Synthetic, structural and spectroscopic studies of (pseudo)halo(1,3-di-tert-butylimidazol-2-ylidine)gold complexes

A series of (pseudo)halo(1,3-di-tert-butylimidazol-2-ylidine)gold complexes [(But2Im)AuX](X = Cl, Br, I, CN, N3, NCO, SCN, SeCN, ONO2, OCOCH3, CH3) have been synthesized and characterised spectroscopically and structurally. 13C NMR chemical shifts for the carbene carbon vary widely with differing ancillary anion, correlating well with the sigma-donor ability of the latter and with the M-C(carbene) bond distance. These results reinforce the notion that N-heterocyclic carbene ligands are primarily sigma-donor ligands with little pi-acceptor ability.     

Chromium(V) peptide complexes: synthesis and spectroscopic characterization

A series of stable Cr(V) model complexes that mimic the binding of Cr(V) to peptide backbones at the C-terminus of proteins have been prepared for N,N-dimethylurea derivatives of the tripeptides Aib3-DMF, AibLAlaAib-DMF, and AibDAlaAib-DMF (Aib = 2-amino-2-methylpropanoic acid, DMF = N,N-dimethylformamide). The Cr(ll) precursor complexes were synthesized by the initial deprotonation of the amide and acid groups of the peptide ligands in DMF with potassium tert-butoxide in the presence of CrCl2. The Cr(II) intermediates thus formed were then immediately oxidized to Cr(V) using tert-butyl hydroperoxide. Spectroscopic and mass-spectrometric analyses of the Cr(V) complexes showed that a new metal-directed organic transformation of the ligand had occurred. This involved a DMF solvent molecule becoming covalently bound to the amine group of the peptide ligand, yielding a urea group, and a third coordinated deprotonated urea nitrogen donor. A metal-directed oxidative coupling has been proposed as a possible mechanism for the organic transformation. The Cr(V/IV) reduction potential was determined for the three Cr(V) complexes using cyclic voltammetry, and in all cases it was quasi-reversible. These are the first isolated and fully characterized Cr(V) complexes with non-sulfur-containing peptide ligands.     

Predicting the shape and structure of face-centered cubic gold nanocrystals smaller than 3 nm.

Although a number of computational studies have examined the relative stability of icosahedral and decahedral gold clusters from 1 to 3 nm in size, few studies have focussed on the variety of face-centered cubic (fcc) nanoparticles in this size regime. In most cases small fcc gold particles are assumed to adopt the truncated octahedral shape, but in light of the fact that the shape and structure of gold nanoparticles is known to vary, the relative stability of fcc polyhedra may change with size. Presented here are results of first-principles calculations investigating the preferred shape of gold particles less than 3 nm in size. Our results indicate that the equilibrium shape of fcc gold nanoparticles less than 1 nm is the cuboctahedron, but this shape rapidly becomes energetically unstable with respect to the truncated octahedron, octahedron and truncated cube shapes as the size increases.     

Studies on the Oral Anticancer Drug JM-216: Synthesis and Characterization of Isomers and Related Complexes

The complex cis,trans,cis-[PtCl(2)(OAc)(2)NH(3)(c-C(6)H(11)NH(2))] (JM-216) is currently undergoing clinical evaluation as an antitumor agent. In support of characterization and analysis of this complex a study of its isomers and other complexes [PtCl(m)()(OAc)((4)(-)(m)()())NH(3)(c-C(6)H(11)NH(2))] (m = 0-4) has been undertaken. The complexes have been obtained by a variety of synthetic routes which now extend the scope for the preparation of platinum(IV) antitumor complexes. As platinum(IV) complexes are very stable to substitution in the absence of catalysis, use has been made of both light and base catalysis to promote substitution. Oxidative addition to platinum(II) using hypervalent iodine reagents has also been used. The stereochemistry of the complexes has been confirmed by spectroscopic studies, primarily NMR including natural abundance (15)N NMR spectroscopy.     

Banks’ criterion and symmetric stable laws with index of stability between one-half and one

In this paper we compare the sample mean and the sample median of independent and identically distributed data that come from a symmetric stable distribution using Banks’ (1997) criterion, which is an alternative to Pitman’s (1937) criterion for comparing estimators of a parameter of interest. For data from a symmetric stable distribution with index of stability between one half and one and odd sample size, we show that Banks’ criterion choses the sample median as an estimator of the location parameter of the distribution. For data from a normal distribution with even sample size, we show that Banks’ criterion favours the sample mean (thus “complementing” a similar result about odd sample sizes in Karunaratne and Hadjicostas (2009)). In the process, we prove some trigonometric inequalities, which are interesting in their own right.     

