Copper(II)-catalysed aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes

[CuBr2(2,2'-bipyridine)] catalyses the selective and very mild aerobic oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes in acetonitrile:water (2:1) in the presence of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyl-1-oxy (TEMPO) and a base as cocatalysts.     

Method development for the determination of iron in milligram amounts of rice plants (Oryza sativa L.) from cultivation experiments using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

The amount of sample that is available for analysis in laboratory plant cultivation experiments is usually very limited. Highly sensitive analytical techniques are therefore required, even for elements that are present in the plants at mg g^–1 concentrations, and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) was chosen in this work because of its micro-sampling capability, and its relatively simple operation. Four micro-methods were investigated for the determination of iron in roots and leaves of rice plants: i) a micro-digestion with nitric and hydrochloric acids, ii) a slurry procedure using tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH) tissue solubilizer, iii) a slurry prepared in 1.4 mol L^–1 nitric acid, and treated in an ultrasonic bath, and iv) the direct analysis of solid samples. The micro-digestion was suffering from high blank values and contamination problems, so that it could not be recommended for routine purposes. The TMAH method exhibited poor precision and occasional low recoveries, particularly for real samples. Direct solid sampling analysis gave results similar to those obtained with the slurry technique with ultrasonic agitation for the determination of iron in certified reference materials with iron content up to about 100 g g^–1, but was too sensitive for the investigated rice plants, which had an iron content up to several mg g^–1. The slurry technique with ultrasonic treatment of the samples, suspended in dilute nitric acid, was finally adopted as the method of choice.The method was then applied for the determination of iron in the leaves and in different compartments of the roots of two rice cultivars, one sensitive to iron toxicity, an important nutritional disorder, and the other one resistant to iron toxicity. The results suggest that the higher resistance to iron toxicity of the second cultivar is due to a smaller uptake of iron from the soil, resulting in lower iron levels in all compartments of the plant.     

Ferromagnetic Coupling through Spin Polarization in a Dinuclear Copper(II) Metallacyclophane

No Abstract     

Rank Properties in Finite Semigroups II: The Small Rank and the Large Rank

This paper is concerned with the application of two possible definitions of rank to certain well-known semigroups.AMS Subject Classification (2000), 20M10     

Complete maximal surfaces in static Robertson–Walker 3-spaces

We construct a large family of complete maximal surfaces in the static Robertson–Walker 3-spaces with negative base curvature. These examples provide a wide variety of non-standard foliations of such spaces by entire maximal graphs.     

ENDOR and related EMR methods applied to flavoprotein radicals

Flavoproteins are involved in a wide range of biological processes, owing to the versatility of the isoalloxazine moiety of flavin, which can undergo both one- and two-electron reactions with the formation of three oxidation states. Paramagnetic semiquinone radical states are stabilised in some flavoproteins and appear as transient intermediates in the reaction of many others. The apoprotein controls the reactivity of flavin semiquinones, including redox potentials, protonation states and access to substrates. Most flavoproteins are involved in oxidation-reduction processes, but some catalyze different types of reactions involving radical intermediates. Anionic and neutral flavin radicals are found in flavoproteins and are distinguished by their line widths in X-band electron paramagnetic resonance. Electron-nuclear double resonance, electron spin echo envelope modulation and hyperfine sublevel correlation spectroscopy make it possible to observe biological electron transfer and catalysis at the level of the electronic structure of the intermediate states. They provide information about the protein environment of flavin semiquinone radicals and their interactions with nearby nuclear and electron spins. Hyperfine couplings, particularly to the 8-methyl protons on the flavin ring, are a sensitive probe of perturbations of the flavin environment. They demonstrate differences in polarity of the flavin binding site and changes that occur in flavoenzymes during binding of substrates.     

Thermo‐ and pH‐responsive gradient and block copolymers based on 2‐(2‐methoxyethoxy)ethyl methacrylate synthesized via atom transfer radical polymerization and the formation of thermoresponsive surfaces

A series of gradient and block copolymers, based on 2‐(2‐methoxyethoxy)ethyl methacrylate (MEO₂MA) and tert‐butyl acrylate (^tBA), were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) in a first step. The MEO₂MA monomer leads to the production of thermosensitive polymers, exhibiting lower critical solution temperature (LCST) at around room temperature, which could be adjusted by changing the proportion of ^tBA in the copolymer. In a second step, the tert‐butyl groups of ^tBA were hydrolyzed with trifluoroacetic acid to form the corresponding block and gradient copolymers of MEO₂MA and acrylic acid (AA), which exhibited both temperature and pH‐responsive behavior. These copolymers showed LCST values strongly dependent on the pH. At acid pH, a slightly decrease of LCST with an increase of AA in the copolymer was observed. However, at neutral or basic conditions, ionization of acid groups increases the hydrophilic balance considerably raising the LCST values, which even become not observable over the temperature range under study. In the last step, these carboxylic functionalized copolymers were covalently bound to biocompatible and biodegradable films of poly(3‐hydroxybutyrate‐co‐3‐hydroxyhexanoate) [P(HB‐co‐HHx)] obtained by casting and, previously treated with ethylenediamine (ED) to render their surfaces with amino groups. Thereby, thermosensitive surfaces of modified P(HB‐co‐HHx) could be obtained. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2011     

Pyridazine derivatives. XIX: Functionalization studies at the 5 position in the 6-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinone system

A series of 6-phenyl-3(2H)-pyridazinones bearing different substitution at the 5 position of the pyridazinone ring were prepared in the search for new platelet aggregation inhibitors. The structure of the final compounds was determined on the basis of spectroscopics methods.