„Ytterbiumdisulfid”︁: Eine Korrektur

?Ytterbiumdisulfide”?: A Correction The still open questions concerning preparation and crystal structure of ?Ytterbiumdisulfide”? could be answered now using new experimental results. The formerly investigated single crystals were not Yb^IIS₂ but BaS₂.     

Synthesis of new 1<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-pyridazine derivatives <Emphasis Type="Italic">peri</Emphasis>-annelated with acenaphthene and acenaphthylene

The reaction of 6-acetyl-5-hydroxyacenaphthene with methylhydrazine afforded 1,3-dimethyl-1H-6,7-dihydroacenaphtho[5,6-de]pyridazine. Its dehydrogenation with chloranil gave 1,3-dimethyl-1H-acenaphtho[5,6-de]pyridazine, which is a heteroaromatic compound with an essentially new topology of the ρsystem. The reaction of 3-methyl-1H-6,7-dihydroacenaphtho[5,6-de]pyridazine with 3,5-di-tert-butyl-1,2-benzoquinone yielded a dimer containing the acenaphthene and acenaphthylene moieties of peri-annelated 1H-1,2-diazines connected in positions 1′ and 9.__________Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 3, pp. 777–780, March, 2005.     

Selective Alkaline Protease Catalyzed Hydrolysis of Peptide Esters

Procedures for preparing C-terminal free peptides from hydrolysis of its corresponding methyl or benzyl esters catalyzed by alkaline protease has been developed. N-protected peptides having side-chain ester protecting groups or successive hydrophobic amino acid residues in its sequence are hydrolyzed selectively at C-terminal only and leave other bonds (β and γ- ester or peptide bonds) intact. Compounds which cause a side reaction in base mediated saponification could be hydrolyzed safely by this procedure. Products of this hydrolysis are useful intermediates for fragments coupling in the solid phase peptide synthesis.     

Hopping conduction in “pure” polypropylene

A recently developed theory of steady-state conduction in high-density polyethylene is applied to “pure” polypropylene (PP) in the temperature range 50–93°C. Morphological changes occur in PP, including a disordered-amorphous to monoclinic-amorphous transition between 50 and 80°C, where, with increasing temperature T, free volume increases, and decreases with decreasing amorphous fraction. The latter competing processes lead to large increases in hopping site separation, λ, in the transition region, followed either by saturation or a maximum in λ vs. T. We speculate that segmental and/or main chain molecular motions lower apparent activation energies, are “pinned“ by applied field, and impeded by dangling bonds in regions surrounding the surfaces of crystallites. Our analysis is semi-quantitative only, because the latter mechanisms have not been adequately quantified, and the relative contributions of each are unknown. Measurements were carried out on heated and cooled disordered-amorphous, and 106°C, 17-h annealed, 43% crystalline samples. Hopping distances, obtained from measured current vs. applied field characteristics, ranged from 1.2 to 5.2 nm. Apparent activation energies up to 1.80 eV were obtained from In (I/T) vs. (1/T) plots. Remarkable plateaus in the temperature range of the transition were observed in these plots, implying some carrier conduction with near zero activation energy. Possible explanations for the latter, and the electronic nature of the carriers are given. X-ray and density flotation measurements enabled crystallinity determinations. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

“Bicarburet of Hydrogen”. Reappraisal of the Discovery of Benzene in 1825 with the Analytical Methods of 1968

The historical background and the admirable analytical procedure that led Michael Faraday to the discovery of benzene in 1825 are discussed. Using modern techniques of instrumental analysis, the author retraces the isolation and analysis of benzene, and shows that the starting material used by Faraday must have been a very complex mixture of hydrocarbons, which would make severe demands even on present-day preparative analytical techniques, since it contains more than 300 components at concentrations greater than 100 ppm. The magnitude of the changes in analytical techniques can be seen from the fact that it is no longer necessary to isolate individual compounds, and that a great deal of information can be obtained with a much smaller quantity of material and in a much shorter time. Nevertheless, Faraday's persistence, experimental skill, and accuracy of measurement remain an example to the analyst of today.     

