Regioselectivity in acylation of oligosaccharides catalyzed by the metalloprotease thermolysin

Investigation of the acylation scope of carbohydrates by metalloprotease thermolysin immobilized on Celite as biocatalyst has been carried out. The reactions were performed in DMSO, a good solvent for carbohydrates, where the enzyme has previously shown its activity in transesterifications of sucrose, maltose and maltose-containing oligosaccharides. Surprisingly, no reaction was observed for glucose or the glucose-containing disaccharides, trehalose and lactose. In contrast, laurate monoesters of several sucrose-containing tri- and tetrasaccharides were synthetized through a one step transesterification using vinyl laurate as the acylating agent. Enzyme regioselectivity was accurately determined by HPLC/MS and the structure of the main regioisomers was established by a combination of NMR experiments. The preferred position of acylation in all cases was the 2-OH of the α-d-glucopyranose moiety linked 1→2 to the β-d-fructofuranose unit. These results correlate with the regioselectivity observed in the case of the disaccharide sucrose. A general carbohydrate binding motif for catalysis by thermolysin is proposed.     

Trace determination of organotin compounds in water,sediment and mussel samples by low-pressure gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry

A fast method for the determination of eight organotin compounds (OTs), monobutyltin (MBT), dibutyltin (DBT), tributyltin (TBT), tetrabutyltin (TeBT), monophenyltin (MPhT), diphenyltin (DPhT), triphenyltin (TPhT) and tetraphenyltin (TePhT), in water, sediments and mussels, was developed using low-pressure gas chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LPGC/MS/MS). The method is based on sodium diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) complexation of the ionic organotins, followed by extraction of the target matrices and derivatization by a Grignard reagent, as described in a previously published method for water samples. Solid-phase extraction was selected as extraction method from water samples after comparison with liquid-liquid extraction, but extraction of the OTs from sediment and mussel samples was performed using toluene. Matrix-matched calibration standards were used to minimize matrix effects. The analytical process was validated by the analysis of spiked blank samples. Performance characteristics such as linearity, detection limit (LOD), quantitation limit (LOQ), precision, and recovery were determined. Recoveries of OTs in spiked matrices ranged from 86-108% in water and from 78-110% in sediments and mussels, with precision values lower than 18%. Detection limits ranged from 0.1-9.6 ng L(-1) in water, and 0.03-6.10 microg kg(-1) in the other matrices. The present implementation of LPGC rather than conventional capillary GC permitted use of large-volume injection and reduced analysis time by a factor of two. The proposed methodology was applied to the determination of OTs in real samples of water, marine sediments and mussels from the west coast of the Mediterranean Sea (Spain).     

Bis(2,4,6-trifluorophenyl) derivatives of palladium(II)

Summary The organopalladium(II) complexes: Pd(2,4,6-C₆F₃H₂)₂L₂ [L=triphenylphosphine(PPh₃), methyldiphenylphosphine(PPh₂Me), dimethylphenylphosphine-(PPhMe₂) or pyridine(py); L₂=1,2-bis(diphenylphosphino)ethane(dpe), 2,2-bipyridine(bipy), 1, 10-phenanthroline(phen) or ethylenediamine(en)] have been prepared by addition of the appropriate compound to the THF-dioxane solution resulting from the arylation of potassium tetrachloropalladate(II) with (2,4,6-C₆F₃H₂)MgBr. The i.r. data suggest that the py and PPhMe₂ compounds are thecis-isomers, whereas the PPh₃ and PPh₂Me compounds have thetrans configuration.¹H- and¹⁹F-n.m.r. data for the compounds are reported.     

Theoretical analysis of the porphyrin-porphyrin exciton interaction in circular dichroism spectra of dimeric tetraarylporphyrins

Chiral bis-porphyrins are currently the subject of intense interest as chiral receptors and as probes in the determination of structure and stereochemistry. To provide an improved framework for interpreting the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of bis-porphyrins, we have calculated the CD spectra of chiral bis-porphyrins from three classes: I, where porphyrins can adopt a relatively wide range of orientations relative to each other; II, porphyrins have a fixed relative orientation; III, porphyrins undergo pi-stacking. The calculations primarily utilized the classical polarizability theory of DeVoe, but were supplemented by the quantum mechanical matrix method. Class I was represented by three isomers of the diester of 5alpha-cholestane-3,17-diol with 5-(4'-carboxyphenyl)-10,15,20-triphenylporphin (2-alphabeta, 2-betaalpha, 2-betabeta). Careful analysis of the torsional degrees of freedom led to two to four minimum-energy conformers for each isomer, in each of which the phenyl-porphyrin bonds had torsional angles near 90 degrees. Libration about these bonds is relatively unrestricted over a range of +/-45 degrees. CD spectra in the Soret region were calculated as Boltzmann-weighted averages over the low-energy conformers for each isomer. Three models were used: the effective transition moment model, in which only one of the degenerate Soret components is considered, along the 5-15 direction; the circular oscillator model, in which both Soret components are given equal weight; and the hybrid model, in which the 10-20 oscillator is given half the weight of the 5-15 oscillator, to mimic the effect of extensive librational averaging about the 5-15 direction. All three models predict Soret exciton couplets with signs in agreement with experiment. Quantitatively, the best results are given by the hybrid and circular oscillator models. These results validate the widely used effective transition moment model for qualitative assignments of bis-porphyrin chirality and thus permit application of the exciton chirality model. However, for quantitative studies, the circular oscillator or hybrid models should be used. The simplified effective transition moment and hybrid models are justified by the librational averaging in the class I bis-porphyrins and should only be used with such systems. Two class II bis-porphyrins were also studied by DeVoe method calculations in the circular oscillator model, which yielded good agreement with experiment. Class III bis-porphyrins were represented by 2-alphaalpha, for which the calculations gave qualitative agreement. However, limitations in the conformational analysis with the close contacts and dynamic effects in these pi-stacked systems preclude quantitative results.     

