Production of carrier-free 188Re in the past ten years in Taiwan

Twenty clinical scale alumina-based ¹⁸⁸W/¹⁸⁸Re generators and carrier-free ¹⁸⁸Re has been produced at the Institute of Nuclear Energy Research (INER-Taiwan) for over ten years. 2845.6 GBq (76.9 Ci) of ¹⁸⁸Re-perrhenate solution has been eluted from generators during the past ten years. We have used the harvesting ¹⁸⁸Re solution for labeling radiopharmaceuticals, such as ¹⁸⁸Re-HEDP, ¹⁸⁸Re-MDP, ¹⁸⁸Re-microsphere, ¹⁸⁸Re-lipiodol, and ¹⁸⁸Re-sulfur colloid, etc. The average eluting yield of ¹⁸⁸Re is 78.6±5.8% that was investigated at 1115 harvesting times from 20 generators. Each generator can be used more than six months but the Millipore needs to be changed every two months for smooth harvesting and high yield of ¹⁸⁸Re solution.     

Optimizing separation conditions for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in micellar electrokinetic chromatography

We report the separation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using 0.1% poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) in micellar electrokinetic chromatography (MEKC). In the presence of PEO, adsorption of PAHs on the capillary wall was reduced, leading to better resolution and reproducibility. Effects of tetrapentylammonium iodide (TPAI), dextran sulfate (DS), methanol, and sodium lauryl sulfate (SDS) on the separation of PAHs were elucidated. In terms of resolution and speed, DS, compared to TPAI, is a better additive for separation of PAHs. When using 0.1% PEO solution containing 45% methanol, 50 mM SDS, and 0.02% DS, separation of 10 PAHs containing 2 to 5 benzene rings was accomplished in less than 12 min at 15 kV in a commercial CE system. The method has also been tested for separating seven PAHs with high quantum yields when excited at 325 nm using a He-Cd laser. Unfortunately, separation of the seven PAHs was not achieved and sensitivity diminished under the same conditions. To optimize sensitivity, resolution and speed, a stepwise technique in MEKC has been proposed. The seven PAHs were resolved in 35 min at 15 kV when separation was performed in 0.1% PEO solution containing 35 mM SDS, 40% methanol and 0.02% DS for 2 min, and subsequently in 0.1% PEO solution containing 20 mM SDS, 50% methanol, and 0.02% DS.     

Enzyme-catalyzed transesterification of vinyl esters on cellulose solids

Enzyme-catalyzed transesterification of several cellulose solids in organic media have been investigated. Several protease enzymes were made soluble in organic media through ion-paired enzyme–surfactant complexes. Subtilisin Carsberg was found to be catalytically active in the transesterification of cellulose with vinyl propionate and vinyl acrylate in anhydrous pyridine. The ester carbonyl groups in acylated cellulose derivatives were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The surfaces of these cellulose derivatives became hydrophobic as demonstrated by increased water-contact angles. The enzyme-catalyzed transesterification was confirmed to regioselectively target the primary hydroxyl group of cellulose by reactions on specifically substituted cellulose. The cellulose esters from enzyme-catalyzed transesterification could be hydrolyzed partially by the same enzyme in aqueous media, and were thus biodegradable. Surface grafting of cellulose acrylate was demonstrated using azobisisobutyronitrile-initiated polymerization of acrylonitrile in dimethylformamide. Polyacrylonitrile (PAN)-g-cellulose shows a different thermal behavior from cellulose, homopolymer PAN, and PAN/cellulose blends. The grafted PAN on PAN-g-cellulose at a 16% grafting add-on is incapable of cyclization. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 39: 1931–1939, 2001     

Electroosmotic flow controllable coating on a capillary surface by a sol-gel process for capillary electrophoresis

A simple coating procedure employing a sol-gel process to modify the inner surface of a bare fused-silica capillary with a positively charged quaternary ammonium group is established. Scanning electron microscopic studies reveal that a smooth coating with 1 to approximately 2 microm thickness can be obtained at optimized coating conditions. With 40 mM citrate as a running electrolyte, the plot of electroosmotic flow (EOF) versus pH shows a unique three-stage EOF pattern from negative to zero and then to positive over a pH range of 2.5 to 7.0. At pH above 5.5, the direction of the EOF is from the anode to the cathode, as is the case in a bare fused-silica capillary, and the electroosmotic mobility increases as the pH increases. However, the direction of the EOF is reversed at pH below 4.0. Over the pH range of 4.0 to 5.5, zero electroosmotic mobility is obtained. Such a three-stage EOF pattern has been used to separate six aromatic acids under suppressed EOF and to separate nitrate and nitrite with the anions migrating in the same direction as the EOF. The positively charged quaternary ammonium group on the coating was also utilized to minimize the adsorption problem during the separation of five basic drugs under suppressed EOF and during the separation of four basic proteins with the cations migrate in the opposite direction as the EOF. Also, the stability and reproducibility of this column are good.     

