Preparation of Chiral Amino Esters by Asymmetric Phase‐Transfer Catalyzed Alkylations of Schiff Bases in a Ball Mill

The asymmetric alkylation of Schiff bases under basic conditions in a ball mill was performed. The starting Schiff bases of glycine were prepared beforehand by milling protected glycine hydrochloride and benzophenone imine, in the absence of solvent. The Schiff base was then reacted with a halogenated derivative in a ball mill in the presence of KOH. By adding a chiral ammonium salt derived from cinchonidine, the reaction proceeded asymmetrically under phase‐transfer catalysis conditions, giving excellent yields and enantiomeric excesses up to 75 %. Because an equimolar amount of starting material was used, purification was greatly simplified.     

Evidence of Different Stoichiometries for the Limiting Carbonate Complexes across the Lanthanide(III) Series

The stoichiometries of limiting carbonate complexes of lanthanide(III) ions were investigated by solubility measurements of hydrated NaLn(CO3)2 solid compounds (Ln = La, Nd, Eu and Dy) at room temperature in aqueous solutions of high ionic strength (3.5 mol⋅kg−1 NaClO4) and high CO32-\mathrm{CO_{3}^{2-}} concentrations (0.1 to 1.5 mol⋅kg−1). The results were interpreted by considering the stability of carbonate complexes, with limiting species found to be La(CO3)45-\mathrm{La(CO_{3})_{4}^{5-}}, Nd(CO3)45-\mathrm{Nd(CO_{3})_{4}^{5-}}, Eu(CO3)33-\mathrm{Eu(CO_{3})_{3}^{3-}} and Dy(CO3)33-\mathrm{Dy(CO_{3})_{3}^{3-}}. TRLFS measurements on the Eu and Dy solutions confirmed the predominance of a single aqueous complex in all the samples. Equilibrium constants were determined for the reaction Ln(CO3)33-+CO32-\mathrm{Ln(CO_{3})_{3}^{3-}}+\mathrm{CO_{3}^{2-}} ⇌ Ln(CO3)45-\mathrm{Ln(CO_{3})_{4}^{5-}}: log10K3.5m NaClO44,La=0.7±0.3\log_{10}K\mathrm{^{3.5m\:NaClO_{4}}_{4,La}=0.7\pm0.3}, log10K3.5m NaClO44,Nd=1.3±0.3\log_{10}K\mathrm{^{3.5m\:NaClO_{4}}_{4,Nd}=1.3\pm0.3}, and for Ln = Eu and Dy, log10K3.5m NaClO44,Ln ￡ -0.4\log_{10}K\mathrm{^{3.5m\:NaClO_{4}}_{4,Ln}\leq-0.4}. These results suggest that tetracarbonato complexes are stable only for the light lanthanide ions in up to 1.5 molal CO32-\mathrm{CO_{3}^{2-}} aqueous solutions, in agreement with our recent capillary electrophoresis study. Comparison with literature results indicates that analogies between actinide(III) and lanthanide(III) ions of similar ionic radii do not hold in concentrated carbonate solutions. Am(CO3)33-\mathrm{Am(CO_{3})_{3}^{3-}} was previously evidenced by solubility measurements, whereas we have observed that Nd(CO3)45-\mathrm{Nd(CO_{3})_{4}^{5-}} predominates in similar conditions. We may speculate that small chemical differences between Ln(III) and An(III) could result in macroscopic differences when their coordination sphere is complete.     

Very Low Energy Electrons Transform the Cyclobutane‐Pyrimidine Dimer into a Highly Reactive Intermediate

Electrons with virtually no kinetic energy (close to 0 eV) trigger the decomposition of cytotoxic cyclobutane‐pyrimidine dimer (CPD) into a surprisingly large variety of fragment ions plus their neutral counterparts. The response of CPD to low energy electrons is thus comparable to that of explosives like trinitrotoluene (TNT). The dominant unimolecular reaction is the splitting into two thymine like units, which can be considered as the essential molecular step in the photolyase of CPD. We find that CPD is significantly more sensitive towards low energy electrons than its thymine building blocks. It is proposed that electron attachment at very low energy proceeds via dipole bound states, supported by the large dipole moment of the molecule (6.2 D). These states act as effective doorways to dissociative electron attachment (DEA).     

