The influence of microhydration on the ionization energy thresholds of uracil and thymine

In the present study the ionization energy thresholds (IET's) of uracil and thymine have been calculated (with the B3LYP, PMP2, and P3 levels of theory using the standard 6-31++G(d,p) basis set) with one to three water molecules placed in the first hydration shell. Then (B3LYP) polarizable continuum model (PCM) calculations were performed with one to three waters of the hydration shell included. Calculations show there is a distinct effect of microhydration on uracil and thymine. For uracil, one added water results in a decrease in the IET of about 0.15 eV. The second and third water molecules cause a further decrease by about 0.07 eV each. For thymine, the first water molecule is seen to decrease the IET by about 0.1 eV, while the second and third water molecules cause a further decrease of less than 0.1 eV each. The changes in IET calculated here for thymine with one to three waters of hydration are smaller than the experimental values determined by Kim et al. (Kim, S. K.; Lee, W.; Herschbach, D. R. J. Phys. Chem. 1996, 100, 7933). Preliminary results presented here indicate that the experimental results may involve keto-enol tautomers of thymine. The results of placing the microhydrated structures of uracil and thymine in a PCM cavity was seen to make very little difference in the IET when compared to the IET of ordinary uracil or thymine in a PCM cavity. The implications are that accurate calculations of the IET's of uracil and thymine can be obtained by simply considering long-range solvation effects.     

Infrared absorption and electron paramagnetic resonance studies of vinyl radical in noble-gas matrices

Vinyl radicals produced by annealing-induced reaction of mobilized hydrogen atoms with acetylene molecules in solid noble-gas matrices (Ar, Kr, and Xe) were characterized by Fourier transform infrared and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopies. The hydrogen atoms were generated from acetylene by UV photolysis or fast electron irradiation. Two vibrational modes of the vinyl radical (nu7 and nu5) were assigned in IR absorption studies. The assignment is based on data for various isotopic substitutions (D and 13C) and confirmed by comparison with the EPR measurements and density-functional theory calculations. The data on the nu7 mode is in agreement with previous experimental and theoretical results whereas the nu5 frequency agrees well with the computational data but conflicts with the gas-phase IR emission results.     

The effect of capillary column diameter on the performance of thermal conductivity detectors

The concentration sensitivity of a thermal conductivity detector (TCD) depends, among other factors, on the amount of sample mixture in the detector's sensing cell. Since the cell volume has to be appropriately matched with column diameter, it makes the concentration sensitivity of a TCD dependent on column diameter and, therefore, on the speed of gas chromatography. Through reduction of column diameter, higher speed tends to lead to a reduction in the concentration sensitivity of the cell. The factor which the most directly affects the concentration sensitivity of a TCD cell is the heat power conducted through the cell. The higher the power, the greater the sensitivity. The limit of detection of a TCD depends on the concentration-sensitivity of its cell and on the level of statistical errors in the measurement. The errors increase with increasing analysis speed. As the column diameter is reduced, the errors cause additional worsening (on top of the decrease in concentration sensitivity) of the detection limit, dynamic range, and other performance characteristics of the TCD.     

Intermolecular complexes of HXeOH with water: stabilization and destabilization effects

Theoretical and matrix-isolation studies of intermolecular complexes of HXeOH with water molecules are presented. The structures and possible decomposition routes of the HXeOH-(H(2)O)(n)(n = 0, 1, 2, 3) complexes are analyzed theoretically. It is concluded that the decay of these metastable species may proceed through the bent transition states (TSs), leading to the global minima on the respective potential energy surfaces, Xe + (H(2)O)(n+1). The respective barrier heights are 39.6, 26.6, 11.2, and 0.4 kcal/mol for n = 0, 1, 2, and 3. HXeOH in larger water clusters is computationally unstable with respect to the bending coordinate, representing the destabilization effect. Another decomposition channel of HXeOH-(H(2)O)(n), via a linear TS, leads to a direct break of the H-Xe bond of HXeOH. In this case, the attached water molecules stabilize HXeOH by strengthening the H-Xe bond. Due to the stabilization, a large blue shift of the H-Xe stretching mode upon complexation of HXeOH with water molecules is featured in calculations. On the basis of this computational result, the IR absorption bands at 1681 and 1742 cm(-1) observed after UV photolysis and annealing of multimeric H(2)O/Xe matrixes are assigned to the HXeOH-H(2)O and HXeOH-(H(2)O)(2) complexes. These bands are blue-shifted by 103 and 164 cm(-1) from the known monomeric HXeOH absorption.     

