Alkaline oxygen evolution: exploring synergy between fcc and hcp cobalt nanoparticles entrapped in N-doped graphene

Herein, we report a Mott-Schottky catalyst by entrapping cobalt nanoparticles inside the N-doped graphene shell (Co@NC). The Co@NC delivered excellent oxygen evolution activity with an overpotential of merely 248 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm^–2 with promising long-term stability. The importance of Co encapsulated in NC has further been demonstrated by synthesizing Co nanoparticles without NC shell. The synergy between the hexagonal close-packed (hcp) and face-centered cubic (fcc) Co plays a major role to improve the OER activity, whereas the NC shell optimizes the electronic structure, improves the electron conductivity, and offers a large number of active sites in Co@NC. The density functional theory calculations have revealed that the hcp Co has a dominant role in the surface reaction of electrocatalytic oxygen evolution, whereas the fcc phase induces the built-in electric field at the interfaces with N-doped graphene to accelerate the H⁺ ion transport.     

An efficient two-step synthesis of 3-allylindoles

A two-step synthetic sequence for an efficient synthesis of 3-allylindoles is described.     

Kinetic studies of nonaqueous polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by ferric laurate–n-hexyl amine system

The polymerization of methyl methacrylate was studied in carbon tetrachloride medium with ferric laurate, a metal soap, in combination with n-hexyl amine as the initiator system at 60°C. The rate of polymerization was found to be linear with the monomer concentration and proportional to the square root of both ferric ion and amine concentration. A reaction scheme involving initial complex formation between ferric ion and amine and subsequent reaction of the complex with the solvent molecule to produce free radicals responsible for initiation of polymerization has been postulated to account for the observed results.     

The coupled-cluster method with a multiconfiguration reference state

The coupled-cluster approach to obtaining the bond-state wave functions of many-electron systems is extended, with a set of physically reasonable approximations, to admit a multiconfiguration reference state. This extension permits electronic structure calculations to be performed on correlated closed- or open-shell systems with potentially uniform precision for all molecular geometries. Explicit coupled cluster working equations are derived using a multiconfiguration reference state for the case in which the so-called cluster operator is approximated by its one- and two-particle components. The evaluation of the requisite matrix elements is facilitated by use of the unitary group generators which have recently received wide attention and use in the quantum chemistry community.     

Divisibility of certain $$\ell $$ -regular partitions by 2

The Ramanujan Journal - For a positive integer $$\ell $$ , let $$b_{\ell }(n)$$ denote the number of $$\ell $$ -regular partitions of a nonnegative integer n. Motivated by some recent conjectures...     

Polymerization of methyl methacrylate with cupric laurate–benzoin system as initiator

The polymerization of methyl methacrylate initiated by cupric laurate in combination with benzoin has been investigated in carbon tetrachloride medium at 60°C. The rate of polymerization was found to be proportional to the square root of both cupric ion and benzoin concentrations, and to the 1.5th power of the monomer concentration. Spectral studies indicated that there is a complex formation between cupric ion and the monomer methyl methacrylate. A reaction scheme, based on initial formation of the complex and its subsequent reaction with benzoin to produce the free radicals responsible for initiation has been postulated to explain the observed results.     

Studies on indian medicinal plants-XLIV: Solanoforthine,a new steroidal alkaloid from solanum seaforthianum. a note on the mass spectrum of solanocapsine

The structure of solanoforthine, m.p. 208–10°, [α]_D- 26.6°, a new steroidal alkaloid isolated from Solanum seaforthianum Andr., has been established as 3β-amino-22,26-epimino-16α,23-epoxy-22αH,25βH-cholest- 5- en -23β - ol 3, based on chemical and spectroscopic evidence and by its reduction to solanocapsine 2, another steroidal alkaloid encountered in the same species. The mass spectra of2 and 3 are discussed.     

Anisotropic electronic intracule densities for diatomics

The electronic intracule density, a three-dimensional contraction of the spinless electron pair density, is the probability density function for an interelectronic vector. A computationally efficient algorithm for the evaluation of the basic two-electron intracule integral for GTO s is presented. In order to provide an initial understanding of the topography of intracule distributions, anisotropic intracule densities for the X¹Σ ground states of the H₂ and N₂ molecules are reported and analyzed.     

Halogen oxidation and nitrosylation of some aldimine and ketimine carbonyl complexes of chromium and molybdenum

Summary The halogen oxidation and nitrosylation of cis-[(SB)M-(CO)₄] [M = Cr or Mo, SB = N,N-ethylenebis(p-tolualideneimine), N,N-ethylenebis(p-N,N-dimethylaminobenzalideneimine) or N,N-ethylenebis(methyl-p-methoxyphenylketimine); M = Mo, SB = N,N-ethylenebis-(cinnamylideneimine) or N,N-ethylenebis(methyl-p-methylphenylketimine)] have been studied. Halogenation of [(SB)Cr(CO)₄] yielded [(SB)CrX₂] (X = Cl, Br or I) where-as [(SB)Mo(CO)₄] gave [(SB)Mo(CO)₃X₂] (X = Br or I) and [(SB)MoX _x ] (X = I, n = 2; X = Cl or Br, n = 4). NOCl produced [(SB)Cr(NO)₂Cl₂] and [(SB)Mo(CO)₂(NO)Cl] when reacted with the corresponding [(SB)M(CO)₄]. The complexes were characterized by physico-chemical and spectroscopic measurements.