The Cubic-Two-State Equation of State: Cross-associating mixtures and Monte Carlo study of self-associating prototypes

A new equation of state for associating fluids has recently been presented by Medeiros and Tellez-Arredondo, the Cubic-Two-State Equation of State (CTS EoS) [Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 47 (2008) 5723]. This equation arises from the coupling of the Soave–Redlich–Kwong EoS (SRK) with an association term from a two-state association model. The CTS EoS is polynomial in volume and it is able to describe vapor pressures and molar volume of associating fluids such as water, alcohol and phenol, among others. The equation is also able to describe the liquid–vapor equilibria of their mixtures with alkanes. In this paper, the physical and thermodynamic foundations of the CTS EoS are further investigated. In order to verify its applicability for cross-associating systems, the equation was employed in the prediction of phase equilibria behavior of binary alcohol–alcohol and water–alcohol mixtures. Very good agreement between predictions and experimental phase equilibria data was obtained with very simple combining rules and only one adjustable binary parameter. No additional parameters were necessary to describe ternary systems. With the purpose of checking the model's hypothesis and limitations, the two-state association term was coupled with the hard sphere Carnahan–Starling EoS, forming the CS-TS equation and the association characteristic parameters were determined theoretically for prototype association fluids. Monte Carlo NPT simulations of such fluids were performed and the results were compared with the equation's predictions. The CS-TS was able to describe qualitatively the pvT$pvT$ behavior of the prototype; nevertheless, it is not as accurate as those predictions obtained from the combination CS with Wertheim's association term. It seems that, when adjusting parameters of the CTS EoS to real substances, the discrepancies between the predicted and the real association contribution are dissipated among other adjustable parameters, specially on the dispersive term of the SRK equation. Finally, it is shown that CTS EoS isotherms can only have one or three real bigger roots than the co-volume for positive pressures, similar to cubic equations of state, and then it has the desirable form to describe vapor–liquid phase equilibria of associating compounds mixtures.     

Adsorption mechanism of acids and bases in reversed-phase liquid chromatography in weak buffered mobile phases designed for liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

The overloaded band profiles of five acido-basic compounds were measured, using weakly buffered mobile phases. Low buffer concentrations were selected to provide a better understanding of the band profiles recorded in LC/MS analyses, which are often carried out at low buffer concentrations. In this work, 10 microL samples of a 50 mM probe solution were injected into C(18)-bonded columns using a series of five buffered mobile phases at (SW)pH between 2 and 12. The retention times and the shapes of the bands were analyzed based on thermodynamic arguments. A new adsorption model that takes into account the simultaneous adsorption of the acidic and the basic species onto the endcapped adsorbent, predicts accurately the complex experimental profiles recorded. The adsorption mechanism of acido-basic compounds onto RPLC phases seems to be consistent with the following microscopic model. No matter whether the acid or the base is the neutral or the basic species, the neutral species adsorbs onto a large number of weak adsorption sites (their saturation capacity is several tens g/L and their equilibrium constant of the order of 0.1 L/g). In contrast, the ionic species adsorbs strongly onto fewer active sites (their saturation capacity is about 1g/L and their equilibrium constant of the order of a few L/g). From a microscopic point of view and in agreement with the adsorption isotherm of the compound measured by frontal analysis (FA) and with the results of Monte-Carlo calculations performed by Schure et al., the first type of adsorption sites are most likely located in between C(18)-bonded chains and the second type of adsorption sites are located deeper in contact with the silica surface. The injected concentration (50 mM) was too low to probe the weakest adsorption sites (saturation capacity of a few hundreds g/L with an equilibrium constant of one hundredth of L/g) that are located at the very interface between the C(18)-bonded layer and the bulk phase.     

Modeling phase equilibria of alkanols with the simplified PC-SAFT equation of state and generalized pure compound parameters

