Synthesis and structures of selected triazapentadienate of Li, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu(I), and Cu(II) using 2,4-N,N'-disubstituted 1,3,5-triazapentadienate anions as ancillary ligands: [N(Ar)C(NMe2)NC(NMe2)N(R)](-) (Ar = Ph, 2,6-(i)Pr2-C6H3; R = H, SiMe3)

Addition reaction of ArN(SiMe 3)M (Ar = Ph or 2,6 - (i) Pr 2-C 6H 3 (Dipp); M = Li or Na) to 2 equivalents of alpha-hydrogen-free nitrile RCN (R = dimethylamido) gave the dimeric [M{N(Ar)C(NMe 2)NC(NMe 2)N(SiMe 3)}] 2 ( 1a, Ar = Ph, M = Li; 1b, Ar = Ph, M = Na; 1c, Ar = Dipp, M = Li). 1d was obtained by hydrolysis of 1c at ambient temperature. Treatment of a double ratio of 1a or 1b with anhydrous MCl 2 (M = Mn, Fe, Co) yielded the 1,3,5-triazapentadienato complexes [M{N(Ph)C(NMe 2)NC(NMe 2)N(SiMe 3)} 2] (M = Mn, 2; Fe, 3; Co, 4) and with NiCl 2.6H 2O gave [M{N(Ph)C(NMe 2)NC(NMe 2)N(H)} 2] (M = Ni, 5). Treatment of an equiv of 1c with anhydrous CuCl in situ and in air led to complexes [{N(Dipp)C(NMe 2)NC(NMe 2)N(SiMe 3)}CuPPh 3] 6 and [Cu{N(Dipp)C(NMe 2)NC(NMe 2)N(H)} 2] 7, respectively. 1c, 1d, and 2- 7 were characterized by X-ray crystallography and microanalysis. 1c, 1d, 5, and 6 were well characterized by (1)H, (13)C NMR, 1c by (7)Li, and 6 by (31)P NMR as well. The structural features of these complexes were described in detail.     

Syntheses of 2,4-disubstituted 1,3,5-triazapentadienyl ligands having two guanidinato moieties and their use in the isolation of copper(I) complexes

2,4-N,N'-Disubstituted 1,3,5-triazapentadienyl ligands as their lithium salts [Li{(N(R)C(R'))2N}]2 [where R = SiMe3 here and hereafter and R' = dimethylamino (1) or 1-piperidino (2)] were synthesized via the reactions of LiN(SiMe3)2 with 2 equiv of the alpha-hydrogen-free carbonitrile dimethylcyanamide or 1-piperdinecarbonitrile and used in the isolation of the two-coordinate copper(I) complexes [Cu{(N(R)C(R'))2N}]2 [R' = dimethylamino (3) and 1-piperidino (4)]. Complex 2 features a twisted W-shaped ligand backbone in the solid state. Complexes 3 and 4 show an unusual 12-membered ring dinuclear copper( I) triazapentadienyl and a less expressed ability to form a stable delocalized triazapentadienyl system.     

The effect of methyl group on the cooperativity between three types of hydrogen bond: O?H···O,C?H···O,and O?H···π

The effect of the methyl group on the cooperativity between three types of hydrogen bond (O H···O, C H···O, and O H···π) in cyclic complex involving an acetylene and two waters has been studied on the basis of high-level ab initio calculations. The total interaction energy of three hydrogen bonds increases as the number of methyl group in the complex increases. The binding distances of O H···π and O H···O hydrogen bonds shorten, while that of C H···O hydrogen bond elongates with increasing methyl group. This indicates that addition of methyl group leads to enhancement of O H···π and O H···O hydrogen bonds, and weakening of C H···O hydrogen bond, as also shown in frequency shift, chemical shifts, charge populations, and stabilization energies of orbital interactions. Although the presence of methyl group has a complicated effect on different type of hydrogen bond, the cooperativity of three hydrogen bonds increases in general with the addition of methyl group. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2008     

New torsion potential expression for molecules without rotational symmetry

A new torsion potential function for bond rotations without rotational symmetry is proposed. This function is composed of a few Gaussian-type terms each corresponding to an eclipsed conformation of the 1,2 substituents of the C-C bonds. Different from the truncated Fourier series or the truncated cosine polynomial, it is easy to determine how many terms are needed to represent any type of torsion potential barrier at a glance using the Gaussian-type function. It could also intuitively deduce the physical meaning of the expansion parameters of the new torsion potential function, which corresponds to the barrier height, the dihedral defining the eclipsed conformations, and the size of the substituents, respectively. The new torsion potential function is also applied to the 1, 2-substituted haloethanes with satisfactory results, where three Gaussian-type terms corresponding to the fully eclipsed and the partially eclipsed conformations are needed.     

