Structural modifications of aqueous ionic micelles in the presence of denaturants as studied by DLS and viscometry

Hydrophobic interactions control the morphologies of both surfactant aggregates and proteins. Globular proteins "denature" upon addition of excess amounts of denaturants such as urea. Understanding the microscopic basis of the urea effect on proteins or supramolecular aggregates such as micelles has always been a debated issue. Inspired by this need, the effect of urea (U), thiourea (TU), monomethylurea (MMU), dimethylurea(DMU), tetramethylurea (TMU), dimethylthiourea (DMTU), and tetramethylthiourea (TMTU) on the structural transition (spherical micelles to rod-shaped micelles, s --> r) in the sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate (SDBS)-1-pentanol system has been investigated through dynamic light scattering(DLS) and viscosity measurements at 25 degrees C. 1-Pentanol, at 0.14 M, is found to promote s --> r in this system (0.2 M SDBS). The presence of the additives causes, in almost all cases, a decrease and increase in this 1-pentanol concentration depending upon the concentration and nature of the additive. These effects are explained in terms of an increased dielectric constant of the solvent medium due to the presence of additives and increased micellar hydration due to the repulsion of charged monomers caused by adsorption of the additives. Taken together, the data signal the exposure of biological assemblies to water at higher [additive], which causes a decrease in hydrophobic interactions responsible for compact structure formation (i.e., native protein).     

Excitation energies from time-dependent density-functional theory beyond the adiabatic approximation

Time-dependent density-functional theory in the adiabatic approximation has been very successful for calculating excitation energies in molecular systems. This paper studies nonadiabatic effects for excitation energies, using the current-density functional of Vignale and Kohn [Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 2037 (1996)]. We derive a general analytic expression for nonadiabatic corrections to excitation energies of finite systems and calculate singlet s-->s and s-->p excitations of closed-shell atoms. The approach works well for s-->s excitations, giving a small improvement over the adiabatic local-density approximation, but tends to overcorrect s-->p excitations. We find that the observed problems with the nonadiabatic correction have two main sources: (1) the currents associated with the s-->p excitations are highly nonuniform and, in particular, change direction between atomic shells, (2) the so-called exchange-correlation kernels of the homogeneous electron gas, f(xc) (L) and f(xc) (T), are incompletely known, in particular in the high-density atomic core regions.     

Silver nanoplates and nanowires by a simple chemical reduction method

The critical micelle concentration (cmc) of an amphiphilic drug amitriptyline hydrochloride (AMT) was determined in the presence of varying amounts of inorganic salts (NaF, NaCl, NaBr, LiCl, KCl), urea and thiourea over the temperature range 293–308 K by conductometric and dye solubilization (ambient) techniques. The cmc values showed an inverted U-shaped behavior with temperature. In the presence of salts the cmc decreased which is explained on the basis of the nature and ion size. Urea and thiourea, at low concentrations (0.2 mM urea and 0.1 mM thiourea), decreased the cmc, whereas, at high concentrations, increase was observed with both the additives. Relevant thermodynamic parameters were also evaluated and discussed.     

不同浓度和温度时无机盐和尿素对抗抑郁剂药物丙咪嗪盐酸盐的胶束化行为的影响

In the present study we report the micellization behavior of imipramine hydrochloride(IMP)in absence and presence of different concentrations of inorganic salts(LiCl,NaF,NaCl,NaBr,and KCl)and ureas(urea and thiourea)over the temperature range from 288.15 to 303.15 K.The critical micellization concentrations(cmc)of drug and drug+additive systems were determined by conductometric technique. With increasing temperature the cmc first increases then decreases.Maximum cmc values were obtained at 293.15 K with or without additives.In presence of inorganic salts the cmc value decreases which is explained on the basis of nature and ion size of the added ion.Urea and thiourea also decrease the cmc at low concentrations(0.2 mmo·lL -1 urea and 0.1 mmo·lL -1 thiourea),but,at higher concentrations,increase in cmc is observed.The related thermodynamic parameters are also evaluated and discussed.     

