Progress in the chemistry of functional aramids properties

High-performance polymers based on amide aromatic rings are known as wholly aromatic polyamides or aramids. The arrangement and admirable properties of aramids are built on the basis of amide linkage and rigid aromaticity. Aramids are attractive because of their extraordinary bond strengths and very high stiffness. Synthetic aromatic polymeric chains provide increased mechanical resistance and thermal softening compared to aliphatic aramids. In addition, aramids exhibit high thermal stability, low creep, and good optical activity with fluorescence. Hence, aramids are found in advanced arenas for engineering thermoplastics such as transport applications, electroactive materials, films, bullet-proof body armor, smart materials, protective clothing, fibers, in nanocomposites as asbestos alternatives, cutting edge complexes in arming, high-temperature lining material, in space engineering, and more. The objective of this review is to make the field of aramids functionality more accessible to the materials science community, that is, scientists, academicians, and engineers.     

Thermodynamic studies of drug-alpha-cyclodextrin interactions in water at 298.15 K: promazine hydrochloride/chlorpromazine hydrochloride + alpha-cyclodextrin + H(2)O systems

Data on osmotic coefficients have been obtained for a binary aqueous solution of two drugs, namely, promazine hydrochloride (PZ) and chlorpromazine hydrochloride (CPZ) using a vapor pressure osmometer at 298.15 K. The observed critical micelle concentration (cmc) agrees excellently with the available literature data. The measurements are extended to aqueous ternary solutions containing fixed a concentration of alpha-cyclodextrin (alpha-CD) of 0.1 mol kg(-1) and varied concentrations (approximately 0.005-0.2 mol kg(-1)) of drugs at 298.15 K. It has been found that the cmc values increase by the addition of alpha-CD. The mean molal activity coefficients of the ions and the activity coefficient of alpha-CD in binary as well as ternary solutions were obtained, which have been further used to calculate the excess Gibbs free energies and transfer Gibbs free energies. The lowering of the activity coefficients of ions and of alpha-CD is attributed to the existence of host-guest (inclusion)-type complex equilibria. It is suggested that CPZ forms 2:1 and 1:1 complexed species with alpha-CD, while PZ forms only 1:1 complexed species. The salting constant (ks) values are determined at 298.15 K for promazine-alpha-CD and chlorpromazine-alpha-CD complexes, respectively, by following the method based on the application of the McMillan-Mayer theory of virial coefficients to transfer free energy data. It is noted that the presence of chlorine in the drug molecule imparts better complexing capacity, the effect of which gets attenuated as a result of hydrophobic interaction. The results are discussed from the point of view of associative equilibria before the cmc and complexed equilibria for binary and ternary solutions, respectively.     

Conductivity dispersion in supercooled calcium potassium nitrate: caged ionic motion viewed as part of standard behaviour

Conductivity spectra of ionic materials with disordered structures are usually thought to consist of several parts, i.e., the DC conductivity, a power-law component, a nearly-constant-loss feature (if identified) and the (far-)infrared conductivity caused by vibrational motion. Such a decomposition may, however, easily lead to a misinterpretation of the underlying dynamics. Here, we discuss broad-band conductivity data of the supercooled glass-forming melt calcium potassium nitrate, of composition 0.4 Ca(NO(3))(2).0.6 KNO(3), often abbreviated as CKN. Data have been taken at frequencies up to the far infrared. We show that the frequency-dependent conductivity is very well reproduced by a superposition of only two components. One of them is due to vibrations, the other is caused by displacements of the mobile ions. The latter component, which does not follow a power law, is described in terms of a physical model called the MIGRATION concept. This model treatment has been found to apply in many solid electrolytes as well and is, therefore, considered to provide a "standard" formulation of the ion dynamics. The gradual transition from a correlated forward-backward ("caged") ionic motion to a stepwise translational motion may be regarded as the main feature of the MIGRATION concept.     

The Thermal Instability of 2,4 and 2,6‐N‐Alkylamino‐disubstituted and 2‐N‐Alkylamino‐substituted Nitrobenzenes in Weakly Alkaline Solution: sec‐Amino Effect

We report herein the preparation of two families of secondary amines by the reactions of two equivalents of monoamines with either 2,4 or 2,6‐difluoronitrobenzenes in N,N‐dimethylacetamide in the presence of anhydrous potassium carbonate, as precursors of biologically important nitric oxide donating N‐nitrosamines. In both instances, these compounds could be prepared in quantitative yield when the reaction temperature was held below 130°C. Above this reaction temperature, an unexpected cyclization reaction between the nitro and newly formed adjacent secondary amine group leads to the formation of benzimidazole or quinoxaline rings in low yields. Reasonable reaction mechanisms for the cyclization reaction are proposed.     

