Bimodality in molar-mass distribution in polystyrenes initiated by perchloric acid — an artifact? — not diagnostic of propagating species?

Recently rediscovered evidence supports the conclusion that the bimodality of molarmass distributions in polystyrenes initiated by HCIO₄ is not, as widely believed, the consequence of independent chain-growth by different propagating species, but originates from lack of uniformity in reagent concentrations during the earliest stage of the polymerization, where the time-scale of the growth and decay of the transient ionic population is short compared with that of mixing, in conventional preparative experiments.     

Novel effects produced on a two dimensional electron gas by introducing InAs dots in the plane of the quantum well

We show that the presence of InAs dots embedded in a host GaAs quantum well containing a two-dimensional electron gas dramatically modifies the cyclotron resonance (CR). Far-infrared CR measurements show two modes with different dispersions with applied magnetic field B. The lower-frequency mode, with a sub-linear dependence on B, is identified as a CR at low B, developing into a skipping orbit around the dot perimeters at higher B. This has not been previously observed for a system with randomly distributed scatterers. The higher-frequency mode is identified as a magnetoplasmon localised by the confining effect of the arrays of repulsive potentials due to the dots in the well.     

Detection of radionuclides in aqueous samples using cloud point extraction

A cloud point extraction method followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has been developed for the detection of trivalent lanthanides (Ln(III)) in aqueous samples. Ammonium pyrrolodinedithiocarbamate (APDC) was used as the chelating ligand with 2 wt% Triton X-114 as the surfactant. Various experimental parameters were investigated and the extraction efficiency, distribution ratios and concentration factors for the extraction of lanthanum (La), neodymium (Nd), europium (Eu) and thulium (Tm) were determined.     

Total Synthesis Establishes the Biosynthetic Pathway to the Naphterpin and Marinone Natural Products

The naphterpins and marinones are naphthoquinone meroterpenoids with an unusual aromatic oxidation pattern that is biosynthesized from 1,3,6,8‐tetrahydroxynaphthalene (THN). We propose that cryptic halogenation of THN derivatives by vanadium‐dependent chloroperoxidase (VCPO) enzymes is key to this biosynthetic pathway, despite the absence of chlorine in these natural products. This speculation inspired a total synthesis to mimic the naphterpin/marinone biosynthetic pathway. In validation of this biogenetic hypothesis, two VCPOs were discovered that interconvert several of the proposed biosynthetic intermediates.