Cyclic and branched functional polyesters derived from 5,5′,6,6′‐tetrahydroxy‐3,3,3′,3′‐tetramethyl spirobisindane and various dicarboxylic acids

Triethylamine‐promoted polycondensations of 5,5′,6,6′‐tetrahydroxy‐3,3, 3′,3′‐tetramethyl spirobisindane (TTSBI) and α,ω‐alkane dicarboxylic acid dichlorides were performed with equimolar feed ratios. Three different procedures were compared. At a TTSBI concentration of 0.05 mol/L, gelation was avoided, and soluble cyclic polyesters having two OH groups per repeat unit were isolated. These polyesters were characterized with ¹H NMR spectroscopy, MALDI‐TOF mass spectrometry, and SEC and DSC measurements. All polycondensations with sebacoyl chloride resulted in gelation, regardless of the procedure. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 45: 1699–1706, 2007     

Evaluation of syringe handling techniques for injections into vaporizing GC injectors

Unequal elution of sample components of different volatility out of the syringe needle is one of the major causes for discrimination occuring during the injection, i.e. the phenomena which results in peak areas for the high boiling compounds which are too small compared with the volatiles. This problem, associated with all vaporizing injectors that are used with syringes, can be minimized by careful choice of the needle handling technique. Various methods are compared experimentally. The “solvent flush” method is discussed in detail and demonstrated to be ineffective for reducing losses in the syringe needle. The “hot needle” technique, where the empty needle is preheated in the injector before pushing the plunger, was found to be superior or equal to an improved “solvent flush” method (which included preheating the needle and omitting the air plug between sample and flushing solvent. Generally it was found that the discrimination due to the syringe needle was reduced for larger sample volumes, although no further changes were noticed when these exceeded 2.5 to 3μl.     

Facile synthesis of polyester dendrimer via combining thio‐bromo “Click” chemistry and ATNRC

This article reports on developing an efficient synthesis approach to aliphatic polyester dendrimer, poly(thioglycerol‐2‐propionate) (PTP), by combination of thio‐bromo “Click” chemistry with atom transfer nitroxide radical coupling (ATNRC). Through the one‐pot two‐step method, linear polystyrene with hydroxyl end groups (l‐PS‐2OH) was obtained by first atom transfer radical polymerization of styrene and following termination using 4‐(2,3‐dihydroxypropoxy)‐TEMPO (DHP‐TEMPO) to capture the PS macroradicals via ATNRC method. Using l‐PS‐2OH as support, the dendritic repeating units divergently were grown from the hydroxyl end groups via esterification and thio‐bromo “Click” reaction two‐step process. In every generation, the resulting intermediates l‐PS‐d‐PTP (G1‐G4) can be easily isolated from the excessive unreacted monomers by simple precipitation in ethanol without help of time, labor and solvent consuming column chromatographic purification. At last, cleavage of the alkoxyamine group between the PS support and dendrimer at elevated temperature (125 °C) provided the targeted polyester dendrimer PTP up to the fourth generation. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2015 , 53, 1762–1768     

A “quasi‐flexible” automatic docking processing for studying stereoselective recognition mechanisms. Part I. Protocol validation

The main purpose of this work is the development and validation of a general scheme based on a systematic and automatic “quasi‐flexible” docking approach for studying stereoselective recognition mechanisms. To achieve our goals we explore the conformational and configurational space for small‐ or medium‐size flexible molecules in a systematic way, seeking a method that is both reasonably accurate and relatively fast from the computational point of view. In particular, we have developed a general computational protocol for the global molecular interaction evaluation (“Glob‐MolInE”) to efficiently explore the orientational and conformational space of flexible selectors and selectands used in modern chiral high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC); the enantioselective binding of the selector (S)‐N‐(3,5‐dinitrobenzoyl)‐leucine‐ n‐propylamide (S)‐ 1 towards the selectand N‐(2‐naphthyl)‐alanine methyl ester 2 has been studied; the global minimum obtained for the homochiral associate [S( 1 )/S( 2 )] (Pop. >99%) is very close (RMS≃0.20) to the crystallographically determined structure. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 21: 515–530, 2000     

On the statistical independence of various column contributions to band broadening. Part 3: Independent treatment of longitudinal diffusion in the plate model

It is shown theorectically that the classical formula for calculating the theoretical plate number from squared first central moment, t , and second central moment, σ², according to n _theor = t /σ² is valid only when the capacity ratio, k approaches infinity. The general relation between the classical experimental HETP value, H = L/nm _theor, and the underlying true theoretical plate height, ΔL, is found to be when (σ′)² is the total column contribution to band broadening, L is the column length, D _m is the average diffusion coefficient of the sample component in the mobile phase, D _s is its value in the stationary phase, and u is the average linear velocity of the mobile phase. The mobile phase displacement, as well as the mass exchange process, is assumed to be continuous, but the application of the plate concept conditions leads to a mass balance equation that can be interpreted as belonging to a modified discontinuous plate model. The contributions 2D _m/u and k 2 D _s/u from longitudinal sample diffusion in the mobile and stationary phases, respectively, are consistent with the assumption that the processes are statistically independent, although the common solution technique of the differential equations does not take full account of this independence.     

