Novel proton-conducting polymer inclusion membranes

The preparation and characterization of new polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) for proton transport is described. PIMs were prepared with different polymeric cellulose-based compounds and PVC as supports, tris(2-butoxyethyl)phosphate (TBEP) and 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether (NPOE) as plasticizers and dinonylnaphthalenesulfonic acid (DNSA) and dinonylnaphthalenedisulfonic acid (DNDSA) as carriers. The effects of the nature and content of the supports, plasticizers and carriers on membrane proton conductivity was studied using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). This technique was also used to evaluate the chemical stability of a CTA–NPOE–DNDSA membrane while its selectivity was monitored with respect to sodium and calcium ions through counter-transport experiments. DSC and TGA techniques were used to determine the thermal stability of these membranes. A PIM based on CTA–DNDSA–NPOE showed the highest proton conductivity (3.5 mS/cm) with no variation of its behavior during 2 months of evaluation. FTIR characterization did not show structural changes of the membrane in this period of time. Thermal analysis indicates that it is stable up to 180 °C. An empirical functional relationship between PIM resistance and composition indicates that increasing plasticizer and carrier concentrations enhances the conductivity of the membranes, while increasing CTA content tends to decrease this property. Transport experiments showed a good selectivity of the CTA–DNDSA–NPOE membrane for protons over calcium or sodium ions.     

Frustrated Lewis Pair Chemistry of Chiral (+)‐Camphor‐Based Aminoboranes

Dimethylamino‐(+)‐camphorenamine reacted with an equimolar amount of Piers’ borane, HB(C₆F₅)₂, to give the corresponding iminium–hydroborate zwitterionic salt. Being in equilibrium with the parent enamine–HB(C₆F₅)₂ N–B pair, this salt was able to split hydrogen heterolytically, hydrogenating the iminium group in the molecule. Detailed studies revealed that the hydrogen splitting in this reaction proceeded through an intermolecular pathway leading to a bornylamine–HB(C₆F₅)₂ adduct. When the starting enamine is present in excess over HB(C₆F₅)₂, the produced bornylamine–HB(C₆F₅)₂ adduct breaks up, eliminating free bornylamine and forming the initial camphorenamine– HB(C₆F₅)₂ pair. This results in hydrogenation of the camphorenamine framework in a catalytic fashion.     

Unexpected coupling between an eta5-indenyl ligand and alkenyl-vinylidene fragments: synthesis of unprecedented (eta6-indene)ruthenium(II) metallacycles

Vinylidene complexes [Ru[=C=C(H)CR1R2CH2C(Me)=CH2](eta5-C9H7)(PPh3)2][BF4] undergo an intramolecular coupling between the alkenyl-vinylidene fragment and the eta5-indenyl ligand to afford indene-metallacyclic compounds (6a,b) in which the resulting functionalised indene group is eta6-coordinated to the metal.     

Synthesis and reactivity studies of palladium(II) complexes containing the N-phosphorylated iminophosphorane-phosphine ligands Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2 (R=Et, Ph): application to the catalytic synthesis of 2,3-dimethylfuran

Reactions of [PdCl2(COD)] with 1 equiv. of the iminophosphorane-phosphine ligands Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2 (R=Et, Ph) lead to the novel Pd(II) derivatives cis-[PdCl2(kappa2-(P,N)-Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2)] (R=Et, Ph). Pd-N bond cleavage readily takes place upon treatment of these species with a variety of two-electron donor ligands. By this way, complexes cis-[PdCl2(kappa1-(P)-Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2)(L)] (R=Et, L=CNtBu, CN-2,6-C6H3Me2, py, P(OMe)3, P(OEt)3; R=Ph, L=CNtBu, CN-2,6-C6H3Me2, py, P(OMe)3, P(OEt)3) have been synthesized in high yields. The addition of two equivalents of ligands to dichloromethane solutions of [PdCl2(COD)] results in the formation of complexes trans-[PdCl2(kappa1-(P)-Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2)2] (R=Et, Ph), which can be converted into the dicationic species [Pd(Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OR)2}Ph2)2][SbF6]2 (R=Et, Ph) by treatment with AgSbF6. Complex also reacts with CNtBu to afford trans-[Pd(kappa1(P)-Ph2PCH2P{=NP(=O)(OPh)2}Ph2)2(CNtBu)2][SbF6]2. The structures of and have been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. In addition, the ability of these Pd(II) complexes to promote the catalytic cycloisomerization of (Z)-3-methylpent-2-en-4-yn-1-ol into 2,3-dimethylfuran has also been studied.     

Conversion of Phthalimides to Isoindolines by Diborane

Summary. Reduction of N-alkylsubstituted phthalimides to the corresponding isoindolines by means of diborane is herein described.     

Impact of Covalent Modifications on the Hydrogen Bond Strengths in Diaminotriazine Supramolecules

Melamine (M) is a popular triamine triazine compound in the field of supramolecular materials. In this work, we have computationally investigated how substituents can be exploited to improve the binding strength of M supramolecules. Two types of covalent modifications were studied: the substitution of an H atom within an amine group −NHR, and the replacement of the whole −NH₂ group (R=H, F, CH₃ and COCH₃). Through our dispersion-corrected density functional theory computations, we explain which covalent modification will show the best self-assembling capabilities, and why the binding energy is enhanced. Our charge density and molecular orbital analyses indicate that the best substituents are those that generate a charge accumulation on the endocyclic N atom, providing an improvement of the electrostatic attraction. At the same time the substituent assists the main N−H⋅⋅⋅N hydrogen bonds by interacting with the amino group of the other monomer. We also show how the selected group notably boosts the strength of hexameric rosettes. This research, therefore, provides molecular tools for the rational design of emerging materials based on uneven hydrogen-bonded arrangements.     

Determination of total polyphenol index in wines employing a voltammetric electronic tongue

This work reports the application of a voltammetric electronic tongue system (ET) made from an array of modified graphite-epoxy composites plus a gold microelectrode in the qualitative and quantitative analysis of polyphenols found in wine. Wine samples were analyzed using cyclic voltammetry without any sample pretreatment. The obtained responses were preprocessed employing discrete wavelet transform (DWT) in order to compress and extract significant features from the voltammetric signals, and the obtained approximation coefficients fed a multivariate calibration method (artificial neural network-ANN-or partial least squares-PLS-) which accomplished the quantification of total polyphenol content. External test subset samples results were compared with the ones obtained with the Folin–Ciocalteu (FC) method and UV absorbance polyphenol index (I₂₈₀) as reference values, with highly significant correlation coefficients of 0.979 and 0.963 in the range from 50 to 2400 mg L⁻¹ gallic acid equivalents, respectively. In a separate experiment, qualitative discrimination of different polyphenols found in wine was also assessed by principal component analysis (PCA).