Study on multimers and their structures in molecular association mixture

Self-association system of(R)-1,3-butanediol in dilute carbon tetrachloride(CCl4)solution is studied as a model of molecular association mixture.Analysis methods including FSMWEFA(fixed-size moving window evolving factor analysis)combined with PCA(principal component analysis),SIMPLISMA (simple-to-use interactive self-modeling mixture analysis),and ITTFA(iterative target transformation factor analysis)are adopted to resolve infrared spectra of(R)-1,3-butanediol solution.Association number and equilibrium constant are computed.(R)-1,3-butanediol in dilute inert solution is determined as a monomer-trimer equilibrium system.Theoretical investigation of trimer structures is carried out with DFT(density functional theory),and structural factors are analyzed.     

Estimation of biotinylated lectin by isoelectric focusing

Concanavalin A (Con A) was biotinylated to various degrees using N-biotinyl-omega-aminocaproic-acid-N-hydroxy succinimide ester as the biotinylation reagent, and then analyzed by isoelectric focusing using PhastGel IEF 3-9. The isoelectric points of biotinylated ConAs were found to decrease with increasing concentration of the biotinylation reagent. Analysis by isoelectric focusing followed by dot blotting clearly indicated that the biotinylated ConA with an isoelectric point lower than that of the original ConA by 2.2 +/- 0.6 had the strongest binding activity for ovalbumin.     

Controlled kinetics of non-enzymatic chemiluminescence reactions for simple imaging of DNA and protein

A robust and sensitive non-enzymatic chemiluminescence (CL) imaging method is presented. In the method a fast-emitting CL reaction is tuned to furnish a slower-emitting reaction suitable for simple CL imaging. Typically, non-enzymatic CL reactions between luminol or fluorescein and oxygen species generated by KCN as catalyst, were rather fast and unsuitable for CL imaging; the speed of the reactions could, however, be reduced substantially by changing KCN for CH(3)CN or benzonitrile. Light emission from the tuned CL reaction was intense and long-lived, and even with a simple arrangement high sensitivity could be achieved. The maximum CL peak was reached after approximately 1.5 min in the presence of 25% acetonitrile, and as little as 16 fmol commercial isoluminol-labeled streptavidin was detected and visualized on either microplate or membrane. The approach was further illustrated by imaging of DNA on a membrane and of antibody on a microplate by use of biotin-streptavidin chemistry. Overall, this simple, economical, and sensitive CL imaging system is expected to be very useful in biochemical analysis, and greatly complements currently used enzyme-based CL imaging methods, especially in routine applications.     

Optically active copolyamides by melt and solution condensation polymerization

The melt and solution condensation copolymerization of nylon salts which were prepared from d-camphoric acid and adipic acid with hexamethylenediamine were carried out, and optically active copolyamides were obtained. The copolyamides obtained had a positive specific rotation. The specific rotations for the copolyamides increased with increasing content of d-camphoryl units in the copolymers. The optical rotatory dispersion of the copolyamides had positive curves and were found to fit the simple Drude equation. The λ_c values of the polymers obtained by the melt and solution condensation polymerization were 241 mμ and 245 mμ, respectively.     

A sensitive and selective determination method of histamine by HPLC with intramolecular excimer-forming derivatization and fluorescence detection

A highly sensitive, selective and simple method is described for the determination of histamine by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection. The method is based on an intramolecular excimer-forming fluorescence derivatization of histamine with 4-(1-pyrene)butyric acid N-hydroxysuccinimide ester (PSE), followed by reversed-phase HPLC. Histamine, having two amino moieties in a molecule, was converted to the dipyrene-labeled derivative by reaction with PSE. The derivative afforded intramolecular excimer fluorescence (450-540 nm), which can clearly be discriminated from the monomer fluorescence (370-420 nm) emitted from PSE. Typically, a 10 micro L sample solution was mixed with 100 micro L of derivatization reagent solution, which was a mixture of 0.5 mm PSE in acetonitrile and 0.5 mm potassium carbonate in water (8:2, v/v). The derivatization was carried out at 100 degrees C for 90 min. The PSE derivative of histamine could be separated by reversed-phase ODS column with isocratic elution using acetonitrile:water (82:18, v/v) containing 0.03% triethylamine. The detection limit (singnal-to-noise ratio = 3) of histamine was 0.5 fmol for a 30 micro L injection. The method was successfully applied to the determination of histamine in human urine, and had enough selectivity and sensitivity for urinary histamine quantification.     

