Silica-Supported MnII Sites as Efficient Catalysts for Carbonyl Hydroboration,Hydrosilylation, and Transesterification

Manganese, the third most abundant transition-metal element after iron and titanium, has recently been demonstrated to be an effective homogeneous catalyst in numerous reactions. Herein, the preparation of silica-supported Mn^II sites is reported using Surface Organometallic Chemistry (SOMC), combined with tailored thermolytic molecular precursors approach based on Mn₂[OSi(OtBu)₃]₄ and Mn{N(SiMe₃)₂}₂⋅THF. These supported Mn^II sites, free of organic ligands, efficiently catalyze numerous reactions: hydroboration and hydrosilylation of ketones and aldehydes as well as the transesterification of industrially relevant substrates.     

Metal complexes as potential modulators of inflammatory and autoimmune responses

Over the past few decades, the realm of inorganic medicinal chemistry has been dominated by the study of the anti-cancer properties of transition metal complexes, particularly those based on platinum or ruthenium. However, comparatively less attention has been focused on the development of metal complexes for the treatment of inflammatory or autoimmune diseases. Metal complexes possess a number of advantages that render them as attractive alternatives to organic small molecules for the development of therapeutic agents. In this perspective, we highlight recent examples in the development of transition metal complexes as modulators of inflammatory and autoimmune responses. The studies presented here serve to highlight the potential of transition metal complexes in modulating inflammatory or immune pathways in cells.     

Air‐Stable Spirofluorene‐Containing Ladder‐Type Bis(alkynyl)borane Compounds with Readily Tunable Full Color Emission Properties

A series of air‐stable spiro‐fused ladder‐type boron(III) compounds has been designed, synthesized, and the electrochemistry and photophysical behavior have been characterized. By simply varying the substituents on the pyridine ring and extending the π‐conjugation of the spiro framework, the emission color of these compounds can be easily fine‐tuned spanning the visible spectrum from blue to red. All compounds exhibit a broad and structureless emission band across the entire visible region, assigned as an intramolecular charge‐transfer transition originating from the thiophene of the spiro framework to the pyridine‐borane moieties. In addition, these compounds demonstrate high photoluminescence quantum yields of up to 0.81 in dichloromethane solution and 0.86 in doped thin films. Some of the compounds have also been employed as emissive materials, in which solution‐processed organic light‐emitting devices (OLEDs) with tunable emission colors spanning the visible spectrum from blue, green to red have been realized, demonstrating the potential applications of these boron compounds in OLEDs.     

Tuning of Supramolecular Architectures of l‐Valine‐Containing Dicyanoplatinum(II) 2,2′‐Bipyridine Complexes by Metal–Metal, π–π Stacking,and Hydrogen‐Bonding Interactions

A series of newly synthesized dicyanoplatinum(II) 2,2′‐bipyridine complexes exhibits self‐assembly properties in solution after the incorporation of the l ‐valine amino units appended with various hydrophobic motifs. These l ‐valine‐derived substituents were found to have critical control over the aggregation behaviors of the complexes in the solution state. On one hand, one of the complexes was found to exhibit interesting circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) signals at low temperature due to the formation of chiral spherical aggregates in the temperature‐dependent studies. On the other hand, systematic transformation from less uniform aggregates to well‐defined fibrous and rod‐like structures via Pt???Pt and π–π stacking interactions has also been observed in the mixed‐solvent studies. These changes were monitored by UV/Vis absorption, emission, circular dichroism (CD), and CPL spectroscopies, and morphologies were studied by electron microscopy.     

Aeroacoustics of duct junction flows merging at different angles

This paper reports an exploratory study of the aeroacoustics of a merging flow at a duct junction with the same width in all branches and different merging angles. The focus is put on the acoustic generation due to the flow unsteadiness. The study is carried out by the direct aeroacoustic simulation (DAS) approach, which solves the unsteady compressible Navier–Stokes equations and the perfect gas equation of state simultaneously using the conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method. The Mach number based on the maximum inlet velocity of side branch is 0.1 and the Reynolds number of the flow based on duct width and this velocity is 2.3×10⁵. The numerical simulations are performed in two dimensions and the aeroacoustics at different merging angles (30°, 45°, 60° and 90°) are studied. Both the levels of unsteady interactions of merging flow structures and the efficiency of the acoustic generation are observed to increase with the merging angles, where the increase in acoustic efficiency can be up to three orders of magnitude. The major acoustic source is found to be the fluctuating wall pressure induced by the flow unsteadiness in the downstream branch. A scaling law between the wall fluctuating force and the acoustic efficiency is also derived.     

Viscoelastic properties of poly(ε‐caprolactone) – hydroxyapatite micro‐ and nano‐composites

Various composites have been proposed in the literature for the fabrication of bioscaffolds for bone tissue engineering. These materials include poly(ε‐caprolactone) (PCL) with hydroxyapatite (HA). Since the biomaterial acts as the medium that transfers mechanical signals from the body to the cells, the fundamental properties of the biomaterials should be characterized. Furthermore, in order to control the processing of these materials into scaffolds, the characterization of the fundamental properties is also necessary. In this study, the physical, thermal, mechanical, and viscoelastic properties of the PCL‐HA micro‐ and nano‐composites were characterized. Although the addition of filler particles increased the compressive modulus by up to 450%, the thermal and viscoelastic properties were unaffected. Furthermore, although the presence of water plasticized the polymer, the viscoelastic behavior was only minimally affected. Testing the composites under various conditions showed that the addition of HA can strengthen PCL without changing its viscoelastic response. The results found in this study can be used to further understand and approximate the time‐dependent behavior of scaffolds for bone tissue engineering. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Self-assembly and aggregation of ATRP prepared amphiphilic BAB tri-block copolymers contained nonionic ethylene glycol and fluorescent 9,10-di(1-naphthalenyl)-2-vinyl-anthracene/1-vinyl-pyrene segments

Two novel amphiphilic BAB-type block copolymers, ADN-PEG3400-ADN and Py-PEG3400-Py containing deep blue and bluish-green fluorescent moieties were prepared using atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) (where, ADN = poly(9,10-di(1-naphthalenyl)-2-vinylanthracene), Py = poly(1-vinyl pyrene) and PEG3400 = poly(ethylene glycol) with M_n = 3400 g/mol). The GPC number averaged molecular weights (MW) of the block copolymers were M_n = 9600 and 13,800 g/mol, respectively, based on polystyrene MW standards. The PEG3400 segment has a melting temperature (T_m peak) at 64–65 °C, whereas the glass transition temperatures (T_g midpoint) of the ADN and Py segments were found to be 230 °C and 193 °C, respectively, and are similar to their respective homopolymers indicating complete microphase segregration. The photoluminescence (PL) emission of the copolymers ADN-PEG3400-ADN exhibited two maxima at 423.5 nm and 441.5 nm while Py-PEG3400-Py has a maximum at 488.5 nm. Both copolymers form individual spherical micelles with diameter from 30 to 90 nm for Py-PEG3400-Py and 40–160 nm for ADN-PEG3400-ADN. The micelles, however, transform into cross-linked pearl-necklace-like aggregates at polymer concentrations above 1000 ppm, which may be attributed to the physical cross-linking between adjacent spherical micelles caused by the PEG3400 segments.