The Extended Surface as a Factor Forming Distinctive Features of Nanodimensional Media

As a result of studying thin-film nano-sized media, it is shown that the extended surface exerts a substantial influence on their distinctive properties. It has been established that, by using special methods to obtain nano-sized media under certain conditions, it is possible to form crystal structures with a high concentration of defects of a prescribed type in the near-surface layers of nanocrystals. The correlations found between the conducting and optical properties of thin-film nano-sized structures are an additional factor that extends the capabilities of controlling their characteristics with a view toward developing miniature effective radiation sources, elements of modulation of laser radiation, dosimeters, and components of thin-film solar cells. __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 72, No. 3, pp. 287–291, May–June, 2005.     

An Example of Embedded Singular Continuous Spectrum for One-Dimensional Schrödinger Operators

We present a new example of a potential such that the corresponding Schrödinger operator in the halfaxis has singular continuous spectrum embedded in the absolutely continuous spectrum. The singular part is supported in an essentialy dense set. This generalizes a result of C. Remling [3].Mathematics Subject Classification: 34L40, 81Q10.     

Novel stabilization mechanism on polar surfaces: ZnO(0001)-Zn

The (1x1) terminated (0001)-Zn surface of wurtzite ZnO was investigated with scanning tunneling microscopy. The surface is characterized by the presence of nanosized islands with a size-dependent shape and triangular holes with single-height, O-terminated step edges. It is proposed that the resulting overall decrease of the surface Zn concentration stabilizes this polar surface. Ab initio calculations of test geometries predict triangularly shaped reconstructions over a wide range of oxygen and hydrogen chemical potentials. The formation of these reconstructions appears to be electrostatically driven.     

Periodic droplet formation in chemically patterned microchannels

Simulations show that, when a phase-separated binary AB fluid is driven to flow past chemically patterned substrates in a microchannel, the fluid exhibits unique morphological instabilities. For the pattern studied, these instabilities give rise to the simultaneous, periodic formation of monodisperse droplets of A in B and B in A. The system bifurcates between time-independent behavior and different types of regular, nondecaying oscillations in the structural characteristics. The surprisingly complex behavior is observed even in the absence of hydrodynamic interactions and arises from the interplay between the fluid flow and patterned substrate, which introduces nonlinearity into the dynamical system.     

Molecule without electrons: binding bare nuclei with strong laser fields

We show how a carefully chosen combination of strong linearly and circularly polarized laser fields can bind two same-sign charges, not only suppressing their Coulomb repulsion in all three spatial dimensions, but also creating an effective attraction. As an example, we show how a molecule HD2+ stripped of both electrons can be kept bound by the laser fields.     

Small Blocking Sets in PG(2, p3)

In this paper we show that a small minimalblocking set in PG(2,p³), with p 7,is of Rédei type.     

1,3-Cycloaddition of nitrones in ionic liquids catalyzed by Er(III): an easy access to isoxazolidines

1,3-Dipolar cycloadditions of nitrones with alkenes afforded the corresponding isoxazolidines in ionic liquids in the presence of Er(OTf)₃. The ionic liquid and the catalyst are recycled up to five times without any specific treatment or loss of activity. Extension of the procedure to the synthesis of isoxazolidinyl nucleosides has been investigated.     

Copolymerization of benzoquinone with norbornene

For the first time, the conjugated dicarbonyl compound benzoquinone has been copolymerized with the strained cyclo-olefin norbornene using catalytic amounts of the Friedel-Crafts metathesis catalytic system WOCl₄+AlCl₃. All analyses reveal that the products consist of conjugated blocks originating from benzoquinone connected with spacers originating from norbornene. The products are soluble in benzene, toluene, chlorobenzene, etc. but possess properties of the conjugated polymers. They have been synthesized via a very simple one-pot procedure.     

C-H activations at iridium(I) square-planar complexes promoted by a fifth ligand

In the presence of ligands such as acetonitrile, ethylene, or propylene, the Ir(I) complex [Ir(1,2,5,6-eta-C8H12)(NCMe)(PMe3)]BF4 (1) transforms into the Ir(III) derivatives [Ir(1-kappa-4,5,6-eta-C8H12)(NCMe)(L)(PMe3)]BF4 (L = NCMe, 2; eta2-C2H4, 3; eta2-C3H6, 4), respectively, through a sequence of C-H oxidative addition and insertion elementary steps. The rate of this transformation depends on the nature of L and, in the case of NCMe, the pseudo-first-order rate constants display a dependence upon ligand concentration suggesting the formation of five-coordinate reaction intermediates. A similar reaction between 1 and vinyl acetate affords the Ir(III) complex [Ir(1-kappa-4,5,6-eta-C8H12){kappa-O-eta2-OC(Me)OC2H3}(PMe3)]BF4 (7) via the isolable five-coordinate Ir(I) compound [Ir(1,2,5,6-eta-C8H12){kappa-O-eta2-OC(Me)OC2H3}(PMe3)]BF4 (6). DFT (B3LYP) calculations in model complexes show that reactions initiated by acetonitrile or ethylene five-coordinate adducts involve C-H oxidative addition transition states of lower energy than that found in the absence of these ligands. Key species in these ligand-assisted transformations are the distorted (nonsquare-planar) intermediates preceding the intramolecular C-H oxidative addition step, which are generated after release of one cyclooctadiene double bond from the five-coordinate species. The feasibility of this mechanism is also investigated for complexes [IrCl(L)(PiPr3)2] (L = eta2-C2H4, 27; eta2-C3H6, 28). In the presence of NCMe, these complexes afford the C-H activation products [IrClH(CH=CHR)(NCMe)(PiPr3)2] (R = H, 29; Me, 30) via the common cyclometalated intermediate [IrClH{kappa-P,C-P(iPr)2CH(CH3)CH2}(NCMe)(PiPr3)] (31). The most effective C-H oxidative addition mechanism seems to involve three-coordinate intermediates generated by photochemical release of the alkene ligand. However, in the absence of light, the reaction rates display dependences upon NCMe concentration again indicating the intermediacy of five-coordinate acetonitrile adducts.