High-fidelity Recognition of Organotrifluoroborate Anions (R−BF3−) as Designer Guest Molecules

The recognition of boron compounds is well developed as boronic acids but untapped as organotrifluoroborate anions (R−BF₃⁻). We are exploring the development of these and other designer anions as anion-recognition motifs by considering them as substituted versions of the parent inorganic ion. To this end, we demonstrate strong and reliable binding of organic trifluoroborates, R−BF₃⁻, by cyanostar macrocycles that are size-complementary to the inorganic BF₄⁻ progenitors. We find that recognition is modulated by the substituent's sterics and that the affinities are retained using the common K⁺ salts of R−BF₃⁻ anions.     

Well-posedness of two pseudo-parabolic problems for electrical conduction in heterogeneous media

We prove a well-posedness result for two pseudo-parabolic problems, which can be seen as two models for the same electrical conduction phenomenon in heterogeneous media, neglecting the magnetic field. One of the problems is the concentration limit of the other one, when the thickness of the dielectric inclusions goes to zero. The concentrated problem involves a transmission condition through interfaces, which is mediated by a suitable Laplace-Beltrami type equation.     

An interval branch and bound method for global Robust optimization

In this paper, we design a Branch and Bound algorithm based on interval arithmetic to address nonconvex robust optimization problems. This algorithm provides the exact global solution of such difficult problems arising in many real life applications. A code was developed in MatLab and was used to solve some robust nonconvex problems with few variables. This first numerical study shows the interest of this approach providing the global solution of such difficult robust nonconvex optimization problems.

     

Photoisomerisation in Aminoazobenzene‐Substituted Ruthenium(II) Tris(bipyridine) Complexes: Influence of the Conjugation Pathway

Transition‐metal complexes containing stimuli‐responsive systems are attractive for applications in optical devices, photonic memory, photosensing, as well as luminescence imaging. Amongst them, photochromic metal complexes offer the possibility of combining the specific properties of the metal centre and the optical response of the photochromic group. The synthesis, the electrochemical properties and the photophysical characterisation of a series of donor–acceptor azobenzene derivatives that possess bipyridine groups connected to a 4‐dialkylaminoazobenzene moiety through various linkers are presented. DFT and TD‐DFT calculations were performed to complement the experimental findings and contribute to their interpretation. The position and nature of the linker (ethynyl, triazolyl, none) were engineered and shown to induce different electronic coupling between donor and acceptor in ligands and complexes. This in turn led to strong modulations in terms of photoisomerisation of the ligands and complexes.     

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivative based photoinitiating systems for polymerization reactions under blue lights

Naphthalimide‐phthalimide derivatives (NDPDs) have been synthesized and combined with an iodonium salt, N‐vinylcarbazole, amine or 2,4,6‐tris(trichloromethyl)‐1,3,5‐triazine to produce reactive species (i.e., radicals and cations). These generated reactive species are capable of initiating the cationic polymerization of epoxides and/or the radical polymerization of acrylates upon exposure to very soft polychromatic visible lights or blue lights. Compared with the well‐known camphorquinone based systems used as references, the novel NDPD based combinations employed here demonstrate clearly higher efficiencies for the cationic polymerization of epoxides under air as well as the radical polymerization of acrylates. Remarkably, one of the NDPDs (i.e., NDPD2) based systems is characterized by an outstanding reactivity. The structure/reactivity/efficiency relationships of the investigated NDPDs were studied by fluorescence, cyclic voltammetry, laser flash photolysis, electron spin resonance spin trapping, and steady state photolysis techniques. The key parameters for their reactivity are provided. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 665–674     

SIMS as a subnanometer probe: A new tool for chemical profile analysis of grafted molecules

The complexity of modern engineered surfaces requires the development of very powerful methods to analyze and characterize them. We demonstrate that it is possible to obtain chemical information about the skeleton of organic molecules constituting SAMs grafted on a silicon surface by using a new type of SIMS method. A profile can be achieved by the investigation of the temporal variation of secondary ion intensities that correspond to the fractional parts of the molecule constituting the SAMs. The equivalent ablation rate is less than 0.5 nm/min.     

Synthesis and ring-chain isomerism of acid chlorides and amides of 2-(2-pyridyl and 2-quinolylcarbonyl) benzoic acids

The reaction of 2-(2 pyridytcarbonyl)benzoic acid with thionyl chloride affords an unexpected product of the intramolecular acylation of the pyridine nitrogen atom, namely, 6,11-dioxo-6,11-dihydrobenzo[blquinotizinium chloride. At the same time, 2-(2-quinotylcarbonyl)benzoic acid forms the expected cyclic acid chloride, namely, 3-(2-gitinotyl)-3-chlorophthalide in this reaction. Both compounds acylate ammonia and primary amines, including those with bulky alkyl groups (tert-butyl, 1-adamantyl, and 1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl) with the formation of 2-R-3-hydroxy-3-(2pyridyl- or 2-quinolyl)isoindolines. The protonation of the pyridine nitrogen atom of N-(1,1,3,3-tetramethylbutyl)-2-(2pyridylcarbonyl)benzamide, obtained in the open amide form, is accompanied by the closing of the isoindotinone ring; the deprotonation is accompanied by ring opening.Riga Technical University, Riga LV-1048. Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 4, pp. 499–504, April, 1994. Original article submitted March 17, 1994.