AN INVESTIGATION ON THE ab initio CALCULATION OF INTERMOLECULAR INTERACTION——NON-BONDED INTERACTION IN THE HYDROGEN BOND COMPLEX (HF)_2

An ab initio calculation of the hydrogen bond complex (HF)_2 is given with the 6-311 G~(**) basis set, according to which the potential surface around the balance point of the distancès and the orientations between two HF molecules is obtained. The atomic charges in the system are calculated with the PD/LSF method (potential-derived/least-square-fitting method) and then an analysis of the hydrogen bond interaction between two HF molecules is given with the (exp-6-1) potential function, by means of which it is shown that the main interaction between them is not an electro-static but a charge transfer one. The potential curve between two HF molecules is like a Morse function.     

Theoretical Study of Weakly Bound Dimers between Hydrogen Fluoride and Some Polar Molecules

Weakly bound linear and bent dimers, FH—X (where X = CO, OC, CNH, NCH, N₂O and ON₂), are investigated using the DFT B3LYP and ab initio MP2 methods with the same basis sets (6–311++G(3df,2pd)). The strengths of the H—C or H—N H‐bonds in dimers FH—CO, FH—CNH, and FH—N₂O are compared with those of the H—O or H—N H‐bonds in dimers FH—OC, FH—NCH, and FH—ON₂. The results obtained for the H‐bond distances, the elongation effect of the HF bond, the red shift of the HF stretching frequency, and the energy difference between the dimer and the charge transfer reveal that the H‐bonds of the first group of dimers are stronger than those of the second. The Gibbs energies calculated for the six dimer formations indicate that the weakly bound dimers are unstable at room temperature (T = 298 K) (FH—X's → FH + X's, ΔG < 0).     

Anti-Inflammatory and Antinociceptive Activities of the Essential Oil of Tagetes parryi A. Gray (Asteraceae) and Verbenone

Tagetes parryi is a plant empirically used to treat gastrointestinal and inflammatory diseases, its essential oil (EOTP) was obtained from the aerial parts, and the composition was elucidated by GC-MS. The in vivo and in vitro anti-inflammatory activities and the antinociceptive activity of EOTP and (1S)-(-)-verbenone (VERB) were assessed. The major compounds identified for EOTP were verbenone (33.39%), dihydrotagetone (26.88%), and tagetone (20.8%). EOTP and VERB diminished the ear oedema induced with TPA by 93.77 % and 81.13 %, respectively. EOTP and VERB decreased inflammation in a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) chronic model with ED₅₀ = 54.95 mg/kg and 45.24 mg/kg, respectively. EOTP (15 µg/mL) inhibited the in vitro production of the pro-inflammatory mediators NO (67.02%), TNF-α (69.21%), and IL-6 (58.44%) in LPS-stimulated macrophages. In the acetic induced writhing test, EOTP and VERB showed antinociceptive effects with ED₅₀ = 84.93 mg/kg and ED₅₀ = 45.24 mg/kg, respectively. In phase 1 of the formalin test, EOTP and VERB showed no antinociceptive effects, whereas in phase 2, EOTP (ED₅₀ = 35.45 mg/kg) and VERB (ED₅₀ = 24.84 mg/kg) showed antinociceptive effects. The antinociceptive actions of ETOP and VERB were blocked with the co-administration of L-NAME. This study suggests that EOTP and VERB might be used in the treatment of pain and inflammatory problems.     

Robust liquid crystal droplets

The preparation and properties of cyanobiphenyl liquid crystal droplets encapsulated by the polymerizable lecithin 1,2-bis(10,12-tricosadiynoyl)-sn-glyero-3-phosphocholine (DC_8,9PC) are described. Under a wide variety of preparation conditions the droplets obtain a diameter of approximately 10 mum. These droplets are stable for periods of over one year at room temperature. Furthermore, they are stable upon temperature cycling between the nematic and isotropic phases and between the smectic A to nematic to isotropic phase transitions.     

