Is the A-ring of sparteine essential for high enantioselectivity in the asymmetric lithiation-substitution of N-Boc-pyrrolidine?

The simplest chiral portion of sparteine, N,N'-dimethyl-2-endo-methylbispidine, was prepared and evaluated in the asymmetric lithiation-substitution of N-Boc-pyrrolidine. The results indicate that the complete A-ring of sparteine is essential for high levels of asymmetric induction. DFT-QSSR analyses of the diamine/Li(+) complexes and DFT calculations of the pertinent i-PrLi/diamine/N-Boc-pyrrolidine complexes are predictive and provide complementary pictures of the stereochemical features critical to this transformation.     

Recent advances in high resolution scanning electrochemical microscopy of living cells – A review

This review discusses advances in the field of high resolution scanning electrochemical microscopy (HR-SECM) and scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM) to study living cells. Relevant references from the advent of this technique in the late 1980s to most recent contributions in 2012 are presented with special discussion on high resolution images. A clear progress especially within the last 5 years can be seen in the field of HR-SECM. Furthermore, we also concentrate on the intrinsic properties of SECM imaging techniques e.g. different modes of image acquisition, their advantages and disadvantages in imaging living cells and strategies for further enhancement of image resolution, etc. Some of the recent advances of SECM in nanoimaging have also been discussed which may have potential applications in high resolution imaging of cellular processes.     

Formation of solid solutions in the CdSe–PbSe system under the action of high pressures and temperatures

A method was proposed for producing solid solutions in the CdSe–PbSe systems, which is based on heat and high pressure treatment. X-ray powder diffraction analysis showed the formation of substitutional solid solutions Cd_xPb_1–xSe with the NaCl structure, which contained 20, 40, 60, and 80 mol % cadmium selenide. The solid solutions were characterized by scanning electron microscopy, impedance spectroscopy, gas pycnometry, and Raman spectroscopy.     

Dynamics of the surface layer in cyanobiphenyl–aerosil nanocomposites with a high silica density

Composites were prepared from an aerosil and 4-n-alkyl-4′cyanobiphenyls with five to eight carbon atoms in the alkyl chain. Their high silica density of ～7?g aerosil in 1?cm³ of liquid crystal (LC) allows the observation of the behaviour of a thin cyanobiphenyl layer (having nearly a monolayer structure) on the silica particles. The systems are investigated by dielectric spectroscopy (10^?2–10⁹?Hz) in a large temperature range (220–370?K). All the composites show a (main) relaxation process at frequencies much lower than the processes observed for the bulk LC that was assigned to the dynamics of the molecules in the surface layer. The temperature dependence of its characteristic frequencies obeys the Vogel–Fulcher–Tammann law, which is found to be typical for glass-forming liquids. The quasi two-dimensional character of the glass transition in the surface layer is discussed for the first time. At the nematic-to-isotropic transition temperature of the bulk, the composites show a continuous decrease of the characteristic frequencies as a function of the alkyl chain length, while the bulk LCs show the well known odd–even behaviour. The magnitude and temperature dependence of the slow relaxation process in the composites (molecules on an outer surface) agree with those of the same molecules confined to the nanopores of molecular sieves (internal surface).     

Determination of neomycin in water samples by high performance anion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection

A simple, fast and reliable method, using high performance anion chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection, had been developed for the analysis of neomycin in water samples. The elution and separation were carried out with an isocratic mobile phase, containing 10 mmol/L NaOH. The influence of the concentration and pH of the mobile phase on the separation and detection was investigated. A quadruple-potential waveform used for the detection was optimized. The detection limit of neomycin was down to 0.027μg/mL. The linearity of neomycin calibration curve ranged from 0.050 to 0.505μg/mL with correlation coefficient of 0.9997. R.S.D. (n = 11) was 4.0%.     

