Synthesis of sulfonamides and sulfonic esters via reaction of amines and phenols with thiols using H2O2–POCl3 system

Phosphorus oxychloride efficiently promoted the synthesis of sulfonamides and sulfonic esters from thiols with hydrogen peroxide in the presence of Amberlite IRA-400 (OH^?). This method has been applied to a variety of substrates including nucleophilic and sterically hindered amines, and also phenols with excellent yields of sulfonamides and sulfonic esters. In most cases these reactions are highly selective, simple, and clean, affording products in excellent yields and high purity.     

A needle trap device packed with MIL-100(Fe) metal organic frameworks for efficient headspace sampling and analysis of urinary BTEXs

The aim of this study was to develop a new method for the determination of benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene isomers (BTEXs) in urine samples. In this method, MIL-100(Fe)@Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ metal–organic framework was synthesized, characterized and packed inside a needle trap device (NTD) as a sorbent for headspace extraction of unmetabolized BTEXs from urine samples followed by gas chromatography (GC) analysis. The GC device was equipped with a flame ionization detector (FID). The results showed that the optimal extraction time, extraction temperature and salt content were 60 min, 30°C and 5%, respectively. Also, the optimal desorption time and temperature were determined to be 1 min and 250°C, respectively. The limits of detection and quantification of the analytes of interest were in the ranges 0.0001–0.0005 and 0.0003–0.0014 μg ml⁻¹, respectively. The intra- and inter-day repeatability were <7.6%. The accuracy of the measurements in urine samples was in the range 7.1–11.4%. The results also demonstrated that the proposed NTD offered various advantages such as having high sensitivity and being inexpensive, reusable, user friendly, environmentally friendly and compatible for use with the GC device. Therefore, it can be efficiently used as a MIL–NTD for the extraction and analysis of unmetabolized BTEXs from urine samples.     

The Theoretical and Experimental Studies on Oxidation of Straight Chain Amino Acids in Moderately Concentrated Sulfuric Acid Medium

The kinetics of the permanganic oxidation process of some straight chain amino acids in moderately concentrated sulfuric acid medium have been investigated using a spectrophotometric technique. Conclusive evidences have proven autocatalytic activity of Mn(II) for these reactions. It is determined that even and odd effects of the number carbon atom in a carbon chain are annihilated when it's the number of carbon atoms is increased more than of three in a noncatalytic oxidation pathway. Thus, rate constants belonging to glycine, l ‐α‐amino‐n‐butyric acid, l ‐norleucine, and l ‐α‐amino‐n‐heptanoic acid satisfy Taft's equation involving the induction factor in the noncatalytic pathway, whereas l ‐α‐amino‐n‐heptanoic acid has an odd number of carbon atom in its chain carbon. On the other hand, in the catalytic pathway, rate constants satisfy Taft' equation including inductive and steric factors, when rate constants belonging to amino acids with an even number of carbon atoms are separated from those with an odd number of carbon atoms. The oxidation process of amino acids in the noncatalytic pathway and those with the even number of carbon atoms in the carbon chain in the catalytic pathway speeds up by an increase in the length of chain that is accompanied with an increase in the carbon chain's electron‐donating characteristic. On the other hand, an increase in the length of the carbon chain is accompanied with more steric hindrance, which counteracts its electron‐donating character, thereby decreasing reaction rate in the catalytic pathway. Finally, amino acid–Mn(II) complexes were studied using a density functional theory method. Results obtained show that such a complex is less stable than reactants, namely it is formed in an endothermic reaction. The number and strength of hydrogen bonding belonging to amino acid is more than those of the amino acid–Mn(II) complex. Besides, it has been illustrated that natural bond orbital analysis and molecular orbital calculations satisfy the findings.     

Mechanism and Parameters Controlling the Decomposition Kinetics of Na2SiF6 Powder to SiF4

Sodium hexafluorosilicate (Na₂SiF₆) powder has been used as a silicon source for formation of Si₃N₄ coatings by the hybrid precursor system‐chemical vapor deposition (HYSY‐CVD) route. The quantitative effect of processing time, temperature, gas flow rate, and process atmosphere (N₂ and N₂:5% NH₃) upon the fractional weight loss during the decomposition of Na₂SiF₆ was studied using a standard L₉ Taguchi experimental design and analysis of variance. The decomposition kinetics of Na₂SiF₆(s) was studied theoretically and experimentally in the temperature range of 550–650ºC by applying the shrinking core model. It was found that regardless of atmosphere type, the reaction order is n ≈ 0.12 and that a two‐stage mixed mechanism consisting of chemical reaction and boundary layer gas transfer controls the decomposition rate. The determined fractional weight loss during Na₂SiF₆ decomposition in nitrogen atmosphere is about 1.05–1.5 orders of magnitude greater than that in N₂:NH₃. The gas flow rate affects the dissociation activation energy, being of 121, 109, and 94 kJ/mol in N₂ and of 140, 120, and 115 kJ/mol in N₂:NH₃, for the flow rates of 20, 60, and 100 cm³/min, respectively, in both atmosphere types. A good agreement is observed by comparing experimental weight loss data with model predictions.     

Synthesis,characterization and application of graphene palladium porphyrin as a nanocatalyst for the coupling reactions such as: Suzuki‐Miyaura and Mizoroki‐Heck

The palladium(II)‐coordinated 5,10,15,20‐tetrakis‐(4‐hexyloxyphenyl)‐porphyrin as a macrocyclic palladium complex was covalently grafted to the surface of graphene oxide (denoted as GO‐CPTMS@Pd‐TKHPP). GO‐CPTMS@Pd‐TKHPP was characterized using microscopic and spectroscopic techniques for confirmation of functionalization. The synthesized catalyst was checked in the Suzuki‐Miyaura and the Mizoroki‐Heck coupling reactions. The catalyst is very easy to handle, environmentally safe and economical. Also, this catalytic system shows high catalytic activity and the yields of the products are excellent. Moreover, the suggested catalyst was reusable for five runs with no significant decrease in catalytic activity.     

Polymerization of graphene oxide nanosheet by using of aminoclay: Electrocatalytic activity of its platinum nanohybrids

This study describes the polymerization of graphene oxide (GO) nanosheet to reduced‐GO‐aminoclay (RGC) by covalent functionalization of chemically reactive epoxy groups on the basal planes of GO with amine groups of magnesium phyllosilicate clay (known as aminoclay). The resulting RGC sheets were characterized and applied to support platinum nanostructures at toluene/water interface. Pt nanoparticles (NPs) with diameters about several nanometers were adhered to RGC sheets by chemical reduction of [PtCl₂(cod)] (cod = cis,cis‐1,5‐cyclooctadiene) complex. Catalytic activity of Pt NPs thin films were investigated in the methanol oxidation reaction. Cyclic voltammetry results exhibit that the Pt/reduced‐GO (RGO) and Pt/RGC thin films showed improved catalytic activity in methanol oxidation reaction in comparison to other Pt NPs thin films, demonstrating that the prepared Pt/RGO and Pt/RGC thin films are promising catalysts for direct methanol fuel cell.     

Shape dependent energy optimization in quantum dots

In this paper, we investigate a minimization problem related to the principal eigenvalue of the Schrödinger operator. The optimized solution can be applied to design new electronic and photonic devices based on the quantum dots.