Enantiodivergence in alkylation of 1-(6-methoxynaphth-2-yl)ethyl acetate by potassium dimethyl malonate catalyzed by chiral palladium-DUPHOS complex

Alkylation of racemic 1-(6-methoxynaphth-2-yl)ethyl acetate by potassium dimethyl malonate catalyzed by a chiral palladium-DUPHOS complex afforded the substitution product with 87% ee, along with 6-methoxy-2-vinylnaphthalene that arose from an elimination process, in a 43/57 substitution/elimination ratio. The reaction performed on a mixture of quasi-enantiomeric substrates provided insight into the stereochemical course of the reaction, establishing that—for a given enantiomer of the catalyst, one enantiomer of the substrate afforded mainly the substitution product whereas the other enantiomer underwent elimination.     

Enthalpy of absorption and limit of solubility of CO2 in aqueous solutions of 2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol, 2-[2-(dimethyl-amino)ethoxy] ethanol,and 3-dimethyl-amino-1-propanol at T = (313.15 and 353.15) K and pressures up to 2 MPa

In order to study the influence of amine structure on absorption of carbon dioxide, enthalpies of solution of CO₂ in 2.50 mol · L^?1 aqueous solutions of 2-amino-2-hydroxymethyl-1,3-propanediol (THAM), 2-[2-(dimethyl-amino)ethoxy] ethanol (DMAEOE), and 3-dimethyl-amino-1-propanol (DMAP) were measured. The enthalpies of solution are determined as function of gas loading charge (moles of CO₂/mole of amine), at temperatures (313.15 and 353.15) K, and pressures range from (0.5 to 2) MPa. Measurements were carried out using a flow calorimetric technique. CO₂ solubilities in the aqueous solutions of amine are derived from calorimetric data. Molar volumes of aqueous amine solutions required to handle calorimetric data were determined at 303.15 K using a vibrating tube densimeter. Experimental enthalpies of solution are discussed on the basis of amines alkalinity.     

Permutation statistics related to a class of noncommutative symmetric functions and generalizations of the Genocchi numbers

We prove conjectures of the third author [L. Tevlin, Proc. FPSAC’07, Tianjin] on two new bases of noncommutative symmetric functions: the transition matrices from the ribbon basis have nonnegative integral coefficients. This is done by means of two composition-valued statistics on permutations and packed words, which generalize the combinatorics of Genocchi numbers.      

Nilpotent Bicone and Characteristic Submodule of a Reductive Lie Algebra

Let be a finite-dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra and S() its symmetric algebra. The nilpotent bicone of is the subset of elements (x, y) of whose subspace generated by x and y is contained in the nilpotent cone. The nilpotent bicone is naturally endowed with a scheme structure, as nullvariety of the augmentation ideal of the subalgebra of generated by the 2-order polarizations of invariants of . The main result of this paper is that the nilpotent bicone is a complete intersection of dimension , where and are the dimensions of Borel subalgebras and the rank of , respectively. This affirmatively answers a conjecture of Kraft and Wallach concerning the nullcone [KrW2]. In addition, we introduce and study in this paper the characteristic submodule of . The properties of the nilpotent bicone and the characteristic submodule are known to be very important for the understanding of the commuting variety and its ideal of definition. The main difficulty encountered for this work is that the nilpotent bicone is not reduced. To deal with this problem, we introduce an auxiliary reduced variety, the principal bicone. The nilpotent bicone, as well as the principal bicone, are linked to jet schemes. We study their dimensions using arguments from motivic integration. Namely, we follow methods developed by Mustaţǎ in [Mu]. Finally, we give applications of our results to invariant theory.     

Two new hybrid organic/inorganic copper(II)-oxovanadate(V) diphosphonates: [Cu2(phen)2(O3PCH2PO3)(V2O5)(H2O)] x H2O and [Cu2(phen)2(O3P(CH2)3PO3)(V2O5)] x C3H8. Synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties

Two new hybrid organic/inorganic copper oxovanadium diphosphonates [Cu2(phen)2(O3PCH2PO3)(V2O5)(H2O)] x H2O (1) and [(Cu2(phen)2(O3P(CH2)3PO3)(V2O5)] x C3H8 (2) have been obtained by hydrothermal synthesis. The compounds are monoclinic, and they crystallize in the space group P2(1)/n with cell parameters of a = 11.788(2) A, b = 17.887(3) A, c = 14.158(2) A, and beta = 93.99(0) degrees and in the space group C2/c with cell parameters of a = 11.025(1) A, b = 18.664(2) A, c = 15.054(2) A, and beta = 90.06(0) degrees, respectively. Both compounds present two-dimensional frameworks built up from infinite chains of corner-sharing vanadium tetrahedra and diphosphonate groups connected by copper tetramers for (1) and copper dimers for (2). The remarkable feature of (2) is the encapsulation of propane molecules, stabilized by strong hydrogen bonding between the layers. The magnetic properties of the compounds have been investigated showing antiferromagnetic coupling with Tmax = 64 K for (1) and Curie-like paramagnetic behavior for (2).     