A new look at reactions of 2-butoxy and 1-butoxy radicals in the presence of oxygen

Under atmospheric conditions, experiments show that 2-butoxy radicals in the presence of oxygen yield acetaldehyde and butanone such that the concentration ratio [acetaldehyde] [O2]/[butanone] shows a linear dependence on oxygen concentration [O2]. [Zabel et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2002, 4, 2579; Cox et al.Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys, 2005, 7, 3702.] A similar oxygen dependence was found by Cox et al. in the reactions of 1-butoxy radicals. These experiments imply a unimolecular rate constant that apparently depends on oxygen pressure. Previously this has been explained by postulating the presence of a small amount of excited radicals assumed to undergo 'prompt' dissociation. We propose an alternative interpretation based on the solution of the time-dependent master equation that does not require the putative presence of excited radicals. We do this by allowing the time to run until the so-called long-time steady-state, and then show that the oxygen dependence arises quite naturally if the transport matrix takes into account that in addition to the principal reaction channel (dissociation into acetaldehyde in the case of 2-butoxy and isomerization in the case of 1-butoxy), there is a small "leak" of alkoxy radicals due to the reaction with oxygen, and provided the calculation takes into account that in the cited experiments there is a continuous incoming flux of butoxy radicals.     

How does trimethylamine N-oxide counteract the denaturing activity of urea?

Trimethylamine N-oxide, TMAO, stabilizes globular proteins and is able to counteract the denaturing activity of urea. The mechanism of this counteraction has remained elusive up to now. A rationalization is proposed grounded on the same theoretical model used to clarify the origin of cold denaturation, and the denaturing activity of GdmCl versus the stabilizing one of Gdm(2)SO(4) [G. Graziano, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 14245-14252; G. Graziano, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 12008-12014]. The fundamental quantities are: (a) the difference in the solvent-excluded volume on passing from the N-state to the D-state, calculated in water and in aqueous osmolyte solution; (b) the difference in energetic attractions of the N-state and the D-state with the surrounding solvent molecules, calculated in water and in aqueous osmolyte solution. In aqueous 8 M urea + 4 M TMAO solution, the first quantity is so large and positive to counteract the second one that is large and negative due to preferential binding of urea molecules to the protein surface. This happens because aqueous 8 M urea + 4 M TMAO solution has a volume packing density markedly larger than that of water, rendering the cavity creation process much more costly. The volume packing density increase reflects the strength of the attractions of water molecules with both urea and TMAO molecules. This mechanism readily explains why TMAO counteraction is operative even though urea molecules are preferentially located on the protein surface.     

Multiple hydrogen bonds tuning guest/host excited-state proton transfer reaction: its application in molecular recognition

A molecular recognition concept exploiting multiple-hydrogen-bond fine-tuned excited-state proton-transfer (ESPT) was conveyed using 3,4,5,6-tetrahydrobis(pyrido[3,2-g]indolo)[2,3-a:3',2'-j]acridine (1a). The catalytic type 1a/carboxylic acids hydrogen-bonding (HB) complexes undergo ultrafast ESPT, resulting in an anomalously large Stokes shifted tautomer emission (lambdamax approximately 600 nm). Albeit forming a quadruple HB complex, ESPT is prohibited in the noncatalytic-type 1a/urea complexes (lambdamax approximately 430 nm). The HB configuration tuning ESPT properties lead to a feasible design for sensing multiple-HB-site analytes of biological interest.     

Three-dimensional potential energy surface of the Ar-OH(2Pi i) complex

Pure rotational transitions in the ground state for Ar-OH and Ar-OD [Y. Ohshima et al., J. Chem. Phys. 95, 7001 (1991) and Y. Endo et al., Faraday Discuss. 97, 341 (1994)], those in the excited states of the OH vibration, nu(s)=1 and 2, observed by Fourier-transform microwave spectroscopy in the present study, rotation-vibration transitions observed by infrared-ultraviolet double-resonance spectroscopy [K. M. Beck et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 162, 203 (1989) and R. T. Bonn et al., J. Chem. Phys. 112, 4942 (2000)], and the P-level structure observed by stimulated emission pumping spectroscopy [M. T. Berry et al., Chem. Phys. Lett. 178, 301 (1991)] have been simultaneously analyzed to determine the potential energy surface of Ar-OH in the ground state. A Schrodinger equation, considering all the freedom of motions for an atom-diatom system in the Jacobi coordinate, R, theta, and r, was numerically solved to obtain energies of the rovibrational energy levels using the discrete variable representation method. A three-dimensional potential energy surface is determined by a least-squares fitting. In the analysis the potential parameters, obtained by ab initio calculations at the RCCSD(T) level of theory with a set of basis functions of aug-cc-pVTZ and midbond functions, are used as initial values. The determined intermolecular potential energy surface and its dependence on the OH monomer bond length are compared with those of an isovalent radical complex, Ar-SH.     

