NIR Light-Induced ATRP for Synthesis of Block Copolymers Comprising UV-Absorbing Moieties

NIR exposure at 790 nm activated photopolymerization of monomers comprising UV-absorbing moieties by using [Cu^II/(TPMA)]Br₂ (TPMA=tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine) in the ppm range and an alkyl bromide as initiator. Some of them comprised structural elements selected either from those showing proton transfer or photocycloaddition upon UV excitation. Polymers obtained comprise living end groups serving as macroinitiator for controlled synthesis of block copolymers with relatively narrow molecular weight distributions. Chromatographic results indicated formation of block copolymers produced by this synthetic approach. Free-radical polymerization of monomers pursued for comparison exhibited the expected broader dispersity of molecular weight compared to photo-ATRP. Polymerization of these monomers by UV photo-ATRP failed on the contrary to NIR photo-ATRP demonstrating the UV-filter function of the monomers. This work conclusively provides a new approach for the polymerization of monomers comprising UV-absorbing moieties through photo-ATRP in the NIR region. This occurred in a simple and efficient pathway. However, studies also showed that not all monomers chosen successfully proceeded in the NIR photo-ATRP protocol.     

Photoinitiated polymerization of methacrylates comprising phenyl moieties

Investigation of photopolymerization kinetics of 4-(4-methacryloyloxyphenyl)-butan-2-one (1) in comparison with 2-phenoxyethyl methacrylate (2) and phenyl methacrylate (3) using a UV-LED emitting at 395 nm shows significantly faster polymerization of 1 compared to both 2 and 3 at 40°C. Vitrification affects photopolymerization kinetics of all methacrylates under investigation. Interestingly, quantitative final conversion is observed during photoinitiated polymerization of 1 and 2 whereas 3 shows limited conversion at about 80%. Furthermore, higher degree of polymerization is obtained by photoinitiated polymerization of 1 compared to 2 and 3. This shows that the 3-oxobutyl substituent at the phenyl ring of 1 significantly affects both polymerization kinetics and final conversion of the photoinitiated polymerization. Moreover, an additional higher molecular weight fraction is observed in case of polymerization of 1 at 85°C that is above the glass transition temperature of the polymer formed during photoinitiated polymerization. As a thermal polymerization at 85°C in the absence of light results in a high molecular weight polymer as well, an additional thermal process may be discussed as reason for the higher molecular weight polymer fraction in case of the photopolymer made at 85°C.     

On the primitivity of Cayley digraphs

We give a necessary and sufficient group theoretic condition for a Cayley digraph to be primitive.     

Unexpected dimerization of 1,3‐dimethyl‐5‐methylenebarbituric acid revealed by a combined experimental and computational study

A comparison of experimental and calculated ¹³C‐nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shifts reveals the molecular structure of a dimer that was obtained by an unexpected dimerization of 1,3‐dimethyl‐5‐methylenebarbituric acid. Furthermore, the puckering angle of the cyclobutane unit linking the six‐membered rings is discussed in detail. The influence of substituents on 1,3‐position of the cyclobutane ring on the puckering angle is demonstrated based on 1,1,3,3‐tetramethylcyclobutane. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Dirac Operator on Nilmanifolds and Collapsing Circle Bundles

We compute the spectrum of the Dirac operator on 3-dimensional Heisenberg manifolds. The behavior under collapse to the 2-torus is studied. Depending on the spin structure either all eigenvalues tend to ± or there are eigenvalues converging to those of the torus. This is shown to be true in general for collapsing circle bundles with totally geodesic fibers. Using the Hopf fibration we use this fact to compute the Dirac eigenvalues on complex projective space including the multiplicities.Finally, we show that there are 1-parameter families of Riemannian nilmanifolds such that the Laplacian on functions and the Dirac operator for certain spin structures have constant spectrum while the Laplacian on 1-forms and the Dirac operator for the other spin structures have nonconstant spectrum. The marked length spectrum is also constant for these families.     

