Optical conductivity of a two-dimensional electron liquid with spin-orbit interaction

The interplay of electron-electron interactions and spin-orbit coupling leads to a new contribution to the homogeneous optical conductivity of the electron liquid. The latter is known to be insensitive to many-body effects for a conventional electron system with parabolic dispersion. The parabolic spectrum has its origin in the Galilean invariance which is broken by spin-orbit coupling. This opens up a possibility for the optical conductivity to probe electron-electron interactions. We analyze the interplay of interactions and spin-orbit coupling and obtain optical conductivity beyond RPA.     

Autocatalytic gas-phase ethane dehydrogenation in a wall-less reactor

The thermal gas-phase pyrolysis of ethane was studied under conditions of the bulk heating of the reaction mixture with IR-laser radiation. The concentrations of ethane pyrolysis products as functions of reaction time were calculated in accordance with standard kinetic schemes; they showed that a classical radical chain mechanism corresponded to only highly dilute mixtures of ethane with an inert gas. As found by calculations, the experimental data on the kinetics of consumption of the initial substance and on the kinetics of buildup of pyrolysis products in undiluted mixtures of ethane and its conversion products were adequately described by an autocatalytic (with respect to ethylene) mechanism of ethane dehydrogenation. This mechanism involved the step of ethane interaction with ethylene to form methyl and propyl radicals.     

SEAr-SNAr couplings of indolizines and related pyrrole derivatives with superelectrophilic nitrobenzoxadiazoles

The nucleophilic aromatic substitutions of 7-chloro-4,6-dinitrobenzofurazan (DNBZ-Cl) and 7-chloro-4,6-dinitrobenzofuroxan (DNBF-Cl) with a series of differently substituted indolizines (5a-f) and a series of dihyropyrroloisoquinolines (11a-f) have been investigated. In accord with previous reports emphasizing the superelectrophilic character of these compounds in σ-complexation processes, DNBZ-Cl and DNBF-Cl react very readily and quantitatively with the weak carbon nucleophiles 5a-f and 11a-f at room temperature in acetonitrile. In the case of DNBZ-Cl, the resulting products (7Z,a-f and 12Z,a-f) are those expected from the displacement of the chlorine atom through a S_EAr-S_NAr mechanism. A significant result is that these compounds, despite the lack of coplanarity of the two rings, are characterized by an intense intramolecular charge transfer between the donor pyrrole-type moiety and the electron-deficient acceptor DNBZ moiety. Contrasting with this behaviour, the DNBF-Cl reactions show a totally different pattern, proceeding with loss of the N-oxide functionality and expansion of the pyrrole moiety to afford stable zwitterionic spiro adducts (8F,a-f and 13F,a-f) of a so far unknown type. Rapid NMR recordings have revealed that the formation of these adducts occurs after initial formation of the expected substitution products 7F,a-f and 12F,a-f. A mechanism accounting for the overall rearrangement leading to the spirobenzofurazan adducts is suggested. It is based on an initial nucleophilic attack of the oxygen atom of the N-oxide functionality at the electron-deficient and strongly olefinic C-C coupling bond generated by the aforementioned intramolecular charge transfer. This results in the formation of an unstable five-membered isoxazole ring whose decomposition goes along with loss of the N-oxide functionality and enlargement of the pyrrole moiety into a pyridine one. Also discussed are the factors accounting for the high thermodynamic stability of the spiro adducts, and their relevance to the stability of previously reported spiro adducts.     

Laser desorption postionization for imaging MS of biological material

Vacuum ultraviolet single photon ionization (VUV SPI) is a soft ionization technique that has the potential to address many of the limitations of matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) for imaging MS. Laser desorption postionization (LDPI) uses VUV SPI for postionization and is experimentally analogous to a MALDI instrument with the addition of a pulsed VUV light source. This review discusses progress in LDPI‐MS over the last decade, with an emphasis on imaging MS of bacterial biofilms, analytes whose high salt environment make them particularly resistant to imaging by MALDI‐MS. This review first considers fundamental aspects of VUV SPI including ionization mechanisms, cross sections, quantum yields of ionization, dissociation and potential mass limits. The most common sources of pulsed VUV radiation are then described along with a newly constructed LDPI‐MS instrument with imaging capabilities. Next, the detection and imaging of small molecules within intact biofilms is demonstrated by LDPI‐MS using 7.87 eV (157.6 nm) VUV photons from a molecular fluorine excimer laser, followed by the use of aromatic tags for detection of selected species within the biofilm. The final section considers the future prospects for imaging intact biological samples by LDPI‐MS. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Distinctive structural features of hydroxyamino-1,3,5-triazine ligands leading to enhanced hydrolytic stability of their titanium complexes

Three bis(homoleptic) titanium complexes of hydroxyamino-1,3,5-triazine ligands were synthesized and characterized, and their kinetic behavior in THF-water solutions was studied at various pH conditions using UV-vis, based on the characteristic Ti-O band at 380 nm. One of these complexes, , was analyzed by X-ray crystallography. Due to the characteristic electronic structure of the triazine rings, high electron density on the nitrogen atoms leads to strong N-Ti bonds, as indicative by the 2.0 A coordinative bond lengths in the X-ray structure. Consequently, these complexes exhibit high hydrolytic stability over a wide pH range, where hydrolysis was observed to be promoted by basic conditions. At neutral pH, t(1/2) was estimated to be >200 h, whereas at pH = 5.5, no hydrolysis was observed for a period of at least three days.     

On growth of varieties of commutative linear algebras

There exists varieties of commutative linear algebras over a field of zero characteristic whose exponent is equal to α for any real α > 1 and the intermediate growth is n^nb {n^{{n^\beta }}} for any real 0 < β < 1.     

Coupled anion and cation ordering in Sr3RFe4O10.5 (R=Y, Ho, Dy) anion-deficientperovskites

The Sr₃RFe₄O_10.5 (R=Y, Ho, Dy) anion-deficient perovskites were prepared using a solid-state reaction in evacuated sealed silica tubes. Transmission electron microscopy and ⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy evidenced a complete A-cations and oxygen vacancies ordering. The structure model was further refined by ab initio structure relaxation, based on density functional theory calculations. The compounds crystallize in a tetragonal a≈2√2a_p≈11.3 Å, с≈4с_p≈16 Å unit cell (a_p: parameter of the perovskite subcell) with the P4₂/mnm space group. Oxygen vacancies reside in the (FeO_5/4□_3/4) layers, comprising corner-sharing FeO₄ tetrahedra and FeO₅ tetragonal pyramids, which are sandwiched between the layers of the FeO₆ octahedra. Smaller R atoms occupy the 9-fold coordinated position, whereas the 10-fold coordinated positions are occupied by larger Sr atoms. The Fe sublattice is ordered aniferromagnetically up to at least 500 K, while the rare-earth sublattice remains disordered down to 2 K.