Orientational relaxation times of worm-like chains

A semi-empirical formula for orientational relaxation times of worm-like chains in dilute solutions is proposed where τ_rod = τ₀N³ is the relaxation time of a rigid rod composed of N segments, and x = 2a/L is the chain rigidity, i.e. the ratio of the double persistence length to the chain contour length, L. The formula, which can be used in the entire range of molecular rigidities and chain lengths, has been tested against segment relaxation times for semi-rigid chains calculated from the optimized Rouse-Zimm model.     

Exciton transport at short times

Exciton transport at short times is studied for the model of Grover and Sibey. The transport is always wave-like, and is governed by the unrenormalized transfer integral appropriate to unclothed excitons. Comparison with the long-time transport confirms that clothing occurs within about 10 ps. The results are discussed in the light of recent work on the generalized exciton master equation. This gives initially wave-like transport whenever the initial exciton density matrix is diagonal, and its agreement with the present results supports the claim that it can treat short-time effects. Previous comparisons with the model of Grover and Sibey could be misleading because only the long-time behaviour was treated.     

Calculation of relaxation times for multistage processes

Approximate analytic expressions are derived for the two largest relaxation times of a pseudounimolecular process involving a series of steps. The results are applied to intermolecular proton transfer.     

Scaling of folding times with protein size

Current experimental data show a 9-orders-of-magnitude span in the folding times of proteins. Such a wide range is typically considered a direct consequence of the complexity in structural and sequence patterns of natural proteins. By using a database of 69 proteins and peptides analyzed experimentally, we observe that the folding time scales with the number of residues in the protein. The correlation coefficient is 0.74 or higher, and indicates that it is possible to predict the folding time of a protein with a precision of approximately 1.1 times decades from just its size. A simple thermodynamic analysis of this correlation suggests that the smallest proteins are expected to have very marginal free energy barriers to folding.     

Extrapolation and interpolation of gas chromatographic retention times

Summary An empirical method of extrapolating and interpolating gas chromatographic retention times obtained at three equally spaced isothermal temperatures is described. The accuracy of the method was evaluated from retention time data obtained using packed glass columns. A procedure for constructing retention time tables for homologous series and the derivation of an equation for calculating retention times as a function of temperature is also presented.     

Unbiased computation of transition times by pathway recombination

In many systems, the time scales of the microscopic dynamics and macroscopic dynamics of interest are separated by many orders of magnitude. Examples abound, for instance, nucleation, protein folding, and chemical reactions. For these systems, direct simulation of phase space trajectories does not efficiently determine most physical quantities of interest. The past decade has seen the advent of methods circumventing brute force simulation. For most dynamical quantities, these methods all share the drawback of systematical errors. We present a novel method for generating ensembles of phase space trajectories. By sampling small pieces of these trajectories in different phase space domains and piecing them together in a smart way using equilibrium properties, we obtain physical quantities such as transition times. This method does not have any systematical error and is very efficient; the computational effort to calculate the first passage time across a free energy barrier does not increase with the height of the barrier. The strength of the method is shown in the Ising model. Accurate measurements of nucleation times span almost ten orders of magnitude and reveal corrections to classical nucleation theory.     

Temperature dependence of rotational correlation times in tribromobenzene

The ¹³C relaxation times and nuclear Overhauser enhancements of the protonated carbons in 1,3,5-tribromobenzene were measured as a function of temperature in the solvent benzene-d₆. Rotational correlation times, τ_C(CH), calculated by the Microviscosity/Free Rotor and Hu-Zwanzig “slip” models are substantially below the measured values. In contrast, correlation times predicted by the Hynes—Kapral—Weinberg model are in near quantitative agreement with experiment at all temperatures studied.     

Collisional relaxation times in a three-level maser

We derive the Bloch equations for a three-level system, introducing phenomenological relaxation rates. Microscopic expressions are developed for these rates in the case of a gas of molecular absorbes for which relaxation is due to collisions with other molecules. Assuming that the colliding species move on classical paths and interact through long-range dipole terms, we can derive simple formulae for all the rates. A notable prediction is that certain off-diagonal rates are non-zero, though smaller than the diagonal terms. The physical significance of the results is briefly discussed.     

Intrinsic characteristic times in the drift-diffusion problem

The redistribution of impurities in a sample in the shape of a slab filled with an isotropic liquid submitted to an external field is considered. The case in which the impurities are ions dissolved in the liquid, and the external field is an electric field is also investigated. It is shown that the intrinsic time connected with the presence of the electric field is proportional to the drift time. The constant of proportionality is of the order of the ratio between the thermal agitation energy and the electrostatic energy. A closed solution for the time evolution of the density of particles is obtained. The importance of the effect on real situations is investigated. The possible application of these results to nematic samples submitted to an external electric field is discussed.     

Ferroelectric liquid-crystalline elastomers with short switching times

The crosslinking of ferroelectric liquid-crystalline (LC) polysiloxanes — performed within the region of microphase separation — allows the preparation of LC-elastomers which combine macroscopic form stability (insolubility) with nearly unchanged switching time (compared to the uncrosslinked polymers).     