Studies on the Interaction of SDS with Gelatin in Presence of Urea Derivatives

The interactions of an anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) in presence of urea and its derivatives with different percentage compositions of gelatin solutions were investigated by viscosity, conductivity, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopic measurements at 35°C. The additives used were urea (U), thiourea (TU), mono methyl urea (MU), dimethyl urea (DMU), and tetra methyl urea (TMU). Circular dichroism spectroscopy reveals the linear decrease in molar ellipticity as the concentration of urea (and its derivatives) increases, without any change in the conformation of gelatin. This is contrary to the expected denaturation of gelatin in presence of urea. FTIR studies probe the characteristic effect of additive, thiourea on the gelatin-SDS system. The transition of gelatin from an unfolded state to the folded one has some resemblance to micelle formation because both processes are governed by the same basic intermolecular and ionic forces. In this work, we present an evidence for the stabilizing effect of urea and its alkyl derivatives in moderate concentration ranges of surfactant and gelatin.     

Fixed node diffusion Monte Carlo using a genetic algorithm: a study of the CO-(4)He(N) complex, N = 1…10

The diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) method is a widely used algorithm for computing both ground and excited states of many-particle systems; for states without nodes the algorithm is numerically exact. In the presence of nodes approximations must be introduced, for example, the fixed-node approximation. Recently we have developed a genetic algorithm (GA) based approach which allows the computation of nodal surfaces on-the-fly [Ramilowski and Farrelly, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 12450]. Here GA-DMC is applied to the computation of rovibrational states of CO-(4)He(N) complexes with N≤ 10. These complexes have been the subject of recent high resolution microwave and millimeter-wave studies which traced the onset of microscopic superfluidity in a doped (4)He droplet, one atom at a time, up to N = 10 [Surin et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 2008, 101, 233401; Raston et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 8260]. The frequencies of the a-type (microwave) series, which correlate with end-over-end rotation in the CO-(4)He dimer, decrease from N = 1 to 3 and then smoothly increase. This signifies the transition from a molecular complex to a quantum solvated system. The frequencies of the b-type (millimeter-wave) series, which evolves from free rotation of the rigid CO molecule, initially increase from N = 0 to N～ 6 before starting to decrease with increasing N. An interesting feature of the b-type series, originally observed in the high resolution infra-red (IR) experiments of Tang and McKellar [J. Chem. Phys., 2003, 119, 754] is that, for N = 7, two lines are observed. The GA-DMC algorithm is found to be in good agreement with experimental results and possibly detects the small (～0.7 cm(-1)) splitting in the b-series line at N = 7. Advantages and disadvantages of GA-DMC are discussed.     

On the molecular mechanism of stabilization of proteins by cosolvents: role of Lifshitz electrodynamic forces

Several ionic and nonionic additives are known to affect structural stability of proteins in aqueous solutions. At a fundamental level, the mechanism of stabilization or destabilization of proteins by cosolvents must be related to three-body interactions between the protein, additive, and the water medium. In this study, the role of the Lifshitz-van der Waals electrodynamic interaction between various additives (sucrose, glycerol, urea, poly(ethylene glycol)-200, betaine, taurine, proline, and valine) and bovine serum albumin (BSA) in water medium was examined. The electrodynamic interaction energy was attractive for all of the additives studied here when both far ultraviolet and infrared relaxations of the additives were included in their dielectric susceptibility representations. However, when only the infrared contribution was included for structure stabilizers and both far ultraviolet and infrared contributions for the structure destabilizers, the resulting electrodynamic interaction energy (E/kT) followed the structure stabilizing and/or destabilizing behavior of the additives; that is, the interaction was attractive for urea and PEG200 (structure destabilizers), whereas it was repulsive for sucrose, glycerol, betaine, taurine, alanine, valine, and proline (structure stabilizers). The electrodynamic interaction energy E/kT at any given surface-to-surface separation distance between the additives and BSA was positively correlated (r(2) = 0.92) with the experimental thermal denaturation temperature (T(d)) of BSA in 1 M solutions of the additives. These analyses provided a mechanistic basis for the experimental observations of exclusion of the structure-stabilizing additives from the protein-water interface and binding of the structure-destabilizing additives to the protein surface. The role of water structure in the three-body electrodynamic interaction is discussed. It is hypothesized that in the case of additives that enhance water structure the hydration shells formed around the additives effectively dampen the contribution of ultraviolet frequencies to the dielectric susceptibility of the additives and thus impart repulsive electrodyanamic interaction between the additive and the protein, whereas the opposite occurs in the case of additives that breakdown the hydrogen-bonded structure of water.     

