Chemical reaction-inspired crystal growth of a coordination polymer toward morphology design and control

This paper reports a novel crystal growth system of a coordination framework {[Cu3(CN)3{hat-(CN)3(OEt)3}]}n (1) (hat-(CN)3(OEt)3 = 2,6,10-tricyano-3,7,11-triethoxy-1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene). The coordination polymer is crystallized through the reaction of 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexacyano-1,4,5,8,9,12-hexaazatriphenylene (hat-(CN)6), ethanol, and copper(I) complex, involving the breaking and forming of covalent bonds. The crystal morphologies obtained in the present system contain dumbbells, cogwheels, and superlattices. Moreover, in the growth perpendicular to the c-axis, periodic ramification at regular interval is observed, affording superlattice morphologies. Observation of the growth of dumbbell crystals shows that the growth rates parallel and perpendicular to the crystallographic c-axis are quite different: the former shows a drastic change with the reaction duration, while the latter is almost constant. These results are reproduced as a simple reaction-diffusion system, indicating that chemical reactions on crystal surfaces play an important role in determining the macroscopic crystal morphologies.     

Chemical component mapping of pulverized toner by scanning transmission X-ray microscopy

Toners are micron scale polymer particles constructed of several kinds of resin, pigment, wax, etc. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used for observation of the dispersion of the component materials in toners, but TEM images cannot identify simultaneously all components. Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM) not only provides simultaneous observation of spatial distributions of wax, resin and carbon black in toners, but it also provides detailed, quantitative, chemical information about the wax and resin environments through chemical component maps derived from multiple energy image sequences. The capabilities of STXM for toner analysis are illustrated by results of a study of a toner for black/white copy/print applications.     

“Molecular Rope Curtain” Type of Liquid Crystals Based on a Sliding Graft Copolymer Having Mobile PEG Side Chains

A sliding graft copolymer having a polyrotaxane main chain and side chains of polyethylene glycol with a molecular weight of 2000 (PEG2000) was found to be a novel “molecular rope curtain” type of liquid crystalline material, which displayed a smectic A mesophase between 51 °C and 250 °C without any rigid mesogenic moieties.     

Removal of phosphate by aluminum oxide hydroxide

The development and manufacture of an adsorbent to remove phosphate ion for the prevention of eutrophication in lakes are very important. The characteristics of phosphate adsorption onto aluminum oxide hydroxide were investigated to estimate the adsorption isotherms, the rate of adsorption, and the selectivity of adsorption. Phosphate was easily adsorbed onto aluminum oxide hydroxide, because of the hydroxyl groups. The adsorption of phosphate onto aluminum oxide hydroxide was influenced by pH in solution: the amount adsorbed was greatest at pH 4, ranging with pH from 2 to 9. The optimum pH for phosphate removal by aluminum oxide hydroxide is 4. The selectivity of phosphate adsorption onto aluminum oxide hydroxide was evaluated based on the amount of phosphate ion adsorbed onto aluminum oxide hydroxide from several anion complex solutions. It is phosphate that aluminum oxide hydroxide can selectively adsorb. The selectivity of phosphate onto aluminum oxide hydroxide was about 7000 times that of chloride. This result indicated that the hydroxyl groups on aluminum oxide hydroxide have selective adsorptivity for phosphate and could be used for the removal of phosphate from seawater.     

Application of photoactive yellow protein as a photoresponsive module for controlling hemolytic activity of staphylococcal α-hemolysin

A chimeric protein (N-PYP-Hla), consisting of staphylococcal pore-forming toxin α-hemolysin (Hla) and photoactive yellow protein (PYP), exhibited photoresponsive hemolytic activities, where visible light irradiation gave rise to retardation of hemolysis at 25 °C.     