“Click” chemistry for in situ formation of thermoresponsive P(NIPAAm‐co‐HEMA)‐based hydrogels

The strategy for in situ chemical gelation of poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide‐co‐hydroxylethyl methacrylate) [P(NIPAAm‐co‐HEMA)]‐based polymers was demonstrated. Two types of new P(NIPAAm‐co‐HEMA) derivatives with alkyne and azide pendant groups, respectively, were prepared. When the solutions of the two derivatives were mixed together, a crosslinking reaction, a type of Huisgen's 1,3‐dipolar azide‐alkyne cycloaddition, in the presence of Cu(I) catalyst occurs. The morphology, equilibrium swelling ratio, swelling kinetics, and temperature response kinetics of the in situ gelated hydrogels were studied. In comparison with the conventional PNIPAAm hydrogel, because of the spatial hindrance of polymeric chains, the resulted hydrogels had a macroporous structure as well as a fast shrinking rate. The strategy described here presents a potential alternative to the traditional synthesis techniques for the in situ formation of thermoresponsive hydrogels. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 5263–5277, 2008     

Mass Spectra of 2- and 6-Substituted-3-Pyrones: Competition Between “RETRO-DIELS-ALDER” Fragmentation and Substituent Loss

The mass spectra of a series of 6-hydroxy-3-pyrones and their derivatives showed a marked dependence upon the nature of the substituent. The “retro-Diels-Alder” reaction is the primary decomposition observed for the parent compounds, while the α-cleavage (substituent loss) competes with the “retro-Diels-Alder” reaction for their derivatives. An interpretation of this difference based on the charge location and the thermochemical data is proposed.     

“Sock-Ball” Chromatographic Separation of High Molecular Weight Fullerenes with Sock-Shaped Stationary Phase

A method for “Sock-Bail” chromatographic separation of high molecular weight fullerenes is described. A prepared sock-shaped stationary phase (Sock-SAF-phase) was used for HPLC separation of several polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and fullerenes. Fullerenes, as ball-shaped molecules, are much more strongly retained than PAHs on this stationary phase and have the eluted order C₅₀ < C₇₀ < C₇₆ < C₇₈ < C₈₄ in the mobile phase of n-hexane/dichloromethane (100/0 ～ 80/20). In contrast, chromatography on the corresponding unmodified silica phase or SC-3OH-phase (an intermediate phase of Sock-SAF-phase) gave no separation of fullerenes. This fact indicated that the separation of fullerenes on Sock-SAF-phase was related to the selective interaction with the sock moiety.     

Synthesis and characterization of star graft copolymers with asymmetric mixed “V‐shaped” side chains via “click” chemistry on a hyperbranched polyglycerol core

The star graft copolymers composed of hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) as core and well defined asymmetric mixed “V‐shaped” identical polystyrene (PS) and poly(tert‐butyl acrylate) as side chains were synthesized via the “click” chemistry. The V‐shaped side chain bearing a “clickable” alkyne group at the conjunction point of two blocks was first prepared through the combination of anionic polymerization of styrene (St) and atom transfer radical polymerization of tert‐butyl acrylate (tBA) monomer, and then “click” chemistry was conducted between the alkyne groups on the side chains and azide groups on HPG core. The obtained star graft copolymers and intermediates were characterized by gel permeation chromatography (GPC), GPC equipped with a multiangle laser‐light scattering detector (GPC‐MALLS), nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and fourier transform infrared. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 47: 1308–1316, 2009     

Synthesis and characterization of surface‐initiated polymer brushes on silicon substrates by reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization

Polymer brushes were prepared by using the reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) technique. The silicon substrates (Si (111) surface) were modified with ethyl xanthate groups which were introduced by the treatment of Si (111) surface with sodium ethyl xanthate. The polymer brushes were then prepared under RAFT conditions from the Si (111) wafer. Its “living” characteristics were determined by a series of characterizations including gel permeation chromatography (GPC), ellipsometry, and contact angle measurements. The results showed a well‐defined graft layer consisting of polymer brushes with low‐polydispersity could be prepared directly on Si (111)‐X surface (where X represents an ethyl xanthate groups). The structure of the polymer brushes was characterized and confirmed with the surface sensitive techniques such as X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.