Hydrothermal synthesis and magnetic properties of novel Mn(II) and Zn(II) materials with thiolato-carboxylate donor ligand frameworks

The hydrothermal reaction of thiosalicylic acid, (C(6)H(4)(CO(2)H)(SH)-1,2) with manganese(III) acetate leads to formation of the coordination solid [Mn(5)((C(6)H(4)(CO(2))(S)-1,2)(2))(4)(mu3-OH)2] (1) via a redox reaction, where resulting manganese(II) centres are coordinated by oxygen donor atoms and S-S disulfide bridge formation is simultaneously observed. Reaction of the same ligand under similar conditions with zinc(II) chloride yields the layered coordination solid [Zn(C(6)H(4)(CO(2))(S)-1,2)] (2). Hydrothermal treatment of manganese(III) acetate with 2-mercaptonicotinic acid, (NC(5)H(3)(SH)(CO(2)H)-2,3) was found to produce the 1-dimensional chain structure [Mn(2)((NC(5)H(3)(S)(CO(2))-2,3)(2))(2)(OH(2))(4)].4H(2)O (3) which also exhibits disulfide bridge formation and oxygen-only metal interactions. Compound 3 has been studied by thermogravimetric analysis and indicates sequential loss of lattice and coordinated water, prior to more comprehensive ligand fragmentation at elevated temperatures. The magnetic behaviour of 1 and 3 has been investigated and both exhibit antiferromagnetic interactions. The magnetic behaviour of 1 has been modelled as two corner-sharing isosceles triangles whilst 3 has been modelled as a 1-dimensional chain.     

Comment: 2004's fastest organic and biomolecular chemistry!

In January 2003, the Royal Society of Chemistry launched Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC)--a journal promising to provide high quality research from all aspects of synthetic, physical and biomolecular organic chemistry. The journal was set to build upon the foundations laid down by its predecessor publications (J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 1 and J. Chem. Soc., Perkin Trans. 2) as well as complement the subject coverage already published in prestigious general chemistry journals such as Chemical Communications and Chemical Society Reviews. Nearly two years on, just how is the programme developing and what can the community expect to see from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)?     

Triplet state properties of the benzo[α]pyrene-DNA complex as determined by optically detected zero-field magnetic resonance

The zero-field transitions in the photoexcited triplet state of benzo[α]pyrene bound to DNA have been observed by optical detection of magnetic resonance of 2 K. The transition frequencies individual spin sublevel intersystem crossing rates were measured by monitoring the microwave-induced intensity changes of the triplettriplet absorption at 465.8 nm. The triplet state zero-field splitting and dynamics for the benzo[α]pyrene DNA complex are compared with these properties measured for benzo(α)pyrene in other solvent systems.     

The schmidt reaction on 3a,4,5,6-tetrahydrosuccinimido[3,4-b]-acenaphthen-10-one and its alkylated derivatives

The rearrangement of 3a,4,5,6-tetrahydrosuccinimido[3,4-b]acenaphthen-10-one and two methylated derivatives using Schmidt conditions is described. The ratio of the major product, 2,3,8,9-tetrahydro-3-oxo-1H-benz[de]isoquinoline-1,9a-(7H)dicarboximide, to the minor product, 2,3,6,7-tetrahydro-3-oxo-4H-benz[ij]-isoquinoline-4,4a-(5H)dicarboximide, under different acidic conditions is given. The ratios of analogous products from the methylated derivatives are similar under similar conditions.     

Determination of the thermodynamic excess functionsG E,H E,andS E of the liquid ternary system AgCl—LiCl—KCl by means of EMF-measurements

By means of EMF-measurements using the formation cell $$graphite/Ag/AgCl(l,x_{AgCl} ) - LiCl(l,x_{LiCl} ) - KCl x_{KCl} /(Cl_2 )graphite$$ the partial molar excessGibbs energies,G _AgCl ^E , of silver chloride in the ternary system AgCl?LiCl?KCl were determined over the whole concentration range at five temperatures between 973 K and 1,123 K. The experimentally determinedG _AgCl ^E -values were fitted using theRedlich-Kister equation. From theRedlich-Kister parameters and their temperature dependence, obtained by the fitting procedure, the integral and partial molar excessGibbs energies, heats of mixing, and excess entropies were calculated. The fitting process permits also the calculation of the thermodynamic excess function of the binary system lithium chloride—potassium chloride.     

Formation of carbon oxides during tobacco combustion: Pyrolysis studies in the presence of isotopic gases to elucidate reaction sequence

During the combustion of tobacco, carbon monoxide is formed by the thermal decomposition of tobacco with primary products such as carbon dioxide and water. These three processes occur in parallel and are interdependent. The temperature ranges over which each process occurs, and their relative importance have been assessed by pyrolysing tobacco in the presence of various isotopically labelled gases. Non-isothermal pyrolyses were conducted at a heating rate of 1.6 K s^?1 up to 1000°C, with the products analysed by mass spectrometer.Pyrolysis in the presence of oxygen-18 indicates that combustion of tobacco starts at 180°C. Carbon dioxide and water are formed by combustion at 180°C, while carbon monoxide is not formed as a combustion product until 460°C. The quantities of carbon monoxide and dioxide formed by thermal decomposition of tobacco above 400°C are significantly reduced by the occurrence of combustion.Pyrolysis in the presence of carbon-13 dioxide or carbon dioxide-18 shows that its major reaction, endothermic reduction to form carbon monoxide begins at 450°C. Pyrolysis in an oxygen-18/carbon-13 dioxide atmosphere has shown that this endothermic reduction of carbon dioxide occurs in parallel with the strongly exothermic oxidising reactions. 30% of the total carbon monoxide formed was produced by thermal decomposition of the tobacco. 36% was produced by combustion of the tobacco, and at least 23% was produced via carbon dioxide. The remainder was produced by an interaction of the carbon dioxide reduction and the oxidation. Similar proportion would be expected inside the reaction zone of a burning cigarette.Pyrolysis in the presence of heavy water has shown that the major reaction of the water is to quantitatively produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen above 600°C. Considerable isotopic exchange reactions also occur. Pyrolysis in the presence of carbon monoxide-18 has shown that carbon monoxide reacts with tobacco to a small extent at temperatures above 220°C mainly to abstract oxygen combined in the tobacco and produce carbon dioxide.A sequence of general chemical steps for the production of the carbon oxides and water during tobacco combustion has been deduced. This is based on the present work together with considerations of previously published studies on graphite and coal reactions.     

