Bidirectional Redox Molecular Switches: Electron-induced Cyclization and Cycloreversion Processes in Metacyclophanes

A reversible bidirectional ring-opening and ring-closing system triggered by electricity has been prepared by using metacyclophan-1-enes, a known thermo-photochromic molecular switch system.     

Theoretical and experimental investigation on the electronic properties of the shuttlecock shaped and the double-decker structured metal phthalocyanines, MPc and M(Pc)2 (M = Sn and Pb)

The molecular geometries, electronic structures, and excitation energies of tin and lead phthalocyanine compounds, SnPc, PbPc, Sn(Pc)(2), and Pb(Pc)(2), were investigated using the B3LYP method within a framework of density functional theory (DFT). The geometries of SnPc, PbPc, Sn(Pc)(2), and Pb(Pc)(2) were optimized under C(4v), C(4v), D(4d), and D(4d) molecular symmetries, respectively. The excitation energies of these molecules were computed by the time-dependent DFT (TD-DFT) method. The calculated results for the excited states of three compounds other than the unknown Pb(Pc)(2) corresponded well with the experimental results of electronic absorption spectroscopy. The non-planar C(4v) molecular structure of SnPc and PbPc influences especially on the orbital energy of the HOMO-1 through mixing of the s-type atomic orbital of the central metal atom to the π system of the Pc ring in an anti-bonding way; however, the HOMO and the LUMO have little effect of the deviation from the planar structure because they have no contribution from the atomic orbital of the central metal. This orbital mixing pushes up the orbital energy of the HOMO-1, and reduces the energy of the metal-to-ligand charge transfer band of SnPc and PbPc. The calculated results also reproduced well the excitation profile of Sn(Pc)(2), which was quite different from that of SnPc. The strong interactions between the π-type orbitals of two Pc moieties altered the electronic structure resulting in the characteristic excitation profile of Sn(Pc)(2). In addition, this caused a reduction of about 0.8 eV in the ionization potential as compared to usual MPcs including SnPc, which was consistent with the experimental results.     

Cyclotron Resonance in the Hidden-Order Phase of URu_{2}Si_{2}

We report the first observation of cyclotron resonance in the hidden-order phase of ultraclean URu_{2}Si_{2} crystals, which allows the full determination of angle-dependent electron-mass structure of the main Fermi-surface sheets. We find an anomalous splitting of the sharpest resonance line under in-plane magnetic-field rotation. This is most naturally explained by the domain formation, which breaks the fourfold rotational symmetry of the underlying tetragonal lattice. The results reveal the emergence of an in-plane mass anisotropy with hot spots along the [110] direction, which can account for the anisotropic in-plane magnetic susceptibility reported recently. This is consistent with the "nematic" Fermi liquid state, in which itinerant electrons have unidirectional correlations.     

Effect of glutathione on lambda deoxyribonucleic acid strand breaks in the reaction system of glutathione-alloxan in the presence of Fe(3+)-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid.

Alkaline sucrose density gradient and agarose gel electrophoresis methods were used to observe lambda deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) strand breaks by the reaction system of reduced glutathione (GSH) with alloxan in the presence of Fe(3+)-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). When DNA was incubated in the reaction system for 10 min, DNA strand breaks were easily induced. The increasing concentrations of GSH up to 1.0 mM in the reaction system in the presence of 1.0 mM alloxan caused DNA strand breaks in a concentration-dependent fashion and GSH beyond 2.0 mM caused in the strand breaks of DNA by which the fragments with multiple ranges of molecular weight were produced. The strand breaks of DNA in the reaction system containing low concentrations of GSH were protected by catalase and hydroxyl radical (HO.) scavengers but superoxide dismutase (SOD) did not, indicating that such breaks were induced by HO.generated from the Fenton reaction. On the other hand, the strand breaks of DNA at high concentrations of GSH were protected by ethanol and desferrioxamine, but not effectively by SOD and HO.scavengers, suggesting the possible participation of some oxidizing species of iron rather than HO.. These results indicate that HO.or oxidizing species of iron generated in the GSH-alloxan system depending on the concentration of GSH attacks DNA to produce strand breaks.     

Luminescent palladium complexes containing thioamide-based SCS pincer ligands

Thioamide-based tridentate ligands, 1,3-benzenedicarbothioamides (1a-c), were used to afford pincer palladium(II) complexes (Pd(1-H)Cl, 2a-c) with η³-S,C,S type coordination. The complexes exhibit strong emission in a glassy frozen state as well as in the solid state. The decay lifetime of the emission from the complexes is in a range of 8-9 × 10⁻⁵ s, which is indicative of phosphorescent emission.     

Stereoselective Synthesis of cis‐β‐Methyl‐ and Phenyl‐Substituted Alkenylboronates by Platinum‐Catalyzed Dehydrogenative Borylation

Changing places : Intramolecular B(pin)/H exchange took place in the presence of a platinum–phosphane catalyst, giving synthetically useful cis‐β‐methyl‐substituted alkenylboronates stereoselectively (see scheme; B(pin)=4,4,5,5‐tetramethyl‐1,3,2‐dioxaborolan‐2‐yl).

     

Femtosecond laser ionization of organic amines with very low ionization potentials: relatively small suppressed ionization features

We examined the femtosecond nonresonant ionization of organic amines with vertical ionization potentials as low as 5.95 eV. The quantitative evaluation of suppressed ionization relative to the single active electron approximation model was done by comparing the saturation intensity, I(sat), in experiments and theory. ADK theory was found to be useful in predicting the ionization yield in the I(sat) scale within a factor of 2, even for molecules with very low ionization potentials. The degree of suppression was, however, smaller than that of benzene. The localization of electrons on the nitrogen atom was found to affect the ionization behavior under the strong laser field. The delocalized pi electrons in benzene could not follow the laser field adiabatically, while those in localized molecular orbitals could. In addition, the growth of a tunneling barrier due to the screening effect in amines may be relatively smaller than that in benzene.     

Nickel-catalyzed addition of C-H bonds of terminal alkynes to 1,3-dienes and styrenes

The C-H bond of a terminal alkyne adds to a carbon-carbon double bond of 1,3-dienes, styrenes, and norbornene at room temperature in the presence of a nickel catalyst in regio- and stereoselective manners. Reaction of triisopropylsilylacetylene with 1-substituted 1,3-butadiene derivatives afforded hydroalkynylation products via introduction of a hydrogen atom and a triisopropylsilylethynyl group to 4- and 3-positions of the dienes, respectively. Likewise, 1-triisopropylsiloxy-1,3-butadiene, 1,3-pentadiene, 1-cyclohexen-1-yl-1,3-butadiene, and 1,3-cyclohexadiene underwent the hydroalkynylation reaction, giving the corresponding 1,4-enyne derivatives in good yields at room temperature. Reaction of p-substituted styrene with triisopropylsilylacetylene also proceeded in the presence of the nickel catalyst, giving the branched hydroalkynylation products in good yields. Norbornene gave a exo-addition product in good yield under the same reaction conditions.     

Existence and nonexistence of maximizers for variational problems associated with Trudinger–Moser type inequalities in $${mathbb{R}^N}$$

We discuss the existence of a maximizer for a maximizing problem associated with the Trudinger–Moser type inequality in mathbbR^N(N 3 2){mathbb{R}^N(Ngeq 2)}. Different from the bounded domain case, we obtain both of the existence and the nonexistence results. The proof requires a careful estimate of the maximizing level with the aid of normalized vanishing sequences.