Interfacial micellar structures from novel amphiphilic star polymers

An amphiphilic heteroarm star polymer containing 12 alternating hydrophobic/hydrophilic arms of polystyrene (PS) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) connected to a well-defined rigid aromatic core was studied at the air-water and the air-solid interfaces. At the air-water interface, the molecules spontaneously form pancakelike micellar aggregates which measure up to several microns in diameter and 5 nm in thickness. Upon reduction of the surface area per molecule to 7 nm2, the two-dimensional micelles merged into a dense monolayer. We suggest that confined phase separation of dissimilar polymer arms occurred upon their segregation on the opposite sides of the rigid disklike aromatic core, forcing the rigid cores to adopt a face-on orientation with respect to the interface. Upon transfer onto solid supports the PS chains face the air-film interface making it completely hydrophobic, and the PAA chains were found to collapse and form a thin flattened underlayer. This study points toward new strategies to create large 2D microstructures with facial amphiphilicity and suggests a profound influence of star molecular architecture on the self-assembly of amphiphiles at the air-water interface.     

Estimation of the absolute internal-rotation entropy of molecules with two torsional degrees of freedom from stochastic simulations

A method of statistical estimation is applied to the problem of evaluating the absolute entropy of internal rotation in a molecule with two torsional degrees of freedom. The configurational part of the entropy is obtained as that of the joint probability density of an arbitrary form represented by a two-dimensional Fourier series, the coefficients of which are statistically estimated using a sample of the torsional angles of the molecule obtained by a stochastic simulation. The internal rotors in the molecule are assumed to be attached to a common frame, and their reduced moments of inertia are initially calculated as functions of the two torsional angles, but averaged over all the remaining internal degrees of freedom using the stochastic-simulation sample of the atomic configurations of the molecule. The torsional-angle dependence of the reduced moments of inertia can be also averaged out, and the absolute internal-rotation entropy of the molecule is obtained in a good approximation as the sum of the configurational entropy and a kinetic contribution fully determined by the averaged reduced moments of inertia. The method is illustrated using Monte Carlo simulations of isomers of stilbene and halogenated derivatives of propane. The two torsional angles in cis-stilbene are found to be much more strongly correlated than those in trans-stilbene, while the degree of the angular correlation in propane increases strongly on substitution of hydrogen atoms with chlorine.     

On the red shift of OH stretching region vibrations in ice and water

The nature of the red shift of frequencies of the fundamental modes, v₁ and v₃, in the OH stretching region of the vibrational spectrum of ice (and, possibly, in water) under H-bonding formation is explained in the framework of the continuum approach for the one-dimensional infinite chain of water molecules represented as dipolar and polarizable OH oscillators vibrating in the definite force field. The explicit expressions in the form of the generalized cnoidal nonlinear waves describing these fundamental modes and obtained as the solutions of the nonlinear Klein–Gordon equation of motion, and their red shifts that are consistent with experimental observations, are presented.     

Beiträge zur Chemie der Silicium—Stickstoff-Verbindungen, 21. Mitt.

Zusammenfassung Durch Umsetzung von Disilbercyanamid mit Organyl- und Alkoxy-halogensilanen wurden 9 bisher unbekannte zweifach silylsubstituierte Carbodiimide der Stoffgruppen (R₃SiN)₂C, [(RO)₃SiN]₂C, (R₂RSiN)₂C und R₃SiNCNSiR₃ dargestellt und in ihrer Struktur über¹⁴N- und¹H-kernmagnetische Resonanzmessungen, IR- und Raman-Spektren eindeutig als Carbodiimidderivate aufgeklärt.20. Mitt.:U. Wannagat undH. Kuckertz, Angew. Chem.75, 95 (1963).Zugleich 2. Mitt. über silylsubstituierte Carbodiimide; 1. Mitt.J. Pump undU. Wannagat, Ann. Chem.652, 21 (1962); Angew. Chem.74, 117 (1962); Österr. Chemiker-Ztg.62, 319 (1961).     

