Conductance of tetraalkylammonium salts in 2-butanone from −45 to 25°C

Interactions of three types of tetraalkylammonium cations (tetrapropyltetrabutyl-and tri-isoamylbutyl- ammonium) with perchlorate and tetraphenylborate anions were studied by the conductivity method in 2-butanone from –45°C to 25°C. Conductance data obtained for diluted solutions (5×10^–5 – 2×10^–3 mol-dm^–3) were used to calculate the limiting molar conductivities and associationconstants. The conductance equation of Fuoss-Hsia including the Chen term and the chemical model assumption were applied. Limiting ion conductivities were calculated assuming equal limiting conductivities of the i-Am₃BuN⁺ and BPh ₄ ^– ions at all temperatures. Gibbs energies and entropies of ion pair formation, calculated from the dependence of association constants on temperature, are presented including the contributions due to short-range forces.     

Polyamide 11/Poly(vinylidene fluoride) Blends as Novel Flexible Materials for Capacitors

A novel capacitor with high dielectric constant (ε) has been developed by blending poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) with polyamide (PA11). The blends show high dielectric constants (ε_blend = 40), which give better frequency stability (1 MHz), and excellent mechanical properties. Based on certain volume fractions, the measured dielectric constants (ε _blend ) were found to exceed those of the corresponding polymers, in contrasted to conventional composites, where ε_polymerA < ε_composite < ε_polymerB. SEM investigations suggest that the enhanced dielectric behavior originates from significant interfacial polymer‐polymer interactions. DSC and XRD demonstrate that blending PA11 with PVDF affects the crystalline behavior of each component. However, the PA11/PVDF blends exhibit a slightly high dielectric loss (tanδ ≈ 0.17), which is a great disadvantage to a capacitor. Adding a copolymer of styrene and maleic anhydride decreased the dielectric loss (tanδ ≈ 0.057) and increased the dielectric constant (ε_blend = 60). Our findings suggest that the high‐ε polymeric blends created represent a novel type of material that is flexible and easy to process, of relatively high dielectric constant, of high breakdown strength and, moreover, is suited to applications in flexible electronics.

     

Diode‐Like I–V Characteristics of a Nonplanar Polyaromatic Compound: a Spectroscopic Study of Isolated and Stacked Dibenzo[g,p]chrysene

In this scanning‐tunneling‐microscopy/spectroscopy study (STM/STS), samples of isolated and close‐packed dibenzo[g,p]chrysene (DBC), a nonplanar polyaromatic compound, are used as model systems to demonstrate the effect of intermolecular interactions on the electronic structures. For dropcast films, DBC molecules adopt an edge‐on orientation in a close‐packed structure on graphite. Isolated DBC molecules are prepared on graphite from a DBC‐coated STM tip by a ca. 7 V/10 μs pulse. STS spectra for both isolated‐ and close‐packed DBC molecules exhibit diode‐like I–V curves in which the latter shows a turn‐on voltage (0.47 V) smaller than that of the former (0.91 V). The diode‐like behaviors are attributed to the more‐facile tunneling of electrons through the HOMO of DBC than through the LUMO. The reduced turn‐on voltage for the films is ascribed to the diminished HOMO–LUMO gap based on the results of DFT (density functional theory) simulations for the energy‐level couplings of π‐stacked DBC molecules.     

Theoretical Study on Cooperativity Effects between Anion–π and Halogen‐Bonding Interactions

This article analyzes the interplay between lone pair–π (lp–π) or anion–π interactions and halogen‐bonding interactions. Interesting cooperativity effects are observed when lp/anion–π and halogen‐bonding interactions coexist in the same complex, and they are found even in systems in which the distance between the anion and halogen‐bond donor molecule is longer than 9 Å. These effects are studied theoretically in terms of energetic and geometric features of the complexes, which are computed by ab initio methods. Bader′s theory of “atoms in molecules” is used to characterize the interactions and to analyze their strengthening or weakening depending upon the variation of charge density at critical points. The physical nature of the interactions and cooperativity effects are studied by means of molecular interaction potential with polarization partition scheme. By taking advantage of all aforementioned computational methods, the present study examines how these interactions mutually influence each other. Additionally, experimental evidence for such interactions is obtained from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD).     

