Metal-Stabilized Boronate Ester Cages

First-principles calculations of metal stabilized Si20 cages

It is well known that sp bonding in carbon can result in stable cage structures, but pure Si clusters with similar cage structures are unstable. Using first-principles calculations, we show that a dodecahedral cage of silicon can be stabilized dynamically as well as energetically by doping with Ba, Sr, Ca, Zr, and Pb atoms to create structures of silicon similar to that of the smallest carbon f...

Computational and Spectroscopic Study of Boronate Ester Condensations and their Derivatives

An improved Bouveault-Blanc ester reduction with stabilized alkali metals.

Significantly improved Bouveault-Blanc conditions for ester reduction have been developed using sodium in silica gel (Na-SG), a free-flowing powder that can be easily handled in the open atmosphere. Primary alcohols were prepared in excellent yield from a variety of aliphatic esters under mild reaction conditions. The chemistry presented here is far safer than the classic Bouveault-Blanc reduct...

Synthesis of Sorbitan Ester Stabilized Uniform Spherical Silver Nanoparticles

Controllable synthesis of uniform spherical silver nanoparticles was investigated by carrying out a chemical reduction reaction in a micro emulsion, formed under high shear mixing of aqueous silver nitrate solution and 2-ethyl hexanol as organic phase. Sodium borohydride was used as reducing agent and sorbitan monooleate (span-80) as stabilizer. Further, a study has been performed to observe th...

Stabilization of fullerene-like boron cages by transition metal encapsulation.

The stabilization of fullerene-like boron (B) cages in the free-standing form has been long sought after and a challenging problem. Studies that have been carried out for more than a decade have confirmed that the planar or quasi-planar polymorphs are energetically favored ground states over a wide range of small and medium-sized B clusters. Recently, the breakthroughs represented by Nat. Chem....