Are the Interactions between Recombinant Prion Proteins and Polymeric Surfaces Related to the Hydrophilic/Hydrophobic Balance?

New non‐fouling tubes are developed and their influence on the adhesion of neuroproteins is studied. Recombinant prion proteins are considered as a single component representative of hydrophobic proteins. Samples are stored for 24 h at 4 °C in tubes coated with two different coatings: poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) as a hydrophilic surface and a plasma‐fluorinated coating as a hydrophobic one. The protein adhesion is monitored by ELISA tests, XPS and confocal microscopy. It appears that the highest recovery of recombinant prion protein in the liquid phase is obtained with the hydrophilic surface while the hydrophobic character of the storage tube induces an important amount of biological loss. However, the recovery is not complete even for tubes coated with poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide).

     

Fire retardancy of polymer clay nanocomposites: Is there an influence of the nanomorphology?

The obvious aspect of nanodispersion and its role when investigating fire retardancy is not often clearly commented upon in the literature. Polymer clay nanocomposites can exhibit different morphologies and these might have consequences for their fire behaviour. Using solid state NMR to quantify the nanodispersion of organoclay in polyamide-6 (PA-6), we have prepared by melt blending PA-6/clay nanocomposite exhibiting different nanomorphologies. NMR results are consistent with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images but the advantage of NMR is that it is representative of the whole sample and provides a precise quantification. PA-6 nanocomposites exhibit significant reduction of PHRR but the nanomorphology (exfoliation, intercalation and presence of tactoids) does not play any significant role. In other words, we have clearly shown that if nanodispersion is achieved, polymer/clay nanocomposite should exhibit fire retardant properties.     

DFT modeling of reactivity in an ionic liquid: How many ion pairs?

The modeling of reactivity in an ionic liquid is examined with DFT and DFT/MM calculations on the S(N)2 intramolecular rearrangement of the Z-phenylhydrazone of 3-benzoyl-5-phenyl-1,2,4-oxadiazole into 4-benzoylamino-2,5-diphenyl-1,2,3-triazole induced by amines. Experimental research has shown that the reaction occurs in 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, and in conventional organic solvents such as acetonitrile with comparable rates. The structure for the reactants, transition states and products for the rate-determining step are optimized, and the energy barrier is computed in three different environments: gas phase, water solvent, and ionic liquid. The results are encouraging in describing the energy barrier in the ionic liquid. A simple model is formulated to explain the effect of the solvent in this particular process, and a procedure to study theoretically the reactivity in an ionic liquid is proposed.     

Study of polymer treatment with tetrafluoromethane plasma: Reactivity of fluorinated species on model surfaces

Polyolefins and their model molecules, some n-alcanes, have been modified by a tetrafluoromethane microwave plasma. The chosen molecules are high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and hexatriacontane (HTC), low-density polyethylene (LDPE) and paraffin, and polycaprolactone (PCL) and octadecyl octadecanoate (ODO). It has been found, except for paraffin, that the model surfaces have the same behavior as the corresponding polymers. Plasma modification is described as the sum of two mechanisms: degradation and fluorination. These reactions seem to be competitive and parallel. Degradation and fluorination rates are dependent on treatment time and are practically independent on substrate position. A domain of fluorination exists near the edge of plasma, whatever the substrate in or outside plasma. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Direct conversion of tert-butyl 2-hydroxyalkyl sulfides to 1,3-oxathiolanes

tert-Butyl 2-hydroxyalkyl sulfides, prepared by reaction of epoxides with 2-methylpropane-2-thiol, are converted directly to 1,3-oxathiolanes upon treatment with pivalaldehyde and boron trifluoride diethyl etherate in the presence of thioanisole.     

Water-soluble polyesters from long chain alkylesters of citric acid and poly(ethylene glycol)

Long chain aliphatic alcohols have been used as model compounds to develop a preparative method for a water-soluble material, which could be a carrier for triacontanol, a highly hydrophobic plant growth regulator. New polyesters from long chain aliphatic (C = 12, 18 and 22) mono-1-alkyl citrates and poly(ethylene glycol) were synthesized and characterized by NMR spectroscopy. The polyester containing the triacontyl moiety was obtained from mono-1-triacontyl citrate, which was synthesized from the corresponding alcohol extracted from the Agave fourcroydes. The molecular weight of the polyesters depends on experimental conditions during synthesis such as reaction time, atmosphere, catalyst concentration and temperature. The reaction is second order in the early stage of the polyester synthesis. The reaction rate constant is independent of the length of the aliphatic chain, but it decreases with increasing of the poly(ethylene glycol) employed. Turbidity measurements have been used to study the polyester solubility. Solubility characteristics were found to depend on the of poly(ethylene glycol), the aliphatic-chain length and the value of for the polyester. These preparations could potentially be used to release triacontanol.     

Electrostastic control of spontaneous curvature in catanionic reverse micelles

By means of small-angle neutron scattering and conductivity measurements, we study the microstructure of octylammoniumoctanoate/octane/water catanionic reverse microemulsions with an excess of anionic or cationic surfactant. Increasing the surface charge makes the microemulsion able to incorporate much more water than in the neutral case, up to 10 water molecules per surfactant. Even with charges in the surfactant film, wormlike micelles are present in the microemulsion domain. Along water dilution lines, the classical rod-to-sphere transition due to the minimization of the curvature energy of the rigid surfactant film is observed. When temperature is decreased, a re-entrant phase transition associated with the liquid-gas equilibrium of attractive cylinders is observed. Using the framework of the Tlusty-Safran theory, attraction could originate from junctions between wormlike reverse micelles. In any case, the spontaneous curvature of the catanionic surfactant film depends on both the temperature and the net charge, whatever the sign of the latter.     

Comparison of perturbative and variational treatments of molecular vibrations: application to the vibrational spectrum of HFCO up to 8000 cm(-1)

We calculated highly excited states of the HFCO molecule, comparing results from two methods. In the first method, Van Vleck perturbation theory is used to transform away all off-diagonal couplings except those between nearly degenerate states. This perturbative transformation leads to a matrix representation where eigenvalues are obtained with relatively small matrices. In the second method, variational eigenvalues are obtained by combining the Jacobi-Wilson approach with the block-Davidson scheme. The key ingredient here is a prediagonalized-perturbative scheme applied to a subspace of a curvilinear normal-mode basis set. Comparisons of the two methods provide a critical test of the less time-consuming perturbation theory. Two different coordinate sets are used to test the sensitivity of the results to coordinate choice. Perturbation theory also requires a polynomial fit to the potential. The implications of this restriction are investigated.     

Convenient access to C-2 or C-5 substituted 4-azaindole derivatives

Functionalization at C-2 and C-5 of N-benzenesulfonyl-4-azaindole 1 was performed by lithiation reactions and original palladium-catalyzed chemistry. It led to very useful new substituted 4-azaindole derivatives in fair to high yields.