An Effective Non-Enzymatic Glucose Biosensor Based on Nanostructured CuxO/Cu Electrodes Synthesized in Situ by Copper Anodization

Potentiostatic anodization was developed to synthesize copper oxide/copper (Cu_xO/Cu, x=1,2) electrode with nano structure for sensitive non-enzymatic glucose detection. At a catalytic potential of 0.55 V, the CuO/Cu electrode presented a high sensitivity of 2954.38 μA mM⁻¹ cm⁻² to glucose and a linear range of 0.1 mM to 1.3 mM. The response time is less than 3 s with addition of 0.1 mM glucose. The CuO/Cu electrode above was anodized in 1M KOH solution at −100 mV and the morphology was compact nanoparticles and sparsely dispersed nanosheets, which enlarged the surface area and provided abundant electrocatalytic active sites. Compared the sensing property of electrodes with different morphologies, it indicated that nanostructure was significant to the efficient glucose catalytic oxidation process and it could be regulated by changing the potential and electrolyte concentration during anodization.     

Highly Efficient and Chemoselective Tandem Hydroformylation-Hydrogenation of Alkenes to Alcohols over g-CN Supported Bimetallic Rh and Co Nanoparticles Catalysts

The objective of the tandem hydroformylation-hydrogenation of alkenes to corresponding alcohols was to design an efficient and stable heterogeneous catalyst. To this end, a series of novel heterogeneous graphitic carbon nitride (g-CN) supported bimetallic Rh−Co nanoparticle catalysts (Rh−Co/g-CN) were prepared and subsequently studied for this one-pot two-step reaction. The lamellar structure makes Rh and Co nanoparticles with diameters of <1 nm and 20 nm, respectively, homogeneously deposited on the surface of g-CN layers, exhibit remarkable conversion of styrene (99.9 %) and chemoselectivity for alcohol (87.8 %). More importantly, Co nanoparticles are found to play an important role in the improvement of the chemoselectivity for alcohol due to the formation of catalytic active species [HCo(CO)_y]. Besides the detailed investigation of the catalytic properties of Rh−Co/g-CN under different reaction conditions, the reuse of Rh−Co/g-CN was conducted for five times and no evident decrease in the activity and chemoselectivity was observed. Therefore, we expect that this work could offer an initial insight into g-CN-based heterogeneous catalyst on the tandem hydroformylation-hydrogenation reaction.     

Influence of Atomistic Protrusion on the Substrate on Molecular Luminescence in Tunnel Junctions

Scanning tunneling microscope (STM) induced luminescence can be used to study various optoelectronic phenomena of single molecules and to understand the fundamental photophysical mechanisms involved. To clearly observe the molecule-specific luminescence, it is important to improve the quantum efficiency of molecules in the metallic nanocavity. In this work, we investigate theoretically the influence of an atomic-scale protrusion on the substrate on the emission properties of a point dipole oriented parallel to the substrate in a silver plasmonic nanocavity by electromagnetic simulations. We find that an atomic-scale protrusion on the substrate can strongly enhance the quantum efficiency of a horizontal dipole emitter, similar to the situation with a protrusion at the tip apex. We also consider a double-protrusion junction geometry in which there is an atomic-scale protrusion on both the tip and the substrate, and find that this geometry does provide significantly enhanced emission compared with the protrusion-free situation, but does not appear to improve the quantum efficiency compared to the mono-protrusion situation either at the tip apex or on the substrate. These results are believed to be instructive for future STM induced electroluminescence and photoluminescence studies on single molecules.     

