Formation Mechanism and Stability Study of Konjac Glucomannan Helical Structure

The formation mechanism and stability of konjac glucomannan (KGM) helical structure were investigated by molecular dynamic simulation and experimental method. The results indicate that the molecular conformation of KGM is a non-typical helical structure. In detail, helical structure of KGM is mainly sustained by acetyl group, whose size and stability are affected by the molecular polymerization degree of KGM. In vacuum among the non-bonding interactions, electrostatic force is the greatest factor affecting its helical structure, but in water solution, hydrogen bond affects the helical arrangement greatly. To our interest, temperature exhibits a reversible destroying effect to some extent; the helical structure will disappear completely and present a ruleless clew-like arrangement till 341 K. This work suggests that the method of combining molecular dynamic simulation and experiment tools can be effective in the study of KGM helical structure.     

Stability of the Konjac Glucomannan Topological Chain Based on Quantum Spin Model

In this paper we investigated the stability of konjac glucomnnan(KGM) chain hydrogen networks based on the quantum spin model. Dissipative particle dynamics method was applied in the structure simulation of KGM. The results reveled that acetyl residues of KGM were bonded with water molecules in aqueous solutions. Increasing the hydrogen bond formation decreases the energy in acetyl system. The expect-valuation of the thermal state with respect to the Hamiltonian is negative. Hence, the total energy of konjac glucomnnan chain with the acetyl groups decreases, which indicates the increasing stability of konjac glucomnnan chain. Our approach could provide a new insight into the investigation on the stability of konjac glucomnnan chain.     

Effects of Irradiation on the Structure-activity Relationship of Konjac Glucomannan Molecular Chain Membrane

To know the effects of irradiation on the konjac glucomannan (KGM) molecular chain membrane, KGM membrane solution was treated with the irradiation dose of 0-20 kGy in this study, and the structure and properties of KGM membrane were analyzed with Infrared spectrum, Raman spectrum, X-ray, SEM scanning and so on. The results revealed that the effects of different irradiation doses on the KGM molecular chain structure were different. Higher irradiation dose (20 kGy) resulted in partial damage against KGM membrane crystal structure, and there was no obvious change for the amorphous structure; with membrane property test, the tensile strength of KGM membrane gradually increased with the increase of irradiation dose and its elongation at break reduced, but these changes were not significant, WVP value reduced; with SEM, the membrane surface treated with irradiation was smoother even than the membrane without treatment. In addition, when increasing the irradiation dose, membrane surface became more even, and arrangement was more orderly and compact. Irradiation modification could effectively improve the KGM membrane properties, and it is an ideal modification method.     

长链脂肪酸魔芋葡甘聚糖酯的制备及乳化性能研究

采用非均相酰化法制备了四个系列的长链脂肪酸魔芋葡甘聚糖酯（ＫＧＭＥ）．ＤＴＡ图显示了葡甘聚糖酯的晶态结构变化,Ｘ 射线衍射分析表明了不同长度的酰链对葡甘聚糖酯晶态结构的影响．初步研究了葡甘聚糖酯在芳香烃及环烷烃两种水包油（Ｏ／Ｗ）乳液体系中其取代度与乳化力的关系．实验证明在水包油乳液体系中,取代度在某一范围的葡甘聚糖酯显示出较好的乳化能力,且在高盐浓度和酸性情况下,仍给出好的乳化作用．丁香油 水（Ｏ／Ｗ）乳液体系在室温下静置四个星期未发现破乳分离现象     

分子量及酰基供体对酶促魔芋葡甘聚糖酰化反应的影响

研究了在有机介质叔丁醇中魔芋葡甘聚糖(KGM)的分子量及酰基供体对固定化脂肪酶Novozym 435催化KGM乙酰化反应的影响.KGM的分子量对酶促其酰化反应的活性及产物取代度有显著影响.随着KGM分子量的增大,酶催化反应的速率逐渐下降,产物的取代度逐渐减小.KGM分子量对该反应的影响与不同分子量KGM的溶解度、体系粘度、空间位阻及颗粒形态等因素有关.以不同链长的脂肪酸乙烯酯为酰基供体时,随着酰基供体中脂肪酸碳链的增长,酶促KGM酰化反应速率逐渐下降,产物的取代度逐渐减小,且该酰化反应具有高度的区域选择性,反应均发生在C6-OH上.     

