Complexes of aminobenzylamines. part II. Complexes ofo-aminobenzylamine with palladium(II) and platinum(II)

Summary The reactions of K₂[MX₄] (M = Pd^II or Pt^II and X = Cl or Br) witho-aminobenzylamine (o-aba) have been studied in neutral aqueous solutions. Two types of complexes were isolated from these studies: [MLX₂] and [ML₂]X₂. Elemental analyses, conductivity measurements, i.r. and visible spectra suggest polymeric structures for [MLX₂] with the ligand,o-aba = L, acting as a bridge, and/or mononuclear structures for [ML₂]X₂.     

Thermotropic liquid crystal behaviour of alkaline-earth-metal dihexadecyl phosphate salts

Alkaline-earth-metal dihexadecyl phosphate salts were synthesized, and their thermal stability was evaluated by thermogravimetry. Their thermotropic liquid crystal behaviour was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry, polarizing optical microscopy, dilatometry, and X-ray diffraction. On heating, the calcium, strontium, and barium salts exhibit columnar liquid crystal phases, whereas the less ionic beryllium and magnesium salts melt directly into isotropic liquids.     

Conditions for the onset of current oscillations at the limiting current of the iron electrodissolution in sulfuric acid solutions

The experimental conditions and parameters that control the transition from a steady to an nonsteady limiting current and vice versa in the anodic Fe dissolution are studied in sulfuric acid solutions by using a downward-facing Fe electrode. Periodic and chaotic current oscillations are observed at the beginning of the limiting current region within a fixed potential region by decreasing the sulfuric acid concentration, by increasing the Fe-disk rotation rate and by increasing a series external resistance. It is found that current oscillations emerge when theIR drop exceeds a critical value (IR)_crit. The latter depends on the hydrodynamic conditions pertaining to the system. This is realized by the differences appeared in the value of (IR)_crit on using a stationary or a rotating Fe electrode. The effect of hydrodynamic conditions is shown by additional experimental results obtained by using an upward-facing Fe electrode, by increasing the density and viscosity of the solution on addition of glycerol, and by altering the solution properties near the Fe surface on addition of halide ions. Dedicated to the ninetieth anniversary of Ya.M. Kolotyrkin’s birth. This article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Photoinduced hydrophilic and photocatalytic response of hydrothermally grown TiO2 nanostructured thin films

It is demonstrated that nanostructured titanium (IV) oxide (TiO₂) films can be deposited on glass substrates at 95 °C using hydrothermal growth, their properties being greatly affected by the substrate materials. Anatase TiO₂ films grown on ITO for deposition period of 50 h were observed to exhibit a very efficient, reversible light-induced transition to super-hydrophilicity, reaching a nearly zero contact angle. Enhanced photocatalytic activity (65%) was found for the rutile TiO₂ samples grown on microscope glass, possibly due to their higher roughness with respect to anatase grown on ITO. The effect of the substrate material used is discussed in terms of the TiO₂ phase and morphology control, for the best photoinduced hydrophilic and photocatalytic performance of the samples.     

Solvent effect on the singlet excited-state dynamics of 5-fluorouracil in acetonitrile as compared with water

The excited-state dynamics of 5-fluorouracil in acetonitrile has been investigated by femtosecond fluorescence upconversion spectroscopy in combination with quantum chemistry TD-DFT calculations ((PCM/TD-PBE0). Experimentally, it was found that when going from water to acetonitrile solution the fluorescence decay of 5FU becomes much faster. The calculations show that this is related to the opening of an additional decay channel in acetonitrile solution since the dark n/pi* excited state becomes near degenerate with the bright pi/pi* state, forming a conical intersection close to the Franck-Condon region. In both solvents, a S1-S0 conical intersection, governed by the out-of-plane motion of the fluorine atom, is active, allowing an ultrafast internal conversion to the ground state.     

