Simple room temperature bonding of thermoplastics and poly(dimethylsiloxane)

We describe a simple and versatile method for bonding thermoplastics to elastomeric polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) at room temperature. The bonding of various thermoplastics including polycarbonate (PC), cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA), and polystyrene (PS), to PDMS has been demonstrated at room temperature. An irreversible bonding was formed instantaneously when the thermoplastics, activated by oxygen plasma followed by aminopropyltriethoxysilane modification, were brought into contact with the plasma treated PDMS. The surface modified thermoplastics were characterized by water contact angle measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The tensile strength of the bonded hybrid devices fabricated with PC, COC, PMMA, and PS was found to be 430, 432, 385, and 388 kPa, respectively. The assembled devices showed high burst resistance at a maximum channel pressure achievable by an in-house built syringe pump, 528 kPa. Furthermore, they displayed very high hydrolytic stability; no significant change was observed even after the storage in water at 37 °C over a period of three weeks. In addition, this thermoplastic-to-PDMS bonding technique has been successfully employed to fabricate a relatively large sized device. For example, a lab-on-a-disc with a diameter of 12 cm showed no leakage when it spins for centrifugal fluidic pumping at a very high rotating speed of 6000 rpm.     

Quantum mechanical and spectroscopic (FT-IR, FT-Raman, 13C, 1H and UV) investigations of antiepileptic drug Ethosuximide

The Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and Fourier Transform Raman (FT-Raman) spectra of antiepileptic drug Ethosuximide (ETX) have been recorded and analyzed. In addition, the IR spectra in CCl(4) at various concentrations of ETX are also recorded. The equilibrium geometry, bonding features and harmonic vibrational frequencies have been investigated with the help of Density Functional Theory (DFT) method. The (1)H and (13)C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) chemical shifts of the molecule were calculated by the Gauge Including Atomic Orbital (GIAO) method. Stability of the molecule arising from hyperconjugative interactions and charge delocalization has been analyzed using natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. The results show that charge in electron density (ED) in the σ* and π* antibonding orbitals and second order delocalization energies E(2) confirms the occurrence of intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) within the molecule. UV-vis spectrum of the compound was recorded and the electronic properties, such as HOMO and LUMO energies, were performed by Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) approach. Finally the calculation results were applied to simulate infrared and Raman spectra of the title compound which showed good agreement with observed spectra.     

N-heterocyclic carbene catalysed aerobic oxidation of aromatic aldehydes to aryl esters using boronic acids

The organocatalytic behavior of N-heterocyclic carbenes in the aerobic oxidation of aromatic aldehydes to esters with boronic acids has been explored. This transition metal-free protocol allows access to a wide variety of aromatic esters in good to excellent yields under mild reaction conditions.     

Influence of terminal substitution on structural, DNA, protein binding, anticancer and antibacterial activities of palladium(II) complexes containing 3-methoxy salicylaldehyde-4(N) substituted thiosemicarbazones

The variable chelating behavior of 3-methoxysalicylaldehyde-4(N)-substituted thiosemicarbazones was observed in equimolar reactions with [PdCl(2)(PPh(3))(2)]. The new complexes were characterized by various analytical, spectroscopic techniques (mass, (1)H-NMR, absorption, IR). All the new complexes were structurally characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction. Crystallographic results showed that the ligands H(2)L(1) and H(2)L(4) are coordinated as binegative tridentate ONS donor ligands in the complexes 1 and 4 by forming six and five member rings. However, the ligands H(2)L(2) and H(2)L(3) bound to palladium in 2 and 3 as uninegative bidentate NS donors by forming a five member chelate ring. From this study, it was found that the substitution on terminal 4(N)-nitrogen may have an influence on the chelating ability of thiosemicarbazone. The presence of hydrogen bonding in 2 and 3 might be responsible for preventing the coordination of phenolic oxygen to the metal ion. The interaction of the complexes with calf-thymus DNA (CT-DNA) has been explored by absorption and emission titration methods. Based on the observations, an electrostatic binding mode of DNA has been proposed. The protein binding studies were monitored by quenching of tryptophan and tyrosine residues in the presence of complexes using Lysozyme as model protein. Antibacterial activity studies of the complexes have been screened against pathogenic bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. MIC50 values of the complexes showed that they exhibited significant activity against the pathogens and among them, 3 exhibited higher activity. Further, anticancer activity of the complexes on the lung cancer cell line A549 has also been studied.     

Properties of bottomonium in a semi-relativistic model

Using a semi-relativistic potential model we investigate the spectra and decays of the bottomonium (bb-) system. The Hamiltonian of our model consists of a relativistic kinetic energy term, a vector Coulomb-like potential and a scalar confining potential. Using this Hamiltonian, we obtain a spinless wave equation, which is then reduced to the form of a single particle Schrodinger equation. The spin dependent potentials are introduced as a perturbation. The three-dimensional harmonic oscillator wave function is employed as a trial wave function and the bb- mass spectrum is obtained by the variational method. The model parameters and the wave function that reproduce the the bb- spectrum are then used to investigate some of their decay properties. The results obtained are then compared with the experimental data and with the predictions of other theoretical models.     

Bottomonium Spectrum and Decays with One Gluon Exchange Potential

The phenomenological non-relativistic quark model (NRQM) has been employedto obtain the masses of bottomonium states. In the frame work of
NRQM an exhaustive study of radiative and leptonic decays has been made.The Hamiltonian used in the investigation has kinetic energy, confinement potential and one gluon exchange potential (OGEP). An overall agreement is obtained with the experimental masses and decay widths.     

Substitution of 2-phosphaindolizines by bromine and by chlorophosphines

Bromine does not add to phosphorus in a 2-phosphaindolizine 1 but substitutes its 1-position. The 1-bromo derivatives 2 are best prepared with Br₂/NEt₃ or N-bromosuccinimide. Their hydrolysis is remarkable; it involves a debromination of C-1, an oxidation of P and a selective opening of the P/C-3 bond. PCl₃ also causes a substitution of the 1-position. The resulting 1-dichlorophosphino derivatives 5 easily undergo a substituent exchange at the exocyclic phosphorus. More 1-phosphino derivatives are formed in the reaction of 1 with phenyl and diazaphospholyl dichlorophosphine.