During the last decade, the exploration of nanoscale device and circuitry based on molecules has gained increasing interest. In parallel with this, considerable effort is being devoted to the development of molecular photonic/electronic materials based on various porphyrin arrays. This involves light as an input/output signal and excitation energy migration as a mechanism for signal transmission. Absorption of a photon at the light collector end of the porphyrin array yields the excited state, which migrates among the intervening pigments until reaching the emitter, whereupon another photon is emitted. As a consequence, it is relevant to understand the excitation energy transfer (EET) processes occurring in various forms of porphyrin arrays for the applications as artificial light harvesting arrays and molecular photonic/electronic wires. Since the excitonic (dipole) and electronic (conjugation) couplings between the adjacent porphyrin moieties in porphyrin arrays govern the EET processes, we have characterized the EET rates of various forms of multiporphyrin arrays (linear, cyclic, and box) based on various time-resolved spectroscopic measurements. We believe that our observations provide a platform for further development of molecular photonic/electronic materials based on porphyrin arrays.

Bis(2-methylbenzaldehyde)butane-2,3-dihydrazone(TDSB) was used as new N-N Schiff's base which plays the role of an excellent ion carrier in the construction of a La(III) membrane sensor. The best performance was obtained with a membrane containing, 30% poly(vinyl chloride), 60% benzyl acetate, 6% TDSB and 4% sodium tetraphenyl borate. This sensor reveals a very good selectivity towards La(III) ions over a wide variety of cations, including alkali, alkaline earth, transition and heavy metal ions. The proposed electrode exhibits a Nernstian behavior (with slope of 19.8 mV per decade) over a wide concentration range (1.0 ${\times}$ 10$^{-5}$-1.0 ${\times}$ 10$^{-1}$ M). The detection limit of the sensor is 7.0 ${\times}$ 10$^{-6}$ M. It has a very short response time, in the whole concentration range ($\sim$5 s), and can be used for at least twelve weeks in the pH range of 3.0-9.4. The proposed sensor was successfully applied as an indicator electrode for the potentiometric titration of a La(III) solution, with EDTA. It was also successfully applied in the determination of fluoride ions in three mouth wash preparations.

Reaction energies were determined for reductive ring-opening reactions of Li$^+$-coordinated ethylene carbonate (EC) and vinylene carbonate (VC) by a density functional method. We have also explored the ring-opening of Li$^+$-EC and Li$^+$-VC by reaction with a nucleophile (CH$_3$O$^-$.) thermodynamically. Our thermodynamic calculations led us to conclude that the possible reaction products are CH$_3$OCH$_2$CH$_2$OCO$_2$Li (O$_2$-C$_3$ cleavage) for Li$^+$-EC +CH$_3$O$^-$., and CH$_3$OCHCHOCO$_2$Li (O$_2$-C$_3$ cleavage) and CH$_3$OCO$_2$CHCHOLi (C$_1$-O$_2$ cleavage) for Li$^+$-VC +CH$_3$O$^-$.. The opening of VC would occur at the C$_1$-O$_2$ side by a kinetic reason, although the opening at the O$_2$-C$_3$ side is more favorable thermodynamically.

Solvatochromic fluorescence behavior of 8-aminoquinoline based benzothiazole derivative in varying solvent systems has been investigated. Benzothiazole appended 8-aminoquinoline 3 showed distinctive fluorescence color changes depending upon the solvent polarities and the fluorescence color changes occurred over relatively wide span in visible region from 486 nm to 598 nm which can be detected with naked eye. Compound 3 also exhibited significant spectral shifts in ${\lambda}_{em}$ as a function of water composition in binary aqueous solvent systems. The changes are due to the specific interaction of 3 by hydrogen bonding with water as well as general solvent effect. The observed solvatochromic fluorescence characteristics of 3 could be used as a new probe for the micro-environmental polarity changes as well as a sensitive sensor for the determination of water composition in binary aqueous solutions.

