Selective Template Removal by Thermal Depolymerization to Obtain Mesostructured Molybdenum Oxycarbide

The carbon content of mesostructured organic‐inorganic hybrid material of a cylindrical block copolymer template of poly(2‐vinylpyridine)‐block‐poly(allyl methacrylate) (P2VP‐b‐PAMA) and ammonium paramolybdate (APM) could be reduced by thermal depolymerization. By calcination in vacuo at 320 °C the PAMA core can be completely removed while the remaining P2VP brush preserves the mesostructure. The P2VP‐APM composite can then be carburized in‐situ to MoO_xC_y in a second pyrolysis step without any additional carbon source but P2VP. The molybdenum oxycarbide nanotubes obtained, form hierarchically porous non‐woven structures, which were tested as catalyst in the decomposition of NH₃. They proved to be catalytically active at temperatures above 450 °C. The activation energy was estimated from an Arrhenius Plot to be 127 kJ · mol^–1.     

Ruthenium‐Catalyzed C?C Bond Cleavage in Lignin Model Substrates

Ruthenium–triphos complexes exhibited unprecedented catalytic activity and selectivity in the redox‐neutral C C bond cleavage of the β‐O‐4 lignin linkage of 1,3‐dilignol model compounds. A mechanistic pathway involving a dehydrogenation‐initiated retro‐aldol reaction for the C C bond cleavage was proposed in line with experimental data and DFT calculations.     

Iron‐Catalyzed Cross‐Coupling of Alkenyl Acetates

Stable C O linkages are generally unreactive in cross‐coupling reactions which mostly employ more electrophilic halides or activated esters (triflates, tosylates). Acetates are cheap and easily accessible electrophiles but have not been used in cross‐couplings because the strong C O bond and high propensity to engage in unwanted acetylation and deprotonation. Reported herein is a selective iron‐catalyzed cross‐coupling of diverse alkenyl acetates, and it operates under mild reaction conditions (0 °C, 2 h) with a ligand‐free catalyst (1–2 mol %).     

The Littlewood-Richardson rule for wreath products with symmetric groups and the quiver of the category F≀FIn

We give a new proof for the Littlewood-Richardson rule for the wreath product F?S_n where F is a finite group. Our proof does not use symmetric functions but use more elementary representation theoretic tools. We also derive a branching rule for inducing the natural embedding of F?S_n to F?S_n+1. We then apply the generalized Littlewood-Richardson rule for computing the ordinary quiver of the category F?FI_n where FI_n is the category of all injective functions between subsets of an n-element set.     

The stresses in single lap joints with a functionally graded adhesive bondline: an efficient modelling approach

In this work, an efficient analytical model for the stress analysis of single lap joints with a functionally graded adhesive bondline is proposed which considers peel as well as shear stresses in the adhesive. The model takes into account the nonlinear geometric characteristics of a single lap joint under tensile loading and allows for the analysis of various adhesive Young's modulus variations. The obtained stress distributions are compared to results of detailed Finite Element analyses and show a good agreement for several single lap joint configurations. In addition, different adhesive Young's modulus distributions and their effect on the peel and shear stresses are studied and discussed in detail. (© 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Electrowetting without electrolysis on self-healing dielectrics

An electrowetting system with protection against dielectric breakdown is presented. It comprises an electrolyte and a Parylene-C film deposited on an aluminum electrode. The system demonstrates virtually instantaneous self-healing (within 100 ms) after dielectric breakdown under both DC and certain AC electrowetting conditions. DC current response during electrowetting on intentionally damaged Parylene-C is presented. Also presented is a characterization of DC offset voltages and duty cycle percentages required for electrolysis free AC electrowetting between 10 Hz and 4 kHz.