The simplified PC-SAFT equation of state has been applied to liquid–liquid, vapor–liquid and solid–liquid equilibria for mixtures containing 1- or 2-alkanols with alkanes, aromatic hydrocarbons, CO₂ and water. For the alkanols we use generalized pure compound parameters. This means that two of the physical pure compound parameters, m (segment number) and σ (segment diameter), are obtained from linear extrapolations, since m and mσ³, increase linearly with respect to the molar mass, and moreover, the two association parameters (association energy and association volume) were assumed to be constant for all alkanols. Only the dispersion energy is fitted to experimental data. Thus it is possible to estimate parameters for several 1- and 2-alkanols. The final aim is to develop a group contribution approach for PC-SAFT which is suitable for complex compounds, considering that the motivation of this project is to obtain a thermodynamic model which can be used in the development of sophisticated products such as pharmaceuticals, polymers, detergents or food ingredients. One of the severe limitations in applying SAFT-type equations of state to these compounds is that the procedure for obtaining the pure compound parameters is usually based on fitting to saturated vapor pressure and liquid density data over an extended temperature range. However, such data are rarely available for complex compounds. To verify the new pure compound parameters, comparisons to ordinary optimized alkanol parameters, where all five pure compound parameters were fitted to experimental liquid density and vapor pressure data, were made. The results show that the new generalized alkanol parameters from this work perform at least as well as other alkanol parameter sets.     

Equation of state for aqueous electrolyte systems based on the semirestricted non-primitive mean spherical approximation

The semirestricted non-primitive mean spherical approximation (npmsa) is used in combination with the PC-SAFT equation of state to model completely dissociating aqueous alkali halide systems. The salts are described using ion-specific parameters from tables and correlations. Upon analyzing aqueous electrolyte systems at infinite dilution of the salt it was concluded that for the arithmetic mean ion diameter of anion and cation, the semirestricted npmsa contribution gives no reliable results. Therefore, this parameter is adjusted in this work. The model was applied to aqueous alkali halide systems up to the solubility limit at T = 298.15 K. Mean ionic activity coefficients and osmotic coefficients were correlated with good results. The model was subsequently applied to temperatures up to T = 373.15 K and compared to liquid densities and to system pressures up to the solubility limit of the salts in water. The agreement between experimental data and the proposed equation of state is satisfactory for the liquid densities and excellent in case of the system pressures.     

Atom transfer radical polymerization on the interior of the P22 capsid and incorporation of photocatalytic monomer crosslinks

We have successfully used atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) to form linear and crosslinked polyacrylamide and polyacrylate polymers, constrained within the virus like particle (VLP) derived from the bacteriophage P22. Polymerization of Tris(hydroxymethyl)methylacrylamide was initiated, in a spatially controlled manner, using macroinitiators derived from two different mutants of P22, S39C and K118C. Initiation from the S39C mutant results in spatially confined polymer growth on the interior of P22 while initiation from the K118C site results in a polymerized VLP in which some of the polymer is partially exposed on the outside of the capsid. Using the S39C macroinitiator we have demonstrated polymerization of aminoethyl methacrylate (AEMA) monomers, crosslinked by co-polymerization with the multifunctional monomer [Ru(5-methacrylamido-phenanthroline)₃]²⁺ resulting in an active photocatalytic P22 capsid particle.     

Thiourea linked peracetylated glucopyranosyl–anthraquinone conjugate as reversible ON–OFF receptor for fluoride in acetonitrile

A new thiourea linked peracetylated glucopyranosyl–anthraquinone conjugate (L) has been synthesized and characterized. The binding properties of L have been studied with nineteen different anions. The L exhibited selective chromogenic as well as fluorescent chemosensor property toward F⁻ by a ∼13-fold increase in the emission intensity upon binding with F⁻. The minimal detection limit for F⁻ is 185 ± 5 ppb in acetonitrile. Interaction of F⁻ led to a bathochromic shift of 80 nm in the absorption band. An INHIBIT logic gate has been proposed using the output obtained from the fluorescence studies. The structure of the species formed upon the interaction of F⁻ with L has been established by DFT computations.     

Synthesis of heterocyclic derivatives of 3,6-di-tert-butyl-o-benzoquinone by catalytic dehydrocondensation with ethylene glycol, glycerol, and diethanolamine

The dehydrocondensation of 3,6-di-tert-butyl-o-benzoquinone with ethylene glycol, glycerol, its chlorhydrin, and with diethanolamine, catalyzed by MnO₂–NaOH, has been carried out in an alcohol-DMF medium with the formation of 7,10-di-tert-butyl-2,5-dioxabicyclo[4.4.0]deca-1,6-diene-8.9-dione, its 4-hydroxymethyl and 4-chloromethyl derivatives, and 7,10-di-tert-butyl-5-(-hydroxyethyl)-2-oxa-5-azabicyclo[4.4.0]deca-1,6-diene-8,9-dione.N. M. Emanuel Institute of Biochemical Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow 117977, Russia e-mail: chembio@chph.ras.ru, chembio@glasnet.ru. Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 8, pp. 1057–1065, August, 2000.     