A PVC membrane electrode for lead ion based on 1-phenyl-2-(2-quinolyl)-1,2-dioxo-2-(4-bromo) phenylhydrazone (PQDBP) as ionophore was demonstrated. The optimum composition of the membrane was 30 wt% poly(vinyl chloride), 60 wt% dibutyl phthalate as a plasticizer, 4 wt% ionophore and 6 wt% sodium tetraphenylborate as additive. The electrode exhibits a Nernstian response (28.7 mV decade$^{-1}$) for Pb$^{2+}$ over a wide concentration range (1.0 ${\times}$ 10$^{-1}$ to 1 ${\times}$ 10$^{-6}$ M) with a detection limit of 6.0 ${\times}$ 10$^{-7}$ M. This sensor has a short response time and can be used for at least 2 months without any divergence in potentials. The proposed electrode could be used in a pH range of 3.0-6.0 and revealed good selectivities for Pb$^{+2}$ over a wide variety of other metal ions. It was successfully applied as an indicator electrode for the potentiometric titration of lead ion with potassium chromate and for the direct determination of lead in mine.

The potentiometric responses for various anions are investigated with membrane electrode (membrane 1) based on 1,3-diethyl-1,3-dihydroxy-1,3-bis(2-dimethylaminomethyl ferrocenyl) disiloxane. The nitrate ion-selective electrode based on compound 1 gave a good Nernstian response of 58.18 mV per decade for nitrate with the detection limit of −e5.66 of log [NO3−e]. Compound 1 has all those functional groups and the other two compounds have less functional group of ferrocenyl or ferrocenyl and hydroxide, respectively. Even though, potentiometric response to anions was excellent at pH 5, the selectivity pattern for all three membrane electrode based on series of disiloxane is almost like Hofmeister sequence at pH 5. However, the membrane electrode 1-3 exhibited very different response to anions at pH 7. In this pH, NH2 is not protonated and ionophore may act as neutral carrier. Hydrogen bond may enhance the responsibility to hydrogen acceptors and intramolecular electro-active site may increase the permeability of analyte to ionophore in membrane.

Equilibrium geometries, electronic structures, and energies of borocarbon clusters (binary compounds of carbon and boron), an unexplored class of molecules with highly unusual characteristics and potential for further development, have been investigated by means of B3LYP/6-311+G$^*$ density functional theory computations. A large number of B$_7$C${_1}^{1-}$, B$_6C_2$, and B$_5C_{3}\,^{1+}$ clusters with planar and non-planar monocyclic and polycyclic rings, as well as cage structures, have been systematically studied. Unexpectedly, planar forms are predicted not only to be the most stable structures, but also, in many cases, to have unprecedented planar heptacoordinate boron (p-heptaB) and planar heptacoordinate carbon (p-heptaC) arrangements. All these pheptaB and p-heptaC have 6π electrons and are aromatic according to the nucleus independent chemical shift (NICS). This novel bonding pattern is analyzed in terms of natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis. For virtually all possible B$_7$C${_1}^{1-}$, B$_6C_2$, and B$_5C_{3}\,^{1+}$ combinations, the p-heptaB arrangements are the more stable than other type structures.

Some mononuclear oxovanadium(IV) complexes having the general formula [VOL(bidentate)] (1-4) of which L is tridentate ONS-donor salicylaldehyde S-methyldithiocarbazate (sal-mdtc$^{2-}$) or salicylaldehyde 4- phenylthiosemicarbazate (sal-phtsc$^{2-}$) and bidentate stands for 2,2'-bipyridyl (bpy) or 1,10-phenanthroline (phen) have been synthesized. The complexes were characterized by elemental analyses, FAB mass, UV, IR spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. Two of the complexes [VO(sal-mdtc)(bpy)] (1) and [VO(sal-mdtc) (phen)] (2) were crystallographically characterized. The structures revealed that vanadium atom is octahedrally coordinated by the O, N, and S donor atoms of the tridentate ligand, the two N atoms of bidentate ligand, and the oxo atom. The oxygen donor, occupying an apical position has a trans-labilizing effect, resulting in elongation of the V-N bond. The cyclic voltammograms of the complexes exhibited one cathodic response in the range −d1.45 $\sim$ −f1.52 V due to the reduction of V(IV) to V(III).

We prepared the new nonlinear optical chromophores that show fairly high microscopic nonlinearity through intramolecular charge transfer. Phenothiazine and carbazole units played an important role to contribute high electron donability and connect the resonance pathway via conjugative effect in the cyclized ring beside the aromatic ring. Theoretical calculation, electrochemical analysis, and absorption spectroscopic study gave us useful information about the energy states and microscopic nonlinearities of two serial chromophores. We compared the microscopic nonlinearities of four chromophores with the conjugation length and electron donability in the push-pull type NLO chromophores. The effect of gradient donability and lengthening the conjugation were investigated on the electronic state and microscopic nonlinearity.

