showing 18 related works from this author
Ionic liquid crystals based on viologen dimers: tuning the mesomorphism by varying the conformational freedom of the ionic layer
2016
ABSTRACTWe investigated the liquid crystal behaviour of newly synthesised bistriflimide salts of symmetric viologen dimers. A smectic A phase was observed for intermediate spacer lengths and for relatively long lateral alkyl chains. The systems were characterised by thermal analysis, polarised optical microscopy, X-ray scattering and solid-state NMR. An intermediate ordered smectic phase was also exhibited by the compounds (except for systems with very short lateral chains) consisting of molten layers of alkyl chains and partially ordered ionic layers. These results, relating to the mesomorphic behaviour of viologen salts, are qualitatively compared to those of the more common imidazolium s…
Relativistic DFT Calculation of (119)Sn Chemical Shifts and Coupling Constants in Tin Compounds.
2006
The nuclear shielding and spin-spin coupling constants of (119)Sn in stannane, tetramethylstannane, methyltin halides Me4-nSnXn (X = Cl, Br, I; n = 1-3), tin halides, and some stannyl cations have been investigated computationally by DFT methods and Slater all-electron basis sets, including relativistic effects by means of the zeroth order regular approximation (ZORA) method up to spin-orbit coupling. Calculated (119)Sn chemical shifts generally correlate well with experimental values, except when several heavy halogen atoms, especially iodine, are bound to tin. In such cases, calculated chemical shifts are almost constant at the scalar (spin-free) ZORA level; only at the spin-orbit level i…
Viologen-based ionic liquid crystals: induction of a smectic A phase by dimerisation.
2014
The stability of thermotropic ionic liquid crystals is essentially due to micro-phase segregation between the ionic heads and the long alkyl chains. Here we show, using newly synthesized viologen dimers, that the structure of the central core is another key parameter to play with in order to tune the mesomorphic behaviour. © 2014 the Owner Societies.
Through-space spin-spin coupling in acetylenic systems. Ab initio and DFT calculations
2003
Abstract: We have investigated, by means of ab initio and DFT calculations, the magnitude of through-space spin-spin couplings ( J CH and J HH ) in CH/π bonded van der Waals dimers involving acetylene, and in a structurally related covalent compound (4-ethynylphenanthrene). Within regions where the interaction is stabilizing J HH couplings are very small (< 0.1 Hz) for all complexes. In the acetylene-methane complex J CH is also very small, whereas in the acetylene-benzene complex and the acetylene dimer it shows a relatively large dependence on the tilt angle from the T-shaped arrangement, for which the smallest values are calculated, to a parallel slipped arrangement where J CH is ca. 0.5…
DFT calculation of NMR δ(113Cd) in cadmium complexes
2016
Abstract We have tested several DFT protocols, at the non-relativistic and relativistic ZORA (scalar and spin–orbit) levels, for the calculation of the 113Cd chemical shifts, δ(113Cd), for a number of cadmium complexes accounting for both different local coordination environments on the metal center, involving N, O and S ligands, and different geometrical arrangements. Moreover, suitable models as reference compounds for δ(113Cd) evaluation have been set up in order to propose a complete computational approach to calculate δ(113Cd) for cadmium complexes. Inclusion of relativistic corrections did not lead to any sensible improvement in the quality of results and, in this context, non-relativ…
Ionic self assembly in the design of fluorinated ionic liquid crystals (ILCs)
2011
Ionic liquid crystals are a class of compounds containing anions and cations, that combine the properties of liquid crystals and ionic liquids[1]. In the conventional design of ionic liquid crystalline compounds, an ionic core is connected with mesogenic groups via chemical covalent bonding . Alternatively, in ionic compounds, strong electrostatic interactions between cation and anion can be used to build up liquid crystalline order at supramolecular level. This general approach, called ionic self-assembly (ISA), allows one to create ionic phases and mesophases with highly organized supramolecular order [2]. In this context, a new series of fluorinated ionic liquids (ILs) and ionic liquid c…
A DFT study of the Karplus-type dependence of vicinal 3J(Sn-C-X- C), X=N,O,S, in organotin(iv) compounds: Application to conformationally flexible sy…
2010