Investigation of fill factor losses on 20.2% efficient n‐type mono‐like silicon solar cells with laser contact opening

Large area (243.36 cm²) back‐junction passivated emitter, rear totally diffused (PERT) solar cells with laser contact opening (LCO) on n‐type mono‐like crystalline Si with efficiencies of 20.2% are presented. Boron emitters with high electrical quality (implied open circuit voltage iV_OC up to 700 mV) are formed during a co‐diffusion step using SiO_x:B layers. Increasing the rear metal contact coverage, we observed a decrease in fill factor (FF) instead of the expected increase due to the decrease of the back side series resistance. We show that it can be attributed to recombination centers (RCs) in the space charge region underneath the contact spots inducing an increasing second diode contribution. The presented empirical model for the RCs implemented in Synopsys Sentaurus TCAD allows for a successful reproduction of the FF, pseudo FF and V_OC behaviour with contact coverage. According to this model, the RCs induced by laser ablation and subsequently evaporation of Al have a shallow exponential distribution with a characteristic length of L_T = 0.2 µm and an effective surface density of N *_T0 = 25 cm^–1. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Spatial and temporal resolution effects on dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance mammography

We tested the hypothesis that partial volume effects due to poor in-plane resolution and/or low temporal resolution used in clinical dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging results in erroneous diagnostic information based on inaccurate estimates of tumor contrast agent extravasation and tested whether reduced encoding techniques can correct for dynamic data volume averaging. Image spatial resolution was reduced from 469 x 469 microm2 to those reported below by selecting a subset of k-space data. We then compared the top five K(trans)/V(T) "hot spots" obtained from the original data set, 469 x 469-microm in-plane spatial resolution and an 18-s temporal resolution processed by fast Fourier transform (FFT), with values obtained from data sets having in-plane spatial resolutions of 938 x 938, 1875 x 1875 and 2500 x 2500 microm2 and a temporal resolution of 18 s, or data sets with temporal resolutions of 36, 54 and 72 and a spatial resolution of 469 x 469 microm2, and found them to statistically differ from the parent data sets. We then tested four different post processing methods for improving the spatial resolution without sacrificing temporal resolution: zero-filled FFT, keyhole, reduced-encoding imaging by generalized-series reconstruction (RIGR) and two-reference RIGR (TRIGR). The top five values of K(trans)/V(T) obtained from data sets, the in-plane spatial resolutions of which were improved to 469 x 469 microm2 by zero-filling FFT, Keyhole and RIGR, statistically differed from those obtained from the original 469 x 469 microm2 FFT parent image data set. Only the 938 x 938 and 1875 x 1875 microm2 data sets reconstructed to 469 x 469 microm2 with TRIGR reconstruction method yielded values of the top five K(trans)/V(T) hot spots statistically the same as the original parent data set, 469 x 469 microm2 in-plane spatial and 18-s temporal-resolution FFT. That is, partial volume effects from data sets of different in-plane spatial resolution resulted in statistically different values of the top five K(trans)/V(T) hot spots relative to a high spatial and temporal resolution data set, and TRIGR reconstruction of these low resolution data sets to high resolution images provided statistically similar values with a savings in temporal resolution of 2 to 4 times.     

The Varietal Influence of Flavour Precursors from Grape Marc on Monoterpene and C13-Norisoprenoid Profiles in Wine as Determined by Membrane-Assisted Solvent Extraction (MASE) GC-MS

The winemaking by-product grape marc (syn. pomace) contains significant quantities of latent flavour in the form of flavour precursors which can be extracted and used to modulate the volatile composition of wine via chemical hydrolysis. Varietal differences in grapes are widely known with respect to their monoterpene content, and this work aimed to extend this knowledge into differences due to cultivar in volatiles derived from marc precursors following wine-like storage conditions. Marc extracts were produced from floral and non-floral grape lots on a laboratory-scale and from Muscat Gordo Blanco marc on a winery -scale, added to a base white wine for storage over five to six months, before being assessed using a newly developed membrane-assisted solvent extraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. The geraniol glucoside content of the marc extracts was higher than that of juices produced from each grape lot. In all wines with added marc extract from a floral variety, geraniol glucoside concentration increased by around 150–200%, with increases also observed for non-floral varieties. The relative volatile profile from extracts of the floral varieties was similar but had varied absolute concentrations. In summary, while varietally pure extracts would provide the greatest control over flavour outcomes when used in winemaking, aggregated marc parcels from floral cultivars may provide a mechanism to simplify the production logistics of latent flavour extracts for use in the wine sector.