Imidazolium ion-terminated self-assembled monolayers on Au: effects of counteranions on surface wettability

Self-assembled monolayers presenting imidazolium ions at the tail ends (SAMIMs) having different counteranions have been prepared on Au, and the measurement of water contact angles of the surfaces proved to be an extremely valuable simple technique for quantifying the effects of counteranions on hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity of SAMIMs, which will be extrapolated to the water miscibility of the related ionic liquids.     

Using quaternions to calculate RMSD

A widely used way to compare the structures of biomolecules or solid bodies is to translate and rotate one structure with respect to the other to minimize the root-mean-square deviation (RMSD). We present a simple derivation, based on quaternions, for the optimal solid body transformation (rotation-translation) that minimizes the RMSD between two sets of vectors. We prove that the quaternion method is equivalent to the well-known formula due to Kabsch. We analyze the various cases that may arise, and give a complete enumeration of the special cases in terms of the arrangement of the eigenvalues of a traceless, 4 x 4 symmetric matrix. A key result here is an expression for the gradient of the RMSD as a function of model parameters. This can be useful, for example, in finding the minimum energy path of a reaction using the elastic band methods or in optimizing model parameters to best fit a target structure.     

In vivo human retinal imaging by ultrahigh-speed spectral domain optical coherence tomography

An ultrahigh-speed spectral domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) system is presented that achieves acquisition rates of 29,300 depth profiles/s. The sensitivity of SD-OCT and time domain OCT (TD-OCT) are experimentally compared, demonstrating a 21.7-dB improvement of SD-OCT over TD-OCT. In vivo images of the human retina are presented, demonstrating the ability to acquire high-quality structural images with an axial resolution of 6 microm at ultrahigh speed and with an ocular exposure level of less than 600 microW.     

New oxidative tools for the functionalization of the cephalostatin north 1 hemisphere

Dimethyldioxirane (DMDO) C-H oxidation of ketone 17 to hemiketal 18 (82%), bis-dehydration to vinyl ether 21 (77%), and DMDO again provides C-23 axial alcohol 23 (99%). Routine processing, including a double-stereoselective Sharpless AD reaction (de >98%), gives alcohols 7 and 32. C-23 deoxy substrate 7 undergoes Suarez hypoiodite oxidative cyclization to (natural) beta spiroketal 34, but compound 32, bearing a C-23 silyl ether, generates unnatural spiroketal 33. [reaction: see text]     

Accelerating universe in two-dimensional noncommutative dilaton cosmology

We show that the phase transition from the decelerating universe to the accelerating universe, which is of relevance to the cosmological coincidence problem, is possible in the semiclassically quantized two-dimensional dilaton gravity by taking into account the noncommutative field variables during the finite time. Initially, the quantum-mechanically induced energy from the noncommutativity among the fields makes the early universe decelerate and subsequently the universe is accelerating because the dilaton driven cosmology becomes dominant later.     

Kinetic stabilization of Fe film on GaAs(1 0 0): An in situ X-ray reflectivity study

We study the growth of Fe films on GaAs(1 0 0) at a low temperature, 140 K, by in situ X-ray reflectivity (XRR) using synchrotron radiation. The XRR curves are well modeled by a single Fe layer on GaAs both at the growth temperature and after annealed at the room temperature. We found that the surface became progressively rougher during the growth with the growth exponent, β_S = 0.43 ± 0.14. The observed β_S is attributed to the restricted interlayer diffusion at the low growth temperature. The change of the interface width during growth was minimal. When the Fe film was annealed to room temperature, the surface smoothed, keeping the interface width almost unchanged. The confinement of the interface derives from that the diffusion of Ga and As proceeds via the inefficient bulk diffusion, and the overlying Fe film is kinetically stabilized.     

Fine competition and control among argentophilic,electrostatic, and π···π interactions in a molecular chair structure

The reaction of AgX (X⁻ = NO₃ ⁻, ClO₄ ⁻, or CF₃SO₃ ⁻) with 1,3-bis(3-pyridyl)tetramethyldisiloxane (L) at room temperature affords 20-membered metallacyclodimers, [Ag(L)]₂(X)₂. For the macrocyclodimer, fine competition among argentophilic, electrostatic, and π···π interaction exists. The macrocyclodimer is a unique molecular chair that tunes a transannular argentophilic interaction via the bite size of the counteranions. In order to reversibly control the argentophilic interaction, anion exchange has been accomplished. The anion exchangeability depends on the water solubility rather than the electrostatic interaction between silver(I) and anions.     

In situ‐generated Ru(III)‐mediated ATRP from the polymeric Ru(III) complex in the absence of activator generation agents

Past research has examined the atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) with high oxidation state metal complexes and without the need for any additives such as reducing agent or free radical initiator. To extend this research, half‐metallocene ruthenium(III) (Ru(III)) catalysts were used for the polymerization of methyl methacrylate (MMA) for the first time. These catalysts were generated in situ simply by mixing phosphorus‐containing ligand and pentamethylcyclopentadienyl (Cp*) Ru(III) polymer ((Cp*RuCl₂)_n). The complexes in their higher oxidation state such as Cp*RuCl₂(PPh₃) were air‐stable, highly active, and removable catalysts for the ATRPs of MMA with both precision control of molecular weight and narrow polydispersity index. The addition of ppm amount of metal catalyst contributed to the formation of very well‐defined homopolymers and copolymers. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

High speeds complementary integrated circuits fabricated with all‐printed polymeric semiconductors

Inkjet‐printed high speed polymeric complementary circuits are fabricated using an n‐type ([poly{[N,N′‐bis(2‐octyldodecyl)‐naphthalene‐1,4,5,8‐bis(dicarboximide)‐2,6‐diyl]‐alt‐5,5′‐(2,2′‐dithiophene)} [P(NDI2OD‐T2), Polyera ActivInk N2200] and two p‐type polymers [poly(3‐hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and a dithiophene‐based polymer (Polyera ActivInk P2100)]. The top‐gate/bottom‐contact (TG/BC) organic field‐effect transistors (OFETs) exhibit well‐balanced and very‐high hole and electron mobilities (μ_FET) of 0.2–0.5 cm²/Vs, which were enabled by optimization of the inkjet‐printed active features, small contact resistance both of electron and hole injections, and effective control over gate dielectrics and its orthogonal solvent effect (selection of poly(methyl methacrylate) and 2‐ethoxyethanol). Our first demonstrated inkjet‐printed polymeric complementary devices have been integrated to high‐performance complementary inverters (gain >30) and ring oscillators (oscillation frequency ～50 kHz). We believe that the operating frequency of printable organic circuits can be further improved more than 10 MHz by fine‐tuning of the device architecture and optimization of the p‐ and n‐channel semiconductor processing. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2010