Studies on the Toxic Oil Syndrome: proposal of a mechanism for the thermal conversion of 3-N-phenylamino-1,2-propanediol esters into anilides under deodorisation conditions

A study on the reaction mechanism for the conversion of title esters, the species recognised as toxic biomarkers of the oil batches responsible for the Toxic Oil Syndrome, into the corresponding anilides under the thermal conditions of an oil deodorisation process was performed using experimental and computational techniques. The results obtained suggest a reaction course that includes two basic steps: an intramolecular process involving the reaction of the amine group of the diester derivative with the secondary ester of the same compound, followed by the attack of an aniline molecule to form the (E)-isomer of an imidic acid, which would finally tautomerise to give the final anilide.     

N,N′‐Butane‐1,4‐diylbis­(bromo­acetamide)

The title compound, C₈H₁₄Br₂N₂O₂, lies about an inversion centre and adopts a pleated conformation, with the C(O)—NH—CH₂—CH₂ and NH—CH₂—CH₂—CH₂ torsion angles of the butane­diamine residue being −89.5 (6) and −62.1 (7)°, respectively. These data are useful in discerning the structure of polymers containing such a unit. A skew conformation is found for the Br—CH₂—C(O)—NH torsion angle [−124.2 (4)°]. The mol­ecular packing is stabilized by strong hydrogen bonds between amide groups and also by weak CH₂⋯OC inter­actions. In this way, each mol­ecule inter­acts with its six closest neighbours through eight hydrogen bonds.     

Nucleating and retarding effects of nanohydroxyapatite on the crystallization of poly(butylene terephthalate-co-alkylene dicarboxylate)s with different lengths

Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry - New biodegradable and biocompatible composites are continuously developed for biomedical applications (e.g., from drug delivery devices to tissue...     

Anionic organic guests incorporated in zeolites: adsorption and reactivity of a Meisenheimer complex in faujasites

Zeolites are suitable microporous hosts for positively charged organic species, but it is believed that they cannot adsorb organic anions. Pure Meisenheimer complex, derived from reduction of 2,4-dinitroaniline with NaBH4, was adsorbed inside faujasite cavities. Evidence for the internal incorporation of this negatively charged reaction intermediate comes from 1) XPS elemental analysis as a function of the depth of penetration into the particle, 2) the remarkable blue shift in lambda(max) of the Meisenheimer complex adsorbed on zeolite (ca. 470 nm) as compared to that in acetonitrile (580 nm) and 3) from the lack of reactivity with size-excluded hydride-acceptor reagents. Evidence is provided in support of an adsorption mechanism in which a neutral ion pair (alkali metal ion + Meisenheimer anion) is the actual species being adsorbed. In fact it appears that there is remarkable increase in the association constant for the ion-pair complex within the zeolite cavities as compared to DMF solution. Although this mechanism of adsorption as an ion-pair complex has precedents in the adsorption of some inorganic salts, what is novel is the notable increase in the stability and persistence of the Meisenheimer anion (a anionic reaction intermediate) as a result of zeolite inclusion. Adsorbed Meisenheimer complex exhibits much lower reactivity towards electron acceptors, oxygen, and water. Cyclic voltammetry of zeolite-modified electrodes reveals for the Meisenheimer complex adsorbed on LiY a reversible redox peak that is not observed in solution and has been interpreted as arising from site isolation and stabilisation of the electrochemically generated species.     

Structural analysis of chiral complexes of palladium(0) with 15-membered triolefinic macrocyclic ligands

The complete structural analysis of the palladium complexes of the triolefinic macrocycles (E,E,E)-1,6,11-tris(arylsulfonyl)-1,6,11-triazacyclopentadeca-3,8,13-trienes, which featured from three identical to three different aryl groups, was achieved by performing X-ray diffraction studies, NMR spectroscopy, and other calculations. The stereochemical complexity is determined by the different isomers formed through complexation of the metal to one or other face of each of the three olefins involved. The palladacyclopropane formulation of the palladium-olefin interaction offers a clear picture of the stereogenicity of the olefin carbon atoms that are complexed to the metal. The energetically favorable isomers were identified in the solid-state and in solution by performing X-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopic analysis, respectively.     

