Amphiphilic liquid‐crystalline 4‐miktoarm star copolymers with a siloxane junction leading to cylindrically nanostructured templates for a siloxane‐based nanodot array

Well‐defined A₃B‐, A₂B₂‐, and AB₃‐type 4‐miktoarm star copolymers (M_n = 10,500–16,200, M_w/M_n = 1.16–1.18) consisting of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polymethacrylate bearing an azobenzene mesogen (PMA(Az)) as the arms and cyclotetrasiloxane as the core unit were synthesized using a combined route composed of a thiol‐ene click reaction and atom transfer radical polymerization. Microphase‐separated structures of the star copolymers in thin films with a thickness of approximately 100 nm were investigated by GISAXS and TEM. The A₃B‐type star‐(PEO)₃[PMA(Az)]₁ copolymer formed a more highly ordered PEO cylinder array with perpendicular alignment in the PMA(Az) matrix than that of the corresponding linear‐type block copolymer. The center‐to‐center distance of the PEO cylinders and the cylinder diameter were 13 and 4 nm, respectively. The highly ordered star‐(PEO)₃[PMA(Az)]₁ thin film was directly transferred to a siloxane‐based nanodot array by oxygen reactive ion etching. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2016 , 54, 1175–1188     

Plasmon‐Induced Water Splitting Using Metallic‐Nanoparticle‐Loaded Photocatalysts and Photoelectrodes

The front cover artwork is provided by the group of Prof. Hiroaki Misawa (Hokkaido University, Japan, and National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan). The image shows a plasmon‐induced water‐splitting system, which can collect hydrogen and oxygen separately and employs a semiconductor substrate. Read the full text of the Review at 10.1002/cphc.201500761     

Trypanocidal terpenoids from Laurus nobilis L

Trypanocidal constituents of dried leaves of Laurus nobilis L. (Lauraceae) were examined. Activity-guided fractionation of the methanol extract resulted in the isolation of two guaianolides, dehydrocostus lactone (1) and zaluzanin D (2), and a new p-menthane hydroperoxide, (1R,4S)-1-hydroperoxy-p-menth-2-en-8-ol acetate (3). The minimum lethal concentrations of these compounds against epimastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi were 6.3, 2.5, and 1.4 microM, respectively.     

Ruthenium-catalyzed hydrosilylation of 1-alkynes with novel regioselectivity

[reaction: see text] A ruthenium catalyst precursor bearing a bulky and electron-donating pentamethylcyclopentadienyl (Cp) ligand, typically CpRuH3(PPh3), mediates hydrosilylation of several 1-alkynes with novel regioselectivity to give preferentially 2-silyl-1-alkenes.     

Phase transition of Ta2NiO6 with the trirutile-type structure under high pressure and high temperature

High-pressure phase transition of Ta₂NiO₆ with the trirutile-type structure was investigated from the viewpoint of crystal chemistry. A new quenchable high-pressure phase was found in the pressure range higher than 7 GPa and 900°C. The high-pressure phase has an orthorhombic cell (a=4.797(1) Å, b=5.153(2) Å and c=14.85(1) Å and space group; Abm2), and it is more dense by 9.6% than the trirutile-structured phase. Infrared spectra of the trirutile-type phase and the high-pressure phase show that Ni²⁺ ions in the high-pressure phase are still in octahedral sites. The crystal structure of the high-pressure phase is considered as a cation-ordering trifluorite-type structure, which can be stabilized by a crystal field effect of Ni²⁺ ions.     

Generalized Sobolev's phi function for the resolvent of a Milne-type integral equation with a degenerate kernel

It is well known in the field of radiative transfer that Sobolev was the first to introduce the resolvent into Milne's integral equation with a displacement kernel. Thereafter it was shown that the resolvent plays an important role in the theory of formation of spectral lines. In the theory of line-transfer problems, the kernel representation in Milne's integral equation has been used to provide an approximate solution in a manner similar to that given by the discrete ordinales method.In this paper, by means of invariant imbedding we show how to determine an exact solution of a Milne-type integral equation with a degenerate kernel, whose form is more general than the Pincherle-Gourast kernel. A Cauchy system for the resolvent is expressed in terms of generalized Sobolev's Φ- and Ψ-functions, which are computed by solving a system of differential equations for auxiliary functions. Furthermore, these functions are expressed in terms of components of the kernel representation.     

Further evidence for the intramolecular charge-transfer interaction between tropylium ion and remote benzene rings in 9,10-dihydro-9,10-(1,2-tropylio)anthracene tetrafluoroborate and its methyl derivatives

A series of 9,10-dihydro-9,10-(1,2-tropylio)anthracene tetrafluoroborates

has been prepared. The intramolecular charge-transfer interactions in

were confirmed by their UV spectra and pK_R+ values. As a model compound 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-1,4-(1,2-tropylio)naphthalene tetrafluoroborate ($\text{5}$)_was also examined.     

On the resolvent of Milne's integral equation for a spherical,isotropically-scattering medium

Recently, determination of the resolvent kernel of Milne's integral equation for a spherical, isotropically-scattering medium with internal sources has been made by several authors (cf. Heaslet and Warming;⁽¹⁾Nagirner;⁽²⁾Wilson and Sen⁽³⁾). In this paper, it is shown how to compute the resolvent kernel of the above Milne's equation in terms of the modified Sobolev's Φ-function, which is reduced to the angular integration of the source function in the diffuse radiation field by a finite slab. In other words, once the X- and Y-functions of a slab with twice the optical radius of the sphere have been computed and a Cauchy system for the source function has been solved, the resolvent kernel under consideration can be determined by integration of the modified Sobolev Φ-function.