Mutual Solubilities of Water and Alkanes

Summary.  The evaluation of mutual solubility data for systems water with n-alkanes, isoalkanes, and cycloalkanes along the three phase line is reported and a formula for the prediction of solubility of alkanes in water is developed. Then a cubic equation of state with an added term, which accounts for hydrogen bonding is used for correlation of liquid–liquid equilibrium data and for prediction of solubility of water in hydrocarbons using alkane in water solubility data. Comparison of the predicted and experimental solubilities is performed using all accessible experimental data. With this approach it is possible to predict the solubilities of water in alkanes with good accuracy over the temperature range up to about 20 K below critical temperature. Solubility of alkanes in water can also be calculated using experimental data for solubility of water in alkanes but results of these calculations are more sensitive to experimental errors of the data. Corresponding author: E-mail: macz@ichf.edu.pl Received August 5, 2002; accepted (revised) September 13, 2002 Published online March 13, 2003 RID="a" ID="a" Dedicated to Prof. Dr. H. Gamsj?ger on the occasion of his 70^th birthday anniversary     

Analytical use of the selective extraction of copper as its phenylacetate

Chloroform solution of phenylacetic add has been found very suitable for extraction and colorimetric determination of copper. Iron and uranium are the main interferences, which can be overcome by masking with ammonium fluoridc. Under these conditions, only gold(III), platinum(IV) and palladium(II) are co-extracted, but their colour does not interfere with measurement of the green copper extract at 700 nm. The method has been applied to the determination of copper in iron, steels, uranium, lead concentrates and alloys containing nickel, cobalt, etc. The extraction procedure can also be used to remove interference of iron, copper and uranium in the determination of manganese with formaldoxime.     

Electron impact mass spectrometry of some 6-substituted tetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidin-5(6H)-ones

The electron impact mass spectra of 6-methyltetrazolo[1,5-c]pyrimidin-5(6H)-one, its 7- and 8-methyl derivatives, three 8-halo derivatives and two related nucleosides are reported. On the basis of the high-resolution data and detected metastable ions, the fragmentation routes of their molecular ions are proposed. Coexistence of the tautomeric forms of the title compounds of cyclic (tetrazole) or linear (azide) structure can be suggested owing to the fragmentation pathways identified for the bases. Decomposition of the related nucleosides lies in the breaking of nucleoside bonds to produce the appropriate base and sugar fragments.     

Solvent-modulated chemoselective deprotections of trialkylsilyl esters and chemoselective esterifications

A series of trialkylsilyl esters were deprotected or transesterificated into their corresponding carboxylic acids or methyl esters under a catalytic amount of CBr₄ in alcohol reaction system. This method enables to desilylate secondary sp³-carbon, sp²-carbon, sp-carbon and aryl tethered trialkylsilyl esters to carboxylic acids, whereas primary sp³-carbon tethered trialkylsilyl esters were further converted into their methyl esters under CBr₄/MeOH reaction conditions. The highly chemoselective deprotections can be modulated and achieved by the introduced protecting trialkylsilyl groups and the used alcohols such as MeOH and EtOH under this photochemically-induced reaction conditions.     

Decoupling the effects of hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties at the neuron–nanofibre interface

Peptide-based nanofibres are a versatile class of tunable materials with applications in optoelectronics, sensing and tissue engineering. However, the understanding of the nanofibre surface at the molecular level is limited. Here, a series of homologous dilysine–diphenylalnine tetrapeptides were synthesised and shown to self-assemble into water-soluble nanofibres. Despite the peptide nanofibres displaying similar morphologies, as evaluated through atomic force microscopy and neutron scattering, significant differences were observed in their ability to support sensitive primary neurons. Contact angle and labelling experiments revealed that differential presentation of lysine moieties at the fibre surface did not affect neuronal viability; however the mobility of phenylalanine residues at the nanofibre surface, elucidated through solid- and gel-state NMR studies and confirmed through tethered bilayer lipid membrane experiments, was found to be the determining factor in governing the suitability of a given peptide as a scaffold for primary neurons. This work offers new insights into characterising and controlling the nanofibre surface at the molecular level.

The mobility of hydrophobic moieties at a peptide nanofibre surface determines its suitability as a scaffold for sensitive primary cells.     

