The replacement of one of the two C5Me5 ligands in the samarocene(II) complex (C5Me5)2Sm(thf)2 with a monodentate anionic ligand such as OAr, SAr, NR1R2, or CH(SiMe3)2 gave a unique catalytic system, which can not only polymerize styrene and ethylene, but also copolymerize them into block styrene–ethylene copolymers under the presence of both monomers. On the other hand, the addition of an appr...

The combination of a neodymium borohydride, Nd(BH4)3(THF)3 (1) or Cp*Nd(BH4)2(THF)x (2), with MgBuEt (BEM), affords an efficient and highly selective (up to 96.7% 1,4-trans) catalyst for butadiene polymerization. In the presence of excesses of Mg co-catalyst, polymer chain transfer takes place between neodymium and magnesium, and significant amounts of 1,2-units are observed. When considered fo...

In glassy isopentane at 77 K, 1-phenyl-4-(4-pyridyl)-cis-1,cis-3-butadiene (cc-PPyB) and 1-phenyl-4-(4-pyridyl)-cis-1,trans-3-butadiene (ct-PPyB) can undergo simultaneous two-bond photoisomerization. Under the same conditions, 1-phenyl-4-(4-pyridyl)-trans-1,cis-3-butadiene (tc-PPyB) gives tt-PPyB, the ultimate photoproduct in all cases.

A simple model is presented for interpreting the presence of substantial second harmonic generation (SHG) activity from assemblies of centrosymmetric molecular building blocks. Using butadiene as a computationally tractable centrosymmetric model system, time-dependent Hartree-Fock calculations of the nonlinear polarizability of butadiene dimer were well-described through exciton coupling argume...

The structures of five of the possible six isomers of (E,E)-1,4-bis(nitrophenyl)-2,3-diaza-1,3-butadiene are reported, including two polymorphs of one of the isomers. (E,E)-1,4-Bis(2-nitrophenyl)-2,3-diaza-1,3-butadiene, C(14)H(10)N(4)O(4) (I), crystallizes in two polymorphic forms (Ia) and (Ib) in which the molecules lie across centres of inversion in space groups P2(1)/n and P2(1)/c, respecti...

Extending the mechanical lifetime of NBR (i.e., poly(acrylonitrile-co-butadiene)), a large-volume synthetic rubber, requires better understanding its structure–property relationships. We demonstrate that industrial-grade and uncross-linked can be mechanically rejuvenated physically aged due to an inhomogeneous distribution monomers along polymer chains. As opposed nonpolar SBR counterpart poly(...

The 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments list several volatile organic chemicals as hazardous air pollutants, including ethylene oxide, butadiene, styrene, and acrylonitrile. The toxicology of many of these compounds shares several common elements such as carcinogenicity in laboratory animals, genotoxicity of the epoxide intermediates, involvement of cytochrome P450 for metabolic activation (except et...

The reactions of the 4-tolyl radical (C6H4CH3) and of the D7-4-tolyl radical (C6D4CD3) with 1,2-butadiene (C4H6) have been probed in crossed molecular beams under single collision conditions at a collision energy of about 54 kJ mol(-1) and studied theoretically using ab initio G3(MP2,CC)//B3LYP/6-311G** and statistical RRKM calculations. The results show that the reaction proceeds via indirect ...

In the title complex, [Cr(C(4)H(6))(CO)(4)], the Cr(0) atom shows a distorted octa-hedral environment from four C atoms of the carbonyl ligands and the two π-bonds of the s-cis-1,3-butadiene ligand. The complex has an approximate non-crystallographic mirror symmetry m passing through the chromium atom, two carbonyl ligands and the mid-point of the central C-C bond of the s-cis-1,3-butadiene lig...