MX and its analogs are synthesized and modeled by quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) study including comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA). As a result, factors affecting this class of compounds have been found to be steric and electrostatic effects. Because hologram quantitative structure activity relationship (HQSAR) technique is based on the 2-dimensional descriptors, this is free of ambiguity of conformational selection and molecular alignment. In this study we tried to include all the data available from the literature, and modeled with the HQSAR technique. Among the parameters affecting fragmentation, connectivity was the most important one for the whole compounds, giving good statistics. Considering additional parameters such as bond specification only slightly improved the model. Therefore connectivity has been found to be the most appropriate to explain the mutagenicity for this class of compounds.

O-(3-[$^{18}$F]Fluoropropyl)-L-tyrosine (L-[$^{18}$F]FPT) was synthesized by nucleophilic radiofluorination followed by acidic hydrolysis of protective groups and evaluated with 9 L tumor bearing rat. L-[$^{18}$F]FPT is an homologue of O-(2-[$^{18}$F]fluoroethyl)-L-tyrosine (L-[$^{18}$F]FET) which recently is studied as a tracer for tumor imaging using positron emission tomography (PET). [$^{18}$F]FPT was directly prepared from the precursor of O-(3-ptoluenesulfonyloxypropyl)- N-(tert-butoxycarbonyl)-L-tyrosine methyl ester. FPT-PET image was obtained at 60 min in 9 L tumor bearing rats. The radiochemical yield of [$^{18}$F]FPT was 0-45% (decay corrected) and the radiochemical purity was more than 95% after HPLC purification. The total time elapsed for the synthesis of [$^{18}$F]FPT was 100 min from EOB (End-of-bombardment). A comparison of uptake studies between [$^{18}$F]FPT and [$^{18}$F]FET was performed. In biodistribution, [$^{18}$F]FPT showed similar pattern with [$^{18}$F]FET in various tissues, but [$^{18}$F]FPT showed low uptake in brain. Furthermore, [$^{18}$F]FPT showed higher tumor-to-brain ratio than [$^{18}$F]FET. In conclusion, [$^{18}$F]FPT seems to be more useful amino acid tracer than [$^{18}$F]FET for brain tumors imaging with PET.

The addition reactions of $\alpha$,$\alpha$-difluoroiodomethyl n-butyl ketone, α,α-difluoroiodomethyl cyclohexyl ketone, or $\alpha$,$\alpha$-difluoroiodomethyl phenyl ketone to alkenes were successfully accomplished in good yields in the presence of copper powder. The reaction was also applicable to alkenes containing a variety of functional groups such as ester, trimethylsilyl, or ether group. Acetonitrile was determined to be the best solvent in the present study and the reaction was performed at 55 ${^{\circ}C}$ for 15-22 h. This reaction provides a new, efficient and general method for the synthesis of $\alpha$,$\alpha$-difluoro functionalized ketones.

In order to investigate the catalytic mechanism for the growth of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), a comprehensive study was conducted using carbon materials synthesized at 680 ${^{\circ}C}$ with a gas mixture of CO-H$_2$ after reduction at 800 ${^{\circ}C}$ by H$_2$ gas from iron oxide, and metal Pt. The resulting material was observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) after a variety of reaction times. The carbon materials synthesized by metal Pt were little affected by reaction time and the sintered particles did not form CNTs. Xray analysis revealed that metal Fe was completely converted to iron carbide (Fe$_3$C) without Fe peaks in the early stage. After 5 min, iron carbide (Fe$_3$C) and carbon (C) phases were observed at the beginning of CNTs growth. It was found that the intensity of the carbon(C) peak gradually increased with the continuous growth of CNTs as reaction time increases. It was also found that the catalyst of growth of CNTs was metal carbide.

Molecular aggregates of surfactant molecules consisting of one or more bilayers arranged in a hollow, closed, usually spherical geometry are termed “esicles”or “iposomes” In recent years it has been found that in certain systems the vesicular structure forms spontaneously and is long lived, and it has been suggested that these structures may in fact constitute the equilibrium state in these cases (as is true of micelles) This paper deals with the mixed CMC, vesicles, phase behavior, phase transition, geometrical structure, their formation and characterization in the aqueous solutions of mixed cationic/anionic surfactants systems. TEM micrographs revealed that the vesicles were of spherical shape and that their size was of around 180 nm. The zeta potentials are positive at CGS1-rich regions and negative at SLES-rich regions. In the region where SLES/CGS1 (6/4), the zeta potentials are very small, implying that the vesicles at this surfactant ratio may be less stable. At other surfactant ratios, the vesicles are thought to be stable, supported by large absolute values of zeta potentials and little change in UV absorbance for several months.