Complete suppression of the fluorophore fluorescence by combined effect of multiple fluorescence quenching groups: A fluorescent sensor for Cu with zero background signals

The reaction-based fluorescent sensors have attracted increasing attention in the past decades. However, the application of these sensors for accurate sensing was significantly retarded by the background fluorescence from the sensors themselves. In this work, we demonstrated a novel strategy that the background fluorescence of the sensor could be completely eliminated by the combined effect of multiple fluorescence quenching groups. Based on this new strategy, as proof-of-principle study, a fluorescent sensor (CuFS) for Cu²⁺ was judiciously developed. In CuFS, three types of fluorescence quenching groups were directly tethered to a commonly used coumarin fluorophore. The fluorescence of coumarin fluorophore in CuFS was completely suppressed by the combined effect of these fluorescence quenching groups. Upon treatment with 22 μM Cu²⁺, sensor CuFS achieved a dramatic fluorescence enhancement (fluorescence intensity enhanced up to 811-fold) centered at 469 nm. The detection limits was determined to be 12.3 nM. The fluorescence intensity enhancement also showed a good linearity with the Cu²⁺ concentration in the range of 12.3 nM to 2 μM. By fabricating test strips, sensor CuFS can be utilized as a simple tool to detect Cu²⁺ in water samples. Furthermore, the fluorescent sensor was successfully applied in detecting different concentration of Cu²⁺ in living cells.     

醇预处理载体制备的 Ir-Re/SiO2催化剂上甘油氢解反应

甘油是生物柴油的副产物,将其转化为高附加值的化学品,能提高生物柴油产业的经济性.1,3-丙二醇是聚酯和聚氨酯的单体,也用于合成医药和用作有机合成中间体,甘油直接催化氢解反应制1,3-丙二醇极具发展潜力.另外,甘油是生物质转化的重要平台分子之一,与目标产物的分子结构相比较,生物质平台分子通常含有过多的含氧基团,尤其是多余的羟基,通过甘油氢解反应研究多羟基的选择性活化和脱除,可以加深对生物质脱氧规律的认识.因此,研究甘油氢解反应制1,3-丙二醇催化剂和工艺,不仅具有潜在的应用前景,而且具有重要理论价值.然而,目前的甘油氢解催化剂性能还不够高,我们希望通过一些表面改性的方法处理载体硅胶,从而改变金属前驱体与载体表面的作用.因此,本文使用 C1–C4的正构醇处理硅胶载体,其负载的 Ir-Re催化剂上甘油氢解反应转化率从42.7%提高到59.5%,仲羟基脱除收率从21.6%提高到28.3%.研究发现,当处理载体所用正构醇的碳数从1增加到3时,对应催化剂上甘油转化率逐渐增加至最高;但当使用更正丁醇时,对应催化剂上甘油转化率下降.为了探究催化剂活性改变的原因,我们首先采用红外光谱(FT-IR)和氮气物理吸附确定烷氧基基团嫁接到硅胶载体上.程序升温还原结果发现,预处理载体相应的催化剂开始还原温度降低,表明在这些催化剂上形成了颗粒尺寸较小的Ir粒子. X-射线衍射分析发现,在新鲜的和使用后的催化剂上均未检测出Re物种的衍射峰,说明Re高度分散于催化剂表面.吸附吡啶的FT-IR结果表明,未处理和丙醇预处理硅胶负载的催化剂上均没有强酸位,它们的B/L酸比值相近,约为3.3.催化剂的吸附COFT-IR结果表明, CO线性吸附于Ir/SiO2催化剂上的主要吸收峰位置在2084 cm–1;而Re的加入使得该吸收峰红移,表明Ir和ReOx物种之间存在相互作用.透射电镜(TEM)、H2-程序升温脱附和NH3-程序升温脱附结果发现,醇预处理催化剂上具有更多的Ir-ReOx界面,而界面位点的数量与甘油转化率大小一致,表明Ir-ReOx位点可能就是甘油氢解的活性中心.反应后催化剂的TEM结果表明,醇预处理催化剂上的Ir颗粒要小于未处理催化剂的,其中丙醇预处理硅胶负载的催化剂上Ir粒径最小.这是由于醇处理催化剂上存在很多孤立的Si–OH,它们与金属前驱体相互作用有利于形成较小的金属颗粒.这些孤立的Si-OH则是由于表面烷氧基基团的隔离作用所形成的.当处理载体所用正构醇的碳数从1增加到3时,烷氧基的碳链变长,分隔作用越好,阻止金属前驱体聚集的程度越强,因而Ir物种和Re物种的分散度增加.但是当处理醇的碳数增加到4时,形成的表面烷氧基基团可能阻止了Re物种和Ir物种间相互作用,从而使得Ir和Re物种的分散度均降低,相应催化剂活性随之降低.