Ionic liquids form ideal solutions

An understanding of the activity of a solute in solution is vital for utilising the full potential of a reactive species. In this work we determine the activity of metal salts in a variety of ionic liquids. Some solutions behave like classical non-polar solvents whereas other are practically ideal solutions up to 1 mol kg(-1) which allows standard redox potentials to be determined.     

A Mild Efficient Procedure for the Conversion of Carboxylic Acid Esters to Primary Amides Using Formamide/Methanolic Sodium Methoxide

An improved method for the preparation of primary carboxylic acid amides from the corresponding esters is described. This reaction was easily followed by GLC and was usually complete in less than one hour.     

Evaluation of whole-genome amplification of low-copy-number DNA in chimerism analysis after allogeneic stem cell transplantation using STR marker typing

Whole-genome DNA amplification (WGA) is a promising method that generates large amounts of DNA from samples of limited quantity. We investigated the accuracy of a multiplex PCR approach to WGA over STR loci. The amplification bias within a locus and over all analyzed loci was investigated in relation to the amount of template in the WGA reaction, the specific STR locus, and allele length. We observed reproducible error-free STR profiles with 10 ng down to 1 ng of DNA template. The amplification deviation at a locus and between loci was within the intra-method reproducibility. WGA is the method of choice for amplifying nanogram amounts of genomic DNA for different applications. We detected unbalanced STR amplifications at one locus and between loci, allelic drop-outs, and additional alleles after WGA of low-copy-number DNA. We found that the high number of drop-outs and drop-ins could be eradicated using pooled DNA from separate WGA reactions even with as little as 100 pg of starting template. Nevertheless, the quality of the results was still not sufficient for use in routine chimerism analysis of limited specific cell populations after allogeneic stem cell transplantation.     

The Föppl–von Kármán plate theory as a low energy Γ-limit of nonlinear elasticityLa théorie Föppl–von Kármán des plaques comme Γ-limite de l'élasticité non linéaire

We show that the Föppl–von Kármán theory arises as a low energy Γ-limit of three-dimensional nonlinear elasticity. A key ingredient in the proof is a generalization to higher derivatives of our rigidity result [5] that for maps $\text{v:(0,1)}{}^3\text{→}\text{R}{}^3$, the L² distance of ?v from a single rotation is bounded by a multiple of the L² distance from the set SO(3) of all rotations. To cite this article: G. Friesecke et al., C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 335 (2002) 201–206.     

Buildup of ultrathin multilayer films by a self-assembly process, 1 consecutive adsorption of anionic and cationic bipolar amphiphiles on charged surfaces

An anionic and a cationic bipolar amphiphile containing rigid biphenyl cores were synthesized. The compounds were dissolved in a mixture of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and water and pure water, respectively. When a solid substrate with a positively charged planar surface is immersed in the solution containing the negatively charged bipolar amphiphile, a monolayer of the amphiphile is adsorbed and due to its bipolar structure the surface charge is reversed. After rinsing in pure water the substrate is immersed in the solution containing the positively charged bipolar amphiphile. Again a monolayer is adsorbed but now the original surface charge is restored. By repeating both steps in a cyclic fashion alternating multilayer assemblies of both compounds are obtained. It is demonstrated that multilayer films, composed of at least 35 consecutively alternating layers, which corresponds to a total film thickness of 170 nm can be assembled.     

Synthesis of Polyelectrolytes Bearing Phosphorylcholine Moieties

We report on the modification of the polyelectrolytes poly(L ‐glutamic acid) (PGA), poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), and poly(L ‐lysine) (PLL) with side groups bearing phosphorylcholine (PC) groups. Two different side chains were synthesized from monoamino tri‐ or tetraethylene glycol, both with PC group linked to the OH end: the tert‐butyloxycarbonyl protected compounds BOCNH(EO)_nPC (n = 2, 3) and the succinylated compound SucNH(EO)₃PC. BOCNH(EO)_nPC was deprotected and the resulting amine was condensed with PGA or PAA and SucNH(EO)₃PC was directly coupled to PLL. Degrees of substitution as high as 80% were obtained with the method described. These polyelectrolytes are potential candidates to fabricate multilayers with protein repellent properties.