beta-Barrel transmembrane proteins: Geometric modelling, detection of transmembrane region, and structural properties

The location of the membrane lipid bilayer relative to a transmembrane protein structure is important in protein engineering. Since it is not present on the determined structures, it is essential to automatically define the membrane embedded protein region in order to test mutation effects or to design potential drugs. beta-Barrel transmembrane proteins, present in nature as outer membrane proteins (OMPs), comprise one of the two transmembrane protein fold classes. Lately, the number of their determined structures has increased and this enables the implementation and evaluation of structure-based annotation methods and their more comprehensive study. In this paper, we propose two new algorithms for (i) the geometric modelling of beta-barrels and (ii) the detection of the transmembrane region of a beta-barrel transmembrane protein. The geometric modelling algorithm combines a non-linear least square minimization method and a genetic algorithm in order to find the characteristics (axis, radius) of a shape with axial symmetry which best models a beta-barrel. The transmembrane region is detected by profiling the external residues of the beta-barrel along its axis in terms of hydrophobicity and existence of aromatic and charged residues. TbB-Tool implements these algorithms and is available in . A non-redundant set of 22 OMPs is used in order to evaluate the algorithms implemented and the results are very satisfying. In addition, we quantify the abundance of all amino acids and the average hydrophobicity for external and internal beta-stranded residues along the axis of beta-barrel, thus confirming and extending other researchers' results.     

Hydroalumination of silylacetylenes: a novel and highly stereoselective synthesis of (E)-telluro(silyl)ketene acetals and their applications in Sonogashira cross-coupling reactions

The hydroalumination of silylacetylenes with DIBAL-H followed by the addition of n-butyllithium generated in situ the (Z)-β-vinylorganosilane alanates intermediates, which were trapped with butyltellurenyl bromide (C₄H₉TeBr), furnishing exclusively the (E)-1-butyltelluro-1-tri(organyl)silyl-2-organyl-1-alkenes in 45-70% yields. These telluro(silyl)ketene acetals were utilized as substrates in Sonogashira cross-coupling Pd-catalyzed reactions, furnishing the (Z)-1,4-diorganyl-2-tri(organyl)silyl-1-buten-3-ynes with total control of regio- and stereochemistry in 62-80% yield.     

Phase equilibria modeling of biodiesel related mixtures using the GCA-EoS model

In this work, a group-contribution equation of state that takes into account association effects (GCA-EoS) is extended to model the phase behavior of fatty esters (biodiesel) in binary mixtures with glycerol, alcohols and water and ternary mixtures with glycerol and methanol. A new associating group (glycerol hydroxyl group: OH^Gly) was defined to take into consideration the association effects in the glycerol molecule. Self-association of methanol, water and glycerol and cross-association between methanol–glycerol, alcohol–ester, water–ester and glycerol–ester groups were considered. New pure-group, binary interaction and association parameters have been determined. The correlations and predictions of the model are found in acceptable agreement with selected experimental data reported in the literature.     

Thermodynamic and spectroscopic study of the interaction of Cu(II), Ni(II), Zn(II) and Ca(II) ions with 2-amino-N-(2-oxo-2-(2-(pyridin-2-yl)ethyl amino)ethyl)acetamide,a pseudo-mimic of human serum albumin

The protonation equilibria of 2-amino-N-(2-oxo-2-(2-(pyridin-2-yl)ethyl amino)ethyl)acetamide ([H₂(556)–N]) and the complexation of this ligand with Cu(II) Ca(II), Zn(II) and Ni(II) have been studied by glass electrode potentiometry and UV–visible spectrophotometry. From pH ∼2.00–11.00, five models for Cu(II) with the following complexes; MLH, ML, MLH₋₁, MLH₋₂ and MLH₋₃ were generated and observed to describe the experimental data equally well as far as the statistical criteria were concerned. The MLH₋₂ complex predominates at physiological pH in all five models, while the MLH₋₁ complex species exists only at low concentration in two models. The coordination in the MLH₋₂ complex suggested the involvement of one amino, two deprotonated peptides and one pyridyl nitrogen atoms. Molecular mechanics (MM) calculations confirmed the MLH₋₂ complex as the most stable species. Speciation calculations, using a blood plasma model, predicted that the Cu(II)–[H₂(556)–N] complex is able to mobilize Cu(II). Octanol/water partition of CuLH₋₂ showed that 30% of the complex went into the octanol phase, hence promoting percutaneous absorption of copper. The complex is a poor mimic of native copper–zinc superoxide dismutase.     

