Single Atoms of Iron on MoS2 Nanosheets for N2 Electroreduction into Ammonia

Efforts have been devoted to achieving a highly efficient artificial synthesis of ammonia (NH₃). Reported herein is a novel Fe-MoS₂ catalyst with Fe atomically dispersed onto MoS₂ nanosheets, imitating natural nitrogenase, to boost N₂ electroreduction into NH₃ at room temperature. The Fe-MoS₂ nanosheets exhibited a faradic efficiency of 18.8 % with a yield rate of 8.63 μg mg_cat.⁻¹ h⁻¹ for NH₃ at −0.3 V versus the reversible hydrogen electrode. The mechanism study revealed that the electroreduction of N₂ was promoted and the competing hydrogen evolution reaction was suppressed by decorating the edge sites of S in MoS₂ with the atomically dispersed Fe, resulting in high catalytic performance for the electroreduction of N₂ into NH₃. This work provides new ideas for the design of catalysts for N₂ electroreduction and strengthens the understanding about N₂ activation over Mo-based catalysts.     

A comparison of crystalline- and graft polymer-based chemosensors

Herein, we report a highly sensitive luminescent thin film chemosensor constructed out of a small-molecule donor/acceptor system. Two types of films were compared: one using a small-molecule crystalline donor/acceptor pair and the other using a donor-graft polymer/small-molecule acceptor pair. The acceptor selected for this proof of concept responds to acid, causing its absorption and emission bands to red-shift, which increases spectral overlap with the donor. This increase in overlap greatly enhances energy transfer from the acceptor to the donor. Signal amplification was ascertained by measuring the ratio of acceptor fluorescence when the donor was excited versus direct excitation of the acceptor. Both types of films exhibited large amplification. For the polymeric system, the mechanism of energy migration was investigated by the use of steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy. The mechanism was determined to be dominated by an exciton-hopping process.     

Synthesis of beta-substituted alpha-amino acids via Lewis acid promoted enantioselective radical conjugate additions

[Chemical reaction: See text] Lewis acid promoted radical conjugate additions to beta-substituted alpha,beta-unsaturated alpha-nitro esters and amides were investigated. With achiral Lewis acids, there was competition between the desired radical conjugate addition and undesired alkene reduction mediated by Bu3nH. Zinc Lewis acids provided the greatest amounts of addition products with both substrate classes. Studies with Bu3nD indicated that the acidic alpha-stereocenter of the alpha-nitro ester products does not racemize under controlled workup conditions. The corresponding alpha-nitro amides racemized significantly during chromatography, but this problem could be greatly minimized by subjecting the crude adducts to subsequent transformations. Indium-mediated reduction of the nitro group followed by acylation of the resulting amine provided good yields of beta-substituted alpha-amino acid derivatives with mimimal levels of racemization. Attempts to use chiral Lewis acids in a stereoselective variant of this process revealed that Kanemasa's DBFOX/Ph ligand (14a) was uniquely effective. Moderate to good ee's and low dr's were obtained with amide substrates. Determination of the absolute configurations of the syn and anti isomers of adduct 7b showed that the hydrogen atom abstraction step was significantly more stereoselective than the radical conjugate addition step. A model for substrate binding to the chiral Lewis acid is presented.     

Bond energy, aromatic stabilization energy and strain in IPR fullerenes

Various models applied to DFT structures and energies of 2-D and 3-D aromatic molecules shed new light on the effects of strain and aromaticity in these systems. The cyclic pi electron delocalisation does not stabilize the fullerene C60 formation; and 5-6 and 6-6 CC bonds have near-identical bond stretch potentials.     

Dual-Phase structure of polymer electrolytes comprised of NBR/SBR latex films swollen with lithium salt solution

Dual-phase polymer electrolytes (DPE) that have high ionic conductivity (> 10^?3 S/cm) and good mechanical strength were prepared by mixing NBR and SBR latices and casting films. The latex films absorbed large quantities of lithium salt solution (e.g., 1M lithium perchlorate in γ-butyrolactone) to obtain DPE films but did not dissolve with swelling. The NBR phase is polar and was impregnated selectively with the polar lithium salt solution, whereas the SBR phase is nonpolar and formed a mechanically-supportive matrix. Transmission electron microscopic (TEM), electron energy loss spectral (EELS), and energy-dispersive x-ray (EDX) analyses showed microscopically the dual-phase structure. Evidence for swelling by lithium salt solution was found only in the NBR phase and not in the SBR phase by EDX microanalysis. Ionic conductivity as a function of NBR content or swelling degree showed clearly that a percolation threshold for ionic conductivity exists. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ru2(ap)4(sigma-oligo(phenyleneethynyl)) molecular wires: synthesis and electronic characterization