Optimization of the design and operation of FAIMS analyzers

Field asymmetric waveform ion mobility spectrometry (FAIMS) holds significant promise for post-ionization separations in conjunction with mass-spectrometric analyses. However, a limited understanding of fundamentals of FAIMS analyzers has made their design and operation largely an empirical exercise. Recently, we developed an a priori simulation of FAIMS that accounts for both ion diffusion (including anisotropic components) and Coulomb repulsion, and validated it by extensive comparisons with FAIMS/MS data. Here it is corroborated further by FAIMS-only measurements, and applied to explore how key instrumental parameters (analytical gap width and length, waveform frequency and profile, the identity and flow speed of buffer gas) affect FAIMS response. We find that the trade-off between resolution and sensitivity can be managed by varying gap width, RF frequency, and (in certain cases) buffer gas, with equivalent outcome. In particular, the resolving power can be approximately doubled compared to "typical" conditions. Throughput may be increased by either accelerating the gas flow (preferable) or shortening the device, but below certain minimum residence times performance deteriorates. Bisinusoidal and clipped-sinusoidal waveforms have comparable merit, but switching to rectangular waveforms would improve resolution and/or sensitivity. For any waveform profile, the ratio of two between voltages in high and low portions of the cycle produces the best performance.     

How to choose one-dimensional basis functions so that a very efficient multidimensional basis may be extracted from a direct product of the one-dimensional functions: energy levels of coupled systems with as many as 16 coordinates

In this paper we propose a scheme for choosing basis functions for quantum dynamics calculations. Direct product bases are frequently used. The number of direct product functions required to converge a spectrum, compute a rate constant, etc., is so large that direct product calculations are impossible for molecules or reacting systems with more than four atoms. It is common to extract a smaller working basis from a huge direct product basis by removing some of the product functions. We advocate a build and prune strategy of this type. The one-dimensional (1D) functions from which we build the direct product basis are chosen to satisfy two conditions: (1) they nearly diagonalize the full Hamiltonian matrix; (2) they minimize off-diagonal matrix elements that couple basis functions with diagonal elements close to those of the energy levels we wish to compute. By imposing these conditions we increase the number of product functions that can be removed from the multidimensional basis without degrading the accuracy of computed energy levels. Two basic types of 1D basis functions are in common use: eigenfunctions of 1D Hamiltonians and discrete variable representation (DVR) functions. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The 1D functions we propose are intermediate between the 1D eigenfunction functions and the DVR functions. If the coupling is very weak, they are very nearly 1D eigenfunction functions. As the strength of the coupling is increased they resemble more closely DVR functions. We assess the usefulness of our basis by applying it to model 6D, 8D, and 16D Hamiltonians with various coupling strengths. We find approximately linear scaling.     

Novel "Potentially antiaromatic", acidichromic quinonediimines with tunable delocalization of their 6 pi-electron subunits

We present a novel family of "potentially antiaromatic" alkyl-substituted p-benzoquinonediimine pH-dependent chromophores. It appears from the structural data that these overall 12 pi-electron molecules should be better considered as constituted by two chemically connected but electronically not conjugated 6 pi-electron subunits. Molecule 5 appears to be the first example of two separated, conjugated, and localized 6 pi-electron systems that can be tuned by reversible protonation to become delocalized. The mono- and diprotonated derivatives have been characterized by spectroscopic methods and X-ray diffraction. These systems develop supramolecular interactions in the solid state that clearly reflect the degree of protonation and depend on the nature of the counterion. These compounds constitute new chromophores for which the color can be tuned depending on the degree of protonation, going in solution from yellow for 5 to red for 5.HCl and blue for 5.2HCl. Theoretical calculations have provided a deeper insight into the electronic structure of these molecules and allowed an assignment of the experimental UV-vis spectra. The visible and near-UV spectrum of the neutral and protonated benzoquinonediimines can be classically assigned from the coupling of two 6 pi-electron polymethine units. TD-DFT calculations confirm the observed red shift of the two lowest pi --> pi* transitions of the benzoquinonediimines upon protonation and relate it to the moderate energy lowering of the HOMO --> LUMO transition induced by the delocalization of the polymethine pi system.     

Preparation of quinoxalines, dihydropyrazines, pyrazines and piperazines using tandem oxidation processes

Alpha-hydroxyketones undergo MnO2-mediated oxidation followed by in situ trapping with aromatic or aliphatic 1,2-diamines to give quinoxalines or dihydropyrazines, respectively, in a one pot procedure which avoids the need to isolate the highly reactive 1,2-dicarbonyl intermediates. Modifications of the procedure allow the formation of pyrazines and piperazines.