A new preparation of substituted 4H-1-benzothiopyran-4-ones from c(α)N-benzoylhydrazones or c(α)N-carboalkoxyhydrazones and methyl thiosalicylate

C(α)N-Benzoylhydrazones or C(α),N-carboalkoxyhydrazones were dilithiated with excess lithium diisopropylamide, and the dianion-type intermediates were condensed with lithiated methyl thiosalicylate, followed by cyclization/hydrolysis to substituted 4H-1-benzothiopyran-4-ones (thioflavones/thiochromones).     

Studies of crystalline native celluloses using potential energy calculations

Energies for various trial packing arrangements of unit cells for the I and I phases of native cellulose discovered by Sugiyamaet al. were evaluated. Both a rigid-ring method, PLMR, and the full-optimization, molecular mechanics program, MM3(90), were used. For both phases the models that had the lowest PLMR energy also had the lowest MM3 energy. Both calculated models have the chains packed up, O6s intg positions, and the same sheets of hydrogen-bonded chains. The I structure model is essentially identical to that proposed previously for ramie cellulose by Woodcock and Sarko. It is also the same as the best parallel model previously proposed that was based on the X-ray data of Mann, Gonzalez and Wellard, once the various unit cell conventions are considered. Also, the energies from both methods for all three celluloses, I, I and II, are in the order that rationalizes their relative stabilites.     

Incremented alkyl derivatives enhance collision induced glycosidic bond cleavage in mass spectrometry of disaccharides

Electrospray ionization and collision induced dissociation on a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer were used to determine the effect of spatial crowding of incremented alkyl groups of two anomeric pairs of peralkylated (methyl to pentyl) disaccharides (maltose/cellobiose and isomaltose/gentiobiose). Protonated molecules were generated which underwent extensive fragmentation under low energy conditions. For both the 1 --> 4 and 1 --> 6 alpha and beta isomers, at comparable collision energies the methyl derivative exhibited the least fragmentation followed by ethyl, propyl, butyl, and pentyl. Collision energy is converted to rotational-vibrational modes in competition with bond cleavage, as represented by the slope of product/parent ion (D/P) ratio versus offset energy. Variable rotational freedom at the glycosidic linkage with incremented alkyl groups is hypothesized to be responsible for this effect. Discrimination of anomeric configuration was also assessed for these stereoiosmeric disaccharides. A systematic study showed that an increasing discrimination was attained for the 1 --> 4 isomeric pair as the size of the derivative increased from methyl to pentyl. No anomeric discrimination was attained for the 1 --> 6 isomeric pair. Parent and product ion scans confirmed the consistency of fragmentation pathways among derivatives. Chem-X and MM3 molecular modeling programs were used to obtain minimum energy structures and freedom of motion volumes for the permethylated disaccharides. The modeling results correlated with the fragmentation ratios obtained in the mass spectrometer giving strong indication that the collision induced spectra are dependent on the freedom of rotational motion around the glycosidic bond.     

Conformational analysis of trehalose disaccharides and analogues using MM3

Energy surfaces for the relative orientations of the pyranosyl rings of α,α-, α,β-, and β,β-trehalose and analogues were generated with MM3. Sixteen starting conformations of the rotatable side groups of α,β-trehalose were considered, while only 10 conformations were needed for α,α- and β,β-trehalose because of molecular symmetry. Energies were calculated at 20° increments of the two torsional angles of the glycosidic linkage, but otherwise the molecules were fully relaxed. The structure at the overall minimum for α,α-trehalose agrees well with that found in crystal structures, and also agrees with interpretations of NMR and optical rotation data. The energy surfaces for the three trehaloses differ greatly from each other, but are each similar to those for the corresponding three 2-(6-methyltetrahydropyran-2-yloxy)6-methyltetrahydropyrans. This suggests that linkage type (axial or equatorial) is more important than exocyclic substituents in determining trehalose conformations. A comparison with surfaces from the corresponding 5a-carba trehalose analogues illustrates that the exo-anomeric effect is important in determining disaccharide conformation.     

SHARPER ACTION SPECTRA

Upon irradiation with 240–300nm light a photochemical reaction occurs in Tb³⁺ complexes of polyuridylate and oligouridylate. The reaction is monitored by the appearance of a fluorescence excitation band which does not exist in non-irradiated samples. The photochemical reaction is not observed in uridine nucleotides, dinucleoside phosphates, or when polyuridylate forms a double stranded helix with polyadenylate.     

Effect of charge on the standard partial molar volumes and heat capacities of organic electrolytes in methanol and water

Previously developed additivity schemes for nonelectrolytes have been used to estimate and for tetraalkyl and tetraphenyl methanes in methanol and water. Corrections have been applied to the thermodynamic values of these model compounds to account for a variation in size of the central atom, and these were used to ascertain the effect of charge on and of alkyl and phenyl quaternary ions having N, P and B as central atoms. Investigations of R₄NBr, (R=methyl to heptyl) salts show that the charge effect on and of R₄N⁺ ions is large and relatively independent of ion size suggesting that the solvent molecules penetrate the ions. The ability to estimate and of the quaternary ions in the bromide salt solutions has made it possible to make ionic assignments with some confidence; (Br^–) has been evaluated as 19.7±2 and 30.2±7 cm³-mol^–1 and (Br^–) as –83±7 and –68±30 J-K^–1-mol^–1 in methanol and water, respectively. The use of organic ions for making ionic assignments of and is critically examined and comparisons with other assignments are made. The scaled particle theory is employed to divide the heat capacities of electrolytes into cavity and interaction contributions.