Structural Characteristics of Xyloglucan – Congo Red Aggregates as Observed by Small Angle X-ray Scattering

Xyloglucan is a type of hemicellulose with a cellulose backbone containing (1→6)-α-xylose or (1→2)-β-galactoxylose as a side chain. It is soluble in water. Its aqueous solution forms a gel or gel-like precipitate by addition of Congo red. Xyloglucan gel structures with various concentrations of Congo red were observed by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) at the nano-level. SAXS results indicated that the xyloglucan chains interacted with Congo red, and that an increase of concentration of Congo red induced a characteristic cross-linking domain, which consisted of a flat structure containing stacked xyloglucan chain assemblies. The Congo red molecules are inserted between the xyloglucan chains.     

Five novel flavonoids from Wasabia japonica

From the fresh leaves of Wasabia japonica Matsum., five novel flavonoids 1-5, isovitexin derivatives having a trans-sinapoyl group at C-7, were isolated together with five known flavonoids, and their structures were elucidated on the basis of their spectroscopic data (NMR, MS, UV, and IR) and chemical evidence.     

Large-scale separation of metallic and semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes

In the applications of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), it is extremely important to separate semiconducting and metallic SWNTs. Although several methods have been reported for the separation, only low yields have been achieved at great expense. We show a separation method involving a dispersion-centrifugation process in a tetrahydrofuran solution of amine, which makes metallic SWNTs highly concentrated to 87% in a simple way.     

Enantioselectively catalyzed oxidation of 3,4-dihydroxy-l-phenylalanine by N-lauroyl L or D-histidine-Cu(II) complex in CTABr micelles.

In order to investigate the enzyme model reaction the oxidation of 3,4-dihydihydroxy-L-phenylalanine(L-DOPA) was carried out using optically active catalyst, N-lauroyl L or D-histidine-Cu(II) complex(L or D-LauHis-Cu(II)), showing appreciable enantioselectivity in the presence of the mixed micelles with CTABr.     

Adsorption of phosphate from seawater on calcined MgMn-layered double hydroxides

Adsorptive properties of MgMn-3-300 (MgMn-type layered double hydroxide with Mg/Mn mole ratio of 3, calcined at 300 degrees C) for phosphate were investigated in phosphate-enriched seawater with a concentration of 0.30 mg-P/dm3. It showed the highest phosphate uptake from the seawater among the inorganic adsorbents studied (hydrotalcite, calcined hydrotalcite, activated magnesia, hydrous aluminum oxide, manganese oxide (delta-MnO2)). The phosphate uptake by MgMn-3-300 reached 7.3 mg-P/g at an adsorbent/solution ratio of 0.05 g/2 dm3. The analyses of the uptakes of other constituents (Na+, K+, Ca(+, Cl-, and SO(2-)4) of seawater showed that the adsorbent had a markedly high selectivity for the adsorption of phosphate ions. Effects of initial phosphate concentration, temperature, pH, and salinity on phosphate uptake were investigated in detail by a batch method. The phosphate uptake increased slightly with an increase in the adsorption temperature. The adsorption isotherm followed Freundlich's equation with constants of logK(F)=1.25 and 1/n=0.65, indicating that it could effectively remove phosphate even from a solution of markedly low phosphate concentration as well as with large numbers of coexisting ions. The pH dependence showed a maximum phosphate uptake around pH 8.5. The pH dependence curve suggested that selective phosphate adsorption progresses mainly by the ion exchange of HPO(2-)4. The study on the effect of salinity suggested the presence of two kinds of adsorption sites in the adsorbent: one nonspecific site with weak interaction and one specific site with strong interaction. The effective desorption of phosphate could be achieved using a mixed solution of 5 M NaCl + 0.1 M NaOH (1 M = 1 mol/dm3), with negligible dissolution of adsorbent. The adsorbent had high chemical stability against the adsorption/desorption cycle; it kept a good phosphate uptake even after the repetition of the seventh cycle.     