Easy α- to β-migration of an enol moiety on a pyrrole ring

Functionalized pyrrolic enols, 2-(2,2-dicyano-1-hydroxyethenyl)-1-methylpyrroles, synthesized from 2-ethenylpyrroles by a nucleophilic SEt-OH exchange, upon heating (75-142 °C) are readily rearranged to their 3-isomers in near to quantitative yield. The inter or intramolecular auto-protonation of a pyrrole ring by the acidic enol hydroxyl to form a mesomeric pyrrolium cation or zwitterion is suggested to be a key step in the rearrangement.     

Luminescent properties of three structures built from 3‐cyano‐4‐dicyanomethylene‐5‐oxo‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrrol‐2‐olate and cadmium

Yellow–orange tetraaquabis(3‐cyano‐4‐dicyanomethylene‐5‐oxo‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrrol‐2‐olato‐κN³)cadmium(II) dihydrate, [Cd(C₈HN₄O₂)₂(H₂O)₄]·2H₂O, (I), and yellow tetraaquabis(3‐cyano‐4‐dicyanomethylene‐5‐oxo‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrrol‐2‐olato‐κN³)cadmium(II) 1,4‐dioxane solvate, [Cd(C₈HN₄O₂)₂(H₂O)₄]·C₄H₈O₂, (II), contain centrosymmetric mononuclear Cd²⁺ coordination complex molecules in different conformations. Dark‐red poly[[decaaquabis(μ₂‐3‐cyano‐4‐dicyanomethylene‐5‐oxo‐4,5‐dihydro‐1H‐pyrrol‐2‐olato‐κ²N:N′)bis(μ₂‐3‐cyano‐4‐dicyanomethylene‐1H‐pyrrole‐2,5‐diolato‐κ²N:N′)tricadmium] hemihydrate], [Cd₃(C₈HN₄O₂)₂(C₈N₄O₂)₂(H₂O)₁₀]·0.5H₂O, (III), has a polymeric two‐dimensional structure, the building block of which includes two cadmium cations (one of them located on an inversion centre), and both singly and doubly charged anions. The cathodoluminescence spectra of the crystals are different and cover the wavelength range from UV to red, with emission peaks at 377 and 620 nm for (III), and at 583 and 580 nm for (I) and (II), respectively.     

Fluoropolyethers end‐capped by polar functional groups. IV. A novel approach to the evaluation of reactivities of hydroxy‐terminated ethoxylated fluoropolyethers in the tin(IV)‐catalyzed reactions with isophorone diisocyanate

The effect of catalyst dibutyltin dilaurate (DBTDL) on the kinetics of urethane formation reactions of α,ω‐bis(hydroxy)‐terminated fluoropolyethers Fomblin® Z‐DOL TXs (FPEs) of various molecular weights and poly(oxyethylene) glycol PEG‐400 with isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) in hexafluoroxylene (HFX) and tetrahydrofuran (THF) at 40 °C and NCO:OH = 2:1 have been studied in a broad range of catalyst (0.10–9.00) ×10^?4 M and total reagents (10.0–60.1 wt %) concentrations. The rate of tin‐catalyzed second‐order reactions (with respect to diol and diisocyanate) was found to be proportional to the square root of catalyst concentration [DBTDL]^0.5 both in low polar (HFX) and polar (THF) solvents. Effect of catalyst saturation was revealed for all the reaction systems at higher DBTDL concentrations as well as the appearance of the limiting catalyst concentrations C_lim below which the rates of reaction were close to zero. Based on these findings new effective rate coefficients have been derived k = k_cat/(C ? C) that are independent of the total reagent concentration in the range of 10.0–60.1 wt % ([OH] = 0.10–0.91 equiv/L). This new approach highlights that the rate of the tin‐catalyzed urethane formation reactions of α,ω‐bis(hydroxy)‐terminated fluoropolyethers Z‐DOL TXs with IPDI in HFX at 40 °C and NCO:OH = 2:1 increases significantly with increasing MW of FPE from 776 up to 3405. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 42: 5354–5371, 2004