Complexes of Silver(l) with arsenic and phosphorus donor ligands. Co-ordination number 4

Some tetracoordinated complexes having the formulae, [AgL₄]X (L = Triphenyl-arsine; X = NO, ClO and BrO) and [AgL₃X] (L = Triphenyl-arsine/phosphine; X = SCN^? and NCO^?) have been prepared and characterised by analyses, conductance, magnetic susceptibility and infra-red spectroscopy.     

Quantitative estimation of constituents in fly ash by lithium tetraborate fusion

Silica is removed from fly ash sample by hydroflourination for its effective determination gravimetrically and the remaining residue is subjected to lithium tetraborate (Li₂B₄O₇) fusion followed by dissolution in dilute nitric acid to obtain a clear solution in which elements including aluminum (Al), iron (Fe), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), potassium (K), titanium (Ti), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), have been determined by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (FAAS). Two fly ash samples analyzed by the proposed method have been received from the National Council of Cement and Building Materials (NCCBM), India (proposed CRM in future) and fly ash CRM 1633 (b) from NIST, USA. The validity of the method has been established by analyzing fly ash CRM 1633 (b) as reference standard. The standard deviation has been calculated for each measurement.     

Structural,electronic, and mechanical properties of cubic TiO_2:A first-principles study

We present an analysis of structural, electronic, and mechanical properties of cubic titanium dioxide(TiO_2) using an all electron orthogonalzed linear combinations of atomic orbitals(OLCAO) basis set under the framework of density functional theory(DFT). The structural property, especially the lattice constant a, and the electronic properties such as the band diagram and density of states(DOS) are studied and analyzed. The mechanical properties such as bulk moduli, shear moduli, Young's Moduli, and Poison's ratio are also investigated thoroughly. The calculations are carried out on shear moduli and anisotropy factor for cubic TiO_2. The Vickers hardness is also tested for fluorite and pyrite cubic-structured TiO_2. Furthermore, the results are compared with the previous theoretical and experimental results. It is found that DFTbased simulation produces results which are approximation to experimental results, whereas the calculated elastic constants are better than the previous theoretical and experimental values.     

The minimum forcing number of perfect matchings in the hypercube

Let $M$ be a perfect matching in a graph. A subset $S$ of $M$ is said to be a forcing set of $M$, if $M$ is the only perfect matching in the graph that contains $S$. The minimum size of a forcing set of $M$ is called the forcing number of $M$. Pachter and Kim (1998) conjectured that the forcing number of every perfect matching in the $n$-dimensional hypercube is $2^{n?2}$, for all $n\ge 2$. This was revised by Riddle (2002), who conjectured that it is at least $2^{n?2}$, and proved it for all even $n$. We show that the revised conjecture holds for all $n\ge 2$. The proof is based on simple linear algebra.     

Kinetics of catalyzed esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol using carbonized agro-waste

The objective of this research work was to investigate the kinetics of esterification of acetic acid with n-butanol through the variation of experimental parameters. The reaction mixture was catalyzed heterogeneously by a sulfonated catalyst in batch mode of operation. The catalyst was prepared from abundantly available agro-waste, Cajanus cajan husk by chemical activation process, which produces a carbon-based solid catalyst with high surface area. The catalyst was characterized by a Brunauer-Emmet-Teller surface analyzer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to know the surface morphology. Process parameters such as contact time, reaction temperature, and catalyst loading, which can influence the extent of conversion of reactants, were studied. Furthermore, the kinetic investigation was also carried out to estimate the kinetic parameters for uncatalyzed and catalyzed reaction using the second-order pseudo-homogeneous (P-H), Eley-Rideal (E-R), and Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) kinetic models for this research work. The kinetic parameters such as activation energy, preexponential factor, and the thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy and entropy were estimated for uncatalyzed and catalyzed reactions using these three models. The process conditions were optimized for catalyzed and uncatalyzed reactions to obtain the maximum product yield by minimizing root mean square error of each experimental data using the MS-excel solver tool. Thus, this study reveals the high potential of an agro-waste, Cajanus cajan husk as raw material for the synthesis of catalyst. The results show that the E-R model is more appropriate for predicting the dynamic data of an esterification reaction, as the forward rate of reaction estimated using the E-R model are more modified than P-H and L-H models.     

Vanadium dodecylamino phosphate: A novel efficient catalyst for synthesis of polyhydroquinolines

A novel vanadium dodecylamino phosphate was synthesised by an instant reaction between phosphoric acid and vanadyl acetylacetonoate using dodecylamine as the structure-directing agent at ambient temperature. The physicochemical characteristics of the material were investigated by a variety of analytical techniques. XRD studies revealed the presence of vanadium phosphate and hydrated vanadium phosphate phases in the framework of the material. The catalytic application of this material toward in the synthesis of polyhydroquinolines via Hantzsch condensation was investigated at ambient temperature. This method affords high yields within short reaction times. The influence of various reaction parameters such as different solvents, catalyst dosage, effect of aldehydes, and reusability was studied and a plausible mechanism proposed.