Increasing the reactivity of Vaska's compound. Oxidative addition of chlorobenzene at ambient temperature

Silylium ion-like reagents, R3Si δ+(carboraneδ-), are successful where silver salts fail in abstracting chloride ion from IrCl(CO)(PPh3) 2 in arene solvents. Replacement of chloride by a very weakly coordinating carborane anion such as CHB11H5Cl 6- promotes unusually facile oxidative addition of chlprobenzene, giving the coordinatively unsaturated IrCl(CO)(C 6H5)(PPh3)2]+ cation. Other arene solvents promote disproportionation with loss of aphosphme ligand to give labile Ir(I) cations of the type [Ir(arene)(CO)(PPh3)] +, having three latent vacant coordination sites. © 2008 American Chemical Society

A Fast, Straightforward and Inexpensive Method for the Authentication of Baijiu Spirit Samples by Fluorescence Spectroscopy

The Chinese spirit baijiu is currently the world’s bestselling spirit, with more than ten billion liters sold in 2018. This is a figure that puts its sales higher than whiskey, vodka, gin, and tequila combined. The multitude of baijiu varieties available in the market differ in several ways ranging from aging to the traditional artisanship involved in producing the final spirit to several other features, including the rarity of the bottle. A result of these differences is a wide distribution of prices for the various baijiu products. Consequently, a single bottle of baijiu can cost anywhere from a few dollars, up to thousands of US dollars. The price differences among the various baijiu spirits necessitate the existence of reliable scientific methods that can efficiently differentiate and authenticate the qualities of baijiu spirits. In addition, the existence of such methods facilitates the prevention of counterfeit sales of the final product. Considering this, we introduce an analytical chemistry method that distinguishes amongst different baijiu spirits based on fluorescence spectroscopy. Its attributes include the low cost and convenience that allows analysis either before or while the spirit is in the market. Our work herein focuses on the analysis of thirty different varieties of baijiu spirits from six different distilleries from East Asia and North America by fluorescence emission spectroscopy, which is associated to the price of the product. For the analysis, we employed a HORIBA FLUOROLOG 3 (HORIBA—Jobin Yvon) spectrometer. Major advantages of this method include the low cost, as no consumables except a quartz reusable cuvette are required, the minimal waste, and finally the quick processing of data

The occultation of HIP 107302 by Jupiter

Aims. Occultations of bright stars by planets provide information on the state of their atmospheres. An occultation of the bright star 45 Capricornii (HIP 107302) by Jupiter occurred on the night of 3/4 August 2009. Methods. The event was observed at multiple sites in Europe, Africa and South America and with instruments ranging in aperture from 0.4 m to 2.2 m. All observations, except one, were carried out in methane absorption bands centred at 0.89 μm and 2.2 μm to minimise the planetary contribution to the measured stellar flux. Following the application of special post-processing techniques, differential photometry was performed. Nearby bright satellites were used as reference sources. Results. Fifteen lightcurves were obtained. The photometric time series for fourteen of these were fitted to a model atmosphere of constant scale height (H). Estimates of H for most lightcurves lie within the range 20−30 km with an inverse-variance weighted mean of 23.6 ± 0.4 km, in good agreement with previous works. A comparison between half-light times at ingress and at egress implies an astrometric offset of 10−15 mas in Jupiter’s position relative to the star. Five lightcurves – two for ingress and three for egress – were numerically inverted into profiles of pressure versus temperature. Isothermal, mutually consistent behaviour is observed within the pressure range 3−10 μbar. The inferred temperature of 165 ± 5 K is consistent with, but slightly higher than, that measured by the Galileo Probe at 5° S latitude in 1995 at the same pressure level. Subtraction of isothermal models for nine cases show the presence of at least one, and possibly two, non-isothermal layers a few tens of km below the half-light datum. Their altitudes are similar to those of features previously reported during the occultation of HIP 9369 in 1999. Our temperature estimates are consistent with the expected small magnitude of the perturbation of the atmosphere following the impact event on Jupiter in July 2009

The occultation of HIP 107302 by Jupiter

Aims. Occultations of bright stars by planets provide information on the state of their atmospheres. An occultation of the bright star 45 Capricornii (HIP 107302) by Jupiter occurred on the night of 3/4 August 2009. Methods. The event was observed at multiple sites in Europe, Africa and South America and with instruments ranging in aperture from 0.4 m to 2.2 m. All observations, except one, were carried out in methane absorption bands centred at 0.89 μm and 2.2 μm to minimise the planetary contribution to the measured stellar flux. Following the application of special post-processing techniques, differential photometry was performed. Nearby bright satellites were used as reference sources. Results. Fifteen lightcurves were obtained. The photometric time series for fourteen of these were fitted to a model atmosphere of constant scale height (H). Estimates of H for most lightcurves lie within the range 20-30 km with an inverse-variance weighted mean of 23.6 ± 0.4 km, in good agreement with previous works. A comparison between half-light times at ingress and at egress implies an astrometric offset of 10-15 mas in Jupiter's position relative to the star. Five lightcurves - two for ingress and three for egress - were numerically inverted into profiles of pressure versus temperature. Isothermal, mutually consistent behaviour is observed within the pressure range 3-10 μbar. The inferred temperature of 165 ± 5 K is consistent with, but slightly higher than, that measured by the Galileo Probe at 5 S latitude in 1995 at the same pressure level. Subtraction of isothermal models for nine cases show the presence of at least one, and possibly two, non-isothermal layers a few tens of km below the half-light datum. Their altitudes are similar to those of features previously reported during the occultation of HIP 9369 in 1999. Our temperature estimates are consistent with the expected small magnitude of the perturbation of the atmosphere following the impact event on Jupiter in July 2009. © ESO, 2013