Bidirectional molecular dynamics: Interpretation in terms of a modern formulation of classical mechanics

The validity and applicability of bidirectional molecular dynamics is shown in terms of modern classical mechanics. A simple interpretation of bidirectional molecular dynamics is given. This interpretation justifies an easy approach to start from an equilibrium configuration, to perform simulations in parallel in “forward” and “backward” time direction, and to combine the two obtained trajectories into a single one for proper evaluation of statistical quantities. Practical results, obtained for liquid ammonia, are presented. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Nitrogen‐Doped Ordered Mesoporous Carbon Supported Bimetallic PtCo Nanoparticles for Upgrading of Biophenolics

Hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) is an attractive route for the upgrading of bio‐oils produced from lignocellulose. Current catalysts require harsh conditions to effect HDO, decreasing the process efficiency in terms of energy and carbon balance. Herein we report a novel and facile method for synthesizing bimetallic PtCo nanoparticle catalysts (ca. 1.5 nm) highly dispersed in the framework of nitrogen‐doped ordered mesoporous carbon (NOMC) for this reaction. We demonstrate that NOMC with either 2D hexagonal (p6m) or 3D cubic (Im m) structure can be easily synthesized by simply adjusting the polymerization temperature. We also demonstrate that PtCo/NOMC (metal loading: Pt 9.90 wt %; Co 3.31 wt %) is a highly effective catalyst for HDO of phenolic compounds and “real‐world” biomass‐derived phenolic streams. In the presence of PtCo/NOMC, full deoxygenation of phenolic compounds and a biomass‐derived phenolic stream is achieved under conditions of low severity.     

Self-assembling cyclic peptides: molecular dynamics studies of dimers in polar and nonpolar solvents

The self-assembly of cyclic D,L-alpha-peptides into hollow nanotubes is a crucial mechanistic step in their application as antibacterial and drug-delivery agents. To understand this process, molecular dynamics (MD) simulations were performed on dimers of cyclic peptides formed from cyclo [(-L-Trp-D-N-MeLeu-)4-]2 and cyclo [(-L-Trp-D-Leu-)4-]2 subunits in nonpolar (nonane) and polar (water) solvent. The dimers were observed to be stable only in nonpolar solvent over the full 10 ns length of the MD trajectory. The behavior of the dimers in different solvents is rationalized in terms of the intersubunit hydrogen bonding, hydrogen bonding with the solvent, and planarity of the rings. It is shown that the phi and psi dihedral angles of a single uncapped ring in nonane lie in the beta-sheet region of the Ramachandran plot, and the ring stays in a flat conformation. Steered MD (SMD) simulations based on Jarzynski's equality were performed to obtain the potential of mean force as a function of the distance between the two rings of the capped dimer in nonane. It is also shown that a single peptide subunit prefers to reside close to the nonane/water interface rather than in bulk solvent because of the amphiphilic character of the peptide ring. The present MD results build the foundation for using MD simulations to study the mechanism of the formation of cyclic peptide nanotubes in lipid bilayers.     

Propagation with distributed Gaussians as a sparse, adaptive basis for higher-dimensional quantum dynamics

A simple quantum wavepacket propagation algorithm is presented, designed to produce a very compact, non-direct product representation in higher-dimensional cases. Instead of moving basis functions around, localized basis functions at pre-defined centers are added to and deleted from the representation, generating an active basis function set strictly localized to the region where the moving wavepacket has significantly non-zero values. Simple one-dimensional examples prove this property, as well as the ability of the algorithm to accommodate splitting and rejoining of an arbitrary number of wavefunction pieces, and tunnelling through potential energy barriers. It is argued that future applications to higher-dimensional examples will be less expensive than with traditional direct-product bases, since making the basis adaptive has a lower scaling than the elementary steps necessary for any propagation algorithm itself.