Advances in high carbon dioxide separation performance of poly(ethylene oxide)-based membranes

Poly(ethylene-oxide)(PEO)-based membranes have attracted much attention recently for CO2 separation because CO2 is highly soluble into PEO and shows high selectivity over other gases such as CH4 and N2.Unfortunately,those membranes are not strong enough mechanically and highly crystalline,which hinders their broader applications for separation membranes.In this review discussions are made,as much in detail as possible,on the strategies to improve gas separation performance of PEO-based membranes.Some of techniques such as synthesis of graft copolymers that contain PEO,cross-linking of polymers and blending with long chains polymers contributed significantly to improvement of membrane.Incorporation of ionic liquids/nanoparticles has also been found effective.However,surface modification of nanoparticles has been done chemically or physically to enhance their compatibility with polymer matrix.As a result of all such efforts,an excellent performance,i.e.,CO2 permeability up to 200 Barrer,CO2/N2 selectivity up to 200 and CO2/CH4 selectivity up to 70,could be achieved.Another method is to introduce functional groups into PEO-based polymers which boosted CO2 permeability up to 200 Barrer with CO2/CH4 selectivity between 40 and 50.The CO2 permeability of PEO-based membranes increases,without much change in selectivity,when the length of ethylene oxide is increased.     

The certification of SRM 1546 – Meat Homogenate, a new reference material for nutrients in a high protein, high fat matrix

In response to reference material needs expressed by the food industry and government regulators, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed a new Standard Reference Material (SRM) consisting of a canned meat product with certified and reference values for a large number of constituents. SRM 1546 Meat Homogenate consists of a mixture of finely ground pork and chicken prepared and canned by a commercial process. NIST determined the concentration levels of cholesterol, sodium, calcium, iron, and seven fatty acids in this SRM using well defined methods and procedures. These analytes as well as 34 other constituents or properties were determined in an interlaboratory comparison exercise involving 21 laboratories, most of which are associated with the National Food Processors Association (NFPA) Food Industry Analytical Chemists Subcommittee (FIACS). From statistical analysis of the data, NIST assigned certified concentrations for the eleven analytes measured at NIST and reference concentrations for the proximates, six additional fatty acids, seven minerals, and seven water-soluble vitamins. Information values without uncertainties are provided for the concentrations of six additional constituents for which the uncertainties could not adequately be assessed. SRM 1546 will provide laboratories with a means to evaluate the accuracy of the methods they use to assign nutrient levels to processed meats and similar products. Received: 11 October 2000 / Revised: 15 December 2000 / Accepted: 21 December 2000     

Defect engineering of single-walled carbon nanohorns for stable electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen peroxide with high selectivity in neutral electrolytes

Hydrogen peroxide(H₂O₂)is one of the most important chemicals,which are commonly used in the paper and pulp industry,water purification and environmental protection[1-3].Most of the commercial available H₂O₂ is produced by the anthraquinone oxidation process,which is environment unfriendly.     

General foundations of high‐dimensional model representations

A family of multivariate representations is introduced to capture the input–output relationships of highdimensional physical systems with many input variables. A systematic mapping procedure between the inputs and outputs is prescribed to reveal the hierarchy of correlations amongst the input variables. It is argued that for most welldefined physical systems, only relatively loworder correlations of the input variables are expected to have an impact upon the output. The highdimensional model representations (HDMR) utilize this property to present an exact hierarchical representation of the physical system. At each new level of HDMR, higherorder correlated effects of the input variables are introduced. Tests on several systems indicate that the few lowestorder terms are often sufficient to represent the model in equivalent form to good accuracy. The input variables may be either finitedimensional (i.e., a vector of parameters chosen from the Euclidean space ) or may be infinitedimensional as in the function space . Each hierarchical level of HDMR is obtained by applying a suitable projection operator to the output function and each of these levels are orthogonal to each other with respect to an appropriately defined inner product. A family of HDMRs may be generated with each having distinct character by the use of different choices of projection operators. Two types of HDMRs are illustrated in the paper: ANOVAHDMR is the same as the analysis of variance (ANOVA) decomposition used in statistics. Another cutHDMR will be shown to be computationally more efficient than the ANOVA decomposition. Application of the HDMR tools can dramatically reduce the computational effort needed in representing the input–output relationships of a physical system. In addition, the hierarchy of identified correlation functions can provide valuable insight into the model structure. The notion of a model in the paper also encompasses input–output relationships developed with laboratory experiments, and the HDMR concepts are equally applicable in this domain. HDMRs can be classified as nonregressive, nonparametric learning networks. Selected applications of the HDMR concept are presented along with a discussion of its general utility.     

