Synthesis of N-(tosyl)azetidin-2-imines

A synthetic route for N-(tosyl)azetidin-2-imines $\text{6}$, a novel class of derivatives of β-lactams, has been developed. The procedure is applicable to the synthesis of azetidin-2-imines related to penicillins and cephalosporins.     

Quantitative High Resolution Electron Microscopy

 With the resolution becoming sufficient to reveal individual atoms, HREM is now entering the stage where it can compete with X-ray methods to quantitatively determine atomic structures of materials without much prior knowledge, but with the advantage of being applicable to aperiodic objects such as crystal defects. In our view the future electron microscope will be characterised by a large versatility in experimental settings under computer control such as the illumination conditions (TEM-STEM), CBED, detecting conditions (diffraction, image, ptychography) and many other tunable parameters such as focus (g), voltage, spherical aberration (C _s ), beam tilt, etc. Since modern detectors can detect single electrons, also the counting statistics is known. The only limiting factor in the experiment will be the total number of electrons that interact with the object during the experiment due to the limitations in the exposure time or in the object damage. However, instrumental potentialities will never be exploited fully if not guided by an experimental strategy. Here intuitive guidelines can be very deceptive. For instance an image made with the best electron microscope (C _s  = 0) at the best focus (g = 0) from the best object (phase object) would show no contrast at all. Hence, questions such as what is the best C _s , focus, object thickness, etc. can only be answered properly if done using a method of experiment design.     

The non-linear dielectric effect in liquid xenon

The non-linear dielectric effect (NLDE), that is the increase in the dielectric constant divided by the square of the applied field, is measured for a number of non-polar molecular liquids and for liquid xenon. The values of the NLDE are compared with results in the literature and with values predicted by theory. The agreement with other experiments is quite good, but with theory is very poor, the only exception being Liquid xenon, where agreement is good. A possible explanation is given. The prediction that the NLDE should increase strongly near the critical point due to the divergence of the isothermal compressibility could not be established by experiment. The conclusion is drawn that this failure is due to the reduction by the theory of second-order effects to first-order thermodynamic and molecular properties.     

Absorptiometric determination of microgram amounts of uranium with Rhodamine B

Uranium (VI) can be extracted as a complex with rhodamine B into a benzeneetherhexone solvent from a benzoate buffered solution. Optimum conditions for the colour development are defined, leading to a molar absorptivity of 102700 mmol^-1 cm² at 555 nm, the highest yet reported for a uranium complex. The determination of uranium in the range 0.02–3 μg/ml in nitrate samples is described. The relative standard deviation ranges from 20 to 0.6%. The interference of several ions is investigated.     

Conformations of luteoskyrin and rugulosin in solution

The pigments Luteoskyrin (Ls) and Rugulosin (Rg) might adopt a priori two extreme conformations, a planar and an angular one. To determine the predominant conformation in solution, the nature of the lowest energy transition of the chromophores and the presence of intramolecular H-bonding have been investigated. The solvent effects on electronic absorption and CD spectra indicated the π-π* nature of the lowest energy transition. Treatments of the electronic absorption results according to McRae and Kosower relations, IR absorption and PMR spectra suggested the presence of strong intra-molecular H-bonds. From these results it was concluded that Ls and Rg adopted in a variety of solvents the most planar conformation.     

Influence of the coordination number of nitrogen on the structure of 6aλ4-thia-1,3,4,6-tetraazapentalenic systems. Crystal structure analyses of 3-(2-pyridylimino)-3H-[1,2,4]thiadiazolo[4,3-a]pyridine and its 1-methylated salt

Structural data were obtained by X-ray crystallography for the title compounds which show that they are essentially planar and exhibit an approximately linear N2-S1-N8 arrangement. In compound 3 the separation between the sulfur atom and the pyridine nitrogen atom (2.61 Å) is larger than the Huggins constant energy distance (2.58 Å), suggesting that there is little or no bonding between them. The methylated salt 4 , on the contrary, has a closer S…N(pyridine) distance (2.19 Å) with an estimated bond dissociation energy of 6 kcal/mole.     

SCF,MP2, and CEPA-1 calculations on the OH ‥ O hydrogen bonded complexes (H2O)2 and (H2O-H2CO)

Counterpoise corrected ab initio calculations are reported for (H₂O)₂ and H₂O-H₂CO. Geometry searches were done in the moment-optimized basis DZP' at the SCF, MP2, and CEPA-1 levels of theory, followed by more accurate single-point calculations in basis ESPB, which includes bondfunctions to saturate the dispersion energy. The final equilibrium binding energies obtained are ?4.7 ±0.3 kcal/mol for a near-linear (H₂O)₂ structure and ?4.6 ±0.3 kcal/mol for a strongly bent HOH ‥ OCH₂ structure. The energy difference between these systems is much smaller than in all previous ab initio work. Cyclic (C_2h) and bifurcated (C_2v) transition structures for (H₂O)₂ are located at 1.0 ±0.1 kcal/mol and 1.9 ±0.3 kcal/mol above the global minimum, respectively. A new partitioning scheme is presented that rigorously partitions the MP2 correlation interaction energy in intra and intermolecular (dispersion) contributions. These terms are large (up to 2 kcal/mol) but of opposite sign for most geometries studied and hence their overall effect upon the final structures is relatively small. The relative merits of the MP2 and CEPA-1 approaches are discussed are discussed and it is concluded that for economical reasons MP2 is to be preferred, especially for larger systems.     

Curve crossing in two excited states of IBr studied by photofragmentation

Curve crossing in two excited states of IBr was studied by means of photodissociation with a pulse dye laser. The ratios of the formed ground state Br(²P_{$\text{3}\text{2}$} and excited Br(²P_{$\text{1}\text{2}$}) were measured at various wavelengths. They are compared with ratios calculated with the Landau-Zener formula, using parameters given by Child. The agreement between the measurements and the calculations is very good.     

Ion Chromatographic determination of trace anions and cations in high-purity water

An ion chromatographic measuring system for the off-line and on-line determination of some trace anions and cations in high-purity water is presented. The ng/L level of anions and cations in 20-130 mL high-purity water can be analyzed after preconcentration on ion exchange columns. The concentrated solutes are eluted by eluents from the trap column and separated using a Dionex analytical column. The quantification of each ion is achieved using the suppressor technique and conductivity detector. The influence of various parameters on the results is discussed. The detection limits of cations and anions are between 10 and 30 ng/L for chloride, bromide, nitrate, phosphate, sulphate, sodium, ammonium, potassium, magnesium and calcium ions.     

Probing macromolecular adsorbed layer structure and history dependence via the interfacial cavity function

Adsorbed layers of proteins and other macromolecules often relax structurally more slowly than they form, rendering layer growth an out-of-equilibrium process. We show here how the interfacial cavity function, Phi (the average Boltzmann factor for a single probe molecule), may be determined, using kinetic data available from optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy, and used as a continuous, in situ measure of history dependent adsorbed layer structure. The increase of Phi observed with residence time for fibronectin and lysozyme layers suggests post-adsorption clustering on a time scale longer than that predicted by a surface diffusion model.