Chemisorption of NH3 at the open ends of boron nitride nanotubes: a DFT study

Considering the thermodynamic aspects and reaction pathways of chemical adsorption of NH₃ molecule at the open ends of boron nitride nanotubes (BNNTs), theoretically, it was found that the open-ended BNNTs are able to cleave the N–H bond of NH₃ via a one- or two-stepwise mechanism. The N-enriched and B-enriched open-ended BNNTs show a nucleophilic and electrophilic behavior toward the NH₃, respectively. Besides, some effects of this chemical adsorption on the electronic properties of BNNTs were explored.     

Synthesis and anticancer activity of some new s-glycosyl and s-alkyl 1,2,4-triazinone derivatives

A series of S-glycosyl and S-alkyl derivatives of 4-amino-3-mercapto-6-(2-(2-thienyl)vinyl)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one (1) were synthesized using different halo compounds such as preacetylated sugar bromide, 4-bromobutylacetate, 2-acetoxyethoxy-methyl bromide, 3-chloropropanol, 1,3-dichloro-2-propanol, epichlorohydrin, allyl bromide, propargyl bromide, phthalic and succinic acids in POCl3. The structures of the synthesized compounds have been deduced from their elemental analysis and spectral (IR, 1H-NMR, and 13C-NMR) data. Some of the synthesized compounds were screened as anticancer agents. Significant anticancer activities were observed in vitro for some members of the series, and compounds 4-Amino-3-(3-hydroxypropylthio)-6-(2-(2-thienyl)vinyl)-1,2,4-triazin-5(4H)-one (12) and 3-(4-Oxo-3-(2-(2-thienyl)vinyl)-4H-[1,3,4]thiadiazolo-[2,3-c][1,2,4]tr-iazin-7-yl)propanoic acid (18) are active cytotoxic agents against different cancer cell lines.     

Synthesis, characterization, mechanochromism and photochromism of [Fe(dm4bt)3][FeCl4]2 and [Fe(dm4bt)3][FeBr4]2, along with the investigation of steric influence on spin state

The complexes [Fe(dm4bt)(3)][FeCl(4)](2) (1) and [Fe(dm4bt)(3)][FeBr(4)](2) (2) were prepared from the reaction of 2,2'-dimethyl-4,4'-bithiazole (dm4bt) with FeCl(3)·6H(2)O and FeBr(3), respectively, in methanol. Both complexes were characterized by IR, UV-Vis and (1)H NMR spectroscopy and their structures were studied by single-crystal diffraction. The methylated bithiazole led to high spin Fe(II) centers in the octahedral cation part of complexes 1 and 2 with Fe-N distance of 2.220 ?, in spite of the low spin octahedral Fe(II) complexes with unsubstituted bithiazole ligands. Crystal structure determination of 2 was performed at 90, 120 and 298 K. Temperature reduction to 90 K resulted in a decrease in the Fe-N bond length to 2.206 ? which is still in the range of high spin Fe(II). Complex 1 shows a reversible mechanochromic effect from the crystalline phase to powder form from red to yellow; it also displays reversible photochromism from yellow to green in solution under sunlight. The magnetic behaviour of the complexes was also studied at 2-300 K. The temperature dependence of χ(m)T curves for the two forms of 1, crystal and powder, demands some changes in their magnetic behavior, causing different colors i.e. red and yellow. At low temperatures, χ(m)T decreases where the decrease starts at around 65 K for compound 1, and at around 100 K for compound 2, due to different counterions. The two complexes exhibit antiferromagnetism at around 4 K.     

Numerical conformal mapping of multiply connected regions onto the second, third and fourth categories of Koebe?s canonical slit domains

This paper presents a boundary integral method for approximating the conformal mappings from any bounded or unbounded multiply connected region G onto the second, third and fourth categories of Koebe?s canonical slit domains. The method can be also used for calculating the conformal mappings of simply and doubly connected regions. The method is an extension of the author?s method for the first category of Koebe?s canonical slit domains (see [M.M.S. Nasser, Numerical conformal mapping via a boundary integral equation with the generalized Neumann kernel, SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 31 (2009) 1695-1715]). Three numerical examples are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed method.     

