Controlled deactivation of a skeletal nickel catalyst with sodium silfide in liquid-phase hydrogenation reactions

The kinetics of the liquid-phase hydrogenation of sodium maleate on skeletal nickel catalysts subjected to controlled deactivation with sodium sulfide solutions was studied. The possibility of reactivating partially deactivated skeletal nickel was systematically studied for the first time, and it was found that its activity in liquid-phase hydrogenation reactions can be regulated by the introduction of a catalyst poison in small amounts into the system.     

Modeling of Solute-Solvent Interactions Using an External Electric Field—From Tautomeric Equilibrium in Nonpolar Solvents to the Dissociation of Alkali Metal Halides

An implicit account of the solvent effect can be carried out using traditional static quantum chemistry calculations by applying an external electric field to the studied molecular system. This approach allows one to distinguish between the effects of the macroscopic reaction field of the solvent and specific solute–solvent interactions. In this study, we report on the dependence of the simulation results on the use of the polarizable continuum approximation and on the importance of the solvent effect in nonpolar solvents. The latter was demonstrated using experimental data on tautomeric equilibria between the pyridone and hydroxypyridine forms of 2,6-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxy-pyridine in cyclohexane and chloroform.     

Monocrystalline Quartz ICP Etching: Road to High-Temperature Dry Etching

Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing - In this study, the dry plasma-chemical etching process of monocrystalline SiO2 (quartz) in a fluoride-based (sulfur hexafluoride, SF6) inductively coupled...     

Conversion of Mg‐Li Bimetallic Alloys to Magnesium Alkoxide and Magnesium Oxide Ceramic Nanowires

Technologically important composites with enhanced thermal and mechanical properties rely on the reinforcement by the high specific strength ceramic nanofibers or nanowires (NWs) with high aspect ratios. However, conventional synthesis routes to produce such ceramic NWs have prohibitively high cost. Now, direct transformation of bulk Mg‐Li alloys into Mg alkoxide NWs is demonstrated without the use of catalysts, templates, expensive or toxic chemicals, or any external stimuli. This mechanism proceeds through the minimization of strain energy at the boundary of phase transformation front leading to the formation of ultra‐long NWs with tunable dimensions. Such alkoxide NWs can be easily converted in air into ceramic MgO NWs with similar dimensions. The impact of the alloy grain size and Li content, synthesis temperature, inductive and steric effects of alkoxide groups on the diameter, length, composition, ductility, and oxidation of the produced NWs is discussed.     

Identification of pyrrolo-pyridine derivatives as novel class of antibacterials

Molecular Diversity - A series of 5-oxo-4H-pyrrolo[3,2-b]pyridine derivatives was identified as novel class of highly potent antibacterial agents during an extensive large-scale high-throughput...     

Charge-exchange transitions in hot nuclei

A formalism based on the thermo field dynamics and allowing one to treat thermal effects on the strength distribution of charge-exchange transitions in hot nuclei is developed. The strength distributions of the allowed and first-forbidden p → n transitions are calculated for the neutron-rich nucleus ⁸⁰Ge at different temperatures. Then the electron capture rates on the same nucleus are calculated at temperatures and densities corresponding to an advanced stage of stellar evolution. Published in Russian in Yadernaya Fizika, 2009, Vol. 72, No. 8, pp. 1373–1384. The text was translated by the authors.     

Strong reality of finite simple groups

The classification of finite simple strongly real groups is complete. It is easy to see that strong reality for every nonabelian finite simple group is equivalent to the fact that each element can be written as a product of two involutions. We thus obtain a solution to Problem 14.82 of the Kourovka Notebook from the classification of finite simple strongly real groups.     

Precipitation of inorganic salts inside hollow micrometer-sized polyelectrolyte shells

Hollow polymer shells formed by layer-by-layer adsorption of oppositely charged polyelectrolytes onto micrometer-sized colloidal particles with subsequent decomposition of the colloidal core were employed as a model system for the study of inorganic crystallization reactions in restricted volumes. The size-selective permeability of shells is used for spatially controlling the precipitation of inorganic salts CaCO3 and BaCO3 into the shell interior. Outside the shells the precipitation was suppressed by the polymers, which are unable to penetrate the shell wall. The precipitates were studied by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The fundamental and applied aspects of research on spatially confined synthesis of inorganic particles are under discussion.