Two Cobalt（II） Complexes Derived from the Hydrolysis Product of Di-Schiff Base Ligand N,N＇-Bis-（1-benzimidazo-2-yl-ethylidene）-ethane-1,2-diamine： Preparation,Characterization and Crystal Structure of the 6-Coordinate Species [CoL2]X·H2O （X =

The reactions of Co（C1O4）2·6H2O and Co（NO3）2.6H2O with the di-Schiff base ligand N,N＇-bis-（1-benzimidazo-2-yl-ethylidene）-ethane-1,2-diamine （LA） in ethanol have been investigated. The reactions of LA with excess amount of cobalt salts yield the six-coordinate complexes [CoL2]（ClO4）E·H2O 1 and [CoL2]（NO3）E·H2O 2 as isolatable products （L= N-（1- benzimidazo-2-yl-ethylidene）-ethane-1,2-diamine）, where L is a tri-dentate mono-Schiff base ligand, resulting from the hydrolysis of the precursor di-Schiff base LA. Both complexes were characterized by X-ray crystallography. Crystal data for complex 1： monoclinic, space group P21/c, a = 11.9214（10）, b = 23.5828（17）, c = 14.0387（12）A, β = 135.219（4）°, C22H30Cl2CoN8O9, Mr = 680.37, V = 2780.1（4） A^3 ,Z = 4, Dc = 1.625 g/cm^3,μ（MoKa） = 0.876 mm^-1, F（000） = 1404, the final R = 0.0725 and wR = 0.1530 for 5726 observed reflections （I 〉 2σ（I））. Crystal data for complex 2： monoclinic, space group P21/c, a = 18.2162（16）, b = 10.0610（6）, c = 18.593（2）A, β = 130.099（3）°, C22H30CoN10O7, Mr = 605.49, V = 2606.5（4） A3 Z = 4, Dc = 1.543 g/cm^3,μ（MoKa） = 0.722 mm^-1, F（000） = 1260, the final R = 0.0619 and wR = 0.1429 for 5194 observed reflections （I 〉 2σ（I））. X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that each cobalt atom in the two complexes is chelated by six nitrogen atoms from two tridentate iigands L, exhibiting a slightly distorted octahedral coordination sphere. In both complexes, the strong hydrogen-bonding interactions between the lattice waters and N-H groups of the ligands result in 1D chains which are further connected by ClO4^- （or NO3^-） groups to form a 3D framework. In complex 2, the strong π-π interactions increase the stability of the structure.     

Supramolecular assemblies based on organometallic quinonoid linkers: a new class of coordination networks

Self-assembly of coordination frameworks exhibiting original architectures is an active area of research. Generally, such assemblies are constructed from organic spacers and transition metals of different geometrical structures. Herein, we report a novel class of supramolecular coordination assemblies with organometallic linkers based on metalated quinonoid and thioquinonoid complexes that serve as spacers. The organometallic ligands are stable and have the general formula [Cp*M(eta(4)-benzoquinone)] (o- and p-benzoquinone, Cp*=C(5)Me(5), M=Rh, Ir) and [Cp*Ir(eta(4)-thiobenzoquinone)] (o- and p-thiobenzoquinone). These units bind through both oxygen or sulfur atoms to metal ions of different coordination geometry, such as Cu(I), Ag(I), and Pt(II), to generate supramolecular coordination networks, with the metalated quinonoid or thioquinonoid linkers acting as backbones and the metal centers as nodes. This novel family of supramolecular assemblies exhibits short pi-pi and MM interactions. These results illustrate successfully the role of the organometallic linkers to produce an impressive range of novel supramolecular architectures that hold promise for the development of functional materials.     

Brownian dynamics simulations on CPU and GPU with BD_BOX

There has been growing interest in simulating biological processes under in vivo conditions due to recent advances in experimental techniques dedicated to study single particle behavior in crowded environments. We have developed a software package, BD_BOX, for multiscale Brownian dynamics simulations. BD_BOX can simulate either single molecules or multicomponent systems of diverse, interacting molecular species using flexible, coarse-grained bead models. BD_BOX is written in C and employs modern computer architectures and technologies; these include MPI for distributed-memory architectures, OpenMP for shared-memory platforms, NVIDIA CUDA framework for GPGPU, and SSE vectorization for CPU.