Exceptionally Plastic/Elastic Organic Crystals of a Naphthalidenimine-Boron Complex Show Flexible Optical Waveguide Properties

The design of molecular compounds that exhibit flexibility is an emerging area of research. Although a fair amount of success has been achieved in the design of plastic or elastic crystals, realizing multidimensional plastic and elastic bending remains challenging. We report herein a naphthalidenimine–boron complex that showed size-dependent dual mechanical bending behavior whereas its parent Schiff base was brittle. Detailed crystallographic and spectroscopic analysis revealed the importance of boron in imparting the interesting mechanical properties. Furthermore, the luminescence of the molecule was turned-on subsequent to boron complexation, thereby allowing it to be explored for multimode optical waveguide applications. Our in-depth study of the size-dependent plastic and elastic bending of the crystals thus provides important insights in molecular engineering and could act as a platform for the development of future smart flexible materials for optoelectronic applications.     

Effects on the bifurcation and chaos in forced Duffing oscillator due to nonlinear damping

In this communication, the two-well Duffing oscillator with non-linear damping term proportional to the power of velocity is considered. We mainly focus our attention on how the damping exponent affects the global dynamical behaviour of the oscillator. In particular, we obtain analytically the threshold condition for the occurrence of homoclinic bifurcation using Melnikov technique and compare the results with the computational results. We also identify the major route to chaos and the regions of the 2D parameter space (consists of external forcing amplitude and damping coefficient) corresponding to the various types of asymptotic dynamics under linear (viscous or friction like) and nonlinear (drag like) damping. We also attempt to analyze how the basins of attraction patterns change with the introduction of nonlinear damping. We also present our analysis for the physically less-interesting cases where damping is proportional to the 3rd and 4th power of velocity for the sake of generalizing our findings and establishing firm conclusion.     

High‐efficiency polymer solar cells based on phenylenevinylene copolymer with BF2‐azopyrrole complex and CN‐PC70BM with solvent additive

Power conversion efficiency (PCE) of phenylenevinylene‐based copolymer with BF₂ azopyrrole complex (PB)/modified PC₇₀BM, that is, CN‐PC₇₀BM bulk heterojunction solar cells improves from 2.16 to 4.90% using a processing additive and drying condition. The results demonstrate that a processing additive and drying condition provides an effective means to control both the surface roughness and finer interpenetrating networks to enhance the exciton dissociation into free charge carriers, charge transportation, and collection. Taking into the account of simple device fabrication process without thermal annealing, the PCE of the polymer solar cell can further improved by chloronapthalene (CN) additive under the fast drying condition. The average carrier lifetimes extracted from the impedance spectra and found to correlate with measured PCEs. At short circuit conditions and illumination, the average charge carrier lifetime was found vary from 16.8 to 32 μs with power conversion efficiencies ranging from 3.0 to 4.9%. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys, 2012     

Electrochemical studies of novel olivine-layered (LiFePO4-Li2MnO3) dual composite as an alternative cathode material for lithium-ion batteries

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In the present work, olivine-layered composites, i.e., LiFePO4-Li2MnO3, are successfully synthesized in the form of a single monolithic electrode and layer...     

A Facile and Convenient Method for the Synthesis of 8-Methoxy 10,11-Dihydronaphtho [1,2-b]Quinolines

Dihydronaphthoquinolines are relatively rare polycyclic heterocyclic compounds. We wish to report a simple and convenient preparative method for hitherto unknown compounds with these new structural features. 6-methoxy tetralone¹ (I) 3.5g (.02 mole) in 3 ml DMF was added slowly to 4.6g (.02 mole) of POCl₃ in 3ml DMF at 0°C. The mixture was stirred for 5 hrs. and the temp. was then gradually raised from 0° to 60–65°C. The resultant complex was treated with aq. sodium acetate solution till pH5–6 was reached. The extract on usual purification, furnished 3.2g (80°%.) of 1-chloro, 6-methoxy, 1,2,3,4 tetrahydro naphthalene-2-aldehyde(II)⁺²     

An efficient synthetic approach to novel nickel(II) 2‐benzazolo‐5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphyrins

A simple and efficient synthesis of nickel(II) 2‐benzazolo‐5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphyrins from nickel(II) 2‐formyl‐5,10,15,20‐tetraphenylporphyrin and o‐arylenediamines, o‐aminophenols or o‐aminothiophenol in 1,2‐dichlorobenzene is described. A diverse range of novel β‐substituted azoloporphyrins has been successfully synthesized in good yields and their structures are confirmed on the basis of spectral data. J. Heterocyclic Chem., (2012).     

Fractional distribution of graphene oxide and its potential as an efficient and reusable solid catalyst for esterification reactions

Graphene oxide (GrO) prepared by the Hummers method was separated into three different fractions (GrO₅₀₀₀, GrO₂₀₀₀, and GrO_res) on the basis of their dispersion stability in the water. Infrared, nuclear magnetic resonance, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and elemental analyses revealed that GrO₅₀₀₀ possesses a high degree of oxygen functionalities including phenolic, carboxylic, and ?OSO₂H groups, compared with the other fractions. The GrO₅₀₀₀ was found to be a highly efficient and reusable solid catalyst for the esterification of various carboxylic acids with a variety of alcohols to furnish corresponding esters in high to excellent yields. The catalytic activity of the GrO₅₀₀₀ was attributed to the ability of highly polar GrO₅₀₀₀ scaffold to adsorb/attract reactants, where the acid functionalities of GrO₅₀₀₀ facilitated the esterification process efficiently. The chemical and structural features of GrO₅₀₀₀ were discussed to understand the improved catalytic activity compared with GrO₂₀₀₀ and conventional solid acid catalysts. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.