{[K.18-Crown-6]Br3}n: a unique tribromide-type and columnar nanotube-like structure for the oxidative coupling of thiols and bromination of some aromatic compounds

Reaction of 18-crown-6 with KBr and then with bromine (Br₂) afforded a unique tribromide salt with a nanotube-like structure ({[K.18-crown-6]Br₃}_n). Oxidative coupling of thiols and bromination of some aromatic compounds is the first report on the chemistry of this reagent.     

DMF acetals as alkylating and cyclizing agents: A facile route to substituted pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4,6(5H,7H)-diones

Summary Several 7-methyl-5-alkyl-2-vinylpyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4,6(5H,7H)-diones were prepared. The successful cyclization and alkylation of 6-(-methylbenzylidenehydrazino)-1-methyluracils2a–d using dimethylformamide acetals at high temperature provided6a–d,7a–d, and8a–d. Treatment of6a–d and7a–d with acid afforded 7-methyl-5-alkylpyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidine-4,6(5H,7H)-diones9a,b; under the same conditions,3a–d reacted to 7-methylpyrazolo[3,4-d]-pyrimidine-4,6(5H)-dione (4) in good yield.

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DMF-Acetale als Alkylierungs- und Ringschlußreagentien: ein einfacher Weg zu substituierten Pyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4,6(5H,7H)-dionen

Zusammenfassung Es wurden verschiedene 7-Methyl-5-alkyl-2-vinylpyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4,6(5H,7H)-dione hergestellt. Cyclisierung und Alkylierung der 6-(-Methylbenzylidenhydrazino)-1-methyl-uracile2a–d mit Hilfe von Dimethylformamidacetalen bei hohen Temperaturen ergab6a–d,7a–d und8a–d. Behandlung von6a–d und7a–d mit Säure lieferte die 7-Methyl-5-alkylpyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4,6(5H,7H)-dione9a,b; unter den gleichen Bedingungen reagierten3a–d in guter Ausbeute zu 7-Methylpyrazolo[3,4-d]pyrimidin-4,6(5H)-dion (4).

     

Crystallization in ultra-thin polymer films: Morphogenesis and thermodynamical aspects

We present a computer model for polymer crystallization in ultra-thin films where chains are considered as dynamical units. In our model chains can change their internal state of order by cooperative motions to improve thermodynamic stability. The interplay between reorganization, enthalpic interactions and the morphology of crystals enables us to explain many properties of growth, morphogenesis and melting of polymer lamellae. We emphasize the relation between the thermodynamic stability of non-equilibrium crystals and morphological features which are beyond the average thickness of the lamellae. In particular, we show that melting of polymers is preceded by reorganization processes and the stability of polymer crystals is not necessarily related to the structure formed at the crystallization point. The simulations allow for the determination of some non-equilibrium properties such as the internal energy and the non-equilibrium heat capacity. We show that multiple-peak melting endotherms result from morphological transformations. The results of our computer simulations are compared with AFM observations in ultra-thin polyethyleneoxide films.     

Reactions of 9,10-phenanthrenequinone and its nitro derivatives with acetone in the presence of Al2O3

The addition of acetone to 9,10-phenanthrenequinone and 2-nitro-, 2,7-dinitro-, and 2,4,7-trinitro-9,10-phenanthrenequinones in the presence of Al₂O₃ affords mono- and bisadducts. The crystal structures of 10-hydroxy-10-(2-oxopropyl)-2-nitro-9,10-dihydrophenanthren-9-one and 9,10:10,9-bishemiketal of 9,10-dihydroxy-2-nitro-9,10-bis(2-oxopropyl)-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene were determined.     

Molecular dynamics in polyethylene and ethylene-1-butene copolymer investigated by NMR methods

1H and 13C NMR spectra and 1H spin-lattice relaxation times T₁ and T_1ρ have been employed to study the structure and molecular dynamics in polyethylene and ethylene-1-butene copolymer in the temperature range from 100 to 370 K. Results are interpreted in terms of α, β and γ -relaxation, as well as methyl group rotation. The activation energies for all motions were established. The incorporation of 1-butene into ethylene chain leads to an increase of mobility in amorphous and crystalline phases as well as appearance the 13C resonance characteristic to the monoclinic structure in addition to the orthorhombic observed in both polymers. The crystallinity degree derived from T_1ρ in studied polymers is close to that determined using DSC method.