Fabrication and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy of single Au@SiO2 dimers linked by benzenedithiol

Metal nanoparticle dimers with controllable gap distance have attracted considerable attention because of their promising application in plasmonics. Generally, gaps with nanometer or subnanometer dimensions generate localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) coupling effect, thus contributing to a strong electromagnetic field for improving surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) effect. Here, we developed a facile approach to fabricate Au@SiO₂ dimers through the steric hindrance effect, in which the SiO₂ shell functioned as a block and a rigid dithiol molecule was employed as linker. The thickness of the SiO₂ shell played a critical role in improving the yield of dimers. The dimerization efficiency increased significantly as the shell thickness decreased to ~1 nm. When 1,4‐benzenedithiol was used as linker molecule, the yield of dimers was ~30%. Few dimers were obtained when mecaptobenzonic acid was used as linker. A thicker shell is associated with a low yield of dimer, whereas a thinner shell resulted in the formation of multimers and linear structures. The low number of linker molecules on the exposed area of monodisperse single nanoparticles and the lack of LSPR coupling effect (‘hot spots’) resulted in the disappearance of SERS signals of the linkers. The estimated SERS enhancement factor was about eight fold because of the strong coupling effect in the gap of the dimer with the distance of the dithiol molecular length. From the above results, SERS combined with SEM could be developed into powerful tools for monitoring the formation of dimers and positioning of single dimers. It may aid the control of assembly of Au nanoparticles and in probing key issues about SERS enhancements. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Rovibrational dynamics of the RbCs molecule in static electric fields. Classical study

We study the classical dynamics of the RbCs molecule in the presence of a static electric field. Under the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, we perform a rovibrational investigation which includes the interaction of the field with the molecular polarizability. The stability of the equilibrium points and the phase space structure of the system are explored in detail. We find that, for strong electric fields or for energies close to the dissociation threshold, the molecular polarizability causes relevant effects on the system dynamics.     

One-dimensional Ising chain with competing interactions: Exact results and connection with other statistical models

We study the ground state properties of a one-dimensional Ising chain with a nearest-neighbor ferromagnetic interactionJ ₁, and akth neighboranti-ferromagnetic interactionJ _k . WhenJ _k/J₁=–1/k, there exists a highly degenerate ground state with a residual entropy per spin. For the finite chain with free boundary conditions, we calculate the degeneracy of this state exactly, and find that it is proportional to the (N+k–1)th term in a generalized Fibonacci sequence defined by,F _N ^(k) =F _N–1 ^(k) +F _N–k ^(k) . In addition, we show that this one-dimensional model is closely related to the following problems: (a) a fully frustrated two-dimensional Ising system with a periodic arrangement of nearest-neighbor ferro- and antiferromagnetic bonds, (b) close-packing of dimers on a ladder, a 2× strip of the square lattice, and (c) directed self-avoiding walks on finite lattice strips.Work partially supported by grants from AFOSR and ARO.     

Orientational Ordering of the Near-Surface Layers of Nitrobenzene

Two types of absorption centers, one being related to monomers and the other to dimers, have been revealed by the method of statistical analysis of the normalized absorption spectra of a superthin interlayer of nitrobenzene of variable thickness formed on activated surfaces of quartz and barium fluoride and measured for different thicknesses of the interlayer. On a decrease in the interlayer thickness the concentration of dimers increases.     

Dimers on the kagome lattice II: Correlations and the Grassmannian approach

In this paper we continue our consideration of closed-packed dimers on the kagome lattice. Using the Pfaffian approach we evaluate the correlation between dimers on two lattice edges. It is found that the correlation is extremely short-ranged in the case of symmetric dimers weights. Explicit expressions for the nonvanishing correlations are obtained for two dimers in the interior of a large lattice. We also describe a Grassmannian functional integral approach, and use it to evaluate the dimer generating function and correlation functions.     

A combining rule calculation of the ground-state van der Waals potentials of the magnesium rare-gas complexes

The potential energy curves and spectroscopic constants of the ground-state of the Mg–Rg (Rg = He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe) van der Waals complexes are generated by the Tang–Toennies potential model and a set of derived combining rules. The parameters of the model are calculated from the potentials of the homonuclear magnesium and rare-gas dimers. The predicted spectroscopic constants are comparable to other available theoretical and experimental results, except in the case of Mg–He, we note that there are large differences between various determinations. Moreover, in order to reveal relative differences between species more obviously we calculated the reduced potential of these five systems. The curves are clumped closely together, but at intermediate range the Mg–He reduced potential is clearly very different from the others.