Anion bridges drive salting out of a simple amphiphile from aqueous solution

Neutron diffraction with isotope substitution has been used to determine the structural changes that occur on the addition of a simple salting-out agent to a dilute aqueous alcohol solution. The striking results obtained demonstrate a relatively simple process occurs in which interamphiphile anionic salt bridges are formed between the polar groups of the alcohol molecules. These ion bridges drive an increase in the exposure of the alcohol molecule nonpolar surface to the solvent water and hence point the way to their eventual salting out by the hydrophobic effect.     

Probing the mechanism of a fungal glycosyltransferase essential for cell wall biosynthesis. UDP-chitobiose is not a substrate for chitin synthase

Chitin synthase is responsible for the biosynthesis of chitin, an essential component of the fungal cell wall. There is a long-standing question as to whether "processive" transferases such as chitin synthase operate in the same manner as non-processive transferases. The question arises from analysis of the polysaccharide structure--in chitin, for instance, each sugar residue is rotated approximately 180 degrees relative to the preceding sugar in the chain. This requires that the enzyme account for the alternating "up/down" configuration during biosynthesis. An enzyme with a single active site, analogous to the non-processive transferases--would have to accommodate a distorted glycosidic linkage at every other synthetic step. An alternative proposal is that the enzyme might assemble the disaccharide donor, addressing the "up/down" conformational problem prior to polymer synthesis. We present compelling evidence that this latter hypothesis is incorrect.     

Plasma homo- and copolymerizations of tetrafluoroethylene and chlorotrifluoroethylene

The plasma homo- and copolymerizations of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE) and chlorotrifluoroethylene (CTFE) in a capacitively coupled tubular reactor (TR) with external electrodes were studied by means of microgravimetry and FT-IR and XPS analyses. The deposition rates for CTFE/TFE plasma copolymers, as well as the ratios of IR absorbances at 1180 and 1225 cm⁻¹, and the XPS-derived Cl/C and F/C ratios, varied regularly with mol % CTFE in the feed, all of which results were dependent upon the rf power at which the plasma copolymerizations were conducted. The deposition rates for the plasma homopolymers of TFE (PPTFE) and CTFE (PPTCFE) depended markedly on rf power (W) and monomer molar flow rate (F). The F/C ratio for PPTFE was nearly independent of the composite parameter,W/FM (whereM is the monomer molecular weight), while for PPCTFE, the F/C ratio decreased significantly and the Cl/C ratio increased slightly with increase inW/FM. The percentage of carbon as CF₃ was 20–24% in PPTFE and 7–14% in PPCTFE. Plots of deposition rate versusW/FM for PPTFE and PPCTFE obtained in a TR differed considerably from corresponding plots in the literature for the same homopolymers prepared in a glass-cross or bell-jar reactor.     

The structure of liquid tetrahydrofuran

Hydrogen/deuterium isotopic substitution neutron diffraction techniques have been used to measure the structural correlation functions of liquid tetrahydrofuran at room temperature. Empirical potential structure refinement (EPSR) has been used to build a three-dimensional model of the liquid structure that is consistent with the experimental data. Analysis to the level of the orientational correlation functions shows that the liquid displays a preference for T-like configurations between the tetrahydrofuran molecules, a local structure that results in void-like regions of approximately 1.25 angstroms radius within the bulk liquid. The surface chemistry of these voids suggests a slightly positive electrostatic character. These findings are consistent with the known propensity of the liquid to solvate free electrons.     

Excess entropy in alcohol-water solutions: a simple clustering explanation

We show that the anomalous negative excess entropy of mixing characteristic of aqueous lower alcohols containing hydrophobic groups is quantitatively consistent with a model exploiting only the experimentally observed molecular-scale segregation of the components across the entire concentration range. The simple model presented here, which uses plausible interatomic distances as its only free parameters, obviates the need to invoke "iceberg" or other water restructuring concepts which, though frequently postulated in explaining the hydrophobic interaction, are unsupported by recent experiments.     

Conformational control of excited-state dynamics in highly distorted Ru(II) polypyridyl complexes

Tris(bipyridyl)ruthenium(II) complexes modified such that one of the bipyridines is appended with a crown ether display luminescence that is responsive to complexation with metal ions. The parent species, Ru(bpy)3(2+), is moderately luminescent, with an emission lifetime of about 1 micros in fluid solution at room temperature. The modified complexes are much less emissive, with lifetimes near 1 ns. Conformational flexibility and distortion in the crown-ether complexes enhance nonradiative decay. Noncovalent binding of metal ions, however, restores luminescence intensity by reducing nonradiative decay and increasing the lifetime 10- to 100-fold. Reported here are the syntheses and steady-state and time-resolved luminescence measurements in addition to other supporting spectroscopic characterization. Seven metals were investigated; significant luminescence enhancements occur in the presence of Mg2+, Ca2+, and Pb2+. Effective concentrations of metal ions range from tens of microM to hundreds of mM. The steady-state enhancements are readily measured, but they are less than would be expected from the lifetime changes, partly because only a portion (not more than 50%) of the fast (1 ns) decay in Ru(bpy)2(bpy-crown) is capable of converting to the conformation possessing the longer lifetime. A photophysical model is proposed to explain these and other observations.