Polyaniline-Supported Zinc Oxide (ZnO) Nanoparticles: An Active and Stable Heterogeneous Catalyst for the Friedel–Crafts Acylation Reaction

We report herein the synthesis of zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles incorporating a polyaniline (PANI) matrix in aqueous medium and its catalytic performance toward Friedel–Crafts acylation reactions. The acylation reactions demonstrate that polyaniline/nano-ZnO composites are very active catalysts and are able to activate the reactant at ambient temperature. The obtained nanocatalyst was characterized by Fourier transform–infrared, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller, X-ray diffraction, and particle-size analysis techniques. The catalyst was reusable for five cycles without appreciable loss in activity.     

Design of Novel Coplanar Counter Circuit in Quantum Dot Cellular Automata Technology

One of the emerging technology that can be used for replacing CMOS technology is Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) technology. Counter circuits are widely used circuits in the design of digital circuits. This paper presents and evaluates circuits for 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-bit coplanar counter in the QCA technology. The designed QCA coplanar counter circuits are based on the modified D-Flip-Flop (D-FF) circuit that is designed in this paper. The designed QCA circuits are implemented and verified by using QCADesigner tool version 2.0.3. The results show that the designed circuits for 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-bit coplanar counter contain 44 (0.03 μm²), 93 (0.07 μm²), 160 (0.13 μm²), and 245 (0.2 μm²) quantum cells (area). The comparison results indicate that the designed circuits have advantages compared to other QCA circuits in terms of cost, area, and cell count.

     

Karyological analysis of five tooth-carps (Actinopterygii: Cyprinodontidae) from Iran

The karyotypes of five tooth-carps of Iran, Aphanius persicus, Aphanius sophiae, Aphanius dispar, and Aphanius sp. have been investigated by examining metaphase chromosomes spreads obtained from gill epithelial and kidney cells. The diploid chromosome numbers of all five species were 2n=48. The karyotypes consisted of 8 pairs of submetacentric and 16 pairs of subtelocentric chromosomes in A. persicus; 4 submetacentric and 20 subtelocentric in A. sophiae; 7 submetacentric and 17 subtelocentric in Aphanius ginaonis and 8 submetacentric and 16 subtelocentric in A. dispar. It was 16 metacentric, 1 submetacentric and 7 telocentric chromosome pairs in Aphanius sp. specimen. The arm numbers were 32, 28, 31 and 32 in A. persicus, A. sophiae, A. ginaonis and A. dispar, respectively. It was 41 in Aphanius sp. Sex chromosomes were cytologically indistinguishable in these tooth-carps. Cluster analysis revealed the closeness of A. sophiae and A. persicus. According to our data A. ginaonis is related to a group of A. sophiae+A. persicus+A. dispar.     

Two-phase flow pattern identification using continuous hidden Markov model

This paper presents a new method for identifying two-phase flow regimes from the instantaneous local fluid phase signals using continuous hidden Markov model (CHMM). CHMM is known to be a very strong pattern identifier. Air–water two-phase flows were realized in a transparent vertical tube. The tube length was 2 m, and its inner diameter was 19 mm. The instantaneous local fluid phase signals were collected using a single step index multimode optical fiber probe located at the center and mid-length of the tube. Signal features required in CHMM implementation were extracted using an innovative method. Various aspects of hidden Markov modeling and their effects on the results were studied. The flow pattern results are in very good agreement with photographs of the flow captured during the experiments. In sum, the results show that hidden Markov model has a good potential in identifying two-phase flow patterns.     

Ni@Pd core–shell nanoparticles immobilized on yolk–shell Fe3O4@polyaniline composites as a highly efficient,magnetically separable and atom‐economical catalyst for reduction of nitrobenzenes

The preparation of Ni@Pd core–shell nanoparticles immobilized on yolk–shell Fe₃O₄@polyaniline composites is reported. Fe₃O₄ nanoclusters were first synthesized through the solvothermal method and then the SiO₂ shell was coated on the Fe₃O₄ surface via a sol–gel process. To prepare Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@polyaniline composites, polyvinylpyrrolidone was first grafted on to the surface of Fe₃O₄@SiO₂ composites and subsequently polymerization of aniline was carried out via an ultrasound‐assisted in situ surface polymerization method. Selective etching of the middle SiO₂ layer was then accomplished to obtain the yolk–shell Fe₃O₄@polyaniline composites. The approach uses polyaniline (PANI) conductive polymer as a template for the synthesis of Ni@Pd core–shell nanoparticles. The catalytic activity of the synthesized yolk–shell Fe₃O₄@PANI/Ni@Pd composite was investigated in the reduction of o‐nitroaniline to benzenediamine by NaBH₄, which exhibited conversion of 99% in 3 min with a very low content of the catalyst. Transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, TGA, X‐ray diffraction, UV–visible, scanning electron microscopy, X‐ray energy dispersion spectroscopy and FT‐IR were employed to characterize the synthesized nanocatalyst. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Towards Multilayer QCA SISO Shift Register Based on Efficient D-FF Circuits

Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a new technology for replacing CMOS technology at nano-scale dimansion. Shift registers have commonly used circuit in the digital circuits design. In this paper, a new 3-bit Serial Input-Serial Output (SISO) QCA shift register is presented. The proposed circuit uses 3 novel D-Flip-Flops (D-FFs) that are developed in this paper. The proposed circuits are implemented by using QCADesigner tool version 2.0.3. The developed QCA SISO shift register has 120 cells and 0.03 μm² area. The results show that the developed circuits have advantages compared to other QCA circuits in terms of area.     

Nortricyclyl-norbornenyl cation system accessed by carbene fragmentation

Fragmentation of nortricyclyloxychlorocarbene 5 in pentane occurs by an S(N)i-like process which yields nortricyclyl chloride 3g. In more polar solvents, fragmentation leads to nortricyclyl cation chloride anion pairs (9) that give mainly 3g, accompanied by approximately 10% of exo-2-norbornenyl chloride 4g. From exo-2-norbornenyloxychlorocarbene 6 in hydrocarbon solvents, "S(N)i" reactions lead mainly to exo- (4g) and endo-2-chloro-5-norbornenes (4g'). Leakage to ion pairs adds approximately 16% of nortricyclyl chloride 3g. In more polar solvents, the main product remains chloride 4g, but increasing quantities of 3g appear due to enhanced participation of ion pairs. Fragmentations of 5 and 6 in MeOH afford chlorides 3g and 4g as well as the corresponding methyl ethers 3b and 4b. Nortricyclyl cation and norbornenyl cation chloride anion pairs and methanol-solvated nortricyclyl cations are invoked to rationalize the results.