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Interactions between Konjac Glucomannan and Carrageenan

The interactions between konjac glucomannan and carrageenan were studied with the method of molecular dynamics simulation. Part representative structure segments of KGM and two unit structures of κ-carrageenan （Fig. 2） were used as mode, and the force-field was AMBER2. The stability and sites of konjac glucomannan/carrageenan interactions in water were researched at 373 K with the following results： the potential energy （EPOT） of the mixed gel was dropped, while those of single-konjac glucomannan gel and single carrageenan were increased. The surface area （SA） of KGM in the mixed system was decreased to 1002.2A^°^2, and that of carrageenan to 800.9 A^°^2. The variations of two parameters showed that the stability of compound gel konjac glucomannan/carrageenan was improved, which is consistent with the previous studies. The sites of interactions in the mixed gel were the -OH groups on C（2）, C（4） and C（6）, the acetyl group in KGM mannose, and the -OH group on C（6） in carrageenan. The hydrogen bond was formed directly or indirectly by the bridge of waters.     

Structure and Potential Application of Konjac Glucomannan Nano Microfibril Aerogel

An ultra-light and high porosity nano microfibril aerogel was prepared from konjac glucomannan(KGM) by the electrospinning and freeze-drying. The structure of aerogel was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and X-ray diffraction(XRD) while the density and compressive strength of the samples were studied separately. Results reveal that porous network structure of the KGM nano microfibril aerogel is constructed by intermolecular hydrogen bonds in random and interpenetrate way. The nano microfibril structure presents in the KGM aerogel,which is an important reason of its high density and compressive strength. There is a potential application for this unique nano microfibril aerogel in the absorption of biodegradation bacteria to solve problems in marine oil spill pollution.     

高取代度魔芋葡甘聚糖醋酸酯的制备及其热塑性和流变性研究

以魔芋葡甘聚糖(KGM)为原料,浓硫酸为催化剂,乙酸酐为改性剂,制备了KGM醋酸酯.研究了反应条件对KGM醋酸酯取代度(DS)的影响,KGM醋酸酯制备的最佳反应条件是乙醇∶水量比5∶5,反应时间2h,反应温度75℃,催化剂浓硫酸的浓度0.1mol/L,KGM与乙酸酐的量比5∶40(g/mL),取代度高达2.93,其分子量与KGM相比,则明显降低.运用傅立叶红外光谱仪(FTIR)、X射线衍射仪(XRD)、扫描电镜(SEM)、热重分析仪(TGA)、示差扫描量热仪(DSC)和旋转流变仪对KGM和高取代度KGM醋酸酯进行了表征.结果表明,KGM醋酸酯的羰基(CO)特征吸收峰较KGM明显增强,其表观形貌大部分为疏松絮状,KGM及其醋酸酯均为非晶态结构.与KGM相比,KGM醋酸酯的热稳定性下降,分解温度(Td)由KGM的261.10℃降低至KGM醋酸酯的204.56℃,KGM醋酸酯出现了明显的玻璃化转变,其玻璃化转变温度(Tg)为128.49℃.KGM醋酸酯是典型的黏弹性材料,其弹性比率占21.27%,其剪切黏度η对温度变化非常敏感,可通过温度的改变来调节KGM醋酸酯的加工流动性.KGM醋酸酯具有较好的热塑性.     

The Effect of Boron on the Properties of Glucomannan： An Experimental and Molecular Dynamics Simulation Study

1 INTRODUCTION gel using KGM and borax at 60 ℃, which can be used as slow-released reagent of theophylline and Generally, the mixture of Konjac Glucomanan dibucaine. And Hogi Tsuneo utilized KGM and tetra- (KGM) and salts that could be hydrolyzed to form valent boric acid to prepare artificial crystal[1]. This multi-hydroxyl hydrates leads to the generation of kind of crystal has good light transmission property, gelatum. Among the familiar salts, such as borate, elasticity, intensi…     

Dissecting entropic coiling and poor solvent effects in protein collapse

The early events in protein collapse and folding are guided by the protein's elasticity. The contributions of entropic coiling and poor solvent effects like hydrophobic forces to the elastic response of proteins are currently unknown. Using molecular simulations of stretched ubiquitin in comparison with models of proteins as entropic chains, we find a surprisingly high stiffness of the protein backbone, reflected by a persistence length of 1.2 nm, which is significantly reduced by hydrophobic forces acting between protein side chains to an apparent persistence length of 0.3-0.6 nm frequently observed in single-molecule stretching experiments. Thus, the poor solvent conditions of a protein in water lead to a protein compaction much beyond the coiling of an entropic chain and thereby allow a protein to appear softer than when using good solvents.     

