Hydrogenated Anatase: Strong Photocatalytic Dihydrogen Evolution without the Use of a Co‐Catalyst

The high‐pressure hydrogenation of commercially available anatase or anatase/rutile TiO₂ powder can create a photocatalyst for H₂ evolution that is highly effective and stable without the need for any additional co‐catalyst. This activation effect cannot be observed for rutile; however, for anatase/rutile mixtures, a strong synergistic effect can be found (similar to results commonly observed for noble‐metal‐decorated TiO₂). EPR and PL measurements indicated the intrinsic co‐catalytic activation of anatase TiO₂ to be due to specific defect centers formed during hydrogenation. These active centers can be observed specifically for high‐pressure hydrogenation; other common reduction treatments do not result in this effect.     

Direct formation of esters and amides from carboxylic acids using diethyl chlorophosphate in pyridine

An efficient method involving pyridine activation of the carboxylate-phosphate anhydride pathway is described resulting in a direct synthesis of esters from carboxylic acids and alcohols, as well as in the formation of useful amide and peptide derivatives. The reaction proceeds with retention of configuration with both chiral secondary alcohols and α-amino acid derivatives. Ester and amide products can be isolated directly in high yield due to the water soluble nature of the side products.     

Syntheses and tunable emission properties of 2-alkynyl azulenes

Various substituted 2-azulenes have been synthesized via Sonogashira coupling. Doping with superacids allows tunable emission from 443 to 750 nm depending on the substitution. The proton doped compounds are the first azulene alkyne based systems that show emission originating only from the S(1) excited state.     

Carbonyl Diazide, OC(N(3))(2): Synthesis, Purification, and IR Spectrum

Carbonyl diazide (1), OC(N(3))(2), is prepared by reaction of triphosgene and tetra-n-butylammonium azide in a solution of diethyl ether or dimethyl ether. The advantage of this synthetic method, relative to other procedures, is that the use of triphosgene, OC(OCCl(3))(2), mitigates the need to use highly poisonous reagents such as phosgene, OCCl(2), or chlorofluorocarbonyl, OC(Cl)F. The identity and purity of OC(N(3))(2) are established by gas-phase IR spectroscopy, which reveals the presence of both syn-syn and anti-syn conformers. Computed anharmonic vibrational frequencies and infrared intensities of carbonyl diazide (1) display excellent agreement with experiment, and reveal the presence of strong Fermi resonances.     

Spectroscopic and electrochemical studies of hetero-bimetallic copper complexes with Schiff's base ligand

Using Schiff's base ligand, several Cu(II) based bimetallic complexes such as Cu-Cu, Cu-Co, Cu-Ni, Cu-Zn, Cu-Mn have been prepared in a stepwise procedure. The structures of these complexes and the ligand have been proposed on the basis of FAB mass, elemental analysis, UV-vis, IR, electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and CV studies. EPR parameters, obtained through complete simulation, suggest that the formation of bimetallic complexes forces the Cu(II) centre to increase the flexibility in comparison with the monometallic Cu(II) complex. However, the nature of the second metal ion in the bimetallic complex effects the distortion around the first metal ion. The reduction of the complexes from Cu(II) to Cu(I) involves a large geometrical change and is found to be irreversible. A large positive shift is seen in the cathodic process, which can be ascribed to increased distortion due to bimetallic coordination. These complexes have potential usage in DNA studies.     

