Influence of silica gel pretreatment and bonding technique on PAH selectivity of octadecyl bonded phases

Summary The effect of silica gel pretreatment and of different bonding techniques, on the chromatographic properties of octadecyl bonded phases is described. The experiments show that a monomeric octadecyl bonded phase, prepared from silica gel that has not been treated before bonding, has a poor selectivity towards polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and shows high adsorption of basic components. Silica gel treatment before the bonding of the monofunctional silane does not give a substantial improvement. Polymeric phases on the other hand show a much better PAH selectivity and a lower adsorptivity towards basic components. Further improvement can be achieved with the polymeric modification if silica gel treatment is carried out before bonding.     

Limit on right handed weak coupling parameters from inelastic neutrino interactions

Right handed weak quark currents coupled to the usual left handed weak lepton current would be seen in inclusive antineutrino scattering on nuclei as a contribution at largey with the quark (not antiquark) structure function. We do not see such a term, and can therefore put an upper limit on the relative strengths of such right handed currents: \(\varrho ^2 = \frac{{\sigma _R }}{{\sigma _L }}< 0.009\) , 90% confidence. This measurement puts limits on the mixing angle of left-right symmetric models. In distinction to similar limits derived from muon decay or β decay, our limits are also valid if the right handed neutrino is heavy.     

Interaction of ester functional groups with aluminum oxide surfaces studied using infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy

The bonding of two types of ester group-containing molecules with a set of different oxide layers on aluminum has been investigated using infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy. The different oxide layers were made by giving typical surface treatments to the aluminum substrate. The purpose of the investigation was to find out what type of ester-oxide bond is formed and whether this is influenced by changes in the composition and chemistry of the oxide. The extent by which these bonded ester molecules resisted disbondment in water or substitution by molecules capable of chemisorption was also investigated. The ester groups were found to show hydrogen bonding with hydroxyls on the oxide surfaces through their carbonyl oxygens. For all oxides, the ester groups showed the same nu(C = O) carbonyl stretching vibration after adsorption, indicating very similar bonding occurs. However, the oxides showed differences in the amount of molecules bonded to the oxide surface, and a clear relation was observed with the hydroxyl concentration present on the oxide surface, which was determined from XPS measurements. The two compounds showed differences in the free to bonded nu(C = O) infrared peak shift, indicating differences in bonding strength with the oxide surface between the two types of molecules. The bonding of the ester groups with the oxide surfaces was found to be not stable in the presence of water and also not in the presence of a compound capable of chemisorption with the aluminum oxide surface.     

Synthesis of the dibenzo[f,h]phthalazine and dibenzo[f,h]cinnoline skeleton via a ‘Suzuki-Pd-catalyzed intramolecular arylation’ and a ‘Suzuki-Pschorr’ approach

Palladium-catalyzed intramolecular arylation of 2-benzyl-5-(2-bromophenyl)-4-phenylpyridazin-3(2H)-one yielded hitherto unknown 2-benzyldibenzo[f,h]phthalazin-1(2H)-one. The synthesis of this new tetracyclic pyridazinone from 2-benzyl-5-(2-aminophenyl)-4-phenylpyridazin-3(2H)-one via a Pschorr type reaction was also investigated. Similarly, the construction of 2-methyldibenzo[f,h]cinnolin-3(2H)-one from 2-methyl-5-(2-bromophenyl)-6-phenylpyridazin-3(2H)-one and 2-methyl-5-(2-aminophenyl)-6-phenylpyridazin-3(2H)-one is also reported. Removal of the N-benzyl protective group of 2-benzyl-dibenzo[f,h]phthalazin-1(2H)-one with AlCl₃ yielded unsubstituted dibenzo[f,h]phthalazin-1(2H)-one.     

Insight into the drastically different triplet lifetimes of BODIPY obtained by optical/magnetic spectroscopy and theoretical computations

The triplet state lifetimes of organic chromophores are crucial for fundamental photochemistry studies as well as applications as photosensitizers in photocatalysis, photovoltaics, photodynamic therapy and photon upconversion. It is noteworthy that the triplet state lifetime of a chromophore can vary significantly for its analogues, while the exact reason was rarely studied. Herein with a few exemplars of typical BODIPY derivatives, which show triplet lifetimes varying up to 110-fold (1.4–160 μs), we found that for these derivatives with short triplet state lifetimes (ca. 1–3 μs), the electron spin polarization (ESP) pattern of the time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (TREPR) spectra of the triplet state is inverted at a longer delay time after laser pulse excitation, as a consequence of a strong anisotropy in the decay rates of the zero-field state sublevel of the triplet state. For the derivatives showing longer triplet state lifetimes (>50 μs), no such ESP inversion was observed. The observed fast decay of one sublevel is responsible for the short triplet state lifetime; theoretical computations indicate that it is due to a strong coupling between the T_z sublevel and the ground state mediated by the spin–orbit interaction. Another finding is that the heavy atom effect on the shortening of the triplet state lifetime is more significant for the T₁ states with lower energy. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first systematic study to rationalize the short triplet state lifetime of visible-light-harvesting organic chromophores. Our results are useful for fundamental photochemistry and the design of photosensitizers showing long-lived triplet states.

