An integrated solid-phase extraction system for sub-picomolar detection

A microchip structure etched on a glass substrate for packed column solid-phase extraction (SPE) and capillary electrochromatography (CEC) is described. A 200 microm long, octadecylsilane (ODS) packed column was secured using two different approaches: solvent lock or polymer entrapment. The former method was utilized for SPE while the latter approach was applied for CEC. In SPE, the ODS packed chamber gave a detection limit of 70 fM for a nonpolar BODIPY (493/503) dye when concentrated for 3 min at an electroosmotic flow rate of 4.14 nL/min, compared to 30 pM for this detector without the SPE step. SPE beds showed reproducible, linear calibration curves (R(2) = 0.9989) between 1 and 100 pM BODIPY at fixed preconcentration times. Breakthrough curves for the 330 pL (ODS-packed) bed indicated a capacity for BODIPY dye of 8.1 x 10(-14) mmol, or 0.25 mmol dye per liter of bed. The ODS-chamber could also be used to analyze dilute amino acid and peptide solutions. In the CEC format, two neutral dyes (BODIPY and acridine orange) were baseline-separated in an isocratic run with a theoretical plate count of 84 (420 000 plates/m) and a reduced plate height of about 1. A labeled peptide was also analyzed by CEC, using the acidic eluent (84% acetonitrile, and 26% aqueous trifluoroacetic acid (0.05%)) preferred for peptide separations on ODS-coated silica particles.     

Carbon-13 spin-lattice relaxation studies of the effect of water on ion-selective electrode membranes

(13)C spin-lattice relaxation studies on bis(2-ethylhexyl) adipate (DOA) plasticized poly(vinylchloride) (PVC) membranes are reported for plasticization levels ranging from 25 to 100 wt% plasticizer. The interaction between DOA and PVC molecules in these membranes appears to involve an entrapment of the plasticizer molecule within the polymer matrix. This is based on the constancy of the characteristic segmental motions of the plasticizer chains throughout the concentration range studied. The segmental mobility of the plasticizer component is modified by water absorption in the membrane. The pattern of characteristic segmental motions of the plasticizer is altered, the effect depending on the amount of added salt in the membrane. The results show water has a weak influence on the microviscosity of the membrane matrix.     

Heuristic intermolecular potential function for the methane–water interaction based on ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations

An analytical potential function for the pairwise interaction of methane and water is reported. The function is representative of 225 ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations of the intermolecular interaction using 6–31G self-consistent-field molecular-orbital theory. The statistical parameters of the curve fitting are given and isoenergy contour maps of the interaction energy are presented and discussed.     

Hydrogen migrations in mass spectrometry. VI—the chemical ionization mass spectra of substituted benzoic acids and benzyl alcohols

The H₂ and CH₄ chemical ionization mass spectra of a series of series of substituted benzoic acids and substituted benzyl alcohols have been determined. For the benzoic acids the major fragmentation reactions of the protonated molecule involve elimination of H₂O or elimination of CO₂, the latter reaction involving migration of the carboxylic hydrogen to the aromatic ring. For the benzyl alcohols the major fragmentation reactions of [MH]⁺ involve loss of H₂O or CH₂O, analogous to the CO₂ elimination reaction for the benzoic acids. It is shown that the CO₂ and CH₂O elimination reactions occur only when a conjugated aromatic ring system is present, and that for the carboxylic acid systems, methyl groups and, to a lesser extent, phenyl groups are capable of migrating. The only discernible effect of substituents on the fragmentation of [MH]⁺ is an enhancement of the H₂O loss reaction in the benzoic acid system when an amino, hydroxyl, or halogen substituent is ortho to the carboxyl function. This ‘ortho’ effect, which differs in scope from that observed in electron impact mass spectra, is attributed to an intramolecular catalysis by the ortho substituent of the 1,3 hydrogen migration in the carbonyl protonated acid followed by H₂O elimination. Apparently, this route is favoured over the direct elimination of H₂O from the carbonyl protonated acid, since the latter has a high activation energy barrier because of unfavourable orbital symmetry restrictions.     

Effect of protonation exothermicity on the chemical ionization mass spectra of some alkylbenzenes

The H₂, N₂/H₂, CO₂/H₂, N₂O/H₂, CO/H₂ and CH₄ chemical ionization mass spectra of thirteen C₈ to C₁₁ alkylbenzenes are reported. Characteristic hydride and alkide ion abstraction reactions are observed with all reagent gases. The major fragmentation reactions of [MH]⁺ are olefin elimination to form a protonated arene and arene elimination to form an alkyl ion. From the effect of structure and protonation exothermicity it is concluded that rearrangement of primary alkyl groups to the more stable secondary or tertiary structure occurs prior to alkyl ion formation. A detailed fragmentation mechanism for protonated arenes is proposed. The ‘effective’ proton affinity of the methane-derived reagent system is estimated to be ～556 kJ mol^?1.     

