Influence of Polarity and Activation Energy in Microwave–Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS)

The aim of this work was to determine the parameters that have decisive roles in microwave-assisted reactions and to develop a model, using computational chemistry, to predict a priori the type of reactions that can be improved under microwaves. For this purpose, a computational study was carried out on a variety of reactions, which have been reported to be improved under microwave irradiation. This comprises six types of reactions. The outcomes obtained in this study indicate that the most influential parameters are activation energy, enthalpy, and the polarity of all the species that participate. In addition to this, in most cases, slower reacting systems observe a much greater improvement under microwave irradiation. Furthermore, for these reactions, the presence of a polar component in the reaction (solvent, reagent, susceptor, etc.) is necessary for strong coupling with the electromagnetic radiation. We also quantified that an activation energy of 20–30 kcal mol⁻¹ and a polarity (μ) between 7–20 D of the species involved in the process is required to obtain significant improvements under microwave irradiation.     

Synthesis of Small‐Sized,Porous, and Low‐Toxic Magnetite Nanoparticles by Thin POSS Silica Coating

In this communication, we report the synthesis of small‐sized (<10 nm), water‐soluble, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) coated with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS), which contain either polyethylene glycol (PEG) or octa(tetramethylammonium) (OctaTMA) as functional groups. The POSS‐coated MNPs exhibit superparamagnetic behavior with saturation magnetic moments (51–53 emu g^?1) comparable to silica‐coated MNPs. They also provide good colloidal stability at different pH and salt concentrations, and low cytotoxicity to MCF‐7 human breast epithelial cells. The relaxivity data and magnetic resonance (MR) phantom images demonstrate the potential application of these MNPs in bioimaging.     

Design and investigation of UV image detectors

The results of investigation of optical image detectors designed for the largest problem, near-VUV, range of the spectrum are presented. The possibility of using a dual-stage image detection system to appreciably lower the sensitivity threshold and make computer data processing feasible is considered. The integration of a UV module into a wideband image detector is studied.