Guest excitation energy in dilute organic mixed crystals with chemically distinct guests

Philpott's theory of vibronic transitions of substitutional impurities in molecular crystals has been examined. The lowest energy guest transition in a number of mixed crystals has been calculated and compared with experiment. Satisfactory agreement is achieved. In some cases consideration of charge overlap of the guest and nearest host gives better agreement.     

A single amino acid Gly-tag enables metal-free protein purification

Analytically pure proteins are indispensable for diverse applications, including therapeutics. Here, we report a methodology where a single amino acid, glycine, enables metal-free protein purification. This robust platform is enabled by a Gly-tag resin for site-specific capture, enrichment, and release through chemically triggered C–C bond dissociation by resonance-assisted electron density polarization.

Gly-tag resin precisely captures and releases a protein with one glycine at the N-terminus. The user-friendly protocol delivers analytically pure protein free of metal contaminants.     

DMSO/N2H4.H2O/I2/H2O/CH3CN: a new system for selective oxidation of alcohols in hydrated media

A new alternative system for the oxidation of secondary alcohols to ketones with DMSO/N2H4.H2O/I2/H2O/CH3CN in hydrated media has been developed. The system also selectively oxidizes the secondary alcoholic groups to the corresponding ketones in the presence of primary alcoholic groups present within the same molecule in moderate to very good yields at reflux temperature.     

Krichever-Novikov global operator formalism: NSR superstring in curved background

The Neveu-Schwarz-Ramond type II closed superstring is considered to evolve in a curved space-time manifold. The Krichever-Novikov global operator formalism is used to construct the generators of a super-conformal algebra on a Riemann surface . The computation for the quantum algebra of these generators is explicitly presented. It is shown that the theory is free from super-conformal anomalies if the target manifold is ten dimensional and satisfies the Ricci flatness condition.     

The oblique chiral nematic phase in calamitic bimesogens

ABSTRACT

The discovery of the oblique chiral (or, the twist-bend, N_TB) nematic phase predicted for bent-core mesogens has engendered much interest due to its unique structure and physical properties, and the possibility of use in the next generation of fast electro-optic technology. Bimesogenic calamitic as well as bent-core mesogens are found to form the N_TB phase. Here, we report direct measurements of the temperature dependence of the conical tilt and the evidence of volcano-like orientational distribution of molecules in the N_TB phase. Optical and x-ray scattering investigations of two single-component calamitic bimesogens and their mixtures show that, while the Maier–Saupe orientational distribution function (ODF) is valid for the higher temperature nematic phase, a generalised expansion in terms of even Legendre functions is needed for the N_TB phase. Temperature dependence of the ODFs and the order parameters 〈P₂(cosβ)〉, 〈P₄(cosβ)〉, and 〈P₆(cosβ)〉 has been measured in both phases. The parameters 〈P₂(cosβ)〉 and 〈P₄(cosβ)〉 increase/decrease in the N/N_TB phase with decreasing temperature, while 〈P₆(cosβ)〉 remains vanishingly small for all samples. The value of 〈P₄(cosβ)〉 becomes negative in the N_TB phase confirming a conical distribution of molecules as they follow a helical trajectory keeping the local director tilted at an angle α wrt the macroscopic director. The heliconical tilt calculated from ODFs, exhibits a power law behaviour with temperature, vanishing at the transition to the N phase.     

Synthesis of Unsymmetrically Substituted Hexahydroimidazo [4,5-d] Imidazole-2,5-diones and Elucidation of Reaction Pathways

We have reported the synthesis and structural elucidation of a series of hexahydroimidazo [4,5-d] imidazole-2,5-diones and hydantoins from glyoxal and substituted ureas.^1,2 The general equation of this condensation reaction and a few representative compounds: those reported, current and hypothetical, are depicted in Scheme 1.     

Nanoindentation as a Probe for Mechanically‐Induced Molecular Migration in Layered Organic Donor–Acceptor Complexes

Nanoindentation and scratch experiments on 1:1 donor–acceptor complexes, 1 and 2 , of 1,2,4,5‐tetracyanobenzene with pyrene and phenanthrene, respectively, reveal long‐range molecular layer gliding and large interaction anisotropy. Due to the layered arrangements in these crystals, these experiments that apply stress in particular directions result in the breaking of interlayer interactions, thus allowing molecular sheets to glide over one another with ease. Complex 1 has a layered crystal packing wherein the layers are 68° skew under the (002) face and the interlayer space is stabilized by van der Waals interactions. Upon indenting this surface with a Berkovich tip, pile‐up of material was observed on just one side of the indenter due to the close angular alignment of the layers with the half angle of the indenter tip (65.35°). The interfacial differences in the elastic modulus (21 %) and hardness (16 %) demonstrate the anisotropic nature of crystal packing. In 2 , the molecular stacks are arranged in a staggered manner; there is no layer arrangement, and the interlayer stabilization involves C? H???N hydrogen bonds and π???π interactions. This results in a higher modulus (20 %) for (020) as compared to (001), although the anisotropy in hardness is minimal (4 %). The anisotropy within a face was analyzed using AFM image scans and the coefficient of friction of four orthogonal nanoscratches on the cleavage planes of 1 and 2 . A higher friction coefficient was obtained for 2 as compared to 1 even in the cleavage direction due to the presence of hydrogen bonds in the interlayer region making the tip movement more hindered.     

Pricing policies for selling indivisible storable goods to strategic consumers

Annals of Operations Research - We study the dynamic pricing problem faced by a monopolistic retailer who sells a storable product to forward-looking consumers. In this framework, the two major...