Incorporation of layered tin(Ⅳ) phosphate in graphene framework for high performance lithium-sulfur batteries

To anchor the polysulfide and enhance the conversion kinetics of polysulfide to disulfide/sulfide is critical for improving the performance of lithium-sulfur battery.For this purpose,the graphene-supported tin(Ⅳ) phosphate(Sn(HPO_4)_2·H_2 O,SnP) composites(SnP-G) are employed as the novel sulfur hosts in this work.When compared to the graphene-sulfur and carbon-sulfur composites,the SnP-G-sulfur composites exhibit much better cycling performance at 1.0 C over 800 cycles.Meanwhile,the pouch cell fabricated with the SnP-G-sulfur cathodes also exhibits excellent performance with an initial capacity of1266.6 mAh g^-1(S) and capacity retention of 76.9% after 100 cycles at 0.1 C.The adsorption tests,density functional theory(DFT) calculations in combination with physical cha racterizations and electrochemical measurements provide insights into the mechanism of capture-accelerated conversion mechanism of polysulfide at the surface of SnP.DFT calculations indicate that the Li-O bond formed between Li atom(from Li_2 S_n,n=1,2,4,6,8) and O atom(from PO_3-OH in SnP) is the main reason for the strong interactions between Li_2 S_n and SnP.As a result,SnP can effectively restrain the shuttle effect and improving the cycling performance of Li-S cell.In addition,by employing the climbing-image nudged elastic band(ciNEB) methods,the energy barrier for lithium sulfide decomposition(charging reaction) on SnP is proved to decrease significantly compared to that on graphene.It can be concluded that SnP is an effective sulfur hosts acting as dual-functional accelerators for the conversion reactions of polysulfude to sulfide(discharging reaction) as well as polysulfide to sulfur(charging reaction).     

Unexpected high ordering of a [60]Fullerene nitroxide in the nematic phase of 4-4′-azoxyanisole

A nitroxide [60]fullerene adduct containing a pyrrolidine-1-oxyl group has been synthesized. Its orientational order in the nematic phase of the liquid crystal solvent 4,4′-azoxyanisole (PAA) has been measured from the variation of the EPR spectral parameters on passing from the isotropic to the nematic phase. Highly resolved EPR lines allow for precise evaluation of the shifts of the g, a _N and a _H values. Since the g and the hyperfine tensors are known, the order matrix could be obtained. This is compared with the one calculated with a theoretical model based on short range solute-solvent interactions, which predicts a considerable degree of orientation of the molecular axes, despite the almost spherical shape of the molecule. The agreement with experimental findings is quite good and it is further improved if a bent structure of the pyrrolidine ring is taken into account.     

Prediction of thermodynamic properties of some polymeric systems using an extended LJ potential-based equation of state up to high temperature–high pressure conditions

In this work, the extended Lennard-Jones potential-based equation of state (ELJ-based EoS) on which the effective near-neighbour pair interactions are LJ (12,6,3) type has been used to predict the specific volume and other thermodynamic properties of some semi-crystalline and liquid polymers and copolymers up to extremely high temperature–high pressure conditions. It seems that, at least in the dense regions, there are no upper- and lower-specific volume limitations in the applicability of the model for different polymeric systems. The parameters can be determined at any temperature for each compound using the temperature dependence of the parameters of ELJ-based EoS. The calculated parameters have been used to calculate the specific volume and other derived thermodynamic properties of different polymeric systems at any temperature and pressure. The ELJ-based EoS has been also compared with some previous studies.     

Can the absence of solvation of neutral reagents by ionic liquids be responsible for the high reactivity in base-assisted intramolecular nucleophilic substitutions in these solvents?

[reaction: see text] The kinetics of the rearrangement of the Z-phenylhydrazone of 3-benzoyl-5-phenyl-1,2,4-oxadiazole (1a) into the relevant 4-benzoylamino-2,5-diphenyl-1,2,3-triazole (2a) induced by amines have been studied in two room-temperature ionic liquids (IL-1, [BMIM][BF4] and IL-2, [BMIM][PF6]). The data collected show that the reaction occurs faster in ionic liquids than in other conventional solvents previously studied (both polar or apolar, protic or aprotic). Presumably, this could depend on their peculiar ability to minimize the strong substrate-solvent, amine-solvent and amine-amine interactions occurring in conventional solvents.     

