Subject tantalates

What we know already about insect chemistry is tantalizing, but there can be no question that the best is yet to come. Only a tiny percentage of insects have so far been subject to even the most cursory chemical study. There is no telling what, in the line of molecular novelty and chemical-ecological ingenuity, the remainder might have to offer. 

The uses of the metal for the living creature have been the subject of much speculation but the possibility that vanadium(III) is involved in oxygen transport has been ruled out experimentally.352 The role of the high concentrations of vanadium in tunicates remains tantalizing. 

A method of separation which avoids the preparation of the double fluorides consists in fusing the mixed niobic and t an tali c acids with sodium carbonate and nitrate, the product is digested with warm water and a current of carbon dioxide is passed through the solution. It is claimed that only tantalic acid is precipitated.5 This process has, however, been the subject of adverse criticism.6 Partial separation of niobium from tantalum can be effected by warming the mixed, freshly precipitated, hydrated oxides with a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid the niobium dissolves readily, while the tantalum dissolves only sparingly.7... 

The reaction of phosphorus pentachloride with ammonium chloride is tantalizingly complex and has been the subject of numerous investigations (21). Cyclic oligomers and linear products are formed, and... 

Ergodicity is also amenable to a kind of local and temporal scrutiny. Here we can look at some of the results obtained until now. However, the whole subject of how ergodicity develops in time, and how that development is related to the kinds of interactions among the component particles of a system and thus to the effective potential surface, is a vast, open, and tantalizing subject. First, we can... 

Any type of acoustic transducer, such as quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) or surface acoustic wave device (SAW), is fundamentally based on the piezoelectric effect. This was first described in 1880 by Jacques and Pierre Curie as a property of crystalline materials that do not have an inversion centre. When such a material is subjected to physical stress, a measurable voltage occurs on the crystal surfaces. Naturally, the opposite effect can also be observed, i.e. applying an electrical charge on a piezoelectric material leads to mechanical distortion, the so-called inverse piezo effect. These phenomena can be used to transfrom an electrical signal to a mechanical one and back, which actually happens in QCM and SAW. Different materials are ap-pHed for device fabrication, such as quartz, Hthium tantalate, lithium titanate... 

TMs could be a very effective route because if the stepkdder can be (xnnpletely functionalized, then the subsequent reactkms would no longer be subject to statistical control and could be push to ccsnpleticm. This approach is all the more tantalizing because the j ient "step-ladder potymer is a milable in pure structural form, XIV (75). 

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