The miniaturized NIR (Near-infrared) spectrometer has been utilized for the determination of water content (1-19% range) in ethanol that is the most popular organic solvent in pharmaceutical industries. It has many potential capabilities that can replace the conventional analyzers especially for the on-line measurement since it is compact, versatile and cost-effective. By using two dimensional (2D) correlation spectroscopy, it was preliminarily investigated to find any unforeseen spectral distortion among the spectra collected from the miniaturized spectrometer. The 2D study revealed that the spectral variation clearly followed the variation of water concentration without any spectral distortion or abnormality. PLS (Partial Least Squares) was employed to build the calibration model and the resulting prediction performance was acceptable and stable over several days. Even though the miniaturized NIR system was evaluated to fairly simple chemical matrix, the overall study demonstrates the sufficient feasibility for diverse practical and industrial applications.

The geometrical parameters, vibrational frequencies, and relative energies of H$_2$(A$_{n+1}$X$_{2n}$)H$_2$ (A=C or Si, X=O or S, n = 1-2) oligomers have been investigated using high level ab initio quantum mechanical techniques with large basis sets. The equilibrium geometries have been optimized at the self-consistent field (SCF), the coupled cluster with single and double excitation (CCSD), and the CCSD with connected triple excitations [CCSD(T)] levels of theory. The highest level of theory employed in this study is cc-pVTZ CCSD(T). Harmonic vibrational frequencies and IR intensities are also determined at the SCF level of theory with various basis sets and confirm that all the optimized geometries are true minima. Also zero-point vibrational energies have been considered to predict the dimerization and the relative energies.

The early stage of the self assembly for octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS)-based monolayers is investigated using atomic force microscopy (AFM). Height measurements using AFM prove that the island height of the monolayers gradually increases with increasing the island size, and is close to the limiting value (h = $\sim$25 $\AA$) after d = $\sim$600 nm in size. Since the theoretical length of a covalently bound OTS molecule is 26.2 Å, the limiting value of the island height means that the islands with d ${\geq}$ 600 nm consist of close-packed, fully extended chains. The heights for the islands with d < 600 nm are lower than the limiting value and decrease with decreasing the island sizes. This observation indicates that the OTS molecules in the small islands are less densely packed, and that the packing densities of the islands increase as the islands grow in size.

Gallium nitride (GaN) powders and nanowires were prepared by using tris(N,N-dimethyldithiocarbamato)gallium(III) (Ga(DmDTC)$_3$) and tris(N,N-diethyldithiocarbamato)gallium(III) (Ga(DeDTC)$_3$) as new precursors. The GaN powders were obtained by reaction of the complexes with ammonia in the temperature ranging from 500 to 1100 ${^{\circ}C}$. The process of conversion of the complexes to GaN was monitored by their weight loss, XRD, and $^{71}$Ga magic-angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy. Most likely the complexes decompose to $\gamma$ -Ga$_2$S$_3$ and then turn into GaN via amorphous gallium thionitrides (GaS$_x$N$_y$). The reactivity of Ga(DmDTC)$_3$ with ammonia was a little higher than that of Ga(DeDTC)$_3$. Room-temperature photoluminescence spectra of asprepared GaN powders exhibited the band-edge emission of GaN at 363 nm. GaN nanowires were obtained by nitridation of as-ground $\gamma$ -Ga$_2$S$_3$ powders to GaN powders, followed by sublimation without using templates or catalysts.

High-performance frontal analysis (HPFA) was used for the determination of the binding constant of Sibuprofen to human serum albumin (HSA). This experiment was based on an Inertsil 100 Diol 5 column and sodium phosphate buffer (pH 7.4 and ionic strength of 0.17) as the mobile phase. The mixture of S-ibuprofen and HSA (70 $\mu$M) solution were directly injected into the HPFA column. An injection volume of 200 $\mu$L and a “estricted injection”method were applied to ensure the drug to be eluted as a zonal peak with a plateau. The unbound drug concentration was calculated from the peak height of the zonal peak. Scatchard analysis was used for evaluation of the binding constant (K) and binding affinity (nK) of S-ibuprofen to HSA, and the results were K = 2.833 ${\times}$ 10$^4$ [L mol$^{-1}$], nK = 4.935 ${\times}$ 10$^4$ [L mol$^{-1}$], respectively.