Reported in this contribution are the synthesis, characterization, and charge transport properties of wire-like Ru2(ap)4(OPEn), where ap is 2-anilinopyridinate and OPE is -(CCC6H4)nSCH2CH2SiMe3 with n = 1 (1) and 2 (2). Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements of compound 2 inserted into a SAM of C11 thiol reveal that molecule 2 exhibits (i) the stochastic switching characteristic of wire molecules embedded in insulating SAMs and (ii) higher conductivity than the C11 thiol SAM. More importantly, analysis of the molecular electronic decay constant (beta) exhibits a decrease of at least 15% as compared to purely organic molecular analogues. Hence, the transport characteristics of molecules can be significantly improved for nanoscale electronics through the incorporation of a Ru2 fragment into conjugated backbone.     

Synthesis of the β-lactam antibiotic (+)- thienamycin via an intermediate π-allyltricarbonyliron lactone complex

The π-allyltricarbonyliron lactone complex (7), formed by reaction of E-1,2-epoxy-2-methyl-6,6-dimethoxyhex-3-ene(5) with co-ordinatively unsaturated iron carbonyl species, was reacted with benzylamine to give a lactam complex (8) by an S_N'-like mechanism. This complex upon oxidation with Ce(IV) afforded cis-3-isopropenyl-4-[(2',2'-dim (9) which was chemically modified into trans-3-(1'-hydroxyethyl)-4-[(2',2-dimethoxy)ethyl] azetidin-2-one (13), a key intermediate previously used in the synthesis of the antibiotic thienamycin. Similar reaction with (S)-(-)--methylbenzylamine afforded a separable mixture of diastereoisomeric iron lactam complexes (16 and 17). These complexes could be individually converted to the corresponding optically active β-lactam derivatives (27 and 28) and, hence, are precursors for the synthesis of either natural (+)-thienamycin or unnatural (-)-thienamycin.     

Selective Inversion of the Proximal or Distal Hydroxyl Groups in syn,syn-3-[N-(Alkoxycarbonyl)amino] 1,2-Diols via Cyclic Sulfates

The formation of cyclic sulfates (4) from syn,syn-3-[N-(benzyloxycarbonyl)amino] 1,2-diols provides a common intermediate to access other diastereomers via two inversion procedures. Thermolysis of the cyclic sulfates in acetonitrile normally leads to inversion of the distal hydroxyl group to form a 1,3-oxazin-2-one (6). Catalytic hydrogenation of the cyclic sulfates under basic conditions (NEt(3)) results in inversion at the proximal hydroxyl group to form a 1,3-oxazolidin-2-one (5).     

Counterexamples to some results on the existence of field copies

Several criteria are known for determining which connectionsA are determined uniquely by their curvatureF, or byF and its covariant derivatives. On a principal bundle with semi-simple gauge groupG over a 4-manifoldM, a sufficient condition forF to determineA uniquely is that the linear mapB [F B] from Lie algebra-valued 1-forms to 3-forms (pulled back toM via a local gauge) be invertible on an open dense set inM. Recently F. A. Doria has claimed that this condition is also necessary. We present counterexamples to this claim, and also to his assertion thatF determinesA uniquely if the restriction of the bundle to every open subset ofM has holonomy group equal toG andF is not degenerate as a 2-form over spacetime.This research was supported in part by N. S. F. grant MCS80-03419 (first author) and by an NSERCC operating grant (second author)     

Kinetic study of the oxidative addition of methyl iodide to Vaska’s complex in ionic liquids

Oxidative addition of methyl iodide to Vaska’s complex in the ionic liquids 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium triflate [C₄mim][OTf], [C₄mim] bis(trifluormethylsulfonyl)imide [Tf₂N], and N-hexylpyridinium [C₆pyr][Tf₂N] occurred cleanly to give the expected Ir(III) oxidative addition product. Pseudo-first order rate constants were determined for the oxidative addition reaction in each solvent ([Vaska’s] = 0.25 mM, [CH₃I] = 37.5 mM). The observed rate constants under these conditions were 5-10 times slower than the rate seen in DMF. At high methyl iodide concentrations (>23 mM), the expected first order dependence on methyl iodide was not observed. In each ionic liquid, there was no change in the reaction rates within experimental error over the methyl iodide concentration range of 23-75 mM. At lower methyl iodide concentration, a decrease in rate was observed in [C₄mim][Tf₂N] with decreasing concentration of methyl iodide.