ZORA relativistic and non-relativistic DFT protocols have been used to investigate vicinal coupling constants, (3)J(Sn-C-X-C), in several organotin(iv) compounds, with particular emphasis on cyclic alpha-aminoorganostannanes. The dependence of the coupling constant on the heteroatom X (X = N,O,S) in the coupling path, and, for X = N, its substituents, has been studied in detail. The electron-withdrawing strength of the N-substituents has been found to strongly affect the magnitude and shape of the Karplus-type curve. The results obtained for the simple model systems, having no or little conformational flexibility, have helped in rationalizing the data concerning real flexible cyclic systems…
An ultrathin suspended hydrophobic porous membrane for high-efficiency water desalination
2017
Abstract An ultrathin highly fluorinated porous membrane was designed for a large production of desalted water at very low energy consumption. Imprinting water droplets were used through a low thermally conductive tetra-fluoroethylene (TFE)/2,2,4-trifluoro-5-tri-fluorometoxy-1,3-dioxol (TIT) (HYFLON AD 60) solution and the generated porous nanofilm was suspended onto a polyethersulfone (PES) honeycomb texture. The very tiny fluorinated thickness together with a large number of small-shaped pores provided the membrane for enhanced anti-wetting surface properties, extremely reduced resistance to water vapor transfer and outstanding thermal efficiency. Fine materials structure-transport relati…
Four-Component Relativistic DFT Calculations of C-13 Chemical Shifts of Halogenated Natural Substances
2015
We have calculated the (13) C NMR chemical shifts of a large ensemble of halogenated organic molecules (81 molecules for a total of 250 experimental (13) C NMR data at four different levels of theory), ranging from small rigid organic compounds, used to benchmark the performance of various levels of theory, to natural substances of marine origin with conformational degrees of freedom. Carbon atoms bonded to heavy halogen atoms, particularly bromine and iodine, are known to be rather challenging when it comes to the prediction of their chemical shifts by quantum methods, due to relativistic effects. In this paper, we have applied the state-of-the-art four-component relativistic density funct…
Karplus-Type Dependence of Vicinal119Sn-13C and119Sn-1H Spin-Spin Couplings in Organotin(IV) Derivatives: A DFT Study
2009
The empirical Karplus-type dependence of (3)J((119)Sn,(13)C) and (3)J((119)Sn,(1)H) couplings in organotin(IV) derivatives has been computationally validated by DFT methods both at the nonrelativistic and scalar ZORA relativistic level. A preliminary calibration of the computational protocols, by comparing experimental and calculated couplings for a Set Of Suitable rigid molecules, revealed their high predictive power: in particular, relativistic results for (3)J((119)Sn,(13)C) have a mean absolute error of just above 2 Hz, over a range of values up to about 70 Hz. The latter protocol has then been used to study in detail the influence of substituents and multiple paths connecting the coupl…
DFT calculation of 1J(119Sn,13C) and 2J(119Sn,1H) coupling constants in di- and trimethyltin(IV) compounds
2008
We have tested several computational protocols, at the nonrelativistic DFT level of theory, for the calculation of 1J(119Sn, 13C) and 2J(119Sn, 1H) spin-spin coupling constants in di- and trimethyltin(IV) derivatives with various ligands. Quite a good agreement with experimental data has been found with several hybrid functionals and a double-zeta basis set for a set of molecules comprising tetra-, penta-, and hexa-coordinated tin(IV). Then, some of the protocols have been applied to the calculation of the 2J(119Sn, 1H) of the aquodimethyltin(IV) ion and dimethyltin(IV) complex with D-ribonic acid and to the calculation of 1J(119Sn, 13C) and 2J(119Sn, 1H) of the dimethyltin(IV)-glycylglycin…
Mesomorphic and electrooptical properties of viologens based on non-symmetric alkyl/polyfluoroalkyl functionalization and on an oxadiazolyl-extended …
2019
Two different sets of ionic liquid crystals based on bistriflimide salts of non-symmetrically substituted polyfluorinated bipyridinium (viologens) and bent symmetrically substituted dialkyl-oxadiazolyl-bipyridinium have been synthesized, in order to study the effect on the mesomorphic and electrooptical properties of the non-symmetric functionalization (alkyl chain and fluoroalkyl chains of different lengths) on the two pyridinium rings and additionally the effect of a bent conjugated spacer among the two pyridinium units of the viologen. POM and DSC characterization show that the synthesized salts have a mesomorphic and, in some cases, polymesomorphic behaviour in a wide thermal range, als…
Oxadiazolyl-pyridines and perfluoroalkyl-carboxylic acids as building blocks for protic ionic liquids: crossing the thin line between ionic and hydro…
