Measurement of Residual Dipolar Couplings of Organic Molecules in Multiple Solvent Systems Using a Liquid-Crystalline-Based Medium

Residual dipolar coupling (RDC), a robust anisotropic NMR parameter for structural elucidation of organic molecules, is only accessible in an anisotropic environment. Herein, we introduce a novel alignment medium based on the molecular self-assembly of oligopeptide amphiphile (OPA). This medium is compatible with different intermediate and polar solvent systems, such as CD₃OD, [D₆]DMSO, and D₂O. The preparation of the OPA-based medium is simple and rapid, while only very weak background signals were observed from OPAs. Furthermore, we show that the purity of OPA has only a minor influence on the quality of the RDC data. These advantages allow RDC measurements of organic molecules with different polarities and solubilities with high efficiency and accuracy.     

Temperature effects on surface activity and application in oxidation of toluene derivatives of CTAB-SDS with KMnO4

The γ_cmc values of CTAB-SDS decrease from 63.67 mN/m at 10‡C to 36.38 mN/m at 90‡C, slightly lower than those of either CTAB or SDS. Correspondingly, the CMC of CTAB-SDS decreases almost by half. The increase of surface activity of CTAB-SDS can be attributed to the relatively weak electrostatic interaction at high temperature, which is supported by the increase of solubility of CTAB-SDS with rise in temperature. Catalytic effect on oxidation of toluene derivatives with potassium permanganate follows the order CTAB-SDS > SDS > CTAB. This is not caused by the dissociative effect of CTAB-SDS with low surface activity at low temperature, as seen from the fact that almost all oxidative products can be retrieved for different toluene derivatives and surfactants by mimicking the conditions of reaction. In the emulsifications of toluene derivatives at 90‡C, the time that turbid water layers of surfactant solutions take to become clear is the same as that of the catalytic effect on oxidation of toluene derivatives. Thus, it can be inferred that surfactants can improve the oxidation yields of toluene derivatives by increasing the contact between two reacting phases.     

Structural and thermodynamic properties of AlB2 compound

We employ a first-principles plane wave method with the relativistic analytic pseudopotential of Hartwigsen, Goedecker and Hutter (HGH) scheme in the frame of DFT to calculate the equilibrium lattice parameters and the thermodynamic properties of AlB₂ compound with hcp structure. The obtained lattice parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental data and those calculated by others. Through the quasi-harmonic Debye model, obtained successfully are the dependences of the normalized lattice parameters a/a₀ and c/c₀ on pressure P, the normalized primitive cell volume V/V₀ on pressure P, the variation of the thermal expansion α with pressure P and temperature T, as well as the Debye temperature \Theta_D and the heat capacity C_V on pressure P and temperature T.     

Scanning tunnelling microscope studies of growth of RuO2（110） thin layer on Ru（0001）

This paper reports that the growth of RuO_x(110) thin layer growth on Ru(0001) has been investigated by means of scanning tunnelling microscope (STM). The STM images showed a domain structure with three rotational domains of RuO_x(110) rotated by an angle of 120℃. The as-grown RuO_x(110) thin layer is expanded from the bulk-truncated RuO_x(110) due to the large mismatch between RuO_x(110) and the Ru(0001) substrate. The results also indicate that growth of RuO_x(110) thin layer on the Ru(0001) substrate by oxidation tends first to formation of the Ru-O (oxygen) chains in the [001] direction of RuO_x(110).     

Hybrid reordering strategies for ILU preconditioning of indefinite sparse matrices

Incomplete LU factorization preconditioning techniques often have difficulty on indefinite sparse matrices. We present hybrid reordering strategies to deal with such matrices, which include new diagonal reorderings that are in conjunction with a symmetric nondecreasing degree algorithm. We first use the diagonal reorderings to efficiently search for entries of single element rows and columns and/or the maximum absolute value to be placed on the diagonal for computing a nonsymmetric permutation. To augment the effectiveness of the diagonal reorderings, a nondecreasing degree algorithm is applied to reduce the amount of fill-in during the ILU factorization. With the reordered matrices, we achieve a noticeable improvement in enhancing the stability of incomplete LU factorizations. Consequently, we reduce the convergence cost of the preconditioned Krylov subspace methods on solving the reordered indefinite matrices.     

Nuclear Quadrupole Coupling Constants of Chlorine and Microwave Spectrum, Structure, and ab Initio Calculation of 1-Chloro-1,1,2-trifluoroethane

The microwave spectrum of the ³⁵Cl and ³⁷Cl isotopic species of 1-chloro-1,1,2-trifluoroethane (HCFC-133b) has been investigated in the frequency region 10 to 50 GHz using a Stark modulation microwave spectrometer. A pulsed jet Fourier transform microwave spectrometer was also used for the measurement of hyperfine splittings. A least-squares analysis of the observed b-type Q- and R-branch transition frequencies gave rotational and centrifugal distortion constants and components of the chlorine nuclear quadrupole coupling constant tensors in the principal axes system as follows: A=4625.161 (3) MHz, B=2004.127 (2) MHz, C=1875.813 (2) MHz, Δ_J=0.144 (9) kHz, Δ_JK=1.0748 (8) kHz, Δ_K=1.57 (1) kHz, δ_J=0.01376 (4) kHz, δ_K=−0.146 (4) kHz, χ_aa=−57.958 (10) MHz, χ_bb=21.231 (11) MHz, and χ_cc=36.727 (11) MHz for ³⁵ClCF₂CH₂F species, and A=4607.684 (6) MHz, B=1960.565 (2) MHz, C=1834.823 (2) MHz, Δ_J=0.106 (7) kHz, Δ_JK=1.022 (3) kHz, Δ_K=1.48 (1) kHz, δ_J=0.0142 (2) kHz, δ_K=−0.18 (2) kHz, χ_aa=−46.268 (11) MHz, χ_bb=17.319 (13) MHz, and χ_cc=28.950 (13) MHz for ³⁷ClCF₂CH₂F species. The structural parameters are calculated from the observed six rotational constants by assuming the partial structure of ab initio calculation. The electronic properties of the C-Cl bond are evaluated from the observed nuclear quadrupole constants of chlorine. These molecular properties are compared with those of other related molecules.     

Fuzzy convex sets in median algebras

The fuzzification of convex sets in median algebras is considered, and some of their properties are investigated. A characterization of finite valued fuzzy convex set is given.     

Efficient microwave induced direct α-halogenation of carbonyl compounds

A novel and direct method for the synthesis of α-halocarbonyl compounds using sequential treatment of carbonyl compounds with [hydroxy(tosyloxy)iodo]benzene followed by magnesium halides under solvent-free microwave irradiation conditions is described.     

Ternary univariate curvature-preserving subdivision

We present an interpolating, univariate subdivision scheme which preserves the discrete curvature and tangent direction at each step of subdivision. Since the polygon have a geometric information of some original (in some sense) curve as a discrete curvature, we can expect that the limit curve has the same curvature at each vertex as the control polygon. We estimate the curvature bound of odd vertices and give an error estimate for restoring a curve from sampled vertices on curves.