Mechanical properties of single motor molecules studied by three-dimensional thermal force probing in optical tweezers.

A new method combining three-dimensional (3D) force measurements in an optical trap with the analysis of thermally induced (Brownian) position fluctuations of a trapped probe was used to investigate the mechanical properties of a single molecule, the molecular motor kinesin. One kinesin molecule attached to the probe was bound in a rigorlike state to one microtubule. The optical trap was kept weak to measure the thermal forces acting on the probe, which were mainly counterbalanced by the kinesin tether. The stiffness of kinesin during stretching and compression with respect to its backbone axis were measured. Our results indicate that a section of kinesin close to the motor domain is the dominating element in the flexibility of the motor structure. The experiments demonstrate the power of 3D thermal fluctuation analysis to characterize mechanical properties of individual motor proteins and indicate its usefulness to study single molecule in general     

Deconvolution of Molecular Weight Distributions Using Dynamic Flory‐Schulz Distributions

Summary: The deconvolution of molecular weight distributions (MWDs) may be useful for obtaining information about the polymerization kinetics and properties of catalytic systems. However, deconvolution techniques are normally based on steady‐state assumptions and very little has been reported about the use of non‐stationary approaches for the deconvolution of MWDs. In spite of this, polymerization reactions are often performed in batch or semi‐batch modes. For this reason, dynamic solutions are proposed here for simple kinetic models and are then used for deconvolution of actual MWD data. Deconvolution results obtained with dynamic models are compared to deconvolution results obtained with the standard stationary Flory‐Schulz distributions. For coordination polymerizations, results show that dynamic MWD models are able to describe experimental data with fewer catalytic sites, which indicates that the proper interpretation of the reaction dynamics may be of fundamental importance for kinetic characterization. On the other hand, reaction dynamics induced by modification of chain transfer agent concentration seem to play a minor role in the shape of the MWD in free‐radical polymerizations.

This Figure illustrates that MWDs obtained at unsteady conditions should not be deconvoluted with standard steady‐state Flory‐Schulz distributions.     

Studies on addition polymerization in mixed solvent system. Part I. Chain transfer of water in polymerization of methyl methacrylate

The role of water as a chain-transfer agent in addition polymerization of methyl methacrylate and acrylamide in a mixed solvent system was studied. Water does not have any transfer with the growing polymer radical. The degree of polymerization is found to increase with increasing water concentration. This is probably due to a reduced termination rate resulting from coiling of the polymer chain in the presence of a nonsolvent like water.     

Effects of High-voltage Pulse Electric Field Treatment on the Structure Stability of Konjac Glucomannan

Structures of KGM treated in two high-voltage pulse electric fields were characterized by infrared spectroscopy,Raman spectroscopy,X-ray diffraction and so on.The results showed that intermolecular hydrogen bonding interactions of KGM were reduced after being treated with high-voltage pulse electric field,but there was no significant effect on its fiber chain form and thermal characteristics.Results of the study can provide a useful reference for further study on the structure and property of KGM,and especially can provide theoretical basis for the effect of physical field on the foodstuff deep processing related to KGM.     

Molecular weight distribution in emulsion polymerization. I. The homopolymer case

A model for evaluating the instantaneous degree of polymerization distribution of homopolymers produced in emulsion, based on the mathematics of the Markov chains, is developed. The model accounts for any number of active chains per particle, as well as for the two fundamental mechanisms of chain termination: mono- and bi-molecular, both by combination and by disproportionation. The core of the model is the so called subprocessmain process treatment, which allows us to correctly evaluate the degree of polymerization of the chains growing in the polymer particles, by distinguishing between the events experienced by the polymer chain which imply a change of its degree of polymerization (subject transitions) and those which imply only a change in the particle state (environment transitions). This is obtained by properly defining the one-step transition probability matrix of the relevant Markov process. Once this is done, the evaluation of the distribution of the degrees of polymerization reduces to a few simple operations among matrices. Explicit expressions for the instantaneous probability density functions and the relative cumulative distributions are obtained. The application of such relationships is facilitated by the numerical procedures reported in the Appendices. The results of the model developed in this work are in agreement with those of earlier models in the range of parameter values of practical interest. In the limit of very low molecular weights, only the model developed in this work provides the correct answer. Moreover, a much more significant result is its applicability to the case of emulsion copolymerization, as it is shown in Part II.     

