Copper(II) chloride as a new,efficient additive suppressing racemization in peptide synthesis by the carbodiimide method

Copper(II) chloride was found to be an extremely efficient additive suppressing racemization in the carbodiimide mediated couplings.     

Radical formation during tensile deformation of highly drawn crystalline poly[p-(2-hydroxyethoxy)benzoic acid] fibers

The micromechanism of tensile deformation of poly[p-(2-hydroxyethoxy)benzoic acid] fibers is discussed on the basis of a detailed esr study of radical formation. The concentration of primary phenoxy radicals, which were detected during deformation at room temperature as a direct indicator of main-chain rupture, was determined by extrapolating the radical decay curves at various strains to zero time. The relation between the initial radical concentration and the strain is well expressed by the cumulative normal distribution curve. By use of this relation and a model of fiber structure, the distribution of the contour length of tie chains was determined. No radicals were detected during a second stretching cycle until the maximum strain in the first run was exceeded. The deformation model which includes alternating crystalline and amorphous regions connected by tie chains, a distribution of contour lengths of tie chains, and a phase transformation of molecular chains in the crystalline region accounted fairly well for the observed stress–strain behavior of monofilaments in first and second stretching cycles. The comparison between the observed and the calculated radical concentration suggests that statistical factors and other deformation mechanisms have to be taken into account.     

Stress-optical studies of VI B transition metal dichalcogenides

The effect of a uniaxial stress on the excitonic optical spectra are studied for MoS₂, WS₂, MoSe₂ and WSe₂. Stress dichroism appears in the A′, B′ excitons in diselenides, while it is absent in the A, B excitons in the four compounds. The A′, B′ excitons shift oppositely to the A, B excitons, indicating that A, B and A′, B′ are not pair excitons split by interlayer interaction.     

Identification of low chlorinated biphenyls in human milk by gas chromatography--mass spectrometry.

Trichlorobiphenyl and tetrachlorobiphenyls in human milk were analysed by gas chromatography--mass spectrometry and mass fragmentography using silicone OV-1 and Apiezon L grease as stationary phases. Low-chlorinated biphenyls had been considered to be excreted rapidly from the body, but in this work quantities of tri- and tetrachlorobiphenyls amounting to approximately 30% of the total of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) accumulated in the milk were identified. This result is important in relation to the quantification of PCBs and in studies of the mechanism of biological degradation.