Organocatalytic stereoselective synthesis of passifloricin A

The enantioselective synthesis of passifloricin A has been achieved in high diastereomeric excess. The 1,3-polyol moiety was constructed by iterative proline-catalyzed sequential α-aminoxylation and Horner-Wadsworth-Emmons (HWE) olefination of aldehydes while the synthesis of lactone moiety was achieved by ring-closing metathesis (RCM).     

Characterization of the elusive disulfide bridge forming human Hb variant: Hb Ta-Li β83 (EF7)Gly → Cys by electrospray mass spectrometry

An electrospray mass spectrometric approach to the identification of a human hemoglobin (Hb) variant involving a Cys residue incorporation is presented. In Hb Ta-Li (beta83Gly --> Cys), Cys83 forms inter-molecular disulfide bridges. Routine analysis of the denatured Hb showed the presence of a minor beta chain variant whose mass apparently was 1 Da less than the expected mass difference of 46 Da for a Gly --> Cys substitution. Reduction of the globin chains with dithiothreitol gave an intense monomer with the expected mass difference for the Gly --> Cys substitution. After reprocessing the original raw data from the denatured Hb and taking into account the possibility of dimer formation, a component was revealed whose mass was consistent with a disulfide linked dimer of Ta-Li beta globins. The mutation was localized to peptide betaT10 by analysis of a tryptic digest. Tandem mass spectrometry and DNA sequencing confirmed the Gly --> Cys substitution occurred at residue 83 of the beta chain. Problems encountered in identifying the components in mixtures of monomers and dimers are discussed.     

Multiobjective fractional programming problems involving (p,r)?ρ?(η,θ)-invex function

In this paper we move forward in the study of multiobjective fractional programming problem and established sufficient optimality conditions under the assumption of (p,r)????(??,??)-invexity. Weak, strong and strict converse duality theorems are also derived for three type of dual models related to multiobjective fractional programming problem involving aforesaid invex function.     

Comparative study of the three different fluorophore antibody conjugation strategies

The progression in bioconjugational chemistry has significantly contributed to the evolution and success of protein biology. Mainly, antibody chemistry has been a subject of intensive study owing to the expansion of research areas warranted by using various derivatives of conjugated antibodies. Three reactive moieties (amine, sulfhydryl and carbohydrate) in the antibodies are chiefly favored for the conjugational purpose. This feature is known for decades, nevertheless, amine based conjugation is still the most preferred strategy despite the appreciation the other two methods receive in conserving the antigen binding affinity (ABA). No single report has been published, according to our knowledge, where these three conjugation strategies were applied to the same fluorophore antibody systems. In this study, we evaluated conjugation yield, time demand and cost efficiency of these conjugation procedures. Our results showed that amine based conjugations was by far the best technique due to its simplicity, rapidity, ease of operation, higher conjugate yield, cheaper cost and potential for larger fluorophore/protein labeling ratio without having much effect in ABA. Furthermore, sulfhydryl labeling clearly excelled in terms of reduced non-specific binding and mild effect in ABA but was usually complicated by an asymmetric antibody reduction due to mercaptoethylamine while carbohydrate oxidation based strategy performed the worst during our experiment.     

Experimental evidence and theoretical analysis for the chiral symmetry breaking in the growth front of conglomerate crystal phase of 1,1'-binaphthyl

Chirally asymmetric states, chemical oscillations, propagating chemical waves, and spatial patterns, are examples of far-from-equilibrium self-organization. We have found that the crystal growth front of 1,1(')-binaphthyl shows many of the characteristics of an open system in which chiral symmetry breaking has occurred. From its supercooled molten phase, 1,1(')-binaphthyl crystallizes as a conglomerate of R and S crystals when the temperature is above 145 degrees C. In addition, 1,1(')-binaphthyl in its molten phase is always racemic due to its high racemization rate. Under appropriate conditions, bimodal probability distribution of enantiomeric excess (ee) with maxima around 60% was observed. The ee was mass independent, indicating that the growth front maintains a constant ee. A kinetic model that theoretically analyzes the chiral symmetry breaking transition in the growth front of a conglomerate crystal phase was formulated. Computer simulation of the model reproduced not only the average but also the large variation of the ee observed in crystallization experiments.