A PBC‐DFT study of electronic properties of substituted polythiophenes

The electronic properties of polythiophenes substituted with various electron‐withdrawing and electron‐donating groups are investigated by employing periodic density functional calculations. The polymer is modeled as infinite one‐dimensional system with periodic boundary condition along the molecular direction. The effect of substitution on bandgaps is studied with various substituents like alkyls, halogens, aromatic and alkoxy groups in different regioregular forms. The alkoxy groups are found to substantially lower the bandgap of unsubstituted polythiophene, and aromatic groups in head–head/tail–tail forms are found to increase the bandgap. Irrespective of the type of substituents, groups that show deviations in planarity in oligomeric forms have shown an increase in bandgap in contrast to the general perception that head–head linkage always results in an increase in bandgap. Our study also confirms the previous findings that scaling from the oligomer bandgaps poses serious limitation to the prediction of polymeric bandgaps and that it should be evaluated with the infinite polymer system employing periodic boundary condition. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Convenient Preparation of Glycosyl Bromides

Glycosyl bromides were prepared in very good yields by bromination of the corresponding anomeric hydroxyl group using a 1:1 mixture of triphenyl phosphite and bromine as reagent.     

Adsorption of semiflexible block copolymers on homogeneous surfaces

We present the results of extensive numerical off-lattice Monte Carlo simulations of semiflexible block-copolymer chains adsorbed onto flat homogeneous surfaces. We have compared the behavior of several chain structures, such as homopolymers, diblocks, (A(alpha)B(alpha)) block copolymers, and random heteropolymers. In all the cases studied, we have found the adsorption process to be favored with an increase of the chain rigidity. Particularly, the adsorption of diblock structures becomes a two-step process characterized by two different adsorbing temperatures that depend on the chain stiffness kappa, the chain length N, and the adsorbing energies epsilon(A) and epsilon(B). This twofold adsorbing process changes to a single one for copolymers of reduced block size alpha. Each block of the stiff copolymer chain is found to satisfy the classical scaling laws for flexible chains, however, we found the scaling exponent phi to depend on the chain stiffness. The measurement of the radius of gyration exhibits a typical behavior of a polymer chain composed of Nl(p) blobs whose persistence length follows l(p) approximately (kappa/k(B)T)(0.5) for large stiff chains.     

Adsorption and freezing of diblock copolymers on stripe-patterned surfaces: a scaling analysis

We present the results of scaling analysis of diblock copolymers adsorbed on stripe-patterned surfaces of various widths. Our previous studies [K. Sumithra and E. Straube, J. Chem. Phys. 125, 154701 (2006)] show that the adsorption of diblock copolymer on patterned surfaces yields two peaks in the specific heat capacity, thereby indicating two transition. In the current study, we characterize these two transitions. The scaling of the adsorption energy data proves that the first peak in the heat capacity curve is, in fact, associated with the adsorption transition. We found that for this transition the classical scaling laws are obeyed and that the critical crossover exponent is unaltered with respect to the case of homogeneous polymers. However, we found a change in the scaling exponent in the case of parallel component of the radius of gyration. It is evident from the scaling analysis of the parallel component of the radius of gyration that the chain is stretched along the direction of the stripes. The scaling plot shows, for (square root )/Nnu, an exponent of approximately 0.55 which is much different from that expected of a self-avoiding chain (nud=2-nu)/phi which is 0.25. The observed value is closer to an exponent of (nud=1-nu)/phi=0.69, for a completely stretched chain in one dimension. The perpendicular component of the radius of gyration shows deviation from the power law and the slope is steeper than the expected value of -2. We have also defined an order parameter to characterize the second transition and have found that it corresponds to a freezing transition where there are only a few dominant conformations. The perpendicular component of the radius of gyration also supports this information.     

