Building an Iron Chromophore Incorporating Prussian Blue Analogue for Photoelectrochemical Water Oxidation

The replacement of traditional ruthenium-based photosensitizers with low-cost and abundant iron analogs is a key step for the advancement of scalable and sustainable dye-sensitized water splitting cells. In this proof-of-concept study, a pyridinium ligand coordinated pentacyanoferrate(II) chromophore is used to construct a cyanide-based CoFe extended bulk framework, in which the iron photosensitizer units are connected to cobalt water oxidation catalytic sites through cyanide linkers. The iron-sensitized photoanode exhibits exceptional stability for at least 5 h at pH 7 and features its photosensitizing ability with an incident photon-to-current conversion capacity up to 500 nm with nanosecond scale excited state lifetime. Ultrafast transient absorption and computational studies reveal that iron and cobalt sites mutually support each other for charge separation via short bridging cyanide groups and for injection to the semiconductor in our proof-of-concept photoelectrochemical device. The reorganization of the excited states due to the mixing of electronic states of metal-based orbitals subsequently tailor the electron transfer cascade during the photoelectrochemical process. This breakthrough in chromophore-catalyst assemblies will spark interest in dye-sensitization with robust bulk systems for photoconversion applications.     

Radiation effect studies in single crystal of Trifluoroacetyl-α-Aminoisobutyric acid

In this study, electron paramagnetic resonance of γ-irradiated single crystals of N-Trifluoroacetyl-α-amino isobutyric acid (F₃Ac-Aib-OH) was investigated at room temperature and analyzed for different orientations of the crystal in the magnetic field. The paramagnetic species in N-Trifluoroacetyl-α-aminoisobutyric acid was attributed to the ?F₂-R radical (R= CONHC(CH₃)COOH). Hyperfine coupling constants and g value were also determined. In addition, the single crystal of F₃Ac-Aib-OH was UV-irradiated and paramagnetic species formed was studied at room temperature. The effects of gamma irradiation on fluoroamino acid and stability were discussed.     

Synthesis and characterization of novel flavonoid-substituted phthalocyanines using (±)naringenin

In this study, novel unsymmetrical mono- and di-substituted metal free and metallo phthalocyanines containing peripheral naringeninoxy moieties have been prepared. The naringenin-substituted phthalonitrile was synthesized from 4-nitrophthalonitrile and (±)naringenin in dimethylsulfoxide. Preparation of unsymmetrical mono- and di-substituted phthalocyanines, 2-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatozinc, 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatozinc, 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyaninatocobalt and 2,9-bis-naringenin-7-O-phthalocyanine was performed at 120-140 °C using the corresponding phthalonitrile in the presence of N,N-dimethylethanolamine (DMAE), ZnCl₂, CoCl₂ and LiCl, respectively. Synthesized new phthalocyanine compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, FT-IR, MS and UV-vis spectroscopy. These are the first known examples of flavonoid-substituted phthalocyanines.     

The neural network and multivariate linear regression approach for observing phase transitions of polymers with the differential thermal analysis method

The aim of this study was to correlate the results of experimental data using DTA method and predictions of artificial neural network (ANN) and multivariate linear regression (MLR). Thermal decomposition of polymers was analyzed by simultaneous DTA method, and kinetic parameters (critical points, the change of enthalpy and entropy) of polymers were investigated. A computer model based on multilayer feed forwarding back propagation and multilayer linear regression model were used for the prediction of critical points, phase transitions of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and mid-density polyethylene. As a result of our study, we concluded that ANN model is more suitable than MLR about prediction of experimental data.     

Structured replacement policies for a Markov-modulated shock model

We establish the optimality of structured replacement policies for a periodically inspected system that fails silently whenever the cumulative number of shocks, or the magnitude of a single shock it has received, exceeds a corresponding threshold. Shocks arrive according to a Markov-modulated Poisson process which represents the (controllable or uncontrollable) environment.     

Supplier diversification under binomial yield

We consider supplier diversification in an EOQ type inventory setting with multiple suppliers and binomial yields. We characterize the optimal policy for the model and show that, in this case, it does not pay to diversify, in contrast to previous results in the random yield literature.     

Pressure-induced phase transition of zinc-blende AlN: An ab initio molecular dynamics study

An ab initio constant pressure technique is carried out to study the pressure-induced phase transition of the zinc blende AlN (aluminum nitride). A first order phase transformation into a rock salt structure is observed in the constant pressure simulations. The transformation is accompanied by an initial tetragonal distortion and a subsequent shearing, similar to that found in the other zinc blende structured materials. This phase transition should occur around 6.2 GPa based upon the enthalpy calculations.     

Synthesis of water-soluble Mo(0) tetracarbonyl complexes containing nitrogen donor ligands and polymerization of methyl methacrylate

Water-soluble Mo(0) tetracarbonyl complexes containing a α-diimine ligand have been prepared. All the complexes were characterized by elemental, LC-MS (APCI), FT-IR, ¹H-NMR, and ¹³C-NMR spectroscopy. The pH dependent phase transfer of these complexes was investigated. This pH dependent phase transfer was accomplished over 10 times with no evidence of complex decomposition. Their catalytic activities on methyl methacrylate polymerization were determined.