4,4′‐Butane‐1,4‐diylbis[3‐ethyl‐1H‐1,2,4‐triazol‐5(4H)‐one] and 4‐hydr­oxy‐3‐n‐prop­yl‐1H‐1,2,4‐triazol‐5(4H)‐one

The title compounds, C₁₂H₂₀N₆O₂, (I), and C₅H₉N₃O₂, (II), display the characteristic features of 1,2,4‐triazole derivatives. Compound (I) lies about an inversion centre which is at the mid‐point of the central C—C bond. Compound (II) also contains a planar 1,2,4‐triazole ring but differs from (I) in that it has a hydr­oxy group attached to the ring. Mol­ecules of (I) are held together in the crystal structure by inter­molecular N—H⋯O contacts and by weak π–π stacking inter­actions between the 1,2,4‐triazole moieties. Compound (II) contains inter­molecular O—H⋯O and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds.     

Synthesis and cyclo-oligomerization of 2-(bromomethyl)-3-aryl-2-propenoic acid derivatives

2-Bromomethyl-3-aryl-2-propenoic acids have been synthesized from Baylis-Hillman adducts derived from aromatic aldehydes and t-butyl acrylates as new precursors in MBH chemistry. Further triolides were synthesized by the cyclo-oligomerization of 2-bromomethyl-3-aryl-2-propenoic acids in the presence of Cs₂CO₃ demonstrating the synthetic utility of these motifs.     

Theoretical and experimental study on metal(II) halide complexes of 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane

We report the results of detailed experimental and theoretical studies on the molecular structure and vibrational spectra of metal(II) halide complexes of 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane [M(N₂C₁₃H₁₄)X₂, where M represents Zn or Hg, and X represents Cl, Br, or I]. The FT–infrared spectra (FT-IR) and FT-Raman spectra of the metal complexes of the 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane molecule in the powder form were recorded between the 400–4000 and 5–3500 cm^?1 regions, respectively. The molecular geometry and vibrational frequencies of the metal complexes of 1,3-bis(4-pyridyl)propane in the ground state were calculated using density functional theory (B3LYP functional) with LANL2DZ and SDD as basis sets. The total energy distributions (TED) among the symmetry coordinates of the normal modes were computed for the low-energy structure of the molecules. Complete vibrational assignments based on the calculated TED values are given.     

Effects of different GIAO and CSGT models and basis sets on 2-aryl-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives

The direct molecular structure implementations of the gage-including atomic orbital (GIAO), individual gages for atoms in molecules (IGAIM) and continuous set of gage transformations (CSGT) methods for calculating nuclear magnetic shielding tensors at both the Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional (B3LYP) levels of theory with 6-31G(d), 6-311G(d), 6-31++G(d,p), 6-311++G(d,p), and 6-311++G(df,pd) basis sets are presented. Dependence on the ¹H and ¹³C NMR chemical shifts on the choice of method and basis set have been investigated. Also, these chemical shifts of 2-aryl-1,3,4-oxadiazoles 5a–g have been performed related to dihedral angles (C4–C3–C2–O) of two conformers. The optimized molecular geometries and ¹H and ¹³C chemical shift values of 2-aryl-1,3,4-oxadiazoles 5a–g in the ground state have been obtained. The linear correlation coefficients of ¹³C NMR chemical shifts for these molecules were given. The new nuclear magnetic shielding tensors of tetramethylsilane (TMS) were calculated. The data of 2-aryl-1,3,4-oxadiazole derivatives display significant molecular structure and NMR analysis. Also, these provide the basis for future design of efficient materials having the 1,3,4-oxadiazole core.     

Structural and aromatic aspects for tautomerism of (Z)-6-((4-bromophenylamino)methylene)-2,3-dihydroxycyclohexa-2,4-dienone

The molecular and crystal structure of (Z)-6-((4-bromophenylamino)methylene)-2,3-dihydroxycyclohexa-2,4-dienone were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction and spectroscopic methods. Molecules of the compound can be regarded as a resonance hybrid of cis-keto tautomer and zwitterionic form. Pairs of molecules of the compound generate pseudocyclic centrosymmetric R₂² (10) R_{2}^{2} (10) supramolecular synthons with the aid of O–H···O type intermolecular H-bonds. Stacking of R₂² (10) R_{2}^{2} (10) synthons along b-axis is stabilized by π···π interactions. Changes in both covalent topology and molecular geometry of the compound accompanying proton transfer were monitored by a relaxed PES scan with respect to hydroxyl bond length used as redundant internal coordinate. Quantum chemical studies at 6-311 + G(d,p) level reveal that bond lengths which are indicative to tautomerization process cannot reach their expected values even if proton transfer occurs in gas phase and pseudo-aromatic chelate ring formation has primary effect on the stabilization of NH tautomer. Resonance-assisted intramolecular H-bond affects the electronic state of its neighboring aromatic fragments.     

