Rapid and efficient removal of Hg(II) from aqueous solution by potassium hexa-titanate: A radiotracer study

The adsorption of mercury(II) on potassium titanate has been studied in chloride media at different pH values, adsorbate concentrations and temperatures. Effect of different ligands and acid concentrations on the uptake was also investigated. Desoprtion studies were also done to check the reversibility of the process. Interestingly a more or less constant and high value of adsorption has been found at different temperatures, pH values and concentrations and a decrease in the uptake with an increase in the bulk acid concentration was observed.     

Electron impact induced fragmentation of some 1,2,4-triazole derivatives

The mass spectra of eight 1,2,4-triazole derivaties have been recorded and found tao reveal extensive hydrogen and skeletal migrations. The structures of the fragments have been confirmed by deuterium labelling and exact mass measurement. The compounds revealed striking differences in their spectra depending on the nature of the substituents.     

Reactions of aromatic ketones with 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol. Synthesis of cis- and trans-2-alkyl-2-aryl-(1,3-oxathiolane-5-methanols and 1,3-dioxolane-4-methanethiols)

Aromatic ketones react with 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol ( 1 ) in refluxing benzene under the catalytic influence of a sulfonic acid and with azeotropic removal of water to yield a mixture comprised predominantly of cis- and trans-2-alkyl-2-aryl-1,3-oxathiolane-5-methanols 7, accompanied by lesser amounts of cis- and trans-2-alkyl-2-aryl-1,3-dioxolane-4-methanethiols 8 (up to 30%). It was discovered that 8 is the kinetic product and is isomerized by 4-toluenesulfonic acid in hot benzene to the thermodynamically more stable 7 . Under these conditions, ortho- and α-substituted aromatic ketones tend to produce more of 8 , which can be attributed to steric hindrance encountered by the thiol as it attacks the ketone. Ketalizations of 1-aryl-2-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)-1- as well as 1-aryl-2-(1,H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)-1-ethanones by 1 fail under these conditions, even after 24 hours of reflux in toluene. However, 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)-1-propanone and 1-(4-bromophenyl)-4-(1H-imidazol-1-yl)-1-butanone are ketalized by 1 as expected. Interestingly, the reaction of 2-bromo-4′-chloroace-tophenone with 1 produces 1-(4-chlorophenyl)-2,8-dioxa-6-thiabicyclo[3.2.1]octane. Characterization of all isomers and separation of some diastereomers is described. Nuclear Overhauser enhancement experiments are utilized to establish the stereochemistry of 1,3-oxathiolanes.     

Synthesis and stereochemical assignment of 7-arylidene and 7-heteroarylidene morphinan-6-ones

A number of (E)-7-arylidenenaltrexones were synthesized by azeotropic distillation of water from a benzene solution of naltrexone and an aromatic aldehyde (benzaldehyde, 4-chloro- and 4-fluorobenzaldehyde, 3-and 4-pyridinecarboxaldehyde and 1-methyl-2-imidazolecarboxaldehyde) using piperidine as a catalyst. In addition, (E)-7-benzylidenenaloxone was prepared by the previously published Claisen-Schmidt condensation using sodium hydroxide in methanol. The stereochemistry of these arylidene derivatives 3–9 was determined to be (E) by means of nuclear Overhauser enhancement experiments. The ¹³C nmr spectra of (E)- 3–9 are recorded in deuteriochloroform and those of the hydrochlorides in deuteriodimethyl sulfoxide.     

Ketalizations of aryl ω-(2-imidazolyl)alkyl ketones by glycerol and 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol. synthesis and characterization of cis- and trans-{2-aryl-2-[ω-(2-imidazolyl)alkyl](1,3-dioxolan-4-yl and 1,3-oxathiolan-5-yl)}methanols