Continuum mixing and coupled channel effects inc\bar c andb\bar b quarkonium

We apply the unitarized quark model to heavy \(c\bar c\) and \(b\bar b\) quarkonium and study mass shifts and mixings induced by hadronic coupled channel effects. In particular, we study the two-meson continuum mixing in the quarkonium wave functions. It is found that the continuum component is 2–20% in the \(c\bar c\) and \(b\bar b\) states, measured as the squared sum of two-meson amplitudes \((D\bar D,D\bar D^ * + cc,D^ * \bar D^ * ,F\bar F,F\bar F^ * + cc,F^ * \bar F^ * for c\bar c)\) . It is the largest for states near or above the first threshold. These continuum mixings reduce the predicted radiative widths by 5–30%. The mass shifts of theP andF wave \(q\bar q\) states are similar to those ofS andD wave states previously studied. The computed resonance mixing matrices are explicitly given, enabling future calculations of relativistic effects, QCD effects, etc., to include also the coupled channel effects.     

Crystal structures and topochemical polymerizations of 7,7,8,8-tetrakis(alkoxycarbonyl)quinodimethanes

Highly conjugated monomers, 7,7,8,8-tetrakis(alkoxycarbonyl)quinodimethanes (methoxy (1a), ethoxy (1b), isopropoxy (1c), benzyloxy (1d), chloroethoxy (1e), and bromoethoxy (1f)), were synthesized. Recrystallizations of 1a, 1c, 1e, and 1f yielded two crystal forms (prisms (1a-A) and needles (1a-B), needles (1c-A) and plates (1c-B), prisms (1e-A) and plates (1e-B), and prisms (1f-A) and needles (1f-B)), which have different molecular packing modes by X-ray crystal structure analysis, indicating that the crystals are polymorphic. In the photopolymerizations of these monomer crystals in the solid state, 1a-A, 1e-A, and 1f-A polymerized topochemically to give crystalline polymers. For their thermal polymerizations in the solid state, in addition to 1a-A, 1e-A, and 1f-A, 1e-B and 1f-B polymerized, but polymers formed from the 1e-B and 1f-B were amorphous. The packing of quinodimethane molecules in the crystals was defined by four kinds of parameters, stacking distance (d(s)), the distance between the reacting exomethylene carbon atoms (d(cc)), the angles formed between the stacking axis and longer axis of the monomer molecule (theta(1)), and the shorter axis of the monomer molecule (theta(2)), and then the polymerization reactivity of these quinodimethanes in the solid state was discussed on the basis of these parameters.     

Soluble polymer-supported catalysts containing pendant quaternary onium salts for the addition reaction of oxiranes with carbon dioxide

The addition reaction of oxiranes ( 15a-d ) with carbon dioxide (CO₂) was carried out using 1 mol % of soluble polymer-supported quaternary onium salts as catalysts under atmospheric pressure. The reaction of 15a-d with CO₂ proceeded very smoothly to give the corresponding five-membered cyclic carbonates ( 16a-d ) in high yields at 90-100°C. The catalytic activity of the soluble polymer-supported quaternary onium salts was strongly affected by the following factors: kind of reaction solvent, degree of introduction of the pendant onium salt residues in the polymer chain, and type of alkyl group on the onium salts due to the balance between lipophilicity and steric hindrance of the onium salt residue. Furthermore, these soluble polymer-supported quaternary onium salts were found ordinarily to have higher catalytic activity than low molecular weight quaternary onium salts under the same reaction conditions. It was also found that the rate of reaction was proportional both to catalyst concentration and to oxirane concentration. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

A study of Feynman integrals by micro-differential equations

We use the holonomic character of Feynman integrals to describe their singularity structure explicitly in some simple cases. The results in §1 show that under moderate conditions Feynman amplitudes can be locally expressed essentially in terms of Legendre functions near the points where two positive- Landau-Nakanishi surfaces meet. Related topics such as hierarchical principle in perturbation theory are also discussed in terms of holonomic systems involved. In §4 we use the concrete expressions for Feynman amplitudes obtained in §1 to discuss the validity of Sato's conjecture.Supported in part by NSF MCS 75-2333Supported in part by NSF GP 36269