A molecular dynamics study of water nucleation using the TIP4P/2005 model

Extensive molecular dynamics simulations were conducted using the TIP4P/2005 water model of Abascal and Vega [J. Chem. Phys. 123, 234505 (2005)] to investigate its condensation from supersaturated vapor to liquid at 330 K. The mean first passage time method [J. Wedekind, R. Strey, and D. Reguera, J. Chem. Phys. 126, 134103 (2007); L. S. Bartell and D. T. Wu, 125, 194503 (2006)] was used to analyze the influence of finite size effects, thermostats, and charged species on the nucleation dynamics. We find that the Nose?-Hoover thermostat and the one proposed by Bussi et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 126, 014101 (2007)] give essentially the same averages. We identify the maximum thermostat coupling time to guarantee proper thermostating for these simulations. The presence of charged species has a dramatic impact on the dynamics, inducing a marked change towards a pure growth regime, which highlights the importance of ions in the formation of liquid droplets in the atmosphere. It was found a small but noticeable sign preference at intermediate cluster sizes (between 5 and 30 water molecules) corresponding mostly to the formation of the second solvation shell around the ion. The TIP4P/2005 water model predicts that anions induce faster formation of water clusters than cations of the same magnitude of charge.     

Fluorocontaining 1,3-Dicarbonyl Compounds in the Synthesis of Pyrimidine Derivatives

Hexafluoroacetylacetone reacts with urea (thiourea) to yield respectively 4,6-bis(hydroxy)-4,6-bis(trifluoromethyl)hexahydropyrimidin-2-one(thione). The dehydration of the products and also reaction of nonsymmetrical fluoroalkyl-containing 1,3-diketones with urea (thiourea) afford substituted pyrimidines. The condensation of fluorinated 3-oxoesters and 1,3-diketones with benzaldehyde and urea (thiourea) results in 5-alkoxycarbonyl(acyl)-4-hydroxy-2-oxo(thioxo)-6-phenyl-4-fluoroalkylhexahydropyrimidines that on dehydration furnish 5-alkoxycarbonyl(acyl)-2-oxo(thioxo)-4-phenyl-6-fluoroalkyltetrahydropyrimidines. Ethyl 7-nonafluorobutyl-5-phenyl-2,3-dihydrothiazolo[3,2-a]pyrimidine-6-carboxylate hydrobromide forms in reaction of dibromoethane with ethyl ether of 2-thioxo-4-phenyl-6-nonafluorobutyltetrahydropyrimidine.     

Franck-Condon simulation of the single-vibronic-level emission spectra of HPCl/DPCl and the chemiluminescence spectrum of HPCl, including anharmonicity

Restricted-spin coupled-cluster single-double plus perturbative triple excitation [RCCSD(T)] potential energy functions (PEFs) were calculated for the X (2)A" and A (2)A' states of HPCl employing the augmented correlation-consistent polarized-valence-quadruple-zeta (aug-cc-pVQZ) basis set. Further geometry optimization calculations were carried out on both electronic states of HPCl at the RCCSD(T) level with all electron and quasirelativistic effective core potential basis sets of better than the aug-cc-pVQZ quality, and also including some core electrons, in order to obtain more reliable geometrical parameters and relative electronic energy of the two states. Anharmonic vibrational wave functions of the two states of HPCl and DPCl, and Franck-Condon (FC) factors of the A (2)A'-X (2)A" transition were computed employing the RCCSD(T)/aug-cc-pVQZ PEFs. Calculated FC factors with allowance for Duschinsky rotation and anharmonicity were used to simulate the single-vibronic-level (SVL) emission spectra of HPCl and DPCl reported by Brandon et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 119, 2037 (2003)] and the chemiluminescence spectrum reported by Bramwell et al. [Chem. Phys. Lett. 331, 483 (2000)]. Comparison between simulated and observed SVL emission spectra gives the experimentally derived equilibrium geometry of the A (2)A' state of HPCl of r(e)(PCl) = 2.0035 +/- 0.0015 A, theta(e) = 116.08 +/- 0.60 degrees, and r(e)(HP) = 1.4063+/-0.0015 A via the iterative Franck-Condon analysis procedure. Comparison between simulated and observed chemiluminescence spectra confirms that the vibrational population distribution of the A (2)A' state of HPCl is non-Boltzmann, as proposed by Baraille et al. [Chem. Phys. 289, 263 (2003)].     

