Effect of ureas on the viscometric behavior of water-soluble isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)

Isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) is soluble and has the compact random coil structure in water solution. The effect of six ureas (thiourea, urea, methylurea, ethylurea, 1,3-dimethylurea, and tetramethylurea) on the viscometric behavior of aqueous solutions of isotactic PHEMA as a function of urea concentrations at 25°C has been investigated. The compact random coil structure is found to disappear as ureas are added. The result is discussed in terms of water structure breaking and making effect of solutes, and hydrophobic interactions. In addition, experiments were performed with aqueous isotactic PHEMA solutions at four different temperatures. Isotactic PHEMA in pure water has the most compact conformation at 20°C.     

Dilute solution properties of tactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)

Isotactic and syndiotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) have been prepared. Intrinsic viscosity–molecular weight relationships were established for the isotactic and syndiotactic PHEMA in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at 25°C by solution viscometry and light scattering. The unperturbed dimensions and interaction parameters were examined in DMF, water, methanol, ethanol, and water–methanol (1:7 by volume) mixture for isotactic PHEMA and in DMF, methanol, and water–methanol (1:7 by volume) mixture for syndiotactic PHEMA using the Stockmayer–Fixman representation. The results suggest that the compact random coil structure for isotactic PHEMA occurs in water solvent and the isotactic PHEMA is more highly extended in polar solvents.     

Polyelectrolytes conformational probes: Auramine O and ethidium bromide interactions with hypercoiling maleic acid–olefin copolymers

Two cationic dyes—auramine O (AuO) and ethidium bromide (EBr)—have been tested for their ability to respond to conformational states of maleic acid–olefin copolymers in aqueous solution. The fraction of bound dye and the intensity of fluorescence of AuO are extremely sensitive to the presence of polyelectrolyte compact coils and to changes in ionic strength and counterion species. A related behavior is shown by the shift in the absorption visible spectrum of EBr, whereas its fluorescence seems to depend somewhat on the “structure” of the compact coils. These properties of the two dyes, which find a convincing correlation with viscosity and equilibrium thermodynamic data for the copolymers considered, are thus proved to be useful in probing the degree of compactness of polyelectrolyte coiled conformations in dilute aqueous solutions.     

Temperature dependence of unperturbed dimensions for isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)

The unperturbed dimensions of isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) were evaluated from intrinsic viscosity measurements in water, ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, and 2-butanol under θ conditions over the temperature range of 3.7–32.1°C. The smallest value of unperturbed dimensions (K_θ) and the largest negative temperature dependence of unperturbed dimensions and the polymer–solvent interaction parameter (B) were obtained in aqueous θ solvent relative to the corresponding organic θ solvents. These results were interpreted by the hydrophobic interaction between the hydrophobic groups of isotactic PHEMA and water solvent. The temperature coefficient of the unperturbed dimensions, d ln〈r〉/dT, obtained in this study has a negative value of ?1.44 × 10^?3 deg^?1 under chemically similar θ solvents such as ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, and 2-butanol where specific solvent effects are eliminated or minimized. In order to obtain the thermodynamic parameters for mixing between isotactic PHEMA and solvents, the plots of the polymer–solvent interaction parameter versus reciprocal absolute temperature (1/T) were carried out. Both the entropy of dilution and enthalpy of dilution show the negative values for water, methanol, and t-butanol, whereas the positive ones for ethanol, 1-propanol, 2-propanol, and 2-butanol. This result indicates that the solution of isotactic PHEMA behave as exothermal systems in the former class of solvents and endothermal ones in the latter class of solvents.     

Participation of water in conformational change of isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) as studied by viscometry in various electrolytic solutions

Conformational properties of isotactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) have been studied by viscometry in various electrolytic solutions. The intrinsic viscosity of isotactic PHEMA at 0.01M salt solution increases with decreasing the B coefficient in Jones—Dole's equation. In respective to water structures, a polymer chain is more expanded in the salt solution including water structure breaker ions. As the concentration of ions increases, the interactions between polymer segments and ions make a major contribution to conformational changes of isotactic PHEMA. Depending on the kind of ions, a salting-in or out effect is observed at higher concentrations than 0.1M salt solution. We observed that the denaturing effects of various anions in isotactic PHEMA salt solutions are as follows; SO₄^2- < F^? < I^? NO₃^? < SCN^-. This order is similar to the Hofmeister series. To investigate the influences of denaturing agents on solvent structures, we also compared the guanidine hydrochloride effect with the tetrabutylammonium chloride effect in isotactic PHEMA solution.     

