Insight into the Thermal Ring‐Opening Polymerization of Phospha[1]ferrocenophanes

A mixture of cis/trans isomers of phospha[1]ferrocenophanes equipped with one iPr group at the α position to the bridging PhP moiety was prepared. Both isomers (cis‐ 4 and trans‐ 4 ) were obtained as racemates and could be separated so that their thermal properties were investigated individually. The molecular structure of cis‐ 4 was determined by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis showing a tilt angle α=26.35(8)°. Interconversion between both isomers occurred in the melt at elevated temperatures and revealed that the trans isomer is thermodynamically more stable. Structural and thermodynamic data was complemented by DFT calculations (B3PW91/6‐311+G(d,p) and B3PW91‐D3(BJ)/6‐311+G(d,p)). Performance of thermal ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of trans‐ 4 at 230 °C gave polymers and cyclic oligomers. Gel permeation chromatography (GPC) of the sulfurized polymer resulted in a molecular weight of 62.5 kDa (M_w) and a polydispersity index of 1.39 (PDI). Mass spectrometric analysis of the oligomers showed the presence of cyclic species from dimers to heptamers. After sulfurization, preparative thin layer chromatography led to the separation of three isomeric dimers. Structural characterization of these dimers by single‐crystal X‐ray analysis led to the conclusion that the Fe?Cp bond breaks during the thermal ROP process. A mechanism similar to the known mechanism of the photolytic ROP of ferrocenophanes is proposed.     

Ionic Liquids as Novel Reaction Media for the Synthesis of Copoly(ester-amide)s Containing 9,10-Anthraquinone Moiety

The use of ionic liquids as novel solvents for the synthesis of aromatic copoly(ester-amide)s, containing a 9,10-anthraquinone moiety in the main chain, from the polycondensation reaction of terephthaloyl chloride and various ratios of p-phenylenediamine and 1,4-dihydroxyanthraquinone is reported. 1,3-Dialkylimidazolium-based ionic liquids are suitable reaction media for the synthesis of copoly(ester-amide)s. These copolymers exhibit color characteristics and thermal stability. The presence of the amide groups in the backbone of these polymers enhances their thermal stabilities. Inherent viscosities of the polymers obtained in 1,3-dialkylimidazolium bromide range from 0.28 to 0.42 dL/g.     

Influence of NO2 attachment on the nuclear magnetic shielding tensors of N and B nuclei in C30B15N15 heterofullerene: a DFT study

Adsorption of nitrogen dioxide in three different configurations on the exterior surface of C₃₀B₁₅N₁₅ is studied using density functional theory calculations. To this end, we optimized the structures of raw C₃₀B₁₅N₁₅ and nine NO₂–C₃₀B₁₅N₁₅ complexes at the B3LYP/6-31G^* level of theory and then calculated chemical shielding (CS) tensors at the GIAO-B3LYP/6-311G^** level for the optimized structures. The calculated chemical shielding isotropy (CSI), chemical shielding anisotropy (CSA), and orientation of CS tensors (Euler angles) reveal that the adsorption configurations (nitro, trans-nitrite, and cis-nitrite) have different effects on the electronic structure of C₃₀B₁₅N₁₅. Natural atomic charges based on natural population analysis (NPA) were used to justify the changes in CSI values after gas sorption.     

Construction of Antimagic Labeling for the Cartesian Product of Regular Graphs

An antimagic labeling of a graph with p vertices and q edges is a bijection from the set of edges to the set of integers {1, 2, . . . , q} such that all vertex weights are pairwise distinct, where a vertex weight is the sum of labels of all edges incident with the vertex. A graph is antimagic if it has an antimagic labeling. In 1990, Hartsfield and Ringel conjectured that that every connected graph, except K ₂, is antimagic. Recently, using completely separating systems, Phanalasy et al. showed that for each k 3 2, q 3 \binomk+12{k\geq 2,\,q\geq\binom{k+1}{2}} with k|2q, there exists an antimagic k-regular graph with q edges and p = 2q/k vertices. In this paper we prove constructively that certain families of Cartesian products of regular graphs are antimagic.     