Electrophoresis of biological cells: charge-regulation and multivalent counterions association model

The electrophoresis of a biological cell is analyzed theoretically. An entity, which is of amphoteric nature, is used to simulate its electrophoretic behavior. To reflect conditions of practical interest, we assume that the liquid phase contains mixed (a:b)+(c:b) electrolytes, where a and c are the valences of cations, and b is the valence of anions. We consider the case where the surface of a cell contains both bivalent acidic and monovalent basic functional groups, the dissociation/association of them yields fixed surface charge, and the multivalent cations in the liquid phase are allowed to combine with dissociated acidic functional groups, which has the effect of lowering the charge density on cell surface. The electrophoretic behaviors of a cell under various conditions are illustrated. The results obtained can be used to identify the types of functional groups that may be present on cell surface. On the other hand, if the surface functional groups involved in cell electrophoresis are known, then their density and the associated dissociation/association constants can be estimated from experimental data.     

Oxygen binding to sulfur in nitrosylated iron--thiolate complexes: relevance to the Fe-containing nitrile hydratases

Iron-nitrosyl complex containing S-bonded monosulfinate [PPN][(NO)Fe(S,SO2-C6H4)(S,S-C6H4)] (3) has been isolated from sulfur oxygenation of complex [PPN][(NO)Fe(S,S-C6H4)2] (2) which is obtained from addition of NO molecule to [PPN][(C4H8O)Fe(S,S-C6H4)2] (1) in organic solvents. This result reveals that binding of NO to the iron center promotes sulfur oxygenation of iron dithiolates by dioxygen and stabilizes the S-bonded sulfinate iron species. Analysis of the bond angles for complexes 2 and 3 reveals that iron is best described as existing in a distorted trigonal bipyramidal coordination environment surrounded by one NO, three thiolates, and one sulfinate in complex 3, whereas the distorted square pyramidal geometry is adopted in complex 2. Complex 3 further reacts in organic solvents with molecular oxygen in the presence of [PPN][NO2] to produce the dinuclear bis(sulfinate) complex [PPN]2[(NO)Fe(SO2,SO2-C6H4)(S,S-C6H4)]2 (4). Complex 3 showed reaction with PPh3 in THF/CH2Cl2 to yield complex 2 and Ph3PO. Upon photolysis of CH2Cl2 solution of complex 3 under N2 purge at ambient temperature, the UV-vis and IR spectra consistent with the formation of complex 2 demonstrate that complex 2 and 3 are photochemically interconvertible. Obviously, complex 3 is thermally quite stable but is photochemically active toward [O] release. Also described are the X-ray crystal structures of 3 and 4.     

Facile Generation of Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence and Fabrication of Highly Efficient Non-Doped OLEDs Based on Triazine Derivatives

A series of donor–acceptor–donor triazine-based molecules with thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) properties were synthesized to obtain highly efficient blue-emitting OLEDs with non-doped emitting layers (EMLs). The targeted molecules use a triazine core as the electron acceptor, and a benzene ring as the conjugated linker with different electron donors to alternate the energy level of the HOMO to further tune the emission color. The introduction of long alkyl chains on the triazine core inhibits the unwanted intermolecular D –D/A–A-type π–π interactions, resulting in the intermolecular D–A charge transfer. The weak aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect caused by the suppressed intermolecular D –D/A–A-type π–π interaction further enhances the emission. The crowded molecular structure allows the electron donor and acceptor to be nearly orthogonal, thereby reducing the energy gap between triplet and singlet excited states (ΔE_ST). As a result, blue-emitting devices with TH-2DMAC and TH-2DPAC non-doped EMLs showed satisfactory efficiencies of 12.8 % and 15.8 %, respectively, which is one of the highest external quantum efficiency (EQEs) reported for blue TADF emitters (λ_peak<475 nm), demonstrating that our tailored molecular designs are promising strategies to endow OLEDs with excellent electroluminescent performances.     

Spectrophotometric determination of deacetylation degree of chitinous materials dissolved in phosphoric acid

A simple spectrophotometric method is proposed for determining deacetylation degrees (DD) of chitinous materials using phosphoric acid as the UV-transparent solvent system. Calibrating by the extinction coefficients (A(210)) of D-glucosamine and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, DD values (24-88%) were computed numerically. The results correlated well (R(2) = 0.9805, n = 50) with those obtained by solid-state (13)C NMR. Comparison of the results obtained by the proposed UV method and solid-state (13)C NMR.