Branched structure formation in free radical polymerization of vinyl acetate

The branched structure formation during free radical polymerization of vinyl acetate is investigated in detail by application of the computer simulations on the basis of the Monte Carlo sampling technique. Simulations are made for the whole molecular weight distribution (MWD), the MWDs for polymer molecules containing 0, 1, 2, 3, etc., branch points, the branching density as functions of both size and the number of branch points, the spatial distribution of the branched chains, etc. It was found that the effect of polyradicals on the formed MWD could be neglected for batch polymerizations of the present reaction system. A large number of relatively small branch chains are formed due to both chain transfer to polymer (CTP) and the terminal double-bond polymerization (TDBP). The radius of gyration at a Θ state is found to agree satisfactorily with the Zimm-Stockmayer equation for random branching in spite of the heterogeneous branched structure formed in the polymerization. The present investigation reveals important characteristics of the complex molecular structure formation during free radical polymerization that involves both CTP and TDBP. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The Influence of Large Pendent Groups on Chain Anisotropy and Electrical Energy Loss of Polyimides at High Frequency through All-Atomic Molecular Simulation

Polyimide is a potential material for high-performance printed circuit boards because of its chemical stability and excellent thermal and mechanical properties. Flexible printed circuit boards must have a low static dielectric constant and dielectric loss to reduce signal loss in high-speed communication devices. Engineering the molecular structure of polyimides with large pendant groups is a strategy to reduce their dielectric constant. However, there is no systematic study on how the large pendant groups influence electrical energy loss. We integrated all-atomic molecular dynamics and semi-empirical quantum mechanical calculations to examine the influence of pendant groups on polymer chain anisotropy and electrical energy loss at high frequencies. We analyzed the radius of gyration, relative shape anisotropy, dipole moment, and degree of polarization of the selected polyimides (TPAHF, TmBPHF, TpBPHF, MPDA, TriPMPDA, m-PDA, and m-TFPDA). The simulation results show that anisotropy perpendicular to chain direction and local chain rigidity correlate to electrical energy loss rather than dipole moment magnitudes. Polyimides with anisotropic pendant groups and significant local chain rigidity reduce electrical energy loss. The degree of polarization correlated well with the dielectric loss with a moderate computational cost, and difficulties in directly calculating the dielectric loss were circumvented.     

The thermal degradation of polymethacrylonitrile with different end groups

Polymethacrylonitrile (PMAN) was prepared by bulk, solution and precipitation polymerization. The thermal stability of the polymer, which is affected by the structure of the chain end groups, was studied by non-isothermal thermogravimetry (TG). On the basis of the differential TG curves of samples prepared by polymerization in the presence of chlorinated solvents, it may be concluded that, in addition to end-chain and random main chain scission initiated depolymerization, hydrogen chloride evolution also occurs during the thermal degradation of PMAN.     

SET‐RAFT of MMA mediated by ascorbic acid‐activated copper oxide

In this work, cupric oxide (CuO) or cuprous oxide (Cu₂O) was used as the catalyst for the single electron transfer‐reversible addition‐fragmentation chain transfer (SET‐RAFT) polymerization of methyl methacrylate in the presence of ascorbic acid at 25 °C. 2‐Cyanoprop‐2‐yl‐1‐dithionaphthalate (CPDN) was used as the RAFT agent. The polymerization occurred smoothly after an induction period arising from the slow activation of CuO (or Cu₂O) and the “initialization” process in RAFT polymerization. The polymerizations conveyed features of “living”/controlled radical polymerizations: linear evolution of number‐average molecular weight with monomer conversion, narrow molecular weight distribution, and high retention of chain end fidelity. From the polymerization profile, it was deduced that the polymerization proceeded via a conjunct mechanism of single electron transfer‐living radical polymerization (SET‐LRP) and RAFT polymerization, wherein CPDN acting as the initiator for SET‐LRP and chain transfer agent for RAFT polymerization. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012     

Branching kinetics in copolymerization of styrene with a chain-transfer monomer

In an earlier work it was shown that a random long-chain branching structure can be incorporated in polystyrene by copolymerizing styrene with a small amount of monomer that contains a chain transfer group. The use of vinylbenzylthiol as the chain transfer monomer produced a polystyrene with low number-average molecular weight and a degree of branching lower than expected. In this study polymerization kinetics were used to compute the theoretical molecular weight and degree of branching. The results show that if the chain-transfer constant of the chain transfer monomer is as high as that for vinylbenzylthiol the expected molecular weight and degree of branching will indeed be as low as those found experimentally. The theory also predicts that if the chain transfer constant is near one a highly branched bushy structure will result.