Amine-modified maleic anhydride containing terpolymers for the adsorption of uranyl ion in aqueous solutions

Maleic anhydride–styrene–methyl methacrylate (MA–S–MM) terpolymer was prepared. It was modified by ethylenediamine (EDA) and diethylenetriamine (DETA) in order to get cross-linked polymers bearing carboxyl and amine groups. Modified polymers used as an adsorbent for the removal of UO₂ ²⁺ from water. The characterizations of structures of all the polymers were performed by Fourier transform infrared. The adsorptive features of adsorbents were then investigated for UO₂ ²⁺ in view of dependency on ion concentration, pH, temperature and kinetics. Experimentally obtained isotherms were evaluated with reference to Langmuir, Freundlich and Dubinin–Radushkevich models. The maximum monolayer adsorption capacity for UO₂ ²⁺ was found to be 1.59 and 2.43 mol kg^?1 for EDA–MA–S–MM and DETA–MA–S–MM, respectively. It can be said that the new modified polymers prepared in our laboratory have been suggested as new adsorbents for uranyl ions.     

Optical Anisotropy of Photonic Crystals of Cubic Symmetry Induced by Multiple Diffraction of Light

The optical spectra of Bragg reflection from opal-like photonic crystals under conditions of the resonant enhancement of the multiple diffraction of light have been studied experimentally and theoretically using the photonic crystal structures prepared of monodisperse polystyrene globules. It is shown that the reflection signal registered in mutually orthogonal configurations of the polarizer and analyzer is related to the intrinsic optical anisotropy of the crystals and is a specific manifestation of the multiple Bragg diffraction in three-dimensional photonic crystals.     

Computational Study on Chemoselective Difunctionalization of Unactivated Alkenes with Radical-mediated Remote Functional Group Migration

A computational study of the radical-mediated chemoselective difunctionalization of the tertiary alcohol substituted aliphatic alkenes is carried out employing density functional theory (DFT) and high-level coupled-cluster methods, such as coupled-cluster singles and doubles with perturbative triples [DLPNO-CCSD(T)]. Our results indicate that the cyclic vinyl radical plays an important role in the progression of the reactions. Our computations demonstrated that the chemoselective difunctionalization of unactivated alkenes with radical-mediated remote functional group migration is suitable for the 5- and 6-exo-dig cyclization, as opposite to 3- and 4-exo-dig cyclization suffering from cyclic intermediate with high energy. Our results show that the migration of nitrile group is more preferable than that of alkynyl group for the molecules including both cyano group and alkynyl group. For the 5- and 6-exo-dig cyclization, the rate-determining step is the homolysis of the C−C σ-bond in the cyclic intermediate, which results in the hydroxyl alkyl radical.