Dark-field oxidative addition-based chemosensing: new bis-cyclometalated PtII complexes and phosphorescent detection of cyanogen halides

Heavy metal complexes that are phosphorescent at room temperature are becoming increasingly important in materials chemistry, principally due to their use in phosphorescent organic light-emitting devices (OLEDs). Their use in optical sensory schemes, however, has not been heavily explored. Homoleptic bis-cyclometalated Pt(II) complexes are known to undergo oxidative addition with appropriate electrophiles (principally alkyl halides) by either thermal or photochemical activation. We have applied this general reaction scheme to the development of a phosphorescence-based sensing system for cyanogen halides. To carry out structure-property relationship studies, a series of previously unreported Pt(II) complexes was prepared. Most of the complexes (excluding those that incorporated substituents on the ligands that forced steric crowding in the square plane) were strongly orange-red phosphorescent (Phi = 0.2-0.3) in a room-temperature oxygen-free solution. These sterically demanding ligands also accelerated the addition of cyanogen bromide to these complexes but slowed the addition of methyl iodide, indicating that the oxidative addition mechanisms for these two electrophiles is different. The lack of solvent-polarity effect on the addition of BrCN suggests a radical mechanism. Oxidative addition of BrCN to the metal complexes in solution or dispersed in poly(methyl methacrylate) gave blue-shifted emissive Pt(IV) complexes. The blue-shifted products give a dark-field sensing scheme that is in sharp contrast to energy transfer-based sensing schemes, which have limited signal-to-noise because of the presence of lower-energy vibronic bands of the energy donor that can overlap with the emission of the acceptor.     

Non-Degeneracy of Pollard Rho Collisions

The Pollard algorithm is a widely used algorithm for solvingdiscrete logarithms on general cyclic groups, including ellipticcurves. Recently the first nontrivial runtime estimates wereprovided for it, culminating in a sharp bound for the collision time on a cyclic groupof order n [4, 5]. In this paper, we show that for n satisfyinga mild arithmetic condition, the collisions guaranteed by theseresults are nondegenerate with high probability: that is, thePollard algorithm successfully finds the discrete logarithm.     

Recognition of aromatic amino acids and proteins with p‐sulfonatocalix[4]arene – A luminescence and theoretical approach

The host–guest interaction of p‐sulfonatocalix[4]arene (p‐SC4) with aromatic amino acids (AAs) and two proteins has been studied using UV–Vis absorption, fluorescence, and theoretical methods. Spectral studies supported by binding constant and calculated binding energy (BE) values show that p‐SC4 binds more strongly with tyrosine compared with other AAs. The application of Bader's theory of atoms in molecule shows the involvement of various types of noncovalent interactions in the formation of the host–guest complexes. Both tyrosine and histidine have strong electrostatic interaction with the sulfonato group and other two AAs have dominant π?π interaction with the aromatic rings of calixarene. In addition, the role of C?H···O, C?H···π and lone pair···π (lp···π) interactions in the stabilization of p‐SC4‐AA complexes has also been realized from the atoms in molecule analysis. The electron density at the bond critical points varies with the calculated BEs and trend in BEs is in good agreement with the experimental binding constant values. The work has been extended to the binding of p‐SC4 with proteins, bovine serum albumin and ovalbumin. Ovalbumin exhibits stronger binding with p‐SC4 than bovine serum albumin. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Acetylene-Mediated Borophosphene Dirac Materials as Efficient Anode Materials for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Generally, graphynes have been generated by the insertion of acetylenic content (−C≡C−) in the graphene network in different ratios. Also, several aesthetically pleasing architectures of two-dimensional (2D) flatlands have been reported with the incorporation of acetylenic linkers between the heteroatomic constituents. Prompted by the experimental realization of boron phosphide, which has provided new insights on the boron-pnictogen family, we have modelled novel forms of acetylene-mediated borophosphene nanosheets by joining the orthorhombic borophosphene stripes with different widths and with different atomic constituents using acetylenic linkers. Structural stabilities and properties of these novel forms have been assessed using first-principles calculations. Investigation of electronic band structure elucidates that all the novel forms show the linear band crossing closer to the Fermi level at Dirac point with distorted Dirac cones. The linearity in the hole and electronic bands impose the high Fermi velocity to the charge carriers close to that of graphene. Finally, we have also unravelled the propitious features of acetylene-mediated borophosphene nanosheets as anodes in Li-ion batteries.