Solubility and aggregation studies of copper(II) dodecanoate in organic solvents

Summary The solubility of copper(II) dodecanoate in tetrachloromethane, heptane, toluene and xylene has been determined as a function of temperature by employing gravimetric and atomic absorption methods. Each system shows an abrupt increase in solubility at a particular temperature and aggregation numbers have been obtained by vapour pressure osmometry to determine whether this is due to the onset of micellisation.     

Photophysical properties of mixed-ligand ruthenium(II) complexes [Ru(1,10-phenanthroline)n {2-(2-pyridyl)quinoline}3-n] 2+ (n = 0, 1, 2, or 3)

Electronic absorption, emission, and excitation spectra together with lumincscence lifetimes, have been measured for the mixed-ligand 1,10-phenanthroline/2-(2-pyridyl)quinoline complexes of ruthenum(II). Charge-transfer absorption and emitting states appear to be located on the individual ligands and there is evidence that energy transfer from the phenanthroline absorption state to the pyridylquinoline emitting state occurs.     

Fabrication of heavy metal fluoride glass, optical planar waveguides by hot-spin casting

Hot-spin casting is further investigated using a customised rig for making optical planar waveguides from inorganic-compound-glasses. The rig enables a controlled mass of core-glass, held above its liquidus, to be gravity-cast onto the top surface of a spinning cladding-glass substrate that has been pre-heated to around its glass transformation temperature. Spinning encourages the cast liquid to spread as a film over the top surface of the glass substrate. The mass of liquid cast is controlled by the timed opening of an orifice in the base of the core-glass melt-crucible. The resulting step index, slab optical waveguides are annealed, then cooled to room temperature; they comprise a higher refractive index, glass film core, on top of a lower refractive index glass substrate cladding. The glass film core is air-clad. at its upper surface. The process is applied to two heavy metal fluoride core/clad. glass pairs, namely ZBLANPb/ZBLAN and ZBLALiYPb/HBLANY (where ZBLANLiYPb is ZrF₄-BaF₂-LaF₃-AlF₃-LiF-YF₃-PbF₂ and H is HfF₄) to give waveguides of small and large numerical aperture (NA) (e.g. at 643.8 nm wavelength, NA is 0.18 and 0.33, respectively). The Hot-Spin-Cast waveguides exhibit a guiding region whose top surface tends to be parallel to the upper surface of the underlying substrate. However, flatness of the top surface of the guiding region is limited by the flatness of the top surface of the underlying substrate. Multimode slab waveguiding is demonstrated for both NA waveguide types for glass film cores of depths ?10 μm.     

Surface bubble nucleation stability

Recent research has revealed several different techniques for nanoscopic gas nucleation on submerged surfaces, with findings seemingly in contradiction with each other. In response to this, we have systematically investigated the occurrence of surface nanobubbles on a hydrophobized silicon substrate for various different liquid temperatures and gas concentrations, which we controlled independently. We found that nanobubbles occupy a distinct region of this parameter space, occurring for gas concentrations of approximately 100%-110%. Below the nanobubble region we did not detect any gaseous formations on the substrate, whereas micropancakes (micron wide, nanometer high gaseous domains) were found at higher temperatures and gas concentrations. We moreover find that supersaturation of dissolved gases is not a requirement for nucleation of bubbles.     

Hydrostatic pressure effects on a hydrated lipid inverse micellar Fd3m cubic phase

Over a range of hydration, unsaturated diacylglycerol/phosphatidylcholine mixtures adopt an inverse micellar cubic phase, of crystallographic space group Fd3m. In this study hydrated DOPC:DOG mixtures with a molar ratio close to 1 : 2 were examined as a function of hydrostatic pressure, using synchrotron X-ray diffraction. The small-angle diffraction pattern at atmospheric pressure was used to calculate 2-D sections through the electron density map. Pressure initially has very little effect on the structure of the Fd3m cubic phase, in contrast to its effect on hydrated inverse bicontinuous cubic phases. At close to 2 kbar, a sharp transition occurs from the Fd3m phase to a pair of coexisting phases, an inverse hexagonal H(II) phase plus an (ordered) lamellar phase. Upon increasing the pressure to 3 kbar, a further sharp transition occurs from the H(II) phase to a (fluid) lamellar phase, in coexistence with the ordered lamellar phase. These transitions are fully reversible, but show hysteresis. Remarkably, the lattice parameter of the Fd3m phase is practically independent of pressure. These results show that these two lipids are miscible at low pressure, adopting a single lyotropic phase (Fd3m); they then become immiscible above a critical pressure, phase separating into DOPC-rich and DOG-rich phases.     

Differing applications of Raman scattering to liquid crystals

An overview of the differing possibilities offered by Raman scattering in the study of liquid crystals is given, together with a few experimental examples of the least studied phenomena. Among them, changes in the intrinsic Raman polarizabilities and phonon self-energies as a function of temperature which provide, in principle, an experimental method for the study of coexisting and/or inhomogeneous phases through Raman imaging. We show that the C-H in-plane deformation mode of the phenyl rings is particularly suited to monitor both intrinsic scattering efficiencies and frequency changes. This mode is present in a large family of liquid crystal compounds and we present evidence indicating that the origin of these changes is its electron-phonon coupling to the lowest allowed electronic transition in the ultraviolet.     