The electron spin polarization inversion and anisotropic decay of triplet substates explain the short triplet state lifetime of BODIPY derivatives.     

Analysis of bonding properties in molecular ground and excited states by a Cohen-type bond order

We propose a Cohen-type bond order analysis in terms of orthogonalized atomic basis functions which can be used to analyze NDO wave functions of large organic and metal–organic molecules. It is shown that for small molecules the results gained with this method are in excellent agreement with the same analysis based on ab initio STO -3G wavefunctions. For large planar aromatic systems these all-valence electron bond orders are found to be a consistent generalization of the π-bond order. A simple relation between these bond orders and the corresponding covalent bond energies is established. The method can be easily extended to study excited state multiconfiguration wave functions. We present calculations for C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, and Mn₂(CO)₁₀. The results indicate that the method can be used to discuss the photochemistry of organic and metal–organic compounds.     

Chemical Solution Deposition of ZnO Thin Films by an Aqueous Solution Gel Precursor Route

An aqueous chemical solution deposition method was used to prepare thin films of ZnO on SiO₂/Si (1 1 1) substrates. Starting from an aqueous solution of Zn acetate, citric acid and ammonia, very thin films could be deposited by spin coating. Heating parameters, necessary for thin film annealing, were determined using FTIR experiments on dried gel precursors, heated up to different temperatures. The morphology and the thickness of the films were investigated by SEM. It is found that homogeneous thin films with grain sizes of about 20 nm are formed. XRD experiments show that there is an indication that the films, crystallized at 500°C, exhibit preferential grain growth along the c-axis.     

A comparison of measured room acoustics metrics using a spherical microphone array and conventional methods

The traditional microphone configuration used to measure room impulse responses (IRs) according to ISO 3382:2009 is an omnidirectional and figure-8 microphone pair. IRs measurements were taken in a 2500-seat auditorium to determine how the results from a spherical microphone array (an mh acoustics Eigenmike-em32) compare to those from the traditional microphone setup (a Brüel & Kjær Type-4192 omnidirectional microphone and a Sennheiser MKH30 figure-8 microphone). Measurements were obtained at six receiver locations, with three repetitions each in order to first evaluate repeatability. The metrics considered in this study were: reverberation time (T30), early decay time (EDT), clarity index (C80), strength (G), lateral energy fraction (J_LF) and late lateral energy level (L_J). Before calculating these quantities, the IRs were filtered to equalize the frequency response of the microphones and sound source. For the spherical array measurements, the omnidirectional (monopole) and figure-8 (dipole) patterns were extracted using beamforming. In terms of repeatability, the average standard deviation of the three measurements at each receiver location averaged across all metrics, receivers, and octave bands was found to be 0.01 just noticeable differences (JNDs). The analysis comparing the measurements from the two microphone configurations yielded differences which were less than 1 JND for the majority of metrics, with a few exceptions of EDT and C80 slightly above 1 JND. Based on this case study, these results indicate that spherical microphone arrays can be used to obtain valid room IR measurements, which will allow for the development of new metrics utilizing the higher spatial resolution made possible with spherical arrays.     

Computing (Un)stable Manifolds with Validated Error Bounds: Non-resonant and Resonant Spectra

We develop techniques for computing the (un)stable manifold at a hyperbolic equilibrium of an analytic vector field. Our approach is based on the so-called parametrization method for invariant manifolds. A feature of this approach is that it leads to a posteriori analysis of truncation errors which, when combined with careful management of round off errors, yields a mathematically rigorous enclosure of the manifold. The main novelty of the present work is that, by conjugating the dynamics on the manifold to a polynomial rather than a linear vector field, the computer-assisted analysis is successful even in the case when the eigenvalues fail to satisfy non-resonance conditions. This generically occurs in parametrized families of vector fields. As an example, we use the method as a crucial ingredient in a computational existence proof of a connecting orbit in an amplitude equation related to a pattern formation model that features eigenvalue resonances.