gel route. The samples were thermally treated in air at 950°C for 120 h, and Raman and UV-visible-NIR spectroscopy were used to monitor the degree of densification of the glasses and the residual OH     

An efficient method to perform milliliter-scale PCR utilizing highly controlled microwave thermocycling

This communication describes the development of a controlled microwave methodology for rapid milliliter-scale PCR.     

Experimental details of the Stopped Beam RISING campaign

The RISING (Rare ISotope INvestigations at GSI) project constitutes a major pan-european initiative to study nuclear structure in exotic nuclei. A brief outline of the technical details specific to studies of isomeric decays following relativistic projectile fragmentation reactions is presented.     

Uniformisierung analytischer Mengen und eine Anwendung bei der Maßfortsetzung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Deposition and Characterization of Metastable Cu3N Layers for Applications in Optical Data Storage

 Cu₃N films for optical data storage were deposited on Si(100) wafers and 0.6 mm thick polycarbonate DVD base material discs at a temperature of 50 °C by reactive magnetron sputtering. A copper target was sputtered in rf mode in a nitrogen plasma. For basic investigations concerning the composition and structure of Cu₃N, Si wafers were used as substrate material. To study the suitability of Cu₃N as an optical data storage medium under technical conditions, Cu₃N/Al bilayers were deposited on polycarbonate discs. The composition and structure of the films were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The decomposition of Cu₃N into metallic copper and nitrogen was induced and characterized with a dynamic tester consisting of an optical microscope with an integrated high power laser diode. The change in reflectivity induced by the laser pulses was measured by a high sensitivity photo detector. Optimized Cu₃N films could be decomposed into metallic copper at pulse lengths of 200 ns. The reflectivity change from 3.2% to 33.2% for completely transformed areas and to 12% for single bits as well as the maximum write data rate of 3.3 Mbit/s demonstrated the suitability of Cu₃N for write once optical data storage. Especially the carrier to noise ratio of 41 dB shows an increase of a factor of 3 for this novel material as compared to conventional optical data storage media.