Tensammetric studies of alcohols with reference to their structural influence on surface activity

Summary This work relates to the tensametric studies of various aliphatic alcohols with a view to see if this technique can be used to assess the structural influence on surface activity. From the study of the homologous series of aliphatic alcohols, it is seen that the surface activity increases with increase in chain length of the alcohols. With lower members of the series the desorption peak is not sharp. There is no regular shift of peak potential from methanol to amylalcohol. For the same alcohol the surface activity increases if the carbon atoms are in a straight chain but decreases if they are branched. Primary alcohols are more surface active than secondary and secondary are more surface active than tertiary alcohols. The peak potential is more negative for normal alcohol than that of tertiary alcohol. Saturated alcohols are more surface active than unsaturated ones having the same number of carbon atoms. The peak potential is also more negative with saturated than with unsaturated. Monohydric alcohols are more surface active than dihydric and dihydric is more surface active than trihydric alcohol having the same number of carbon atoms as in monohydric and dihydric alcohols and in this case the peak potential is more negative with trihydric than with monohydric alcohol.     

β-环糊精/萘丁美酮/直链醇体系的超分子作用机理及其分析应用的研究

利用稳态荧光法研究了β-环糊精（β-CD）与新型抗炎药物萘丁美酮（NAB） 间的超分子相互作用，探讨了直链醇（ROH）对该超分子体系的影响。研究表明无 论体系中是否含有直链醇，β-CD和萘丁美酮均形成1/1的超分子包合物其表观结合 常数K_(app)随醇碳链长度的增长而逐渐减小。将这一现象归因于醇对β-CD疏水性 空腔的竞争作用，而非β-CD/NAB/ROH三元包合物的形成所致。荧光猝灭实验表明 水相中β-CF增敏萘丁美酮荧光是源于其疏水性空腔对萘丁美酮激发单重态的屏蔽 效应。直链醇的加入抑制了该效应，从而进一步证实了醇对β-CD空腔的竞争作用 确实导致萘丁美酮被置换到水相中。利用β-CD对萘丁美酮的包结作用使其荧光显 著增大这一特性，建立了水相中高灵敏度测定萘丁美酮的荧光光度法，线性范围为 0～3.0μg·mL~(-1)，检测下限1.05 ng·mL~(-1)。常用药物赋形剂对测定不产生 干扰。应用本法测定片剂中萘丁美酮含量，结果令人满意。     

Fluorescence anisotropy study of aqueous dispersions of block ionomer complexes

Block ionomer complexes (BIC) of "dual hydrophilic" block copolymers containing ionic and nonionic blocks and oppositely charged surfactants spontaneously form colloidal particles of ca. 80 nm in diameter stable in aqueous dispersions at every composition of the mixture. Packing and dynamics of aliphatic groups of the surfactant in BIC were examined by using the quenching-resolved fluorescence anisotropy (QRFA) method with 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) as a probe. The values of the order parameter and rotational relaxation time in the BIC were higher than those in the surfactant micelles. Incorporation of aliphatic alcohols in the BIC decreased the order parameter and increased the rotational relaxation time. The effects on the order parameter were explained by changes in the surfactant aliphatic group conformation to "fill the gaps" induced by insertion of shorter alcohol molecules. The effects on the relaxation time were attributed to a decrease in repulsion of the surfactant headgroups and expulsion of water from the BIC hydrophobic interior as evidenced by the decrease in micropolarity. The results of this study have implications for potential use of the BIC in pharmaceutics and other fields.     

THE EFFECT OF ALIPHATIC ALCOHOLS ON FLUORESCENCE QUENCHING AND FLUORESCENCE POLARIZATION OF LUMINESCENCE PROBES IN HEXADECYLTRIMETHYLAMMONIUM BROMIDE MICELLES

Abstract— The fluorescence quenching of the indole chromophore by NO⁻₂ and the fluorescence depolarization of several luminescence probes in aqueous solutions containing hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (HDTBr) were measured as a function of added C₂–C₄ aliphatic alcohol concentration. The fluorescence decay profiles of pyrene in the micellar solutions were also measured to estimate the aggregation number of the micelles. The addition of n -butyl alcohol significantly reduces the fluorescence quenching rate and the aggregation number and increases the extent of fluorescence depolarization in HDTBr micellar systems. The addition of ethyl alcohol shows a similar but smaller effect.     