Investigating the effect of different asphaltene structures on surface topography and wettability alteration

This paper aims at investigation of the effect of asphaltene structure on wettability and topography alteration of a glass surface as a result of asphaltene precipitation. In order to provide a better insight into the topography alteration, a bi-fractal approach was employed. Such an approach is capable of discriminating topography alteration in two different surface types, namely, macro-asperities and micro-asperities. The observed variation of the fractal dimension in the two surface types could be considered as the consequence of different asphaltene sources. Therefore, the structure of different asphaltene sources was carefully examined. The effect of asphaltene structure is more pronounced for asphaltene precipitation at higher pressure. It was revealed that asphaltene particles of high complexity and with larger poly-aromatic rings tend to be detached easier at higher pressure than those with smaller poly-aromatic rings. Another evidence to emphasize the significance of asphaltene structure was given through wettability alteration. It was found that asphaltene particles with larger poly-aromatic rings turn the surface less oil wet at higher pressure. It seems that the difference in wetting condition and surface topography alteration of different asphaltene sources roots in their different structures.     

A Multi-Objective Optimization Approach for Joint Channel Assignment and Multicast Routing in Multi-Radio Multi-Channel Wireless Mesh Networks

Multicast routing is an effective mechanism for delivering data to a group of receivers. Due to intrinsic property of air medium in wireless mesh networks (WMN), interference is an important issue in determining the data rate for multicast services. Interference reduction is handled by assigning multiple orthogonal channels to multiple radios in multi-radio multi-channel WMNs. Channel assignment is known to be a NP-complete problem. Most prior methods have solved multicast routing and channel assignment problems sequentially and have not considered the interplay between these two problems. Focusing on this issue, we address joint channel assignment and routing problem for multicast applications. In this paper, a novel technique based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm is proposed to build a delay constrained minimum cost multicast tree with minimum interference. We have examined the proposed algorithm on different network configurations. Experimental results demonstrate that our method finds better trees in terms of cost, delay, and interference compared to prior methods.     

Manganese(III) porphyrin anchored onto multiwall carbon nanotubes: An efficient and reusable catalyst for the heterogeneous reduction of aldehydes and ketones

Reduction of a variety of carbonyl compounds with NaBH₄, using Mn-porphyrin, meso-tetrakis(4-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrinatomanganese(III), supported onto functionalized multiwall carbon nanotubes has been investigated. The heterogeneous catalyst was characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and UV–vis spectroscopy. The amount of catalyst loading on the nanotubes was determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) demonstrated that the nanocatalyst was thermally stable to almost 300 °C, exhibiting high thermostability of the catalyst over a broad range of temperatures. This heterogeneous catalyst proved to be an efficient catalyst in the aerobic reduction of various aldehydes and ketones with NaBH₄. In the presence of the nanocatalyst, NaBH₄ can readily reduce a variety of aldehydes in good to excellent yields (50–100%) and ketones in excellent yields (100%) to their corresponding alcohols. The separation of the catalyst is very simple and economic. Also, FTIR spectra after four successive cycles showed that the catalyst was strongly anchored to the nanotubes.     

Supramolecular dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction-based solidification of floating organic drops combined with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry for determination of chromium species

A simple, sensitive and reliable method has been developed for separation and preconcentration of chromium (VI) from aqueous samples before determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The method is based on the extraction of the hydrophobic complex of chromium (VI) with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate in the coacervates made up of decanoic acid reverse micelles in the water–tetrahydrofuran mixture. Parameters affecting the extraction efficiency of the analyte were studied and optimised. Under the optimum conditions, the linear range, enhancement factor, the limit of detection and limit of quantification were found to be 0.008–0.4 µg L^?1, 127, and 1.8 ng L^?1 and 6.0 ng L^?1, of Cr(VI), respectively. The relative standard deviation at the concentration level of 0.1 µg L^?1 Cr(VI) (n = 6) was 4.2%. Total chromium was determined after the oxidation of Cr(III) to Cr(VI) with permanganate in acidic medium. The method was successfully applied to the determination of chromium species in water and human serum samples.