Electrochemical synthesis of a polypyrrole thin film with supercritical carbon dioxide as a solvent

A conductive polypyrrole (PPy) film was successfully synthesized in a homogeneous supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2)/acetonitrile (AN) system. The occurrence of a homogeneous supercritical state was confirmed by observations of the phase behavior of the system through a high-pressure cell with a viewing window. The concentration of a supporting electrolyte, tetrabutylammonium hexafluorophosphate (TBAPF6), significantly changed the phase behavior of the scCO2/AN system. The polymerization rate of the film in that system decreased with further addition of CO2. This result suggested that the low viscosity of scCO2 did not play an important role in improving the growth rate of the PPy film. The low polymerization rate might have been due to the electron-transfer resistance arising from the low dielectric constant of scCO2/AN mixture. The roughness of the film prepared in the homogeneous scCO2/AN system was 1/10 that synthesized in AN itself as a solvent. The slow growth of film and the high diffusion rate of the monomer seemed to account for the smooth flat film formation.     

Donor–acceptor–acceptor-type near-infrared fluorophores that contain dithienophosphole oxide and boryl groups: effect of the boryl group on the nonradiative decay

The use of donor–π–acceptor (D–π–A) skeletons is an effective strategy for the design of fluorophores with red-shifted emission. In particular, the use of amino and boryl moieties as the electron-donating and -accepting groups, respectively, can produce dyes that exhibit high fluorescence and solvatochromism. Herein, we introduce a dithienophosphole P-oxide scaffold as an acceptor–spacer to produce a boryl- and amino-substituted donor–acceptor–acceptor (D–A–A) π-system. The thus obtained fluorophores exhibit emission in the near-infrared (NIR) region, while maintaining high fluorescence quantum yields even in polar solvents (e.g. λ_em = 704 nm and Φ_F = 0.69 in CH₃CN). A comparison of these compounds with their formyl- or cyano-substituted counterparts demonstrated the importance of the boryl group for generating intense emission. The differences among these electron-accepting substituents were examined in detail using theoretical calculations, which revealed the crucial role of the boryl group in lowering the nonradiative decay rate constant by decreasing the non-adiabatic coupling in the internal conversion process. The D–A–A framework was further fine-tuned to improve the photostability. One of these D–A–A dyes was successfully used in bioimaging to visualize the blood vessels of Japanese medaka larvae and mouse brain.

Combination of electron-accepting diarylboryl terminal groups and dithienophosphole oxide spacers with electron-donating triarylamine moieties produces donor–acceptor–acceptor type π-systems, which exhibit emissions in the near-infrared region.     

Optical microscopy and in situ Raman scattering of single crystalline ethylene hydrate and binary methane-ethylene hydrate at high pressures

Visual observations through a microscope and in situ Raman measurements have been made for single crystalline ethylene hydrate (EH) and binary methane-ethylene hydrate (MEH) at pressures up to 3.7 GPa and room temperature. Both hydrates showed pressure-induced phase transitions at 1.6, 2.0, and 3.0 GPa for EH and at 1.7, 2.1, and 3.3 GPa for MEH. The cubic sI phase of EH and MEH remains stable up to 1.6 and 1.7 GPa, respectively, which are more widely ranging values than the values for the methane hydrate sI phase. In this sI phase of binary MEH, the cage occupancies by methane and ethylene molecules are investigated from Raman spectra. Above P = 3.0 GPa for EH and 3.3 GPa for MEH, they decomposed by associating with the formation of the polyethylene.     

The low-lying electronic excited states of NiCO

Highly correlated coupled cluster methods with single and double excitations (CSSD) and CCSD with perturbative triple excitations were used to predict molecular structures and harmonic vibrational frequencies for the electronic ground state X 1Sigma+, and for the 3Delta, 3Sigma+, 3Phi, 1 3Pi, 2 3Pi, 1Sigma+, 1Delta, and 1Pi excited states of NiCO. The X 1Sigma+ ground state's geometry is for the first time compared with the recently determined experimental structure. The adiabatic excitation energies, vertical excitation energies, and dissociation energies of these excited states are predicted. The importance of pi and sigma bonding for the Ni-C bond is discussed based on the structures of excited states.