A new method for constructing a minimal PERT network

A project is an enterprise consisting of several activities which are to be carried out in some specific order. The activities and the order in which they need to be carried out can be represented by a PERT network. The PERT technique is a traditional, well-known approach to the expert of project management. When networks are used, it often becomes necessary to draw dummy activities. Since the computation of project completion time is proportional to the number of arcs, including dummy arcs, it is desirable to draw a network with as few dummy activities as possible.In this paper, we propose a new method for constructing, for a given project scheduling problem, a PERT network having as small as possible the number of dummy arcs by using some results on line graphs. This algorithm deals with the existence of transitive arcs. The paper contains illustrative examples, proofs of some theoretical results as well as a comparative study with a similar algorithm known in the literature. Computational results showed the superiority of our algorithm.     

Applications of Nano-Baskets of Calixarenes in Chromatography

Nano-baskets of calixarenes have been subject to extensive research in the construction of liquid chromatographic phases, extractants, transporters, electrode ionophores, and optical and electrochemical sensors over the past 4 decades. There has long been interest in calixarene-based liquid chromatographic phases. Owing to the recent rapid growth in the number of publications on calixarene-based liquid chromatographic phases, this review paper focuses on their different applications in the main fields of molecular and ionic species as well as liquid chromatographic mobile and stationary phases. Although the recent reports have focused on the optimization and application of one kind or a unique group of calixarenic mobile or stationary phases, this review is a collection and comparison of a variety of research data dealing with the synthesis, preparation and behavior of calixarene-based liquid chromatographic phases.     

Hydrazone-based ligands for micro-solid phase extraction-high performance liquid chromatographic determination of biogenic amines in orange juice

Eight hydrazone-based ligands were synthesized, trapped in a silica sol-gel matrix, and were subsequently used in the micro-solid phase extraction (μ-SPE) of biogenic amines (BAs). The BAs investigated were tryptamine, phenylethylamine, putrescine, histamine, tyramine and spermidine. Prior to the extraction, dansyl chloride was added to the samples which were heated to 70°C for 10 min. The samples were extracted with μ-SPE, after which analytes were desorbed using acetonitrile via ultrasonication. The extracts were analysed by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with ultraviolet detection. Of the eight ligands investigated as sorbents, benzophenone 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazone was found to be the most promising. The enhanced π-π interaction between the analytes and the ligand facilitated the adsorption process. Under the most suitable extraction conditions, the method demonstrated good linearity with correlation coefficient of more than 0.985 over a concentration range of 1-50 μg L(-1). Satisfactory repeatability with relative standard deviations of 7.43-11.30% (n=3) were obtained. Detection limits ranged from 3.8 to 31.3 ng L(-1). The μ-SPE method exhibited lower recoveries (71.5-87.4%) when compared to the solid phase extraction technique (79.7-95.0%), but enrichment factors of 94-460 were obtained. The proposed μ-SPE-HPLC method was applied to the determination of BAs in orange juice purchased from local supermarkets, with satisfactory results. The orange juices were characterized by the presence of relatively high levels of putrescine (range, 550-2210 μg L(-1)) but tryptamine and phenylethylamine were not detected in any of the tested samples.     

Syntheses, crystal structures, transport properties and first-principles electronic structure study of the (tTTF)2X (X=Br, I) low-dimensional antiferromagnets

An efficient synthetic procedure for the preparation of unsymmetrically substituted tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) donors has been used to obtain the trimethylene-tetrathiafulvalene (tTTF) donor with high purity. Good quality crystals of the two (tTTF)(2)X (X = Br, I) salts have been obtained by electrocrystallization. The two salts are isomorphous and contain tTTF layers which are built from (tTTF)(2) dimeric units. Both systems are low-dimensional antiferromagnets with the highest Ne?el temperatures for TTF based radical cation salts: ≈ 35 K (Br salt) and ≈43 K (I salt). The resistivity is found to substantially decrease with pressure although both salts still have activated conductivity at 25 kbar. First-principles Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations have been used to investigate the relative strength of the three different types of magnetic interactions in the tTTF layers as well as the potential magnetic ground states. These calculations successfully predict the nature of the ground state and suggest a possible correlation between structural details and Ne?el temperatures for the bromine and iodine salts. Remarkably, the calculated antiferromagnetic ground state can be predicted from the nesting properties of the Fermi surface for the hypothetical Pauli paramagnetic metallic state.