Development of a method for enhancing metabolomics coverage of human sweat by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry in high resolution mode

Sweat has recently gained popularity as clinical sample in metabolomics analysis as it is a non-invasive biofluid the composition of which could be modified by certain pathologies, as is the case with cystic fibrosis that increases chloride levels in sweat. However, the whole composition of sweat is still unknown and there is a lack of analytical strategies for sweat analysis. The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a method for metabolomic analysis of human sweat by gas chromatography–time of flight/mass spectrometry (GC–TOF/MS) in high resolution mode. Thus, different sample preparation strategies were compared to check their effect on the profile of sweat metabolites. Sixty-six compounds were tentatively identified by the obtained MS information. Amino acids, dicarboxylic acids and other interesting metabolites such as myo-inositol and urocanic acid were identified. Among the tested protocols, methyoxiamination plus silylation after deproteinization was the most suited option to obtain a representative snapshot of sweat metabolome. The intra-day repeatability of the method ranged from 0.60 to 16.99% and the inter-day repeatability from 2.75 to 31.25%. As most of the identified metabolites are involved in key biochemical pathways, this study opens new possibilities to the use of sweat as a source of metabolite biomarkers of specific disorders.     

Explanation of the mechanism of carcinogenesis and syntheses of anticancer agents with high selectivity

Historically,leading anticancer agents have all been discovered by fortuitous events,and advances in the new anticancer agent proceed from random screening of a large quantity of the leading anticancer drug con-geners and individual and specific natural p…     

Synthesis of a crescent aromatic oligothioamide and its high selectivity in recognizing copper(Ⅱ) ions

Functionalization of shape-persistent aromatic oligoamides still represents a difficult task nowadays. A crescent aromatic oligothioamide was synthesized by simple thionation of the corresponding oligoamide with the Lawesson's reagent. The results from UV-vis spectra of the molecule upon metal ion complexation demonstrated its higher selectivity in recognizing Cu2+ ions compared to the oligoamide precursor. The stoichiometry of the complex formed between the thioamide and Cu2+ was found to be 1:1 with a binding constant of (4.3±0.9)×104 mol/L.     

LC–high resolution MS in environmental analysis: from target screening to the identification of unknowns

This article provides an overview of the state-of-the-art and future trends of the application of LC–high resolution mass spectrometry to the environmental analysis of polar micropollutants. Highly resolved and accurate hybrid tandem mass spectrometry such as quadrupole/time-of-flight and linear ion trap/orbitrap technology allows for a more reliable target analysis with reference standards, a screening for suspected analytes without reference standards, and a screening for unknowns. A reliable identification requires both high resolving power and high mass spectral accuracy to increase selectivity against the matrix background and for a correct molecular formula assignment to unknown compounds. For the identification and structure elucidation of unknown compounds within a reasonable time frame and with a reasonable soundness, advanced automated software solutions as well as improved prediction systems for theoretical fragmentation patterns, retention times, and ionization behavior are needed.     

Mössbauer spectroscopy with high velocity resolution: an increase of analytical possibilities in biomedical research

Mössbauer spectroscopy is a useful technique for biomedical applications. To increase analytical possibilities and quality of its biomedical applications a new Mössbauer spectrometric system was developed. This system based on a highly stable, sensitive and precision spectrometer SM-2201 with high velocity resolution and a temperature variable liquid nitrogen cryostat with a moving absorber. The first results of Mössbauer spectroscopy with high velocity resolution demonstrated a decrease in the experimental error in the determination of ⁵⁷Fe hyperfine parameters and, therefore, an increase of accuracy in analysis of small variations of the iron electronic structure, as well as more reliable fitting of complicated spectra.     

One-step solvothermal synthesis of N-doped TiO2 nanoparticles with high photocatalytic activity in the reduction of aqueous Cr（Ⅵ）

N-doped TiO2 （N-TiO2） nanoparticles were synthesized via a one-step low temperature （180℃） solvothermal route, which adopted NH4NO3 as the nitrogen source. The structure, composition, BET specific surface area, and optical properties of the as-synthesized product were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, N2 adsorption- desorption isotherms, and UV-vis diffuse reflectance spectroscopy. In addition, its photocatalytic properties were tested by the reduction of aqueous Cr（VI） under UV and visible light （x 〉 420 rim） irradiation. It was observed that for the reduction of aqueous Cr（VI）, the as-synthesized N-TiO2 nanoparticles not only exhibited much higher photocatalytic activity than P25 TiO2 under UV light, but also exhibited remarkably high photocatalytic activity under visible light （λ 〉 420 nm）.