Negative thermal expansion in rare earth molybdates

Negative thermal expansion in rare earth molybdates of A₂Mo₃O₁₂ family (A=Y, Er, Yb and Lu) is measured by high temperature X-ray diffraction and dilatometry. Rare earth molybdates which are isostructural with the corresponding rare earth tungstates, also exhibit this phenomena attributed to transverse acoustic vibrations. The rare earth molybdates of A₂M₃O₁₂ family with an orthorhombic structure (A=Y, Er, Yb and Lu) are highly hygroscopic and exhibit negative thermal expansion after the complete removal of water molecules. Axial thermal expansion co-efficient calculated from high temperature X-ray diffraction (RT-1073K) shows rare earth size effect. As the ‘A’ cation decreases in size, the thermal expansion co-efficient along ‘b’ axis and the linear thermal expansion co-efficient become less negative. The thermal expansion behaviour of the tetragonal La₂Mo₃O₁₂ is also reported to demonstrate the effect of crystal structure.     

Effect of substitutionally boron‐doped single‐walled semiconducting zigzag carbon nanotubes on ammonia adsorption

We investigate the binding of ammonia on intrinsic and substitutionally doped semiconducting single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) on the side walls using density functional calculations. Ammonia is found to be weakly physisorbed on intrinsic semiconducting nanotubes while on substitutional doping with boron its affinity is enhanced considerably reflected with increase in binding energies and charge transfer. This is attributed to the strong chemical interaction between electron rich nitrogen of ammonia and electron deficient boron of the doped SWCNT. On doping, the density of states are changed compared to the intrinsic case and additional levels are formed near the Fermi level leading to overlap of levels with that of ammonia indicating charge transfer. The doped SWCNTs thus are expected to be a potential candidate for detecting ammonia. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis, structure, negative thermal expansion, and photocatalytic property of Mo doped ZrV2O7

A new series of compounds identified in the phase diagram of ZrO(2)-V(2)O(5)-MoO(3) have been synthesized via the solution combustion method. Single crystals of one of the compounds in the series, ZrV(1.50)Mo(0.50)O(7.25), were grown by the melt-cool technique from the starting materials with double the MoO(3) quantity. The room temperature average crystal structure of the grown crystals was solved using the single crystal X-ray diffraction technique. The crystals belong to the cubic crystal system, space group Pa3 (No. 205) with a = 8.8969 (4) ?, V = 704.24 (6) ?(3), and Z = 4. The final R(1) value of 0.0213 was achieved for 288 independent reflections during the structure refinement. The Zr(4+) occupies the special position (4a) whereas V(5+) and Mo(6+) occupy two unique (8c) Wyckoff positions. Two fully occupied O atoms, (24d) and (4b), one partially occupied O atom (8c) have been identified for this molybdovanadate, which is a unique feature for these crystals. The structure is related to both ZrV(2)O(7) and cubic ZrMo(2)O(8). The temperature dependent single crystal studies show negative thermal expansion above 370 K. The compounds have been characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, solid-state UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectra, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The photocatalytic activity of these compounds has been investigated for the degradation of various dyes, and these compounds show specificity toward the degradation of non-azoic dyes.     

Synthesis of a Novel bis-Gluco-crown Ether Derivative

An efficient synthesis of a novel bis-gluco-22-crown-6 derivative 1 from allyl-α-D-glucopyranoside is described     

Dilatometric studies of Y2W3O12 with added Al2O3

Y₂W₃O₁₂ exhibits negative thermal expansion along the three crystallographic directions due to the transverse thermal vibrations perpendicular to the Y-O-W linkage. It is highly hygroscopic and forms a trihydrate structure at room temperature. Dilatometric studies of Y₂W₃O₁₂ show large thermal expansion hysteresis due to large grain size and a large initial positive thermal expansion due to the removal of water molecules. Al₂O₃ has been added to Y₂W₃O₁₂ upto 10 wt% in an attempt to overcome the hygroscopicity and reduce the particle size and thereby the thermal expansion hysteresis. Thermo gravimetric, dilatometric and electron microscopic studies are presented to support these observations. Dedicated to Professor C N R Rao on his 70th birthday