Differential virial theorem in relation to a sum rule for the exchange-correlation force in density-functional theory

Holas and March [Phys. Rev. A. 51, 2040 (1995)] gave a formally exact theory for the exchange-correlation (xc) force F(xc)(r)= -inverted Deltaupsilon(xc)(r) associated with the xc potential upsilon(xc)(r) of the density-functional theory in terms of low-order density matrices. This is shown in the present study to lead, rather directly, to the determination of a sum rule nF(xc)=0 relating the xc force with the ground-state density n(r). Some connection is also made with an earlier result relating to the external potential by Levy and Perdew [Phys. Rev. A. 32, 2010 (1985)] and with the quite recent study of Joubert [J. Chem. Phys. 119, 1916 (2003)] relating to the separation of the exchange and correlation contributions.     

Thermodynamic transferability of coarse-grained potentials for polymer-additive systems

In this work we study the transferability of systematically coarse-grained (CG) potentials for polymer-additive systems. The CG nonbonded potentials between the polymer (atactic polystyrene) and three different additives (ethylbenzene, methane and neopentane) are derived using the Conditional Reversible Work (CRW) method, recently proposed by us [Brini et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 10468-10474]. A CRW-based effective pair potential corresponds to the interaction free energy between the two atom groups of an atomistic parent model that represent the coarse-grained interaction sites. Since the CRW coarse-graining procedure does not involve any form of parameterisation, thermodynamic and structural properties of the condensed phase are predictions of the model. We show in this work that CRW-based CG models of polymer-additive systems are capable of predicting the correct structural correlations in the mixture. Furthermore, the excess chemical potentials of the additives obtained with the CRW-based CG models and the united-atom parent models are in satisfactory agreement and the CRW-based CG models show a good temperature transferability. The temperature transferability of the model is discussed by analysing the entropic and enthalpic contributions to the excess chemical potentials. We find that CRW-based CG models provide good predictions of the excess entropies, while discrepancies are observed in the excess enthalpies. Overall, we show that the CRW CG potentials are suitable to model structural and thermodynamic properties of polymer-penetrant systems.     

Fluorescent detection for cyclic and acyclic alcohol guests by naphthalene-appended amino-beta-cyclodextrins

Spectroscopic and thermodynamic investigations on complexation of naphthalene-appended amino-beta-cyclodextrins 1 and 2 with cyclic alcohols (cyclohexanol and cycloheptanol) and acyclic alcohols (1-pentanol, 2-pentanol, 1-hexanol, and 1-heptanol) have been carried out. Host 1 exhibits a drastic fluorescent enhanced-signal change in the presence of alcohol guests in aqueous solution. [structure: see text]     

某些助剂对明胶的凝胶强度的影响的研究

众所周知,物理力学性能是照相明胶的一种很重要的属性。在各种彩色及黑白胶片都面向高温快速加工发展的今天,这种属性就显得更为重要。提高胶片的物理力学性能,一方面要从提高明胶本身的胶冻强度着手,例如减少明胶中溶胶组份(分子量小、冷水中溶解度高),提高明胶中的α和β组份的相对含量,减少分子量过大的组份等等。     

Isotopic replacement in ionic systems: the 4He2+ + 3He-->3He 4He+ + 4He reaction

Full quantum dynamics calculations have been carried out for the ionic reaction (4)He(2) (+)+(3)He and state-to-state reactive probabilities have been obtained using both time-dependent and time-independent approaches. An accurate ab initio potential-energy surface has been employed for the present quantum dynamics and the two sets of results are shown to be in agreement with each other. The results for zero total angular momentum suggest a marked presence of atom exchange (isotopic replacement) reaction with probabilities as high as 60%. The reaction probabilities are only weakly dependent on the initial vibrational state of the reactants, while they are slightly more sensitive to the degree of rotational excitation. A brief discussion of the results for selected higher total angular momentum values is also presented, while the l-shifting approximation [S. K. Gray et al., Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 1, 1141 (1999)] has been used to provide estimates of the total reaction rates for the title process. Such rates are found to be large enough to possibly become experimentally accessible.