Characterization of non-stoichiometric hydration and the dehydration behavior of sitafloxacin hydrate

Sitafloxacin (STFX) hydrate is a non-stoichiometric hydrate. The hydration state of STFX hydrate varies non-stoichiometrically depending on the relative humidity and temperature, though X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) of STFX hydrate was not affected by storing at low and high relative humidities. The detailed properties of crystalline water of STFX hydrate were estimated in terms of hygroscopicity, thermal analysis combined with X-ray powder diffractometry, crystallography and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. STFX hydrate changed the water contents continuously and reversibly from an equivalent amount of dihydrate through that of sesquihydrate depending on the relative humidity at 25°C. Thermal analysis and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) simultaneous measurement also revealed that STFX hydrate dehydrated into a hydrated state equivalent to monohydrate by heating up to 100°C, whereas XRPD patterns were slightly affected. This indicated that the crystal structure of STFX hydrate was retained at the dehydration level of monohydrate. Single-crystal X-ray structural analysis showed that two STFX molecules and four water molecule sites were contained in an asymmetric unit. STFX molecules formed a channel structure where water molecules were included. At the partially dehydrated state, at least two of four water molecules were considered to be disordered in occupancy and/or coordinates. Insight into the crystal structure of STFX hydrate stored at low and high relative humidities and geometry of the hydrogen bond were helpful to estimate the origin of non-stoichiometric hydration of STFX hydrate.     

Effects of strongly selective additives on volume phase transition in gels

We investigate volume phase transition in gels immersed in mixture solvents, on the basis of a three-component Flory-Rehner theory. When the selectivity of the minority solvent component to the polymer network is strong, the gel tends to shrink with an increasing concentration of the additive, regardless of whether it is good or poor. This behavior originates from the difference of the additive concentration between inside and outside the gel. We also found the gap of the gel volume at the transition point can be controlled by adding the strongly selective solutes. By dissolving a strongly poor additive, for instance, the discontinuous volume phase transition can be extinguished. Furthermore, we observed that another volume phase transition occurs far from the original transition point. These behaviors can be well explained by a simplified theory neglecting the nonlinearity of the additive concentration.     

Coprecipitation with lanthanum phosphate as a technique for separation and preconcentration of iron(III) and lead

The usefulness of coprecipitation with lanthanum phosphate for separation and preconcentration of some heavy metals has been investigated. Although lanthanum phosphate coprecipitates iron(III) and lead quantitatively at pH 2.3, iron(II) can barely be collected at this pH. This coprecipitation technique was applicable to the separation and preconcentration of iron(III) before inductively coupled plasma atomic-emission spectrometric (ICP-AES) determination; the recoveries of iron(III) and iron(II) from spiked water samples were 103-105% and 0.2-0.7%, respectively. The coprecipitation was also useful for separation of 20 microg lead from 100 mL of an aqueous solution that also contained 1-100 mg iron. Coprecipitation of iron was substantially suppressed by addition of ascorbic acid, which enabled recovery of 97-103% of lead added to the solution, bringing the recovery to within 1.6-5.0% of the relative standard deviations. Lanthanum phosphate can also coprecipitate cadmium and indium quantitatively, although chromium(III), cobalt, and nickel and large amounts of sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium are barely coprecipitated at pH approximately/= 3.     

Flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination of lead in waste water and effluent after preconcentration using a rapid coprecipitation technique with gallium phosphate

A determination method for lead in waste water and effluent was studied using flame atomic absorption spectrometry after preconcentration of lead by the rapid coprecipitation technique with gallium phosphate. Lead ranging from 0.5 to 50 μg was quantitatively coprecipitated with gallium phosphate from 100–150 mL sample solution (pH ∼5). The presence of gallium phosphate did not affect the atomic absorbance of lead. Since the concentration of gallium in the final sample solution is also measurable by flame atomic absorption spectrometry at 250.0 nm without further dilution, the rapid coprecipitation technique, which does not require complete collection of the precipitate, becomes possible using a known amount of gallium and measuring the concentrations of both lead and gallium in the final sample solution by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The 32 diverse ions tested gave no significant interferences in the lead determination. The method proposed here is rapid and has good reproducibility. Received: 16 August 1999 / Revised: 6 October 1999 / Accepted: 14 October 1999