CHEMISTRY: Bigger with Platinum

Chemistry of acetylene on platinum (111) and (100) surfaces.

An ultra-high vacuum experimental study of acetylene chemisorption on Pt(111) and Pt(100) and of the reaction of hydrogen with the acetylene adsorbate has established distinguishing features of carbon-hydrogen bond breaking and making processes as a function of pressure, temperature, and surface crystallography. The rates for both processes are substantially higher on the Pt(100) surface. Net a...

Bigger Rip with No Dark Energy Paul

By studying a modified Friedmann equation which arises in an extension of general relativity which accommodates a time-dependent fundamental length L(t), we consider cosmological models where the scale factor diverges with an essential singularity at a finite future time. Such models have no dark energy in the conventional sense of energy possessing a truly simple pressure-energy relationship. ...

Conformational behavior and coordination chemistry of 2,11-dithia[3.3]orthocyclophane with platinum group metals.

The compound 2,11-dithia[3.3]orthocyclophane (L) is a mesocyclic dithioether that can act as a bidentate ligand in different conformations. In the ionic heteroleptic complexes [PtL(eta(4)-cod)][CF(3)SO(3)](2) (1), [RhL(eta(4)-cod)][CF(3)SO(3)] (2), and [IrL(eta(4)-cod)][CF(3)SO(3)] (3) (cod = 1,5-cyclooctadiene), L is coordinated in the anti I conformation both in solution and in the solid stat...

Aroylphosphanes: base-free synthesis and their coordination chemistry with platinum-group metals

The bigger picture concepts

If a concept is not well defined, it can be abused. This is particularly true of complexity, an inherently interdisciplinary concept that has penetrated a range of intellectual fields from physics to linguistics, but with no underlying, unified theory. Complexity has become a popular buzzword that is used in the hope of gaining attention or funding — institutes and research networks associated ...