Artificial neural networks (ANNs), for a first time, were successfully developed for the modeling and prediction of solvent effects on rate constant of [2+2] cycloaddition reaction of diethyl azodicarboxylate with ethyl vinyl ether in various solvents with diverse chemical structures using quantitative structure-activity relationship. The most positive charge of hydrogen atom (q$^+$), dipole moment ($\mu$), the Hildebrand solubility parameter (${\delta}_H^2$) and total charges in molecule (q$_t$) are inputs and output of ANN is log k$_2$ . For evaluation of the predictive power of the generated ANN, the optimized network with 68 various solvents as training set was used to predict log k$_2$ of the reaction in 16 solvents in the prediction set. The results obtained using ANN was compared with the experimental values as well as with those obtained using multi-parameter linear regression (MLR) model and showed superiority of the ANN model over the regression model. Mean square error (MSE) of 0.0806 for the prediction set by MLR model should be compared with the value of 0.0275 for ANN model. These improvements are due to the fact that the reaction rate constant shows non-linear correlations with the descriptors.

Two new barium vanadium borophosphate compounds, $(NH_4)_2(C_2H_{10}N_2)_6[Ba(H_2O)_5]_2[V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6{\cdot}8H_2O$, Ba- VBPO1 and $(NH_4)_8(C_3H_{12}N_2)_4[Ba(H_2O)_7][V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6{\cdot}17H_2O$, Ba-VBPO2 have been synthesized by interdiffusion methods in the presence of diprotonated ethylenediamine and 1,3-diaminopropane. Compound Ba-VBPO1 has an infinite chain anion (${[BaH_2O)_5]_2[V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6}$$^{14-}$, whereas Ba-VBPO2 has a discrete cluster anion {[$Ba(H_2O)_7][V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6$}$^{16-}$. Crystal Data: $(NH_4)_2(C_2H_{10}N_2)_6[Ba(H_2O)_5]_2[V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6{\cdot}8H_2O$, triclinic, space group P$\overline{1}$ (no. 2), a = 13.7252(7) $\AA$, b = 15.7548(8) $\AA$, c = 15.8609(8) $\AA$, α = 63.278(1)$^{\circ}$, $\beta$ = 75.707(1)$^{\circ}$, $\gamma$ = 65.881(1)$^{\circ}$, Z = 1; $(NH_4)_8(C_3H_{12}N_2)_4[Ba(H_2O)_7][V_2P_2BO_{12}]_6{\cdot}17H_2O$, monoclinic, space group C2/c (no. 15), a = 31.347(2) $\AA$, b = 17.1221(9) $\AA$, c = 22.3058(1) $\AA$, $\beta$ = 99.303(1)$^{\circ}$, Z = 4.

The conformational dynamics of heme pocket, a small vacant site near the binding site of heme proteins -myoglobin (Mb) and hemoglobin (Hb), was investigated after photolysis of carbon monoxide from MbCO and HbCO in D$_2$O solution at 283 K by probing time-resolved vibrational spectra of photolyzed CO. Two absorption bands, arising from CO in the heme pocket, evolve nonexponentially in time. The band at higher energy side blue shifts and broadens with time and the one at lower energy side narrows significantly with a negligible shift. These spectral evolutions are induced by protein conformational changes following photolysis that modify structure and electric field of heme pocket, and ligand dynamics in it. The conformational changes affecting the spectrum of photolyzed CO in heme pocket likely modulates ligand-binding activity.

Allylindium and propargylindium reagents in situ generated from the reactions of indium with allyl halides and propargyl halides could participate as nucleophiles in Pd-catalyzed substitution reactions of allyl carbonates to produce 1,5-dienes and 1,5-enynes in good yields. $\beta$-Hydride elimination products were produced in case of carbonates having $\beta$-hydrogens. Because organoindium reagents obtained from allyl or propargyl halides and indium have previously not been used to Pd-catalyzed allylic and propargylic substitution reactions, these results should provide more opportunities for the development of new C-C bond forming reactions.