Stereochemical features of the physical and chemical interactions of singlet oxygen with enecarbamates

Oxazolidinone-substituted enecarbamates represent a mechanistically rich system for the study of stereoelectronic, steric, and conformational effects on stereoselectivity and mode selectivity in (1)O(2) [2 + 2] and ene reactions. Photooxygenation of these enecarbamates with (1)O(2) leads to diastereomerically pure dioxetanes that decompose to yield an oxazolidinone carbaldehyde and one of the two enantiomers of methyldesoxybenzoin in enantiomeric excess. Stereoselectivity originates at the allylic stereocenter, a result supported by quenching studies, computational analysis, and deuterium solvent isotope effects. [reaction: see text]     

Mise en évidence d'un désordre statistique dans les structures chalcogénoiodures d'étain et d'antimoine

The crystal structures of Sn₂SbX₂I₃, with X = S or Se, and Sn₃SbSe₂I₅ are characterized by a statistical disorder of part of the [Sb] and [Sb, Sn] sites. All these crystal structures are built up from infinite ribbons (Sn₂X₄)_n of SnX₅ pyramids where X = ((S, Se) and I). The ribbons are weakly linked through Sn … I interactions to give infinite sheets. Between sheets are located [Sb] or [Sb, Sn] atoms in twinned sites.     

Synthesis and dehydrative condensation of square-planar mono- and dinuclear hydroxopalladium complexes with the hydrotris(3,5-diisopropylpyrazolyl)borato ligand (TpiPr2), TpiPr2(Py)Pd-OH,and (mu-OH)2[PdTpiPr2(H2O)]2

Mono- and dinuclear hydroxopalladium complexes (kappa 2-TpiPr2,X)(py)Pd-OH (1; X = H, Br) and (mu-OH)2[Pd(kappa 2-TpiPr2)(H2O)]2 (2) are prepared by base hydrolysis of the corresponding chloride complexes (kappa 2-TpiPr2,X)(py)Pd-Cl (3) and (mu-Cl)2[Pd(kappa 3-TpiPr2)]2 (4), respectively. Functionalization of the OH part in 1 is effected via dehydrative condensation with protic substrates (H-A) to give a series of substituted products, (kappa 2-TpiPr)(py)Pd-A (5), and treatment of the dinuclear complex 2 with excess acetic acid affords the mononuclear diacetato complex 6, (kappa 2-TpiPr2-H)Pd(OAc)2(HOAc). Complexes 1-4 and 6 have been characterized crystallographically, and it is revealed that complexes 2 and 6 involve cyclic hydrogen-bonding interaction among the nitrogen atom of the pendent noncoordinated pyrazolyl group, the hydrogen atom in the protic part of the ligand (OH, AcOH), and, in the case of 2, an external water molecule.     

Synthesis, crystal structure, magnetic properties, and electronic structure of the new ternary vanadate CuMnVO4

A new magnetic oxide, CuMnVO4, was prepared, and its crystal structure was determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The magnetic properties of CuMnVO4 were characterized by magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements, and the spin exchange interactions of CuMnVO4 were analyzed on the basis of spin-polarized electronic band structure calculations. CuMnVO4 contains MnO4 chains made up of edge-sharing MnO6 octahedra containing high-spin Mn2+ cations. Our work shows that CuMnVO4 undergoes a three-dimensional antiferromagnetic transition at approximately 20 K. Both the intrachain and interchain spin exchanges are antiferromagnetic, and the interchain spin exchange is not negligible compared to the intrachain spin exchange.     

Group theoretic approach to the screened Coulomb problem

Perturbation method based on the group theory is developed for the radial solution of the Schrödinger equation with screened Coulomb potential. It may be treated as an alternative to the analytic perturbation theory proposed recently by McEnnan, Kissel, and Pratt (Phys. Rev. A, 2 (1976), 532) and is based on the expansion of the potential of the following form $\text{V(r) = ?(}\text{a}\text{r}\text{) × (1 + λV}{}_1\text{r + λ}{}^2\text{V}{}_2\text{r}{}^2\text{+ …)}$. Corrections to the point-Coulomb energy levels are given as series in λ and also the screened Coulomb eigenstates are given in the form of expansions in powers of λ. The method is applied also to the continuous spectrum and similar expansions are found. The problem of the normalization of both discrete and continuous spectrum eigenstates is discussed and we find some differences in the case of the scattering states. Origin of this discrepancy is explained.