2012
A series of 18 samples has been prepared in order to obtain fluorinated materials as Protic Ionic Liquids (PILs). These were synthesized by appropriately mixing 1,2,4-oxadiazoles derivatised with two pyridines, or one pyridine and a fluorinated chain, and perfluoroalkyl-carboxylic acids, either mono- or dicarboxylic, leading to symmetric and non-symmetric materials. Many of them showed low melting points. However, the possibility of classifying the synthesized materials as PILs is discussed in terms of effective ionicity of the systems by the combination of Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation and IR spectroscopy. The important outcome of our investigation is that the complete proton…
Spectroscopic signatures of the carbon buckyonions C60@C180 and C60@C240: a dispersion-corrected DFT study
2013
We have investigated, using dispersion corrected DFT methods, the structure and the spectroscopic properties of carbon buckyonions C-60@C-180 and C-60@C-240. C-60, C-180 and C-240 showed a noticeable variation of their geometries in C-60@C-180 and C-60@C-240, upon encapsulation. Inclusion of the dispersion correction term in the calculations has a significant effect on the geometry. C-60@C-180 has a large positive interaction energy, while for C-60@C-240 a negative value is found indicating that only C-240 can easily accommodate C-60. In both cases dispersion interactions strongly contribute to the stabilization of the complexes. Vibrational frequencies, electronic transitions and NMR prope…
Zero-field nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy of viscous liquids
2014
Abstract We report zero-field NMR measurements of a viscous organic liquid, ethylene glycol. Zero-field spectra were taken showing resolved scalar spin–spin coupling (J-coupling) for ethylene glycol at different temperatures and water contents. Molecular dynamics strongly affects the resonance linewidth, which closely follows viscosity. Quantum chemical calculations have been used to obtain the relative stability and coupling constants of all ethylene glycol conformers. The results show the potential of zero-field NMR as a probe of molecular structure and dynamics in a wide range of environments, including viscous fluids.
A DFT study of the vicinal 3J(119Sn,13C) and 3J(119Sn,1H) coupling constants in trimethyl- and chlorodimethyl-stannyl propanoates.
2013
Abstract We have tested the performance of DFT protocols, both at the Scalar relativistic ZORA and non-relativistic level of theory, for the calculation of the 3 J( 119 Sn, 13 C) and 3 J( 119 Sn, 1 H) vicinal couplings for a series of flexible organotin(IV) derivatives with formula XMe2SnCHRCHR′COOMe (X = Me, Cl; R, R′ = Me, Ph). A satisfactory agreement between experimental and calculated vicinal couplings has been obtained by taking into account the conformational behaviour of the compounds investigated. The protocols used, mainly the relativistic one, were found to give a correct picture of the populations and a sufficiently high overall performance in calculating the vicinal couplings, …
Thermal behaviour and electrochemical properties of bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide and dodecatungstosilicate viologen dimers
2012
We report the synthesis and characterization of dimeric viologen salts (1',1''-(alkane-1,n-diyl)bis(1-ethyl-4,4'-bipyridinium) with n = 4-10) with bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide (bistriflimide, Tf(2)N(-)) as a counteranion. For n = 4, 5 and 6, and for the nonylviologen cation (1,1'-dinonyl-4,4'-bipyridinium) we also prepared salts with the totally inorganic dodecatungstosilicate anion, SiW(12)O(40)(4-), featuring a poly-charged surface and nanosized dimensions. The materials have been characterized by means of calorimetric techniques, X-ray diffraction and solid state NMR and a comparison is made with analogous monomeric viologen salts exhibiting smectic mesophases. A strong odd-even ef…
DFT study of the interaction free energy of p–p complexes of fullerenes with buckybowls and viologen dimers
2011
We present a theoretical investigation, by means of DFT protocols, of the complexation thermodynamics of (i) complexes of C70 and C60 fullerenes with bowl-shaped hexabenzocoronene derivatives and (ii) complexes of C60 with viologen dimers. The recent functionals of the M06 family, accounting for p-p interactions to a good level of approximation, have been used to calculate the interaction free energies. For the former complexes, the good agreement between the calculated results and the experimental data confirms the reliability of the protocol used. On these grounds, we then checked the stability of a series of complexes of C60 with some viologen dimers, 1BPnBP1 (n = 6-9), where two N-methy…