Solution of the stochastic transport equation of neutral particles with anisotropic scattering using RVT technique

Much of the literatures are directed toward the development of a mathematical formalism for a rigorous estimation of the ensemble average of the solution process of a stochastic differential equation (SDE). The Random Variable Transformation technique (RVT) is a powerful technique to get the complete solution for the SDE represented by the probability-density function of the solution process. In this paper, the RVT technique together with a simple integral transformation to the input stochastic process are implemented to get the complete solution of the one-speed transport equation for neutral particles in a semi-infinite stochastic medium with linear anisotropic scattering. The extinction function of the medium (input stochastic process) is assumed to be a continuous random function of position. The probability-density function and hence, the higher order statistical moments of the solution process are presented. Numerical results are given for different distributions of the input stochastic process.     

Vapor-induced film formation from low-Tg particles for different solvent compositions

The photon transmission method was used to study latex film formation from poly(vinyl acetate) (PVAc) particles induced by two different solvents. Films with the same latex content were prepared from PVAc particles and exposed to vapor of ethanol-water and acetone-water mixtures in various compositions. Transmitted photon intensities, Itr, from these films increased with increasing vapor exposure time. The increase in Itr is attributed to the increase in crossing density at the polymer-polymer junction. The Prager-Tirrell model was employed to obtain the back-and-forth frequency, nu, of the reptating polymer chain during film formation induced by solvent vapor. It was observed that the produced nu values increase as the solvent content is increased for both solvents. Abilities of both solvents to form films were interpreted with the solubility parameters of the solvents and the PVAc.     

Mathematical Characterization of Thermo-reversible Phase Transitions of Agarose Gels

The thermal phase transition temperatures of high (HMP) and low melting point (LMP) agarose gels were investigated by using UV–vis spectroscopy techniques. Transmitted light intensities from the gel samples with different agarose concentrations were monitored during the heating (gel-sol) and cooling (sol–gel) processes. It was observed that the transition temperatures, T_m, defined as the location of the maximum of the first derivative of the sigmoidal transition paths obtained from the UV–vis technique, slightly increased by increasing the agarose concentration in both the HMP and LMP samples. Here, we express the phase transitions of the agar-water system, as a representative of reversible physical gels, in terms of a modified Susceptible-Infected-Susceptible epidemic model whose solutions are the well-known 5-point sigmoidal curves. The gel point is hard to determine experimentally and various computational techniques are used for its characterization. Based on previous work, we locate the gel point, T₀, of sol-gel and gel-sol transitions in terms of the horizontal shift in the sigmoidal transition curve. For the gel-sol transition (heating), T₀ is greater than T_m, i.e. later in time, and the difference between T₀ and T_m is reduced as the agarose content increases. For the sol-gel transition (cooling), T₀ is again greater than T_m, but it is earlier in time for all agarose contents and moves forward in time and gets closer to T_m as the agarose content increases.     

Interfacial engineering of CuO nanorod/ZnO nanowire hybrid nanostructure photoanode in dye-sensitized solar cell

Developing efficient and cost-effective photoanode plays a vital role determining the photocurrent and photovoltage in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Here, we demonstrate DSSCs that achieve relatively high power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) by using one-dimensional (1D) zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires and copper (II) oxide (CuO) nanorods hybrid nanostructures. CuO nanorod-based thin films were prepared by hydrothermal method and used as a blocking layer on top of the ZnO nanowires’ layer. The use of 1D ZnO nanowire/CuO nanorod hybrid nanostructures led to an exceptionally high photovoltaic performance of DSSCs with a remarkably high open-circuit voltage (0.764 V), short current density (14.76 mA/cm² under AM1.5G conditions), and relatively high solar to power conversion efficiency (6.18%) . The enhancement of the solar to power conversion efficiency can be explained in terms of the lag effect of the interfacial recombination dynamics of CuO nanorod-blocking layer on ZnO nanowires. This work shows more economically feasible method to bring down the cost of the nano-hybrid cells and promises for the growth of other important materials to further enhance the solar to power conversion efficiency.