Synthesis and Characterization of Titanium-doped Ordered Mesoporous Alumina

Titanium-doped ordered mesoporous alumina with specific structural properties has been prepared by the evaporation induced self-assembly sol-gel method. The results show that the doped titanium helps to stabilize the ordered mesoporous alumina material without influencing the ordered mesoporosity. The textural properties of the obtained sample are related to the amount of doped titanium. When the molar ratio of aluminum to titanium(n(Al)/n(Ti)) is controlled as 10.2, the titanium-doped ordered mesoporous alumina exhibits high surface area(up to 218 m2 g-1), large pore volume(0.42 cm3 g-1) and narrow pore diameter(6.1 nm) after treating at 900 ℃, showing high thermal stability. Moreover, the obtained sample calcined at 900 ℃ still maintains ordered mesoporous structure and exhibits high thermal stability.     

Aza-Michael reaction: selective mono- versus bis-addition under environmentally-friendly conditions

Aza-Michael reactions between primary amines and methyl propenoate have been investigated under environmentally-friendly solventless heterogeneous catalysis in order to obtain the mono- or the bis-adduct. The reaction conditions can be altered so as to maximise the yields of the required product with high selectivity.     

Influence of aspect ratio and anisotropy distribution in ordered CoNi nanowire arrays

The size effects on magnetic properties of nanowires arrays were studied varying the nanowires diameter and maintaining the same periodicity among them, for two different nominal compositions of Co and Ni in the alloy form. The competition among magnetocrystalline and shape anisotropies changes drastically from smallest to biggest diameters altering the easy axis direction. In the case of 75% of Co in alloy, experimental values of the effective anisotropy constant (K_eff) vary from positive to negative depending on the diameter, which means a reversal of the easy axis direction. For 50% of Co the shape anisotropy dominates over the magnetocrystalline for all studied diameters.     

Al(HSO4)3 and Al2O3-SO3H as Efficient Catalysts for Modified Preparation of 3,4-Dihydropyrimidin-2 (1H)-ones/thiones

An environmentally friendly procedure for the preparation of dihydropyrimidinone derivatives or their sulfur analogues under thermal solvent-free conditions in the presence of aluminium hydrogen sulfate [Al(HSO₄)₃] and alumina sulfuric acid (Al₂O₃-SO₃H) as heterogeneous catalysts was developed.     

Functional Fe–Pd nanomaterials synthesized by template-assisted methods

In this work, we highlight our recent progress in the synthesis and characterization of functional nanomaterials based on Fe–Pd ferromagnetic alloys by means of template-assisted deposition techniques employing highly ordered nanoporous alumina membranes, such as ordered arrays of nanowires and antidots thin films. Special attention is paid on their basic magnetic properties, such as coercivity, remanence and magnetic anisotropy, and their dependence on the microstructure and morphological parameters of the ordered arrays.     

QMX: A versatile environment for hybrid calculations applied to the grafting of Al2Cl3Me3 on a silica surface

We present a new software to easily perform QM:MM and QM:QM' calculations called QMX. It follows the subtraction scheme and it is implemented in the Atomic Simulation Environment (ASE). Special attention is paid to couple molecular calculations with periodic boundaries approaches. QMX inherits the flexibility and versatility of the ASE package: any combination of methods namely force field, semiempirical, first principle, and ab initio, can be used as hybrid potential energy surface (PES). Its ease of use is demonstrated by considering the adsorption of Al₂Cl₃Me₃ on silica surface and by combining different levels of theory (from standard DFT to MP2 calculations) for the so‐called High Level cluster with standard PW91 density functional theory calculations for the Low Level environment. It is shown that the High Level cluster must contain the silanol group close to the aluminum atoms. The bridging adsorption is favored by 58 kJ mol^?1 at the MP2:PW91 level with respect to the terminal position. Using large clusters at the MP2:PW91 level, it is shown that PW91 calculations are sufficient for structure optimization but that embedded methods are required for accurate energy profiles. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Process of Acetonitrile Synthesis over γ-Al2O3 Promoted by Phosphoric Acid Catalysts

The influence of principal parameters (reaction temperature, ratio of acetic acid and ammonia, composition of reactionary mixture and promotion of catalysts) on the selectivity and yield of the desired product was studied in the reaction of catalytic acetonitrile synthesis by ammonolysis of acetic acid. The processing of γ-Al₂O₃ by phosphoric acid increases amount of the centers, on which carries out reaction of acetamide dehydration. The kinetic model of a limiting stage of reaction – the acetamide dehydration to acetonitrile was suggested. In the process of ammonolysis of acetic acid it was demonstrated that the use of catalysts promoted by phosphoric acid and ratio NH₃:CH₃COOH=(3-4):1 at temperatures of a reactor 360-390°С leads to the increase of acetonitrile productivity to 0.7-0.8 g/cm³·h and allows to minimize formation of by-products.     

Tunable Surface‐Enhanced Raman Scattering from High‐Density Gold Semishell Arrays with Controllable Dimensions

A convenient reproducible technique is reported for the fabrication of large‐area gold semishell arrays by mechanically pressing porous anodic alumina (PAA) stamps into gold/polymer bilayer structures that serve as robust and cost‐efficient surface‐enhanced Raman‐scattering (SERS) substrates. The surface structure can be tuned further to optimize the enhancement factor according to optional PAA fabrication parameters and imprinting pressures. Finite‐difference time‐domain calculations indicate that the structure may possess excellent SERS characteristics due to the high density and abundance of hot spots.