Synthesis,characterization and biological activity of bis(3‐Aryl‐1‐hexahydropyrimidinyl)methanes. Novel heterocyclic polyamine derivatives

A method is described for the synthesis of bis(3‐aryl‐1‐hexahydropyrimidinyl)methanes 1, by condensation of N‐aryl‐1,3‐propanediarnines 2 with formaldehyde. The reaction mechanism involves N‐arylhexahydropyrimidines 3 as intermediates. Such compounds can also be prepared efficiently by a methylene exchange reaction between bis‐hexahydropyrimidines 1 and the corresponding diamines 2. The antimicrobial activity of compounds 1 was evaluated by the disk diffusion method and some of them showed moderate to good growth inhibition activity.     

The applicability of DTA and DSC techniques to the study of the kinetics of phase transition reactions

Differential thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry techniques have been used to study the kinetics of phase transitions. The aragonite/calcite transformation was chosen as test reaction.Marked discrepancies were observed between the DTA kinetic results and those obtained from isothermal kinetic measurements. This disagreement is associated with the difficulty of determining accurately the reaction rate of the process from a DTA curve.In contrast, in DSC measurements, where the reaction rate is given by the height of the peak from the base-line, it is possible to get a satisfactory fit of the data, and the kinetic results obtained with this technique are in good agreement with the isothermal ones.

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Zusammenfassung Die Differentialthermoanalyse und DSC wurden zur Untersuchung der Kinetik von Phasenübergängen eingesetzt. Die Umwandlung Aragonit/Calcit wurde als Testreaktion gewählt.Bedeutende Diskrepanzen wurden zwischen den kinetischen Ergebnissen der DTA und den durch isotherme kinetische Messungen erhaltenen Ergebnissen beobachtet. Diese Abweichungen sind damit verbunden, daß es schwierig ist, die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit des Vorgangs aus einer DTA-Kurve genau zu ermitteln.Bei DSC-Messungen,wo die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeit durch die Höhe des Peaks von der Grundlinie gegeben ist, kann eine befriedigende Anpassung der Daten erhalten werden, und die durch diese Technik erhaltenen kinetischen Ergebnisse sind in guter Übereinstimmung mit den isothermen Ergebnissen.

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Field-amplified sample stacking and nonaqueous capillary electrophoresis determination of complex mixtures of polar aromatic sulfonates

Nonaqueous CE and field-amplified sample stacking have been used in the determination of complex mixtures of polar aromatic sulfonates (AS; mainly benzene- and naphthalenesulfonates) of environmental concern. The analytical procedure consists of an on-column aqueous sample enrichment, followed by the nonaqueous electrophoretic determination of stacked aromatic sulfonates. Various organic solvents were used as separation medium, acetonitrile and N-methylformamide gave the best results. Optimum capillary electrophoresis separation is obtained with ammonium acetate (25 mM) dissolved in N-methylformamide-methanol (90:10) as background electrolyte. This combined method was applied to the analysis of surface water samples spiked with selected aromatic sulfonates derivatives.     

Comparison of low-order multireference many-body perturbation theories

Tests have been made to benchmark and assess the relative accuracies of low-order multireference perturbation theories as compared to coupled cluster (CC) and full configuration interaction (FCI) methods. Test calculations include the ground and some excited states of the Be, H(2), BeH(2), CH(2), and SiH(2) systems. Comparisons with FCI and CC calculations show that in most cases the effective valence shell Hamiltonian (H(v)) method is more accurate than other low-order multireference perturbation theories, although none of the perturbative methods is as accurate as the CC approximations. We also briefly discuss some of the basic differences among the multireference perturbation theories considered in this work.     

Aquatic degradation of triclosan and formation of toxic chlorophenols in presence of low concentrations of free chlorine

The degradation of 2-(2,4-dichlorophenoxy)-5-chlorophenol (triclosan) in chlorinated water samples was investigated. Sensitive determination of the parent compound and its transformation products was achieved by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection after sample concentration, using a solid-phase extraction sorbent and silylation of the target compounds. Experiments were accomplished using ultrapure water spiked with chlorine and triclosan concentrations in the low mg/l and ng/ml ranges respectively. Chlorination of the phenolic ring and cleavage of the ether bond were identified as the main triclosan degradation pathways. Both processes led to the production of two tetra- and a penta-chlorinated hydroxylated diphenyl ether, as well as 2,4-dichlorophenol. The formation of 2,3,4-trichlorophenol was not detected in any experiment; however, significant amounts of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol were noticed. All of these five compounds were also identified when triclosan was added to tap-water samples with free chlorine concentrations below 1 mg/l. Minor amounts of three di-hydroxylated phenols, containing from one to three atoms of chlorine in their structures, were also identified as unstable triclosan chlorination by-products. The analysis of several raw wastewater samples showed the co-existence of important concentrations of triclosan and its most stable by-products (2,4-dichlorophenol and 2,4,6-trichlorophenol), reinforcing the potential occurrence of the described transformations when products containing triclosan are mixed with chlorinated tap water.