A theoretical study of the competitive homolytic/heterolytic aniomesolytic cleavages of C-O alkyl ether bonds

Density functional theory electronic structure calculations of the homolytic/heterolytic aniomesolytic C-O fragmentations in the gas phase of a series of radical anions of substituted-phenyl benzyl ethers and substituted-benzyl phenyl ethers have been carried out. Along the series, the electron-withdrawing strength of the substituents increases. An intramolecular electron transfer from the pi system to the sigma molecular orbital of the scissile C-O bond is required to produce the fragmentation. As the electron-withdrawing strength of the substituents increases, the transition-state structures appear later with higher potential energy and Gibbs free energy barriers. The homolytic mesolytic cleavages are always thermodynamically favored versus the corresponding heterolytic mesolytic ones. The heterolytic mesolytic fragmentations in radical anions containing only weak electron-withdrawing groups are faster than the corresponding homolytic mesolytic ones. Conversely, in radical anions supporting strong electron-withdrawing groups the homolytic mesolytic fragmentations are faster in terms of potential energy barriers. However, the entropic contribution makes it comparable the homolytic and the heterolytic Gibbs free energy barriers in this case. The main factors that determine the relative rates of those kind of aniomesolytic cleavages are discussed.     

Photoinduced molecular reorientation dynamics in confined domains of Langmuir monolayers

In a photoresponsive Langmuir monolayer comprised of smectic-C-like domains of mesogenic trans-azobenzene derivative embedded within an isotropic matrix of its cis isomer counterpart, several structurally differing circular droplets were irradiated with linearly polarized light. This report describes the structural rearrangements that occurred in these droplets upon illumination followed by Brewster angle microscopy analysis. Starting from initial well-characterized and symmetric states, final photoaligned situations were reached in which the azimuth angles of the rod-shaped elongated molecules were found to be perpendicular to the electric component of the excitation light. The dynamical aspects of the photoalignments, including their transient patterns, are captured by a theoretical model that couples a relaxational principle incorporating long-range elastic forces with a kinetic formalism presenting an anisotropic rate law.     

Enantioseparation of novel COX-2 anti-inflammatory drugs by capillary electrophoresis using single and dual cyclodextrin systems

A capillary electrophoresis method was developed for the enantioseparation of three novel cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor drugs (E-6259, E-6036 and E-6087) with anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities using sulfobutyl ether-beta-cyclodextrin (SBE-beta-CD) as a chiral selector. The use of 50 mM sodium tetraborate at pH 9.2 with 30% v/v methanol, containing 7.1 mM SBE-beta-CD, as a background electrolyte (BGE) allowed the complete enantioseparation of the three neutral racemic mixtures (resolution = 2.4, 3.0 and 8.7, respectively) and their corresponding metabolites (oxidation products) in a single run. Migration times were shortened with some loss of enantioresolution by adding 1.75 mM dimethyl-beta-cyclodextrin (DM-beta-CD) to the previous BGE (dual CD system). The reversal of the migration order of E-6259 enantiomers in the dual CD system was also studied. Furthermore, the addition of DM-beta-CD to the BGE introduced a new chemoselectivity in the system that allowed E-6259 to be separated from the structurally similar compound E-6036.     

Determinacy and weakly Ramsey sets in Banach spaces

We give a sufficient condition for a set of block subspaces in an infinite-dimensional Banach space to be weakly Ramsey. Using this condition we prove that in the Levy-collapse of a Mahlo cardinal, every projective set is weakly Ramsey. This, together with a construction of W. H. Woodin, is used to show that the Axiom of Projective Determinacy implies that every projective set is weakly Ramsey. In the case of we prove similar results for a stronger Ramsey property. And for hereditarily indecomposable spaces we show that the Axiom of Determinacy plus the Axiom of Dependent Choices imply that every set is weakly Ramsey. These results are the generalizations to the class of projective sets of some theorems from W. T. Gowers, and our paper ``Weakly Ramsey sets in Banach spaces.'