Regioselective synthesis of 2-unsubstituted 1-aryl-4- and 1-aryl-5-acylimidazoles

An efficient and simple method for the synthesis of 2-unsubstituted 1-aryl-4- and 1-aryl-5-acylimidazoles has been developed. It consists in the condensation of α-diketone monooximes with aromatic amines and formaldehyde on the presence of boron trifluoride etherate, leading to the formation of stable boron trifluoride complexes of N-oxides. Further reduction of these complexes led to the corresponding imidazoles. This method permits broad variations of substituents in the aryl part of these compounds.     

Surface activity and self-aggregation ability of three cationic quaternized aminocalix[4]arenes

The self-aggregation ability of three amphiphilic cationic calix[4]arenes possessing four quaternary amino groups (aminoCAs) was investigated using a variety of methods. All of the studied compounds possess high aggregation ability. Their critical aggregation concentration (CAC) values in water are in the 0.0009–0.04 % (w/v) concentration range. Several size populations of aggregates were detected by DLS for all three CAs, and restructuring of aggregates was observed to be dependent on concentration. Particles formed above CAC were attributed to formation of vesicular structures (vesicles). The coexistence of other type of aggregates (presumably micelles) with vesicles was observed in the aqueous solution of CAs 2 and 3 from concentrations of 0.5 and 0.8 % (w/v), respectively. The filtration procedure was found to be a significant factor since the obtained data from filtered and unfiltered samples was different. The particle sizes obtained by TEM measurements were somewhat correlated with the DLS data for unfiltered CAs solutions. An analysis of the aggregate composition was undertaken by a size-exclusion method using semi-permeable cellophane membranes with different MWCO. A negative deviation from linearity of permeability flux profile starting from 0.8 % (w/v) concentration of donor phase indicated that the fraction of large aggregates at this point is significant enough that the molecules could not easily permeate through the membranes.     

Pathways of Methane Transformation over Copper-Exchanged Mordenite as Revealed by In Situ NMR and IR Spectroscopy

The reaction of methane with copper-exchanged mordenite with two different Si/Al ratios was studied by means of in situ NMR and infrared spectroscopies. The detection of NMR signals was shown to be possible with high sensitivity and resolution, despite the presence of a considerable number of paramagnetic Cu^II species. Several types of surface-bonded compounds were found after reaction, namely molecular methanol, methoxy species, dimethyl ether, mono- and bidentate formates, Cu^I monocarbonyl as well as carbon monoxide and dioxide, which were present in the gas phase. The relative fractions of these species are strongly influenced by the reaction temperature and the structure of the copper sites and is governed by the Si/Al ratio. While methoxy species bonded to Brønsted acid sites, dimethyl ether and bidentate formate species are the main products over copper-exchange mordenite with a Si/Al ratio of 6; molecular methanol and monodentate formate species were observed mainly over the material with a Si/Al ratio of 46. These observations are important for understanding the methane partial oxidation mechanism and for the rational design of the active materials for this reaction.     

Isotope Effect on Diffusion in Nafion Studied by NMR Diffusometry

Applied Magnetic Resonance - The isotope effect H → D on diffusion in proton-exchange membrane Nafion 212 is investigated using 1H and 2H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)...     

Existence of solutions for some non‐Fredholm integro‐differential equations with the bi‐Laplacian

We prove the existence of solutions for some semilinear elliptic equations in the appropriate H⁴ spaces using the fixed‐point technique where the elliptic equation contains fourth‐order differential operators with and without Fredholm property, generalizing the previous results.     

Electron-cluster interactions

Beam depletion spectroscopy has been used to measure absolute total inelastic electron-sodium cluster collision cross sections in the energy range fromE0.1 toE6 eV. The investigation focused on the closed shell clusters Na₈, Na₂₀, and Na₄₀. The measured cross sections show an increase for the lowest collision energies where electron attachment is the primary scattering channel. The electron attachment cross section can be understood in terms of Langevin scattering, connecting this measurement with the polarizability of the cluster. For energies above the dissociation energy the measured electron-cluster cross section is energy independent, thus defining an electron-cluster interaction range. This interaction range increases with the cluster size.     

Geometric properties of the ridge function manifold

We study geometrical properties of the ridge function manifold \(\mathcal{R}_n\) consisting of all possible linear combinations of n functions of the form g(a· x), where a·x is the inner product in \({\mathbb R}^d\). We obtain an estimate for the ε-entropy numbers in terms of smaller ε-covering numbers of the compact class G _n,s formed by the intersection of the class \(\mathcal{R}_n\) with the unit ball \(B\mathcal{P}_s^d\) in the space of polynomials on \({\mathbb R}^d\) of degree s. In particular we show that for n?≤?s ^d???1 the ε-entropy number H _ε (G _n,s,L _q ) of the class G _n,s in the space L _q is of order nslog1/ε (modulo a logarithmic factor). Note that the ε-entropy number \(H_\varepsilon(B\mathcal{P}_s^d,L_q)\) of the unit ball is of order s ^d log1/ε. Moreover, we obtain an estimate for the pseudo-dimension of the ridge function class G _n,s.     

The oxidation kinetic study of mechanically milled ultrafine iron powders by thermogravimetric analysis

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - The effect of mechanical milling on the oxidation kinetics of ultrafine iron powders was investigated by thermogravimetric (TG) analysis. The initial...     

Accurate theoretical prediction of optical properties of BODIPY dyes

Boron-dipyrromethene dyes (BODIPY) are of great interest nowadays mostly due to their valuable optical properties. Nevertheless, no systematic research of the optical property dependence on the structure of dyes has been performed yet. In this work, analysis of the available quantum-chemical methods for BODIPY optical property calculations has been carried out. The accuracy of eight DFT functionals has been studied. The solvation effects upon excitation have been considered within two schemes. The methods that predict the absorption and emission spectra of BODIPY derivatives with high accuracy have been proposed. Using the suggested methods, the influence of nature of substituents and their position in the BODIPY core on the optical spectra of the dyes has been studied. A complex pattern of red- and blue-shifts in optical spectra in dependence of nature and position of substituents has been revealed. The results of this work provide the way for efficient design of BODIPY derivatives with desired optical properties.