Novel tert-butyl-tris(3-hydrocarbylpyrazol-1-yl)borate ligands: synthesis, spectroscopic studies, and coordination chemistry

The lithium (1) and thallium (2) salts of five new tert-butyl-tris(3-hydrocarbylpyrazol-1-yl)borate ligands [t-BuTp(R)]- (R = H, a; Me, b; i-Pr, c; t-Bu, d; Ph, e) have been synthesized and characterized. Because of steric congestion at B, the reaction between t-BuBH3Li x 0.5 Et2O and excess 2,5-dimethylpyrazole Hpz(Me2) afforded the bis-pz(Me2) derivative, Tl[t-BuBH(3,5-Me2pz)2] (3) after metathesis with TlNO3. The compounds were characterized by elemental analysis and NMR spectroscopy. The Li salts 1a and 1c exhibit fluxional behavior on the NMR time scale in solution at room temperature. The solid-state 7Li and 11B NMR spectra of 1c suggest that this salt exists as a mixture of axial and equatorial isomers. The partial hydrolysis of 1d afforded the dimeric Li complex {Li[t-BuB(pz(t-Bu))2(mu-OH)]}2 (4). The crystal structure of 4 shows two Li cations encapsulated by the heteroscorpionate [t-BuB(OH)(3-t-Bupz)2]- ligands. A salt elimination reaction between FeCl2(THF)1.5 and 2 equiv of Li[t-BuTp(R)] (R = H, Me) followed by an in situ one-electron oxidation produced good yields of the homoleptic, paramagnetic low-spin iron(III) complexes [Fe(t-BuTp)2]PF6 (5) and [Fe(t-BuTp(Me))2]PF6 (6) that were characterized by elemental analyses, magnetic susceptibility measurements in solution and the solid phase, 1H NMR, high-resolution mass spectrometry, M?ssbauer spectroscopy, and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystals are composed of discrete molecular units with the central Fe(III) ion in an almost perfectly octahedral coordination to six nitrogen atoms. Compound 5 has the shortest Fe-N bond lengths ever reported for [Fe(RTp(R)')2]+-type compounds.     

Towards relative invariants of real symplectic four-manifolds

Let (X, ω, c_X) be a real symplectic four-manifold with real part . Let be a smooth curve such that We construct invariants under deformation of the quadruple (X, ω, c_X, L) by counting the number of real rational J-holomorphic curves which realize a given homology class d, pass through an appropriate number of points and are tangent to L. As an application, we prove a relation between the count of real rational J-holomorphic curves done in [W2] and the count of reducible real rational curves done in [W3]. Finally, we show how these techniques also allow us to extract an integer valued invariant from a classical problem of real enumerative geometry, namely about counting the number of real plane conics tangent to five given generic real conics. Received: March 2005; Revision: September 2005; Accepted: September 2005     

In situ characterisation of a microorganism surface by Raman microspectroscopy: the shell of Ascaris eggs

Intestinal nematodes are very common human parasites and a single species, Ascaris lumbricoïdes, is estimated to infect a quarter of the world’s population. A sticky external layer covers their eggs. This work shows that Raman vibrational confocal spectroscopy is able to give information on the biochemical composition of the shell of Ascaris eggs. The biochemical localised characterisation of Ascaris eggs was performed directly on the eggs in their aqueous environment. The studied parasites came from two origins: dissections of adult females and extractions from biosolid sludges. The presence of mucopolysaccharides, proteins and chitin in the shell was demonstrated. The presence of ascaroside compounds was shown particularly via the narrow and intense bands from the organised long CH₂ chains. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that the latter have been observed in Raman vibrational spectra of microorganisms. Hydration of the shell was different depending on the intensity of the colour of the sludge eggs. Knowledge of the biochemical structural properties of egg surfaces would be useful to understand the egg adhesion phenomena on vegetables contaminated by reused wastewater.     

Inversion of some series of free quasi-symmetric functions

We give a combinatorial formula for the inverses of the alternating sums of free quasi-symmetric functions of the form where I runs over compositions with parts in a prescribed set C. This proves in particular three special cases (no restriction, even parts, and all parts equal to 2) which were conjectured by B.C.V. Ung in [B.C.V. Ung, Combinatorial identities for series of quasi-symmetric functions, in: Proc. FPSAC’08, Toronto, 2008].     

Synthesis of soluble oligothiophenes bearing cyano groups, their optical and electrochemical properties

The synthesis and the characterization of twelve new soluble oligothiophenes, possessing two to four 3,4-dicyanothiophene units in their backbone, are described. These semiconductors are prepared through Stille coupling and/or homo-coupling reactions. Cyclic voltammetry studies have been performed to evaluate their stability as n-type semiconducting materials under ambient conditions. The measured electrochemical and optical properties are fully supported by quantum-chemical calculations.