Irreversible electrostatic deposition of CdTe quantum dots on glassy carbon electrodes from colloidal solutions

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - Cadmium telluride quantum dots (CdTe-QDs) can be deposited from colloidal solutions on glassy carbon (GC) electrodes potentiostatically. The immobilization...     

Homoallylic <Emphasis Type="Italic">o</Emphasis>-halobenzylamines: asymmetric diversity-oriented synthesis of benzo-fused cyclic amines

The presence of a halogen atom in the proximity of a homoallylic amine, obtained by asymmetric addition of allylzinc bromide to the corresponding tert-butyl sulfinimine, makes them versatile building blocks suitable to participate in several palladium-catalyzed processes, such as the intramolecular Heck reaction or the Sonogashira cross-coupling. The thus obtained ortho-alkynyl derivatives display two unsaturated functional groups which may be further modified by means of the intramolecular Pauson–Khand reaction or the ring-closing enyne metathesis. In this way, a variety of benzo-fused amines can be obtained in 2–3 steps from readily available starting materials.     

Engineering Non‐sintered,Metal‐Terminated Tungsten Carbide Nanoparticles for Catalysis

Transition‐metal carbides (TMCs) exhibit catalytic activities similar to platinum group metals (PGMs), yet TMCs are orders of magnitude more abundant and less expensive. However, current TMC synthesis methods lead to sintering, support degradation, and surface impurity deposition, ultimately precluding their wide‐scale use as catalysts. A method is presented for the production of metal‐terminated TMC nanoparticles in the 1–4 nm range with tunable size, composition, and crystal phase. Carbon‐supported tungsten carbide (WC) and molybdenum tungsten carbide (Mo_xW_1?xC) nanoparticles are highly active and stable electrocatalysts. Specifically, activities and capacitances about 100‐fold higher than commercial WC and within an order of magnitude of platinum‐based catalysts are achieved for the hydrogen evolution and methanol electrooxidation reactions. This method opens an attractive avenue to replace PGMs in high energy density applications such as fuel cells and electrolyzers.     

Preparation of hydroxypropyl cellulose microfibers by high-speed rotary spinning and prediction of the fiber-forming properties of hydroxypropyl cellulose gels by texture analysis

Water-soluble, nonionic cellulose-based fibers were prepared from aqueous hydroxypropyl cellulose gels of 5–13-μm diameter by using a high-speed rotary spinning technique. A combination of texture analysis and viscosity measurement was applied to determine the optimum concentration of hydroxypropyl cellulose gels for fiber formation. The examined concentration range of hydroxypropyl cellulose gels was 38–52 % w/w. The textural properties including the adhesiveness of gels of different concentrations were determined based on the load-distance and load-time curves, while the obtained fiber formation was visually observed with an optical microscope. The texture analysis method enabled the determination of the optimum gel concentration from the point of fiber formation. An unequivocal correlation was determined between the adhesiveness of gels and their fiber-forming ability. The adhesiveness has a local minimum where the productivity of the fiber formation process and the micromorphology of the emitted fibers are optimal. Statistical analysis of the distribution of fiber diameters confirmed that in case of the optimum concentration, the distribution approaches normality. Mechanical properties of the prepared fibers were also evaluated using texture analysis, which indicated that the fibers made of gels of the suggested optimum concentration had the most desirable elastic behavior. An optimum concentration range of hydroxypropyl cellulose exists that enables fiber formation with the required characteristics from the point of further pharmaceutical formulation processing.     

Acid–Base Pairs in Lewis Acidic Zeolites Promote Direct Aldol Reactions by Soft Enolization

Hf‐, Sn‐, and Zr‐Beta zeolites catalyze the cross‐aldol condensation of aromatic aldehydes with acetone under mild reaction conditions with near quantitative yields. NMR studies with isotopically labeled molecules confirm that acid‐base pairs in the Si‐O‐M framework ensemble promote soft enolization through α‐proton abstraction. The Lewis acidic zeolites maintain activity in the presence of water and, unlike traditional base catalysts, in acidic solutions.     