Intrinsic characteristic times in the drift-diffusion problem

The redistribution of impurities in a sample in the shape of a slab filled with an isotropic liquid submitted to an external field is considered. The case in which the impurities are ions dissolved in the liquid, and the external field is an electric field is also investigated. It is shown that the intrinsic time connected with the presence of the electric field is proportional to the drift time. The constant of proportionality is of the order of the ratio between the thermal agitation energy and the electrostatic energy. A closed solution for the time evolution of the density of particles is obtained. The importance of the effect on real situations is investigated. The possible application of these results to nematic samples submitted to an external electric field is discussed.     

Phosphopeptide elution times in reversed-phase liquid chromatography

Elution time shifts between 33 different peptides and their corresponding phosphopeptides ranging from 4 amino acid residues to 35 amino acids in length were systematically investigated using high-resolution reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC)-tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) analysis with trifluoroacetic acid as the ion pairing agent. Observed peptide elution time shifts for a single phosphorylation ranged from -5.28 min (for pYVPML) to +0.59 min (for HRDpSGLLDSLGR). Peptides containing a phosphotyrosine residue displayed a significant decrease in elution time following phosphorylation compared to their similar-sized peptides with phosphoserine or phosphothreonine residues. While peptide phosphorylation generally led to a decrease in the observed elution time, five peptides displayed increased elution times as a result of phosphorylation. For large peptides (> or =18 amino acids), the elution time shifts due to single phosphorylation were limited (ranging between -0.48 and +0.03 min), while the elution time shifts for small peptides (<18 amino acids) were characterized by a larger deviation (ranging between -5.28 and +0.59 min). The predictive capability for the observed RPLC elution time change due to phosphorylation has been suggested, which will aid in assigning confident phosphopeptide identifications and their subsequent confirmation.     

Acoustic determination of polymer molecular weights and rotation times

An acoustic waveguide device was shown to be sensitive to the molecular weight of poly(ethylene glycol) in solution over a molecular weight range determined by the operating frequency of the device. The acoustic device used generates a shear wave with displacement in the plane of the device surface and normal to the direction of propagation. Liquid over the device exhibits viscous coupling to the oscillating surface, affecting propagation of the acoustic wave. The propagation loss was shown to be directly proportional to the weight percentage of the solute. For a given weight percent of polymer in solution, the loss increased with increasing molecular weight until a maximum loss value was reached; this may be due to the fact that rotational times for polymer molecules increase with molecular weight until they reach a point at which the rotation is limited by the oscillation time on the device surface. The molecular weight at which the maximum loss value was attained was 10,000 g/mol for a device operating at 104 MHz and 3350 g/mol for a device operating at 331 MHz, implying a rotational time of 1 ns for each 2200 increase in molecular weight. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1490–1495, 2002     

Photobleaching and recovery times of the mode-locking dye DODCI

Recovery times for the photobleaching of the saturable absorbing dye DODCI by picosecond pulse excitation are reported. Variations in DODCI concentration and exciting pulse power density result in recovery times ranging from ≈10 ps at high concentration/high power to >250 ps at low concentration/low power. These results not only corroborate out earlier data for fast recovery times in DODCI but also explain the inability of other investigations to confirm these findings.     

Calorimetric study of the conformational relaxation times in polystyrene

The temperature dependence of the relaxation times of the structural relaxation process of polystyrene is determined by temperature-modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC) and by conventional differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) in the latter by modelling the experimental heat capacity curves measured in heating scans after different thermal histories. The good agreement between both measuring techniques in the temperature interval just above the glass-transition temperature is a guide for the interpretation of the results of the TMDSC technique in the glass-transition region. In addition, the same model applied to DSC scans is used to simulate the TMDSC experiment and the calculated response is compared with the measured scans. Received: 22 February 1999 Accepted in revised form: 11 June 1999     

Formation of anisotropic polymer colloids by disparate relaxation times

We show that coupling between a fast and a slow relaxation time causes the spontaneous formation of protrusions in colloids made of cross-linked polymers. The volume of the protrusions can be controlled by adjusting the ratio between the relaxation times. This, in principle, results in particles with levels of anisotropy that can be made "to order".     

Atmospheric residence times of strontium-90 and lead-210

The concentrations of⁸⁹Sr,⁹⁰Sr,²¹⁰Pb and²¹⁰Po were measured in a series of rain samples collected at Fayetteville (36°N, 94°W), Arkansas, after the 14th Chinese test of March 18, 1972, which occurred at Lop Nor (40°N, 90°E), China. Approximately concordant tropospheric residence times were obtained from the⁸⁹Sr/⁹⁰Sr and²¹⁰Po/²¹⁰Pb ratios in rain. The⁸⁹Sr/⁹⁰Sr ratios were also measured for the rain samples collected at Tokyo (36°N, 140°E), Japan, and at Ankara (40°N, 33°E), Turkey.