Crystallographic Evidence for Direct Metal–Metal Bonding in a Stable Open‐Shell La2@Ih‐C80 Derivative

Endohedral metallofullerenes (EMFs) have novel structures and properties that are closely associated with the internal metallic species. Benzyl radical additions have been previously shown to form closed‐shell adducts by attaching an odd number of addends to open‐shell EMFs (such as Sc₃C₂@I_h‐C₈₀) whereas an even number of groups are added to closed‐shell EMFs (for example Sc₃N@I_h‐C₈₀). Herein we report that benzyl radical addition to the closed‐shell La₂@I_h‐C₈₀ forms a stable, open‐shell monoadduct instead of the anticipated closed‐shell bisadduct. Single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction results show the formation of a stable radical species. In this species, the La?La distance is comparable to the theoretical value of a La?La covalent bond and is shorter than reported values for other La₂@I_h‐C₈₀ derivatives, providing unambiguous evidence for the formation of direct La?La bond.     

Consecutive thin-layer chromatographic separation of Au(III), Pt(IV), Pd(II) and large amounts of associated base metals

Summary The TLC system composed of ECTEOLA-cellulose and 2.5 mol/l HCl–2.5 mol/l NaCl–0.6% (w/v) H₂O₂ solution allows consecutive separations of Au(III), Pt(IV), Pd(II) and a number of associated base metals such as Cr(III), Mn(II), Fe(III), Co(II) Ni(II), Cu(II), Mg, Ca, Ba, Al, Bi(III), Pb(II), Zn(II) and Ag(I) coexisting in an extremely wide range of amounts and ratios, to be conducted completely in a single run. The effectiveness of the present system is verified by applying it to various synthesized samples containing the three noble metals and one of the base metals, Pt-metal powder and two kinds of Au-alloys.     

Model reactions of functionalization of polycarbonate. Reactions of phenyl chloroformate with nucleophiles and cationic polymerization behavior of bicyclo orthoesters containing carbonate group

Some model experiments for functionalization of a polycarbonate were carried out. At first, reactivity of phenyl chloroformate with a few nucleophiles was examined. Reaction with alkyl amines gave corresponding carbamates, but in the case of aniline, formation of a byproduct diarylurea was observed. Reactions with alcohols and phenols afforded carbonates in moderate yields, in which p-nitrophenol and isopropyl alcohol were less reactive. On the basis of these results, 1-ethyl-4-phenoxycarboxymethyl-2,6,7-trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (2) and 1-ethyl-4-ethoxycarboxymethyl-2,6,7-trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (3) were prepared by the reaction of phenyl and ethyl chloroformates with 1-ethyl-4-hydroxymethyl-2,6,7-trioxabicyclo[2.2.2]octane in the presence of tert-amine. 2 polymerized cationically with BF₃OEt₂ at more than 80°C to give a polyether containing both ester and carbonate groups in the side chain, with contamination of a gelled polymer.     

A density-functional study on pi-aromatic interaction: benzene dimer and naphthalene dimer

The long-range correction (LC) scheme of density-functional theory (DFT) was applied to the calculation of the pi-aromatic interaction of the benzene dimer and naphthalene dimer. In previous calculations, it was confirmed that the LC scheme [Iikura et al., J. Chem. Phys. 115, 3540 (2001)] gives very accurate potential- energy surfaces (PESs) of small van der Waals (vdW) complexes by combining with the Anderson-Langreth-Lundqvist (ALL) vdW correlation functional [Andersson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 76, 102 (1996)] (LC-DFT + ALL). In this study, LC-DFT+ALL method was examined by calculating a wide range of PES of the benzene dimer including parallel, T-shaped, and parallel-displaced configurations. As a result, we succeeded in reproducing very accurate PES within the energy deviance of less than 1 kcalmol in comparison with the results of high-level ab initio molecular-orbital methods at all reference points on the PES. It was also found that LC-DFT + ALL gave accurate results independent of exchange-correlation functional used, in contrast with the strong functional dependencies of conventional pure functionals. This indicates that both exchange repulsion and van der Waals attractive interactions should be correctly incorporated in conventional pure functionals in order to calculate accurate pi-aromatic interactions. We also found that LC-DFT + ALL method has a low basis-set dependency in the calculations of pi-aromatic interactions. The present scheme was also successfully applied to the pi,[ellipsis (horizontal)],pi stacking interactions of naphthalene dimer. This may suggest that LC-DFT + ALL method would be a powerful tool in the calculations of large molecules such as biomolecules.     

Stereocontrolled anionic alternating copolymerization of ethylphenylketene with benzaldehyde by a bisoxazoline ligand

Anionic copolymerization of ethylphenylketene with benzaldehyde with butyllithium or diethylzinc as the initiator proceeded in a perfect 1:1 alternating manner to produce the corresponding polyester, whose repeating unit had two adjacent chiral centers. The relative stereochemistry between these two chiral centers was successfully controlled by the addition of (S,S)‐(‐)‐2,2′‐isopropylidenebis(4‐tert‐butyl‐2‐oxazoline), producing the corresponding polyester that had excellent diastereoselectivity (erythro‐configuration : threo‐configuration = 4:96). The diastereomeric ratio was determined by high‐performance liquid chromatography analysis of the diol, which was obtained by reductive degradation of the polyester while maintaining the configuration of the repeating unit. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 5384–5388, 2004     

Novel analytical method for the crosslinking process: Infrared thermographic analysis of the thermally latent cationic polymerization of a spiroorthoester and a bifunctional oxetane for the construction of a low‐shrinkage curing system

Thermal behaviors were monitored by infrared thermographic analysis in the copolymerization of a spiroorthoester and a bifunctional oxetane with thermally latent initiators [benzyl tetrahydrothiophenium hexafluoroantimonate (BTHT) and benzyl 4‐hydroxyphenyl methyl sulfonium hexafluoroantimonate (BPMS)]. The copolymerization with BPMS increased the temperature during the copolymerization more than that with BTHT, whereas the exothermicities were lowered with the increase in the initial feed ratio of the spiroorthocarbonate monomer. The high exothermicity in the copolymerization with BPMS is ascribable to the faster propagation of the oxetane monomer with a high heat of polymerization, and this is supported by model reactions and computational calculation. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 2820–2826, 2007     

Higher-spin gauge and trace anomalies in two-dimensional backgrounds

Two-dimensional quantum fields in electric and gravitational backgrounds can be described by conformal field theories, and hence all the physical (covariant) quantities can be written in terms of the corresponding holomorphic quantities. In this paper, we first derive relations between covariant and holomorphic forms of higher-spin currents in these backgrounds, and then, by using these relations, obtain higher-spin generalizations of the trace and gauge (or gravitational) anomalies up to spin 4. These results are applied to derive higher-moments of Hawking fluxes in black holes in a separate paper [S. Iso, T. Morita, H. Umetsu, Hawking radiation via higher-spin gauge anomalies, arXiv: 0710.0456 [hep-th]].