Synthesis and pharmacological evaluation of new 16-methyl pregnane derivatives

The pharmacological activity of several new pregnane derivatives 15-19 were determined on gonadectomized male hamster flank organs, seminal vesicles and in vitro conversion of testosterone (T) to dihydrotestosterone (DHT) as 5alpha-reductase inhibitors. Steroids 15-19 decreased the diameter of the pigmented spot in the flank organs as compared to the T treated animals; in this model, steroids 16 and 19 showed a higher activity than the commercially available finasteride 3. Injection of T increased the weight of the seminal vesicles. Compounds 15-19 when injected together with T decreased the weight of the seminal vesicles thus showing an antiandrogenic effect. The trienone 19 exhibited a considerably higher activity than finasteride. Steroids 15-19 inhibited the in vitro metabolism of [3H]T to [3H]DHT in seminal vesicles homogenates of gonadectomized male hamsters. Compounds 18 and 19 showed a much higher antiandrogenic effect than finasteride. This enhancement of the biological activity could probably be attributed to the coplanarity of the steroidal skeleton as previously observed by our group. The high antiandrogenic activity of the epoxy compound 16 is probably the result of the ring opening of the oxiran ring with the nucleophilic part of the enzyme 5alpha-reductase thus leading to a stable adduct with concomitant deactivation of this enzyme.     

Electron transfer in the reduction of primary halides by metal hydrides

The reactions of various main-group metal hydrides with 1-halo-5-hexenes and with 1-halo-2,2-dlmethyl-5-hexenes produce both straight chain and cyclized reduction products. The formation of cyclic hydrocarbons clearly indicates the presence of radical intermediates during the course of these reactions.     

Existence and positivity of solutions of a fourth-order nonlinear PDE describing interface fluctuations

We study the partial differential equation which arose originally as a scaling limit in the study of interface fluctuations in a certain spin system. In that application x lies in R, but here we study primarily the periodic case × R S¹. We establish existence, uniqueness, and regularity of solutions, locally in time, for positive initial data in H¹(S¹), and prove the existence of several families of Lyapunov functions for the evolution. From the latter we establish a sharp connection between existence globally in time and positivity preservation: if [0], T*) is a maximal half open interval of existence for a positive solution of the equation, with T* < ∞, then lim_tT* w(t,·) exists in C¹(S¹) but vanishes at some point. We show further that if T* > (1 + √3)/16π² √3 then T* = ∞ and lim_t∞ w(t,.) exists and is constant. We discuss also some explicit solutions and propose a generalization to higher dimensions. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Development of Molecular Mechanics Torsion Parameters for alpha,beta-Cyclopropyl Ketones and Conformational Analysis of Bicyclo[m.1.0]alkan-2-ones

Conformations of cyclopropyl methyl ketone have been studied using ab initio methods in an effort to quantify the effects of conjugative overlap between the cyclopropane ring and an adjacent ketone carbonyl. Results were comparable with previous experimental and theoretical studies. Cyclopropyl methyl ketone exhibits a global energy minimum in the s-cis conformer and a local energy minimum near the s-trans conformer. The potential energy curve obtained was used to derive torsion parameters which were employed in molecular mechanics studies of the conformations of the set of bicyclo[m.1.0]alkan-2-ones having larger ring sizes from five- to 16-membered. Similar conformations for the cyclopropyl ketone substructure are observed for all the medium and large ring systems examined. Possible synthetic ramifications of local conformational anchoring by this functional group array are discussed.     

Newton's method and periodic solutions of nonlinear wave equations

We prove the existence of periodic solutions of the nonlinear wave equation satisfying either Dirichlet or periodic boundary conditions on the interval [O, π]. The coefficients of the eigenfunction expansion of this equation satisfy a nonlinear functional equation. Using a version of Newton's method, we show that this equation has solutions provided the nonlinearity g(x, u) satisfies certain generic conditions of nonresonance and genuine nonlinearity. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Atomic force microscopy study for supermolecular microstructures in side-chain liquid crystalline polymer films

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is employed to study the supermolecular microstructures of disclinations and inversion walls in thin films of a smectic side-chain liquid crystalline polymer. Two-dimensional nanostripes are formed in thin films when the material enters the smectic phase. A possible mechanism for their formation is also suggested. The stripes run parallel to the local director and thus decorate the overall patterns of nematic director around the disclinations and inversion walls. Three patterns involving radial, spiral, and circular supermolecular microstructures of a positive disclination with s = +1 and one hyperbolic pattern of a negative disclination with s = -1 are observed. The cores of all these microstructures exhibit circular dark centers in AFM height images. It is found that the specific configurations of a pair of (+1, -1) disclinations form during the late stage of annihilation and inversion walls always separate a pair of (+1, +1) disclinations. The analysis on the director fields around disclinations and inversion walls shows that the bend and splay elastic constants are of the same order of magnitude in the side-chain liquid crystalline polymer.