Structures of DNA-linked nanoparticle aggregates

The room-temperature structure of DNA-linked gold nanoparticle aggregates is investigated using a combination of experiment and theory. The experiments involve extinction spectroscopy measurements and dynamic light scattering measurements of aggregates made using 60 and 80 nm gold particles and 30 base-pair DNA. The theoretical studies use calculated spectra for models of the aggregate structures to determine which structure matches the observations. These models include diffusion-limited cluster-cluster aggregation (DLCA), reaction-limited cluster-cluster aggregation (RLCA), and compact (nonfractal) cluster aggregation. The diameter of the nanoparticles used in the experiments is larger than has been considered previously, and this provides greater sensitivity of spectra to aggregate structure. We show that the best match between experiment and theory occurs for the RLCA fractal structures. This indicates that DNA hybridization takes place under irreversible conditions in the room-temperature aggregation. Some possible structural variations which might influence the result are considered, including the edge-to-edge distance between nanoparticles, variation in the diameter of the nanoparticles, underlying lattice structures of on-lattice compact clusters, and positional disorders in the lattice structures. We find that these variations do not change the conclusion that the room-temperature structure of the aggregates is fractal. We also examine the variation in extinction at 260 nm as temperature is increased, showing that the decrease in extinction at temperatures below the melting temperature is related to a morphological change from fractal toward compact structures.     

Quantitative analysis of geraniol,nerol, linalool,and α-terpineol in wine

A mixture of [(2)H(7)]-geraniol, [(2)H(7)]-nerol, [(2)H(7)]-linalool and [(2)H(7)]-alpha-terpineol was prepared for use as internal standards in a rapid and accurate analytical method, employing gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS), to determine the concentration of geraniol, nerol, linalool and alpha-terpineol in wine. The method avoids the possible formation, degradation and interconversion of these compounds during their analysis.     

Capillarity effects on crystallization kinetics: insulin

During layerwise growth of crystals, capillarity governs the generation of new crystal layers. Theory predicts that the line tension of the layer edge determines, via the characteristic two-dimensional capillary length L(c), the rates of generation and initial growth of the new layers. To test the correlation between L(c) and the rate of layer generation, we used in situ Tapping Mode Atomic Force Microscopy (TM-AFM) to study the generation and spreading of layers during crystallization of rhombohedral, R3, porcine insulin. We show that crystallization of this insulin form is uniquely suitable for such an investigation due to the linear kinetics of step growth it exhibits. This linear kinetics reflects the abundance of the incorporation sites along the rough steps, the lack of long-range step-step interactions, and the transport control of the growth kinetics. The kinetic coefficients are 7 x 10(-)(3) and 4 x 10(-)(2) cm s(-)(1), respectively, in the absence and presence of the cosolvent acetone-somewhat high for proteins and comparable to values for inorganic systems. We show that (i). the relevant capillary length, the size of a critical quadrangular 2D nucleus L(c), is the main scaling factor for the density of growth steps, while (ii). all steps longer than L(c) grow with a rate determined only by the supersaturation and independent of their length. We explain the divergence of (ii). from theoretical predictions with the high supersaturations typical of the growth of this protein system.     

1,3-cycloaddition reactions of 2-oxo-2H-[1]benzopyran-4-carbonitrile N-oxide. Synthesis of several new 4-substituted coumarins

1,3-Cycloaddition reactions of new 2-oxo-2H-[1]benzopyran-4-carbonitrile N-oxide 2 with dipolarophiles, o-aminophenols and o-phenylenediamine resulted in 4-heterocyclic substituted coumarin derivatives. These derivatives are screened for antiinflammatory activity in vitro through their antiproteolytic activity, the interaction with 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl and the ability to affect superoxide anion and to inhibit β-glucuronidase and soybean lipoxygenase.     

Application of solvent microextraction in a single drop for the determination of new antifouling agents in waters

A new, rapid microextraction technique termed solvent microextraction (SME) has been developed for the simultaneous determination of new generation antifouling agents, in water samples. Chlorothalonil, dichlofluanid and Sea nine 211 were employed as model compounds to asses the extraction procedure and were determined by gas chromatography with electron capture detection. Experimental parameters which control the performance of SME, such as selection of solvent, exposure time, agitation, organic drop volume, and salt concentration were optimized. The new method provided good average enrichment factors of >10.7 for all analytes, good precision (RSD < 8.5%) and good linearity (r2 > 0.9880). The limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.00025-0.003 microg/L (S/N = 3). The SME was performed in different type of natural water samples and acceptable recoveries were obtained for the tested analytes. The results demonstrated that SME is a rapid, accurate and effective preparation method and could be successfully performed for the determination of antifouling agents in water samples.