Evidence of different stoichiometries for the limiting carbonate complexes across the lanthanide(III) series: a capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry study

The electrophoretic mobilities (mu ep,Ln) of twelve lanthanides (not Ce, Pr and Yb) were measured by CE-ICP-MS in 0.15 and 0.5 mol L(-1) Alk2 CO3 aqueous solutions for Alk+ = Li+, Na+, K+ and Cs+. In 0.5 mol L(-1) solutions, two different mu ep,Ln values were found for the light (La to Nd) and the heavy (Dy to Tm) lanthanides, which suggests two different stoichiometries for the carbonate limiting complexes. These results are consistent with a solubility study that attests the Ln(CO3)3(3-) and Ln(CO3)4(5-) stoichiometries for the heavy (small) and the light (big) lanthanides, respectively. The Alk+ counterions influence the mu ep,Ln Alk2 CO3 values, but not the overall shape of the mu ep,Ln Alk2 CO3 plots as a function of the lanthanide atomic numbers: the counterions do not modify the stoichiometries of the inner sphere complexes. The influence of the Alk+ counterions decreases in the Li+ > Na+ > K+ > Cs+ series. The K3,Ln stepwise formation constants of the Ln(CO3)3(3-) complexes slightly increase with the atomic numbers of the lanthanides while K4,Ln, the stepwise formation constants of Ln(CO3)4(5-) complexes, slightly decrease from La to Tb, and is no longer measurable for heavier lanthanides.     

High resolution electron attachment to CO₂ clusters

Electron attachment to CO? clusters performed at high energy resolution (0.1 eV) is studied for the first time in the extended electron energy range from threshold (0 eV) to about 10 eV. Dissociative electron attachment (DEA) to single molecules yields O(-) as the only fragment ion arising from the well known (2)Π(u) shape resonance (ion yield centered at 4.4 eV) and a core excited resonance (at 8.2 eV). On proceeding to CO? clusters, non-dissociated complexes of the form (CO?)(n)(-) including the monomer CO?(-) are generated as well as solvated fragment ions of the form (CO?)(n)O(-). The non-decomposed complexes appear already within a resonant feature near threshold (0 eV) and also within a broad contribution between 1 and 4 eV which is composed of two resonances observed for example for (CO?)(4)(-) at 2.2 eV and 3.1 eV (peak maxima). While the complexes observed around 3.1 eV are generated via the (2)Π(u) resonance as precursor with subsequent intracluster relaxation, the contribution around 2.2 eV can be associated with a resonant scattering feature, recently discovered in single CO? in the selective excitation of the higher energy member of the well known Fermi dyad [M. Allan, Phys. Rev. Lett., 2001, 87, 0332012]. Formation of (CO?)(n)(-) in the threshold region involves vibrational Feshbach resonances (VFRs) as previously discovered via an ultrahigh resolution (1 meV) laser photoelectron attachment method [E. Leber, S. Barsotti, I. I. Fabrikant, J. M. Weber, M.-W. Ruf and H. Hotop, Eur. Phys. J. D, 2000, 12, 125]. The complexes (CO?)(n)O(-) clearly arise from DEA at an individual molecule within the cluster involving both the (2)Π(u) and the core excited resonance.     