Evidence that imidazolium-based ionic ligands can be metal(0)/nanocluster catalyst poisons in at least the test case of iridium(0)-catalyzed acetone hydrogenation

This study begins with the question of whether ionic liquids (ILs), such as 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate, [bmim][PF6], can be catalyst poisons for transition-metal catalysts rather than a preferred stabilizing media as typically assumed in the literature. The test case of acetone (propanone) hydrogenation is picked for two reasons: (i) acetone hydrogenation is important for its applications in heat pumps, H2 storage schemes, and fuel cells and for the commercial value of the resultant product, propan-2-ol, and (ii) two recent, independent studies have reported putative Ir(0)n nanocluster-catalyzed hydrogenations of acetone beginning in each case with the identical precursor, [{(COD)IrCl}2] (where COD=1,5-cyclooctadiene) (1). A close comparison of the results of those two literature studies and their related, but different, experimental conditions (vide infra) suggests the hypothesis that the IL is actually a catalyst poison. Indeed, the investigations herein (i) find that 1.0 equiv of added IL, [bmim][PF6], completely inhibits the formation of Ir(0)n nanoclusters under conditions 1 in Table 1 in the main text (namely, 3.6 mM precatalyst 1, 22 degrees C, and 2.76 bar H2) and (ii) demonstrate that 0.1 and 1.0 equivs of this same IL, [bmim][PF6], poisons 74 and 90%, respectively, of the acetone hydrogenation activity of premade, previously catalytically active nanoclusters. The above results in turn compelled a reinvestigation of the claim that Ir(0)n nanoclusters are the catalyst in what was reported as a colloidal suspension prepared under conditions 2 in Table 1 of the main text (namely, 52 mM precursor 1, 92 equiv of IL, 75 degrees C, and 4.05 bar of H2). We further (iii) find that the colloidal suspension prepared under conditions 2 is a mixture of unreacted precursor, 1, some nanoclusters, and isolable bulk metal, and we also (iv) find, somewhat surprisingly, in light of the IL-poisoning results found under conditions 1, that the Ir(0) catalyst prepared under conditions 2 is active, precisely as reported, for acetone hydrogenation. This, in turn, further demanded that we go on to (v) investigate the nature of the true catalyst under conditions 2, the results of which we are able to interpret only by the hypothesis that bulk metal is the dominant, true catalyst under conditions 2. Overall, the results provide strong evidence that ILs can be potent inhibitors of metal(0)/nanocluster catalysis, rather than the often-assumed superior solvent for nanocluster catalysis. The results also fortify our recent report that, under conditions where stoichiometrically high amounts of coordinating ligands are present (vs the amount of surface metal atoms), bulk-metal catalysts can actually be superior to nanocluster catalysts of the same metal, a seemingly heretical finding prior to our recent experimental evidence for this (Besson, C.; Finney, E. E.; Finke, R. G. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 8179; Besson, C.; Finney, E. E.; Finke, R. G. Chem. Mater. 2005, 17, 4925).     

Structural study of the thermal and photochemical spin states in the spin crossover complex [Fe(phen)2(NCSe)2

The first structural data for [Fe(phen)(2)(NCSe)(2)] (obtained using the extraction method of sample preparation) in its high-spin, low-spin and LIESST induced metastable high-spin states have been recorded using synchrotron radiation single crystal diffraction. The space group for all of the spin states was found to be Pbcn. On cooling from the high-spin state (HS-1) at 292 K through the spin crossover at about 235 K to the low-spin state at 100 K (LS-1) the iron coordination environment changed to a more regular octahedral geometry and the Fe-N bond lengths decreased by 0.216 and 0.196 A (Fe-N(phen)) and 0.147 A (Fe-N(CSe)). When the low-spin state was illuminated with visible light at about 26 K, the structure of this LIESST induced metastable high-spin state (HS-2) was very similar to that of HS-1 with regards to the Fe-phen bond lengths, but there were some differences in the bond lengths in the Fe-NCSe unit between HS-1 and HS-2. When HS-2 was warmed in the dark to 50 K, the resultant low-spin state (LS-2) had an essentially identical structure to LS-1. In all spin states, all of the shortest intermolecular contacts (in terms of van der Waals radii) involved the NCSe ligand, which may be important in describing the cooperativity in the solid state. The quality of the samples was confirmed by magnetic susceptibility and IR measurements.     

Porous Siloxane-Silica Hybrid Materials by Sol-Gel Processing

Porous hybrid materials have been fabricated by sol-gel processing of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-tetrakis(ethyltriethoxysilane)-cyclotetrasiloxane (1) in the presence of the cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The chemical and physical properties of these materials have been analysed by FT-IR spectroscopy, solid state ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction and nitrogen adsorption-desorption studies. FT-IR spectroscopy established that the CTAB surfactant can be extracted from a crushed gel using ethanol as a solvent. Solid state ²⁹Si NMR spectroscopy showed the presence of D, T and Q species as expected from the structure of the precursors. Broad bands observed for the D units at –18 ppm and the T units at –63 ppm suggested that the cyclotetrasiloxane was held in a rigid environment and bound to the Q species of the silica matrix derived from the TEOS. NMR spectroscopy confirmed that solvent extraction resulted in further condensation of the silica matrix. Powder X-ray diffraction indicated that the materials possess short-range order and small domain sizes, as shown by broad diffraction peaks. The condensation induced by solvent extraction led to a decrease in the lattice and domain size of the samples, generally resulting in a less ordered material. Nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms were typical of microporous materials with pore diameters of 18 Å and a narrow size distribution.