Spectrofluorimetric study of the β-cyclodextrin-dapsone-linear alcohol supramolecular system and determination of dapsone

Dapsone (DDS) forms a 1:1 supramolecular complex with β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) both in the absence and presence of linear alcohols. The apparent association constants (K_app) were measured using a steady-state fluorescence method. K_app decreases linearly with an increasing number of carbon atoms in the chain of the alcohol. We attribute this to a competition between dapsone and linear alcohol for the β-CD hydrophobic cavity as detailed analysis of K_app as a function of the concentration of alcohol suggests that the interactions in the β-CD-dapsone-linear alcohol system do not result in the formation of ternary supramolecular complex. Quenching the fluorescence of dapsone with NaI shows that the β-CD cavity acts as a shield against contact between dapsone and this aqueous phase quencher, while addition of alcohols inhibits this protective effect. This again suggests that alcohols occupy the space within the β-CD cavity with the result that dapsone molecules are forced to reside in the aqueous environment. Based on the significant enhancement of the fluorescence intensity of dapsone produced through complex formation, a spectrofluorimetric method for the determination of dapsone in bulk aqueous solution in the presence of β-CD is developed. The linear relationship between the fluorescence intensity and dapsone concentration was obtained in the range of 3.39 to 1.50×10³ ng ml⁻¹, with a correlation coefficient (r) of 0.9998. The detection limit was 1.02 ng ml⁻¹. There was no interference from the excipients normally used in tablet formulations. The application of the present method to the determination of dapsone in tablets and human plasma gave satisfactory results and was compared with the pharmacopoeia method.     

A Study of the Solvation Structure of l‐Leucine in Alcohol–Water Binary Solvents through Molecular Dynamics Simulations and FTIR and NMR Spectroscopy

The solvation structures of l ‐leucine (Leu) in aliphatic‐alcohol–water and fluorinated‐alcohol–water solvents are elucidated for various alcohol contents by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and IR, and ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. The aliphatic alcohols included methanol, ethanol, and 2‐propanol, whereas the fluorinated alcohols were 2,2,2‐trifluoroethanol and 1,1,1,3,3,3‐hexafluoro‐2‐propanol. The MD results show that the hydrophobic alkyl moiety of Leu is surrounded by the alkyl or fluoroalkyl groups of the alcohol molecules. In particular, TFE and HFIP significantly solvate the alkyl group of Leu. IR spectra reveal that the Leu C?H stretching vibration blueshifts in fluorinated alcohol solutions with increasing alcohol content, whereas the vibration redshifts in aliphatic alcohol solutions. When the C?H stretching vibration blueshifts in the fluorinated alcohol solutions, the hydrogen and carbon atoms of the Leu alkyl group are magnetically shielded. Consequently, TFE and HFIP molecules may solvate the Leu alkyl group through the blue‐shifting hydrogen bonds.     

Binding methyl orange and hydrophobic fluorescent probes by poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) and copolymers of 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone: pH dependence of the binding and fluorescence intensity

The pH dependence of the interaction of poly(2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) and copolymers of 2-dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone with methyl orange, 2-p-toluidinylnaphthalene-6-sulfonate (TNS), and 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DHT) was studied by equilibrium dialysis and fluorescence measurements at pH's 7–10. The first binding constant accompanying the binding of methyl orange and TNS by the polymers, in particular the homopolymer, shows a maximum around pH 8 and maximal fluorescence intensity of TNS is obtained around pH 8.5 in the presence of the polymers. To elucidate these observations the pH-induced conformational changes of the homopolymer were examined by potentiometric titration and viscosity measurements and the thermodynamic parameters that accompany the binding were calculated. The polymer was found to change from an extended coil at lower pH to a compact coil at higher pH. The electrostatic attraction between the sulfonate group of the small molecule and the protonated nitrogen atoms on the polymer is increased at lower pH and the hydrophobic interaction between the hydrophobic moieties of the polymer and the small molecule is enhanced at higher pH. The results obtained for the dye binding and fluorescence intensity were discussed in terms of the electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions.     

The influence of acoustic power on multibubble sonoluminescence in aqueous solution containing organic solutes

The effect of varying the applied acoustic power on the extent to which the addition of water-soluble solutes affect the intensity of aqueous multibubble sonoluminescence (MBSL) has been investigated. Under most of the experimental conditions used, the addition of aliphatic alcohols to aqueous solutions was found to suppress the MBSL intensity, although an enhancement of the MBSL intensity was also observed under certain conditions. In contrast, the presence of an anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in aqueous solutions generally enhanced the observed MBSL intensity. For a series of aliphatic alcohols and SDS, a strong dependence of the MBSL intensity on the applied acoustic power (in the range of 0.78-1.61 W/cm(2)) at 358 kHz was observed. The relative SL quenching was significantly higher at higher acoustic powers for the alcohol solutions, whereas the relative SL enhancement was lower at higher acoustic powers in SDS solutions. These observations have been interpreted in terms of a combination of material evaporation into the bubble, rectified diffusion, bubble clustering and bubble-bubble coalescence.     

