Movement of dopants in redox reaction of electro-conductive polymers

Polypyrrole, formed in an organic solvent, shows higher density and better quality in electrical conductivity and mechanical strength than that formed in water. On electrochemical reduction in an aqueous system the laurylsulfate anion, used as dopant, sticks to the polymer. During reduction a cation moves into the polymer and on oxidation it leaves the polymer. The anion, however, leaves the polymer on reduction in an organic solvent system and cannot penetrate into the polymer on re-oxidation. The redox reaction in the aqueous system reveals a surface reaction process, while the reaction in the organic solvent system undergoes a diffusion-controlled process. This penomenon is consistant with the results of the ion concentration profile.     

Antifungal Sesquiterpenoids from Michelia formosana Leaf Essential Oil against Wood-Rotting Fungi

Michelia formosana (Kanehira) Masamune is a broad-leaved species widespread in East Asia; the wood extract and its constituents possess antifungal activity against wood-decay fungi. Antifungal activities of leaf essential oil and its constituents from M. formosana were investigated in the present study. Bioassay-guided isolation was applied to isolate the phytochemicals from leaf essential oil. 1D and 2D NMR, FTIR, and MS spectroscopic analyses were applied to elucidate the chemical structures of isolated compounds. Leaf essential oil displayed antifungal activity against wood decay fungi and was further separated into 11 fractions by column chromatography. Four sesquiterpenoids were isolated and identified from the active fractions of leaf essential oil through bioassay-guided isolation. Among these sesquiterpenoids, guaiol, bulnesol, and β-elemol have higher antifungal activity against brown-rot fungus Laetiporus sulphureus and white-rot fungus Lenzites betulina. Leaf essential oil and active compounds showed better antifungal activity against L. sulphureus than against L. betulina. The molecular structure of active sesquiterpenoids all contain the hydroxyisopropyl group. Antifungal sesquiterpenoids from M. formosana leaf essential oil show potential as natural fungicides for decay control of lignocellulosic materials.     

Reversible C=C Bond Activation by an Intramolecularly Coordinated Antimony(I) Compound

The reaction of N,C,N-chelated stibinidene ArSb ( 1 ) (Ar=C₆H₃-2,6-(CH=NtBu)₂) with selected N-alkyl/aryl-maleimides RN(C(O)CH)₂ (R=Me, tBu, Ph) gave the addition products with bridged bicyclic [2.2.1] structure containing an antimony atom at the bridgehead position, fused with a 6-membered benzene and a 5-membered N-alkyl/aryl-pyrrolidine ring. These compounds were completely characterized. More importantly, additional studies showed that these reactions are reversible in solution, thereby representing an unprecedented reversible activation of a C=C bond by an antimony(I) compound.     

Equivalence of the (Generalised) Hadamard and Microlocal Spectrum Condition for (Generalised) Free Fields in Curved Spacetime

We prove that the singularity structure of all n-point distributions of a state of a generalised real free scalar field in curved spacetime can be estimated if the two-point distribution is of Hadamard form. In particular this applies to the free field and the result has applications in perturbative quantum field theory, showing that the class of all Hadamard states is the state space of interest. In our proof we assume that the field is a generalised free field, i.e. that it satisfies scalar (c-number) commutation relations, but it need not satisfy an equation of motion. The same arguments also work for anti-commutation relations and for vector-valued fields. To indicate the strengths and limitations of our assumption we also prove the analogues of a theorem by Borchers and Zimmermann on the self-adjointness of field operators and of a weak form of the Jost-Schroer theorem. The original proofs of these results make use of analytic continuation arguments. In our case no analyticity is assumed, but to some extent the scalar commutation relations can take its place.     

Transient time in homogeneous nucleation

The problem of the transient time in nucleation is studied. The size-dependent transient time at a constant temperature is defined and the approximate analytical solution is found and compared with the exact numerical solution for the model Li₂O.2 SiO₂ melt. It is shown that the analytical solution for the size-dependent transient time is in agreement with the numerical result.     

1X2 and 2X2 SOI Switch Applying in Optical Communication Network

We proposed a 1 × 2 and 2×2 SOI switches for applying in fiber optic communication network. The optical path loss and signal-to-noise ratio are evaluated and compared in this paper.     

Synthesis of difluorinated pyridinecarboxaldehyde via electrophilic fluorination

An efficient synthesis of novel 3,5-difluoropyridine-4-carboxaldehyde using N-fluoro-benzenesulfonimide (NSFi) is described. Difluorination was achieved through the reaction of 3,5-dihalo-1,3-dioxolane pyridine with n-butyllithium followed by N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide at −120 °C in good to high yields. Maintaining the low temperature during the transmetallation was found to be critical for the selective formation of the difluoro-susbstitution over the monofluoro one.