Performance of nonrelativistic and quasi-relativistic hybrid DFT for the prediction of electric and magnetic hyperfine parameters in 57Fe Mössbauer spectra

57Fe electric and magnetic hyperfine parameters were calculated for a series of 10 iron model complexes, covering a wide range of oxidation and spin states. Employing the B3LYP hybrid method, results from nonrelativistic density functional theory (DFT) and quasi-relativistic DFT within the zero-order regular approximation (ZORA) were compared. Electron densities at the iron nuclei were calculated and correlated with experimental isomer shifts. It was shown that the fit parameters do not depend on a specific training set of iron complexes and are, therefore, more universal than might be expected. The nonrelativistic and quasi-relativistic electron densities gave fit parameters of similar quality; the ZORA densities are only shifted by a factor of 1.32, upward in the direction of the four-component Dirac-Fock value. From a correlation of calculated electric field gradients and experimental quadrupole splittings, the value of the 57Fe nuclear quadrupole moment was redetermined to a value of 0.16 barn, in good agreement with other studies. The ZORA approach gave no additional improvement of the calculated quadrupole splittings in comparison to the nonrelativistic approach. The comparison of the calculated and measured 57Fe isotropic hyperfine coupling constants (hfcc's) revealed that both the ZORA approach and the inclusion of spin-orbit contributions lead to better agreement between theory and experiment in comparison to the nonrelativistic results. For all iron complexes with small spin-orbit contributions (high-spin ferric and ferryl systems), a distinct underestimation of the isotropic hfcc's was found. Scaling factors of 1.81 (nonrelativistic DFT) and 1.69 (ZORA) are suggested. The calculated 57Fe isotropic hfcc's of the remaining model systems (low-spin ferric and high-spin ferrous systems) contain 10-50% second-order contributions and were found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental results. This is assumed to be the consequence of error cancellation because g-tensor calculations for these systems are of poor quality with the existing DFT approaches. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment was found for the 57Fe anisotropic hfcc's. Finally, all of the obtained fit parameters were used for an application study of the [Fe(H2O)6]3+ ion. The calculated spectroscopic data are in good agreement with the Mossbauer and electron paramagnetic resonance results discussed in detail in a forthcoming paper.     

The absorption of pulsed infrared radiation by cyclobutanone and its subsequent decomposition

The absorption characteristics of cyclobutanone vapour irradiated with a pulsed CO₂ TEA laser at fluences of 0.5–1.5 J cm⁻²have been studied over the pressure range 0.3 to 20 Torr using both joulemeter and opto-acoustic measurements of the absorbed energy. Under these conditions the product concentration for the two subsequent decomposition channels into ethene + ketene and cyclopropane + CO were determined. Above ≈ 3 Torr the results are consistent with a thermally equilibrated system whereas at lower pressures a distinct enhancement of the lower energy pathway to ethene occurs, indicative of a non-Boltzmann energy distribution.     

Novel resorcinarene-based pH-triggered gelator

Iminodiacetate resorc[4]arene is shown to produce gels that are pH-reversible. The gels formed are clear and stable to inversion. (The gels are not stable above a certain temperature, which varies with concentration.) When the pH of an iminodiacetate resorc[4]arene solution (concentration > 7.6 mM) is lowered to below 2.5, which is near one of the Ka values of the molecule, the dissolved molecules aggregate and cause gelation of water. 1H NMR showed that at the pH of gelation a change occurs in the chemical environment of the iminodiacetate group. Scanning electron microscopy showed that the gel is composed of long strands that interweave and create a molecular mesh.     

The active-site structure of umecyanin, the stellacyanin from horseradish roots

The type 1 copper sites of cupredoxins typically have a His(2)Cys equatorial ligand set with a weakly interacting axial Met, giving a distorted tetrahedral geometry. Natural variations to this coordination environment are known, and we have utilized paramagnetic (1)H NMR spectroscopy to study the active-site structure of umecyanin (UMC), a stellacyanin with an axial Gln ligand. The assigned spectra of the Cu(II) UMC and its Ni(II) derivative [Ni(II) UMC] demonstrate that this protein has the typical His(2)Cys equatorial coordination observed in other structurally characterized cupredoxins. The NMR spectrum of the Cu(II) protein does not exhibit any paramagnetically shifted resonances from the axial ligand, showing that this residue does not contribute to the singly occupied molecular orbital (SOMO) in Cu(II) UMC. The assigned paramagnetic (1)H NMR spectrum of Ni(II) UMC demonstrates that the axial Gln ligand coordinates in a monodentate fashion via its side-chain amide oxygen atom. The alkaline transition, a feature common to stellacyanins, influences all of the ligating residues but does not alter the coordination mode of the axial Gln ligand in UMC. The structural features which result in Cu(II) UMC possessing a classic type 1 site as compared to the perturbed type 1 center observed for other stellacyanins do not have a significant influence on the paramagnetic (1)H NMR spectra of the Cu(II) or Ni(II) proteins.