Characterization of sub-two-cycle pulses from a hollow-core fiber compressor in the spatiotemporal and spatiospectral domains

We have post-compressed 25 fs (Fourier limit) amplified pulses in an argon-filled hollow-core fiber. The output pulses were compressed using a pair of wedges and chirped mirrors down to 4.5 fs (Fourier limit of 4.1 fs), which corresponds to less than two optical cycles. We then performed the characterization of the pulses by combining the d-scan and the STARFISH techniques. The temporal (and spectral) measurement of the pulses is done with d-scan, which is used as the reference to extend the characterization to the spatiotemporal (and spatiospectral) amplitude and phase of the pulses by means of STARFISH. The post-compressed pulses at the output of the hollow-fiber had an energy of 150 μJ. The analysis of the pulses revealed larger spectral broadening and blue-shift, and shorter duration at the center of the beam. For the first time, we demonstrate the complete characterization of intense ultra-broadband pulses in the sub-two-cycle regime, which provides an improved insight into the properties (space–time and space–frequency) of the pulses and is highly relevant for their applications.     

Diorganotin(IV) dithiocarbamate complexes as chromogenic sensors of anion binding

One dinuclear chlorodiphenyltin (IV) dithiocarbamate complex (1) and four mononuclear complexes of general formula Ph₂Sn(S₂CNR)Cl (2, 3, 5, and 6) have been synthesized and characterized both in solid-state and solution. X-ray structures for complexes 1, 3 and 6 demonstrated a five-coordination geometry around of tin atoms, in which dithiocarbamate ligand chelates asymmetrically the metal center. As shown by ¹¹⁹Sn NMR spectroscopy, five-coordination geometry observed in the solid-state remains in solution. The stability of these chlorodiphenyltin(IV) dithiocarbamate complexes in the presence of biologically relevant anions such as acetate, dicarboxylates of general formula ^?OOC-(CH₂)_n-COO^? (n = 2–8), dihydrogenphosphate, hydrogensulfate, and halides has been examined in acetonitrile solutions. For all of these organotin(IV) complexes the displacement of the coordinated ligands (i.e., chloride and dithiocarbamate) from the organotin(IV) moiety occurred in the presence of monoanions like acetate, dihydrogenphosphate, hydrogensulfate and fluoride. A stepwise mechanism for ligand exchange is proposed based on UV–Vis, ¹H, ¹³C and ¹¹⁹Sn spectroscopic data, as well as mass spectrometry. From UV–Vis titration experiments it was found that dicarboxylates with small spacers like malonate and succinate, acted differently in the exchange of the dithiocarbamate group in comparison to other monoanionic O donor ligands or dicarboxylates with longer chains, perhaps by following an intramolecular displacement of the coordinated ligand.The lability of these organotin(IV) dithiocarbamate compounds in solution hampers their use as stably host for anions, however, by taking advantage of the intrinsic chromogenic properties of free dithiocarbamate anions, or by attaching dithiocarbamate groups to well-known fluorescent moieties such as antracene, these complexes can sense the presence of O-donor anions at very low concentrations by displacement of the metal-coordinated dithiocarbamate.     

Superpositional Quantum Network Topologies

We introduce superposition-based quantum networks composed of (i) the classical perceptron model of multilayered, feedforward neural networks and (ii) the algebraic model of evolving reticular quantum structures as described in quantum gravity. The main feature of this model is moving from particular neural topologies to a quantum metastructure which embodies many differing topological patterns. Using quantum parallelism, training is possible on superpositions of different network topologies. As a result, not only classical transition functions, but also topology becomes a subject of training. The main feature of our model is that particular neural networks, with different topologies, are quantum states. We consider high-dimensional dissipative quantum structures as candidates for implementation of the model.