Aryl 2-[(2-imidazolyl)ethyl or 3-(2-imidazolyl)propyl]ketones were ketalized by glycerol or 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol in boiling benzene in the presence of 4-toluenesulfonic acid to provide the title compounds. The aryl substituents are 4-chloro-, 4-bromo-, 4-fluoro-, or 2,4-dichlorophenyl. While aryl (2-imidazolyl)methyl ketones condensed with glycerol to form cis- and trans-{2-aryl-2-[(2-imidazolyl)methyl]-4-(hydroxymethyl)}-1,3-dioxolanes, related condensations with 3-mercapto-1,2-propanediol, under similar, or even more stringent reaction conditions, produced no 1,3-oxathiolane analogs, with the starting ketones being recovered. Separation and structure determination of these racemic cis and trans isomeric products are described. The structure of these stereoisomers was established by means of ¹H and ¹³C nmr correlation and nOe experiments. Selective methylation of the N-unsubstituted 2-imidazolyl alcohols with one equivalent sodium hydride and methyl iodide provided the corresponding N-methyl alcohols in excellent yields. With excess benzoyl chloride, N-unsubstituted 2-imidazolyl alcohols were initially converted to O, N-dibenzoates from which the N-benzoyl group was easily cleaved by ammonium hydroxide in ethanol to provide benzoate esters.     

X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy process optimization for characterization of trace contamination elements for extreme ultraviolet resist outgassing study

X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is used for elemental identification and quantification in a number of fields, and the optimization of XPS performance can help in making better use of the limited XPS tool availability. In the field of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography, one of the requirements is having a clean vacuum environment to minimize contamination of the EUV optics. EUV resist outgassing is viewed as one of the main issues that could affect the vacuum environment. There is a program underway to measure the relative contamination rates from different resists following the ASML (provider of lithography systems) approved protocols for witness plate testing. One of the key steps is the XPS measurement of residue on the optics after cleaning. The role of XPS in quantification of species that adhere to the ruthenium‐coated silicon witness plate sample is discussed. The various XPS tool parameters like the pass energy and source setting were optimized for our application of witness plate analysis. The statistics of our XPS tool were studied, and combined with the fundamental XPS equations, a simple mathematical model was developed to optimize the number of scans for the various elements of interest in our witness plate study. Using the optimized number of scans, the acquisition time to measure the contaminant elements to a precision better than 0.1 at.% was minimized. The model devised in the paper can be adapted to other XPS measurements requiring different levels of precision. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Resilient and agile engineering solutions to address societal challenges such as coronavirus pandemic

The world is witnessing tumultuous times as major economic powers including the US, UK, Russia, India, and most of Europe continue to be in a state of lockdown. The worst-hit sectors due to this lockdown are sales, production (manufacturing), transport (aerospace and automotive) and tourism. Lockdowns became necessary as a preventive measure to avoid the spread of the contagious and infectious “Coronavirus Disease 2019” (COVID-19). This newly identified disease is caused by a new strain of the virus being referred to as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome CoronaVirus 2 (SARS CoV-2; formerly called 2019-nCoV). We review the current medical and manufacturing response to COVID-19, including advances in instrumentation, sensing, use of lasers, fumigation chambers and development of novel tools such as lab-on-the-chip using combinatorial additive and subtractive manufacturing techniques and use of molecular modelling and molecular docking in drug and vaccine discovery. We also offer perspectives on future considerations on climate change, outsourced versus indigenous manufacturing, automation, and antimicrobial resistance. Overall, this paper attempts to identify key areas where manufacturing can be employed to address societal challenges such as COVID-19.     

Lattice dynamics of zinc and cadmium

Present work studies the phonon dispersion in Zn and Cd on the basis of a model which considers short range pairwise forces effective upto sixth nearest neighbours and long range forces on the lines of Krebs' work with the assumption that the first derivatives of the paired potential occurring in the zz elements are different from those in the xx elements, equivalent to the work of de Wames et al. We consider complete equilibrium of the ionic lattice in a medium of uniform electron gas similar to our previous work (J. Phys. Chem. Solids36, 975 (1975)) but now we obtain the two equilibrium conditions in a modified form. Further our earlier scheme is not applicable in the study of the lattice dynamics of Zn and Cd and the present scheme at one hand removes this difficulty and on the other it explains the phonon dispersion along [0001], [0110] and [1120] symmetry directions with sufficiently good agreements with the experimental data.     

Shell model lattice dynamics of transition metal oxides

The lattice dynamics of transition metal oxides has been investigated in detail with threebody force shell model which is a successful extension of the shell model and includes the effect of electron shell displacements as well as deformations. The phonon dispersion relations along three principal symmetry directions obtained from this model have been compared with neutron data and found to give better agreement as compared to other models. The complete phonon spectra have also been computed and used to derive the temperature dependence of Debye temperature, and the second-order Raman and infrared spectra. The derived data agree fairly well with the observed ones wherever available.