Viscosity of aqueous solutions of 2-propyne-1-ol, 2-methyl-3-butyne-2-ol and 3-butene-2-ol

Viscosities of aqueous solutions of 2-propyne-1-ol (propargyl alcohol), 2-methyl-3-butyne-2-ol and 3-butene-2-ol have been measured at temperatures 308.15, 313.15, 318.15, 323.15 and 328.15?K over the entire composition range. Viscosity of the aqueous solutions of 2-methyl-3-butyne-2-ol and 3-butene-2-ol increases up to a maximum value and then starts decreasing almost linearly as the mole fraction of alcohol increases. 2-Methyl-3-butyne-2-ol + water and 3-butene-2-ol + water systems exhibit maxima around 0.5 and 0.2 mole fraction, respectively. Conversely, 2-propyne-1-ol + water system shows a rapid initial increase in viscosity up to 0.3 mole fraction followed by a slow steady increase as the mole fraction of alcohol increases to its pure state. Plots of excess viscosities against mole fraction of organic solutes for all the systems exhibit a sharp increase in η ^E to reach a well defined maxima, after which the curves show a descending trend. The variations of viscosity and excess viscosity with the composition of the mixtures have been interpreted in terms of hydrophobic and hydrophilic interactions between the species forming the mixtures.     

Difference spatial distribution function analysis of aqueous solutions. III. Hydration structures of alcohol and ether solutions having straight chain and branched alkyl groups

Spatial distribution functions (SDFs), gOO(x,y,z) and gOH(x,y,z), obtained from Monte Carlo simulations at 298 K were applied to characterize the anisotropic structure of infinitely dilute aqueous solutions of alcohols and ethers having straight chain and branched alkyl groups. In spite of the different size and shape of the hydrophobic groups, the spatial orientation of the hydrogen-bonded water molecules was found to be of linear type with a triple layer structure in the hydrogen acceptor (HA) region and a double layer structure in the hydrogen donor (HD) region. The volumes and the coordination number (CN) in the HA region were essentially identical for all alcohol and ether solutions, but the volumes for the isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and isopropyl methyl ether (IPE) solutions were greater than those for the other solutions. In the hydrophobic hydration (HH) region, these values increased with increasing size and shape of hydrophobic groups, except in the case of IPA and IPE solutions. These results indicated that the hydration structures around the isopropyl group in alcohol and ether solutions differed from those in other solutions. From the results of the difference SDF (DSDF), AgOO(x,y,z), between SDFs gOO(x,y,z) for the two states, it was apparent that the distribution of hydration water molecules in the HA region for ether solution was characterized by the increase of the distribution in the direction of lone pair electrons on the oxygen atom of the solute molecule with increasing hydrophobicity.     

Spectroscopy of auramine fluorescent probes free and bound to poly(methacrylic acid)

Auramines containing a vinyl group with strong electron-withdrawing substituent exhibit a pi-conjugated extended effect that gives a red shift in their absorption and emission bands. The new fluorochromic dyes were bound to poly(methacrylic acid) (PMA), and their photophysical dynamics in methanol and in aqueous solution were studied. These derivatives were also used as optical probes for copolymerization process. The process was monitored by the changes in electronic absorption with a concomitant fading of the free vinyl auramine absorption band in the red and an appearance of a UV band ascribed to dye bound to the polymer chain. The conformational transition of PMA with solvent and pH was clearly observed by the drastic changes in the photophysical properties of these auramine derivatives attached to the polymer chain. Time-resolved experiments revealed an unusual long-lived decay component of about 2.2-2.6 ns in aqueous solution at low pH together with two picosecond components (50 and 570 ps). Such long decay was only reported in the literature for auramine adsorbed in solid matrices. It was ascribed to the fraction of bound auramine in a region of compact coil of PMA.     

