Isopropylation of phenol with 2-propanol has been carried out over Na-exchanged ZSM-5 zeolites to determine the effect of catalyst acidity on phenol conversion and product selectivity. The acid type and strength of the catalyst such as Lewis, weak and strong Bronsted acid sites are measured by pyridine adsorbed XPS and the catalytic properties are interpreted in terms of the acid properties. The active site and mechanism for the reaction are suggested based on evidence of study from the reactant adsorbed FT-IR.

The adsorption of chlorine on a Pt(111) surface at 90 K has been studied using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in ultra-high vacuum environments. The adsorbed chlorine atoms give rise to two different ordered structures, (3${\times}$3)-Cl and c(4${\times}$2)- Cl, depending on the coverage. It has been determined from the STM image that the absolute coverage of (3${\times}$3)-Cl structure is 0.44, which is not in agreement with coverage calibrated by a low energy electron diffraction technique together with an Auger electron spectrometer and a thermal desorption spectrometer. The Cl atoms bound to on-top sites at the Pt(111)(3${\times}$3)-Cl surface appeared to effectively perturb the density of states of Pt atoms, as compared with that bound to bridging sites. The other ordered structure, c(4${\times}$2)-Cl, with small domain sizes, consists of both on-top and bridge-bonded species with a saturation coverage of 0.5.

We investigated H-type molecular aggregation in a simply spin-coated amorphous homopolymer film of polymethacrylate containing push-pull azobenzene moieties. It was found that the aggregate formation was strongly influenced by thermal treatment an d that the aggregate created in the polymer film could be easily disrupted by irradiation of a linearly polarized light. In the first writing cycle of aggregated polymer film, photo-induced birefringence showed a steep increase to the highest value followed by a gradual decrease to the certain asymptotic value under longer irradiation of a linearly polarized light. This unique behavior could be attributed to the cooperative motion and the disruption of the aggregated molecules under continuous irradiation of light.

The self-assembled formation of octadecanethiol (CH3(CH2)17SH) on a gold substrate was studied using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). From the QCM measurements at vario us concentrations of octadecanethiol solutions in hexane and alcohol, the adsorption process of octadecanethiol onto Au was confirmed to consist of two steps as follows: (i) fast but disordered adsorption and (ii) a thermodynamically controlled rearrangement for uniform packing of octadecanethiol. Also, it was revealed that the adsorption rate became faster in ethanol than in hexane since less solubility of octadecanethiol in ethanol could help the formation of the monolayers. At 5 ${\times}$10-7 M solution, the monolayer formation was monitored by STM. The morphology of monolayer region was initially circular (diameter size: 7.26 $\pm$ 2.1 nm) and gradually changed to a stripe type after several minutes. At higher concentration, the self-assembled monolayer was formed immediately after the solution was introduced to a substrate.

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of the alkylthiols with [Os(bpy)3]2+ moiety at the terminal position were prepared on gold electrode surface. Examination of the cyclic voltammograms for the SAM shows that it does not organiz e well unlike alkylthiols, which is attributed to the much larger diameter of [Os(bpy)3]2+ moiety compared with the cross-section of alkyl chains and the distance between the adsorption sites. Electromicrogravimetry study shows that the hydration numbers of the electrolyte were 16 $\pm2$, 11 $\pm1$, 5 $\pm$ 1 and 24 $\pm6$ for ClO4- , PF6-, NO3- , and SO42- , respectively. The binary SAMs of alkylthiols with [Os(bpy)3]2+ terminal-group were prepared by co-adsorption of alkylthiols as spacer molecules, which results in better packing in SAM and accordingly the stability was enhanced.

The kinetic mechanism of Hafnia alvei aspartase in the amination direction has been determined in the absence of metal. The initial velocity pattern obtained by varying the concentration of fumarate at several fixed concentrations of NH4+ , shows an intersection on the left of the ordinate at pH 7.0, indicating that the kinetic mechanism is a sequential mechanism in which substrate inhibition by fumarate is observed. The dead-end inhibition pattern by varying the concentration of NH4+ at several fixed concentration of succinate shows an intersection on the left of the ordinate. These data are consistent with random addition of NH4+, or fumarate. The Haldane relationship gives a Keq of 1.18 ${\times}$10-3 M at pH 7.0, which is in agreement with the values obtained from the direct determination of reaction concentrations at equilibrium (6.0 $\pm0.2$ ${\times}$10-3 M).

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the simplified linkage position determination method using tandem mass spectrometry combined with molecular modeling study. Using low energy tandem mass spectrometric experiments and molecular modeling, it has been suggested that significant differences in glycosidic bond cleavage may occur due not only to ionic considerations but also may have contributions from steric hindrance of the absorbance of collision energy, leading to a statistically higher bond cleavage for sterically crowded linkages. Permethylated derivatives of the linkage-isomeric trisaccharides give useful fragmentation ratios and productions, including a 3-linkage specific ion. The ratios of fragment ions are related to the ability of each linkage position in the oligosaccharide to absorb collisional energy.

A site preference of niobium atom in Rb2-xLa2Ti3-xNbxO10 (0.0 $\leq$ x $\leq1.0)$ and RbLa2-xCaxTi2-xNb1+xO10 (0.0 $\leq$ x $\leq2.0)$, which are the solid-solutions between Rb2La2Ti3O10 and RbCa2Nb3O10, has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy. The Raman spectra of Rb2-xLa2Ti3-xNbxO10 (0.0 $\leq$ x $\leq1.0)$ gave an evidence that niobium atoms substituted for titanium atoms preferably occupy the highly distorted outer octahedral sites rather than the central ones in triple-octahedral perovskite layers. In contrast, the Raman spectra of RbLa2-xCaxTi2-xNb1+xO10 (0.0 $\leq$ x $\leq2.0)$ showed no clear information for the cationic arrangement in perovskite slabs. This difference indicated that a site preference of niobium atoms is observed only when the linear Rb-O-Ti linkage can be replaced by much stronger terminal Nb-O bond with double bond character. From comparison with the Raman spectroscopic behavior of CsLa2-xA’xTi2-xNb1+xO10 (A’ = Ca and Ba; 0.0 $\leqx\leq2.0)$, it is also proposed that a local difference in arrangement of interlayer atoms causes a significantly different solid acidity and photocatalytic activity of the layered perovskite oxides, despite their crystallographically similar structures.

The ignition of propane was investigated behind reflected shock waves in the temperature range of 1350-1800 K and the pressure range of 0.75-1.57 bar. The ignition delay time was measured from the increase of pressure and OH emission in the C3H8-O2-Ar system. The relationship between the ignition delay time and the concentrations of propane and oxygen was determined in the form of mass-action expression with an Arrhenius temperature dependence. The numerical calculations were also performed to elucidate the important steps in the reaction scheme of propane ignition using various reaction mechanisms. The ignition delay times calculated from the mechanism of Sung et al.1 were in good agreement with the observed ones.