Palladium‐catalyzed three‐component coupling polycondensation of aromatic diiodide,aromatic bis(boronic acid propanediol ester), and norbornadiene: A new route for poly(p‐phenylene vinylene)

A novel synthetic method for soluble precursor polymers of poly(p‐phenylene vinylene) (PPV) derivatives by the palladium‐catalyzed three‐component coupling polycondensation of aromatic diiodides, aromatic bis(boronic acid) derivatives, and norbornadiene is described. For example, the polymerization of 1,4‐diiodo‐2,5‐dioctyloxybenzene, benzene‐1,4‐bis(boronic acid propanediol ester), and norbornadiene at 100 °C for 3 days provided a polymer consisting of the three monomer units in a 97% yield (number‐average molecular weight = 3100, weight‐average molecular weight/number‐average molecular weight = 1.37). A derivative of PPV was produced smoothly by the retro Diels–Alder reaction of the polymer both in a dodecyloxybenzene solution and in a film at 200 °C in vacuo. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 43: 3403–3410, 2005     

Synthesis, structures and ab initio studies of selenium and tellurium bis(carbodithioates and carbothioates)

A series of selenium and tellurium bis(carbodithioates and carbothioates) were synthesized. X-Ray structure analysis revealed that Se(SSCC(6)H(4)OMe-2)(2), Te(SSCC(6)H(4)OMe-2)(2) and Te(SSCC(6)H(4)Me-4)(2) have trapezoidal-planar configuration of ES(4) (E = Se, Te) and despite the larger atomic radii, the C=S···Te distances in Te(SSCC(6)H(4)OMe-2)(2) are comparable to those in the corresponding selenium derivatives Se(SSCC(6)H(4)OMe-2)(2). Molecular-orbital calculations performed on compounds E(E'SCR)(2) (E = S, Se, Te; E' = O, S; R = Me, Ph, C(6)H(4)OMe-2) showed that the syn-conformers of Se(SSCR)(2) and Te(SSCR)(2) are more stable than the corresponding anti-ones, while, in the case of carbothioic acid derivatives, E(SOCR)(2) showed that their anti-conformers are all more stable than the corresponding syn-ones. Natural bond orbital (NBO) analyses of these dithio-compounds revealed that two types of orbital interactions, n(S(1))→σ*(E-S(2)) and n(O)→σ*(E-S(2)), play a role in the bonding of E[S(2)S(1)CC(6)H(4)OMe-2](2) (E = Se, Te) and the former play a particularly predominant role.     

On homotopy groups of quandle spaces and the quandle homotopy invariant of links

For a quandle X, the quandle space BX is defined, modifying the rack space of Fenn, Rourke and Sanderson (1995) [13], and the quandle homotopy invariant of links is defined in Z[π₂(BX)], modifying the rack homotopy invariant of Fenn, Rourke and Sanderson (1995) [13]. It is known that the cocycle invariants introduced in Carter et al. (2005) [3], Carter et al. (2003) [5], Carter et al. (2001) [6] can be derived from the quandle homotopy invariant.In this paper, we show that, for a finite quandle X, π₂(BX) is finitely generated, and that, for a connected finite quandle X, π₂(BX) is finite. It follows that the space spanned by cocycle invariants for a finite quandle is finitely generated. Further, we calculate π₂(BX) for some concrete quandles. From the calculation, all cocycle invariants for those quandles are concretely presented. Moreover, we show formulas of the quandle homotopy invariant for connected sum of knots and for the mirror image of links.     

Relativistic effect on 77Se NMR chemical shifts of various selenium species in the framework of zeroth-order regular approximation

The relativistic effects on absolute magnetic shielding tensors (σ(Se)) are explicitly evaluated for various selenium species (40 species) with the DFT(BLYP)-GIAO method. Calculations are performed under relativistic and nonrelativistic conditions with the Slater-type basis sets in ADF 2010 in the framework of ZORA, employing the optimized structures under nonrelativistic conditions at B3LYP of Gaussian 03. Quadruple zeta all electron with four polarization functions (QZ4Pae) are mainly applied to evaluate σ(Se). Ranges of the effect on diamagnetic (σ(d)(Se)), paramagnetic shielding tensors (σ(p)(Se)), and σ(d+p)(Se) (= σ(d)(Se) + σ(p)(Se)) are -24 to -20 ppm, -115 to -3 ppm, and -136 to -26 ppm, respectively. The spin-orbit terms (σ(so)(Se)) are evaluated to be 92-225 ppm with QZ4Pae, which clarifies the effect on total shielding tensors (σ(t)(Se) = σ(d+p)(Se) + σ(so)(Se)) to be -8 to 152 ppm, at the spin-orbit ZORA level. The calculated σ(t)(Se) values reproduced well the observed values.     

Femtosecond Diffuse-Reflectance Spectroscopy of Various Commercially Available TiO2 Powders

The transient absorption properties of several commercially available TiO₂ photocatalysts were investigated by femtosecond diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy. Using femtosecond diffuse-reflectance spectroscopy, the quantities and rates of the initial trapping processes of holes and electrons generated by the photoexcitation of TiO₂ photocatalysts were investigated. It was found that the total amounts of trapped electrons for the pure-anatase and pure-rutile TiO₂ became smaller with increasing particle size, but increased again when the particles’ diameters were larger than 50 nm. The anatase–rutile mixed TiO₂ photocatalysts were found to have smaller amounts of trapped electrons compared with pure-anatase and pure-rutile TiO₂ photocatalysts. The lifetimes of trapped holes of various TiO₂ photocatalysts were also investigated, and it was found that the lifetimes were proportional to the anatase–rutile mixed ratios.     

Triangle contraction in six-membered-ring silicon clusters

We propose the “triangle contraction” as an important reconstruction mechanism of six-membered-ring silicon clusters on the basis of the force and virial analysis for Si₆, Si₁₀, Si₁₄, Si₁₈, Si₂₂, and Si₂₆ clusters. Forces acting on atoms have been calculated using the local-density-functional scheme with linear-combination-of-atomic-orbitals-Xα method. Calculated forces show that most of the (111)-surface equilateral triangles have tendency to contract, indicating the generality of the triangle-contraction mechanism.     

Studies on sesquiterpenoids—III Some derivatives of guaiol

When guaiol was dehydrated with such reagents as thionyl chloride-pyridine, phosphorus oxychloride-pyridine or potassium bisulphate, the isopropenyl derivative (IIa) was always obtained as a main product, together with a small amount of IIb. Catalytic reduction of IIa in alkaline media afforded -dihydroguaiene (V), while in neutral or acid media it gave a mixture of V and its double bond isomer (VI).     

Solid-phase syntheses of olefin-containing inhibitors for HTLV-1 protease using the Horner-Emmons reaction

[reaction: see text] The solid-phase Horner-Emmons reaction was successfully applied for the convenient syntheses of olefin-containing protease inhibitors. The isomerization during the solid-phase Horner-Emmons reaction can be minimized simply by the use of an appropriate amount of the base. The synthesized olefin peptides, which have an olefin gamma-amino acid at the scissile site, were found to act as effective inhibitors for the HTLV-1 protease for the first time.