The length of esterifying alcohol affects the aggregation properties of chlorosomal bacteriochlorophylls

Abstract Chlorosomes, the main light-harvesting complexes of green photosynthetic bacteria, contain bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecules in the form of self-assembling aggregates. To study the role of esterifying alcohols in BChl aggregation we have prepared a series of bacteriochlorophyllide c (BChlide c) derivatives differing in the length of the esterifying alcohol (C(1), C(4), C(8) and C(12)). Their aggregation behavior was studied both in polar (aqueous buffer) and nonpolar (hexane) environments and the esterifying alcohols were found to play an essential role. In aqueous buffer, hydrophobic interactions among esterifying alcohols drive BChlide c derivatives with longer chains into the formation of dimers, while this interaction is weak for BChlides with shorter esterifying alcohols and they remain mainly as monomers. All studied BChlide c derivatives form aggregates in hexane, but the process slows down with longer esterifying alcohols due to competing hydrophobic interactions with hexane molecules. In addition, the effect of the length of the solvent molecules (n-alkanes) was explored for BChl c aggregation. With an increasing length of n-alkane molecules, the hydrophobic interaction with the farnesyl chain becomes stronger, leading to a slower aggregation rate. The results show that the hydrophobic interaction is the driving force for the aggregation in an aqueous environment, while in nonpolar solvents it is the hydrophilic interaction.     

Effect of urea on the behaviour of poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)-water mixtures

The effect of urea solutions on the equilibrium swelling of lightly crosslinked poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) gels and on the viscometric behaviour of PHEMA, for various concentrations of urea and temperatures, has been studied. Urea raises the degree of swelling of gels and the intrinsic viscosity of PHEMA; the temperature coefficient of both quantities is negative. A thermodynamic analysis of the swelling data shows that a change in entropy is the driving force for the increase in swelling at low temperatures, while at higher temperatures (50–80°) a negative change in enthalpy prevails, both corresponding to the transport of PHEMA from the aqueous medium into urea solutions. The entropy and enthalpy of dilution parameters derived from viscometric measurements have negative values, and their absolute values decrease with increasing urea concentration. It has also been found that the PHEMA molecules in urea solutions under the θ-conditions are much more coiled than in an organic θ-solvent. The results are interpreted in terms of the existence of inter- and intramolecular hydrophobic bonds and by the destruction of hydrophobic clusters caused by urea.     

Molecular motions of tactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) in solutions studied by 13C-NMR relaxation measurement

The spin-lattice relaxation time and the nuclear Overhauser enhancement were measured using Bruker AM 300 spectrometer operating at 75.5 MHz for ¹³C to investigate the molecular motional characteristics and its tacticity effect for tactic poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) as a function of temperature in dimethyl sulfoxide and methanol solvents. The observed relaxation data have been analyzed for both backbone motion and methyl internal rotation according to the log-χ² distribution model and the diamond-lattice model. The correlation times thus obtained for the molecular motions show that isotactic PHEMA is more flexible than syndiotactic counterpart. The syndiotactic PHEMA seems to have intramolecular hydrogen bonding which restricts the motion of C-2 carbon at temperatures below 35°C, whereas the isotactic one indicated no hydrogen bonding at all temperatures examined in this study. The methyl group of isotactic PHEMA shows a greater degree of freedom for the internal rotation than that of syndiotactic one. From the temperature dependence of correlation times, the activation energies for both backbone segmental motion and methyl internal rotation are obtained. The activation energies, 20 kJ/mol for backbone motion and 19 kJ/mol for methyl internal rotation, for isotactic PHEMA are substantially lower than the corresponding activation energies of 30 and 32 kJ/mol obtained for syndiotactic one. An examination of these energies indicates that methyl side group and backbone motions in tactic PHEMA are linked together.     

The effect of hydrogen bonding on oligoleucine structure in water: A molecular dynamics simulation study

Molecular dynamics simulations were conducted in order to improve our understanding of the forces that determine polyleucine chains conformations and govern polyleucine self-assembly in aqueous solutions. Simulations of 10 repeat unit oligoleucine in aqueous solution were performed using the optimized potential for liquid simulations (OPLS) - all atom force field using the canonical ensemble for a minimum of 1.3 ns. These simulations provided information on conformations, chain collapse and intermolecular aggregation. Simulations indicate that single isotactic oligoleucine chains in dilute solution assume tightly packed, regular hairpin conformations while atactic oligoleucine assumes a much less regular and less compact structure. The regular, compact collapsed isotactic chain exhibited a greater degree of intramolecular hydrogen bonding and an increased level of hydrophobic t-butyl functional group aggregation compared to the atactic chain. This occurs at the expense of reduced leucine-water hydrogen bonding.