Friedel-Craft acylation of ar-himachalene: synthesis of acyl-ar-himachalene and a new acyl-hydroperoxide

Friedel-Craft acylation at 100 °C of 2,5,9,9-tetramethyl-6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5H-benzocycloheptene [ar-himachalene], a sesquiterpenic hydrocarbon obtained by catalytic dehydrogenation of α-, β- and γ-himachalenes, produces a mixture of two compounds: (3,5,5,9-tetramethyl-6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5H-benzocyclohepten-2-yl)-ethanone (2, in 69% yield), with a conserved reactant backbone, and 3, with a different skeleton, in 21% yield. The crystal structure of 3 reveals it to be 1-(8-ethyl-8-hydroperoxy-3,5,5-trimethyl-5,6,7,8-tetrahydronaphthalen-2-yl)-ethanone. In this compound O-H…O bonds form dimers. These hydrogen-bonds, in conjunction with weaker C-H…O interactions, form a more extended supramolecular arrangement in the crystal.     

Ni(0)-CMC-Na - nickel colloids in sodium carboxymethyl-cellulose: catalytic evaluation in hydrogenation reactions

A recyclable catalyst, Ni(0)-CMC-Na, composed of nickel colloids dispersed in a water soluble bioorganic polymer, sodium carboxymethylcellulose (CMC-Na), was synthesized by a simple procedure from readily available reagents. The catalyst thus obtained is stable and highly active in alkene hydrogenations.     

Volatile constituents of two Hypericum species from Tunisia

The chemical composition of the essential oils obtained by hydrodistillation from the aerial parts of the Tunisian Hypericum perforatum and H. ericoides ssp. roberti was elucidated by a combination of GC and GC-MS analyses. The main constituents of the oil of H. perforatum were alpha-pinene (11.8%), alpha-ylangene (10.4%), germacrene-D (9.5%), n-octane (6.5%) and alpha-selinene (5.9%). The oil of H. ericoides ssp. roberti exhibited a higher amount of aliphatic and branched hydrocarbons and the main constituents were n-octane (29.1%), alpha-pinene (10.9%), pulegone (7.7%) and acetophenone (7%). Both qualitative and quantitative differences were observed between the studied oils. This chemical variability seems likely to result from the genetic variability, since samples of both species were collected at the same location and processed under the same conditions.     

Cyclicity of the adjoint of weighted composition operators on the hilbert space of analytic functions

In this paper, we discuss the hypercyclicity, supercyclicity and cyclicity of the adjoint of a weighted composition operator on a Hilbert space of analytic functions.     

A ruled residue theorem for function fields of conics

The ruled residue theorem characterises residue field extensions for valuations on a rational function field. Under the assumption that the characteristic of the residue field is different from 2 this theorem is extended here to function fields of conics. The main result is that there is at most one extension of a valuation on the base field to the function field of a conic for which the residue field extension is transcendental but not ruled. Furthermore the situation when this valuation is present is characterised.     

An asymptotic formula for the voltage potential in the case of a near-surface conductivity inclusion

We rigorously derive an asymptotic expansion of the steady-state voltage potentials in the presence of a conductivity inclusion of small volume that is close to a planar surface. This new formula is motivated by the practically important inverse problem of imaging a conductivity inclusion near a planar interface. Partly supported by ACI Jeunes Chercheurs (0693) from the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, France. Partially supported by grant R02-2003-000-10012-0 from the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation. Received: December 2, 2003; revised: January 18, 2004     

On the role of vacancies in pore formation in the course of anodizing of silicon carbide

Experimental data on the preparation of stoichiometric nanoporous silicon carbide are analyzed. Theoretical calculations are performed under the assumption that nanopores are formed through the vacancy diffusion mechanism. The results obtained confirm the hypothesis that the formation of pores with a steadystate radius of several tens of nanometers in silicon carbide can be associated with the diffusion and clustering of vacancies. The experimental data indicating that the proposed mechanism of formation of nanoporous silicon carbide correlates with the existing model of formation of porous silicon carbide with a fiber structure are discussed. This correlation can be revealed by assuming that nanopores are formed at the first stage with subsequent transformation of the nanoporous structure into a fiber structure due to the dissolution of the material in an electrolyte.     

YCu3Al2, an example of an AB5 structure type

Yttrium tricopper dialuminium, YCu₃Al₂, is isostructural with hexagonal CaCu₅, in which each Cu atom at the 3g(½,0,½) position in space group P6/mmm (No. 191) is partially replaced by an Al atom. The hydrogen‐uptake properties are usually enhanced in other AB₅ structures by aluminium substitution. YCu₅ does not show any hydrogen absorption, and the goal of the present work is to investigate whether aluminium substitution could expand the metal‐atom lattice enough to provide better interstitial positions for hydrogen storage. However, no enthalpy change was observed up to 773 K under 3 MPa static H₂ pressure by differential thermal analysis (DTA) for the title compound. The compound does not show any significant hydrogen absorption/desorption in the pressure‐composition isotherms (P–C–T diagrams) in the temperature range 298–673 K under 3.3 MPa H₂ pressure.     

Determination of nanomole quantities of lower aldehydes by cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry

A method is described for the determination of 10–100 nmole of methanal and 20–150 nmole of ethanal and propanal. The method is based on the oxidation of aldehydes to the corresponding acids by mercuric ion which in turn is reduced to elemental mercury, followed by cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry. Calibration plots were constructed between the concentration of each aldehyde and absorbance, while the calibration from the conventional cold vapour procedure was used for total aldehydes determination. The method is selective and can be used for aldehyde determination in the presence of ketones, acetals, alcohols, acids, esters, ethers, organic chlorides and epoxides. This simple method is characterised by 98–102% recoveries and standard deviations of 3%.