Selection of two reliable parameters to evaluate the impact of the mobile-phase composition on capillary electrochromatography performance with monolithic and particle-packed capillary columns

Different models have been described in the literature to evaluate the total porosity of CEC columns: gravimetric, flow as well as conductivity-based methods. In this study, these models have been compared for two kinds of CEC columns: two mixed-mode silica particle stationary phases and different monolithic columns (acrylate or polystyrene divinylbenzene-based). The total porosities measured from the conductivity-based methods were lower than the total column porosities obtained by gravimetric or flow methods for all the investigated columns while the wide distribution of observed values shows that conductivity-based methods discriminate columns more efficiently with very different properties. We propose a conductivity-based method taking into account the actual length proposed by Horvath, to evaluate what we call an "actual electrokinetic" porosity (AEP). This parameter, based on electrokinetic theory only, affords the most consistent evaluation of porosity under experimental CEC conditions for the packed- and acrylate-based monolithic columns. To illustrate the potential of AEP and actual EOF for the estimation of the performances of a CEC system (stationary and mobile phases) we studied the influence of the mobile-phase composition on these parameters for CEC separations with an ammonium embedded packed stationary phase. The AEP and the actual electroosmotic mobility should allow a better understanding of the perfusive EOF and stationary-phase wettability. For neutral compounds (substituted phenols), AEP evaluation allowed us to predict the mobile-phase conditions able to enhance the efficiency while both AEP and actual EOF had to be considered in the case of peptide analysis.     

In situ synthesis of monolithic stationary phases for electrochromatographic separations: study of polymerization conditions

Acrylate-based monolithic capillary columns were prepared from fused-silica capillaries using UV photopolymerization. The effect of the pretreatment of the capillary wall surface before polymerization was investigated and several procedures were compared. The columns were characterization by van Deemter curves and SEM imaging. The results indicated that a pre-silanization of the capillary wall in order to introduce methacrylate groups at the wall surface gave similar efficiencies but more homogeneous structures than when the silanization agent was introduced in the polymerization mixture. The conditioning of the capillary before silanization, especially the conditions of basic rinsing was also an important factor. The effect of the dose of UV light that was applied for the polymerization had also been investigated. The results demonstrated that the irradiation energy is a critical parameter. The minimum energy threshold required to obtain a suitable monolith was 3 J/cm(2) and the maximum was around 12 J/cm(2). A higher energy destroys the monolith. Within the convenient range of energy, the columns had the same efficiency and a good structure as seen by SEM imaging. Using the optimized procedure for the pretreatment and an adequate energy, the column-to-column repeatability was found good (n = 12). The repeatability was obtained for the plate height at two velocity values, the retention factor and the electroosmotic mobility with RSD values below 10.     

Compositional changes in cement-stabilized waste during leach tests--comparison of SEM/EDX data with predictions from geochemical speciation modeling

Cement-based stabilization/solidification (s/s) is a widely used treatment process for hazardous wastes containing toxic metals. The treated waste consists of a complex mixture of several solid phases produced by cement hydration reactions. Understanding and predicting the effects of leaching on these individual phases is essential for assessing the long-term immobilization of metal contaminants in s/s waste exposed to rain and groundwater. In this paper, particles of crushed Portland cement doped with copper, lead, and zinc nitrates were leached with nitric acid solutions maintained at constant pH in the range pH 4-7. Changes in solid composition at the microscopic scale were measured by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM/EDX). The geochemical equilibrium model SOLTEQ-B, which accounts for the incongruent solubility behavior of calcium silicate hydrate, was used to simulate the compositional changes in the hydration gel for increasing extents of leaching. Measured concentrations of calcium, silicon, and sulfur were successfully predicted at all extents of leaching. Aluminum, lead, and zinc concentrations were also in good agreement with model predictions, except in the remineralization zones that form when metals solubilized in the outer regions of the s/s waste particles diffuse toward the interior and reprecipitate at higher pH. Copper was less accurately modeled at high extents of leaching. Accounting for the incorporation of contaminant metals into the cement hydration gel (in opposition to assuming the presence of individual metal hydroxides) is crucial for successfully predicting contaminant metal concentrations in the hydration gel at low and intermediate extents of leaching.