Carbon Black‐Modified Electrodes as Sensitive Tools for the Electrochemical Detection of Nitrite and Nitrate

Both screen‐printed electrodes modified with a dispersion of carbon black (CB) and solid paste electrodes prepared using a nanostructured CB were developed and characterized. Indeed, increasing the peak currents and/or their shifting to negative potentials were observed, exhibiting efficient electrocatalytic activity towards nitrite oxidation with high sensitivity and low detection limit. Solid carbon paste electrodes (SCPEs) and solid carbon black paste electrodes (SCBPEs) were challenged in amperometric mode with nitrite since detection limit reached is 65 and 5 nM respectively. Nitrate was first reduced to nitrite in reductor column, then detected on SCBPEs. Nitrate and nitrite were determined in real samples.     

Orthogonal sulfation strategy for synthetic heparan sulfate ligands

[reaction: see text] An orthogonal sulfation strategy involving six different protecting groups has been developed for generating sulfated carbohydrate libraries based on heparan. Chemoselective cleavage conditions (optimized for a heparan disaccharide) can be performed in the presence of sulfate esters as well as the remaining protecting groups.     

Intramolecular Charge-Transfer Dynamics in Benzodifuran-Based Triads

A facile and efficient approach for the synthesis of new conjugated donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) chromophores has been developed, in which benzodifuran (BDF) and/or triphenyl amine (TPA) units are the donor moieties, linked by ethylenic bridges to electron-deficient anthraquinone (AQ) and 11,11,12,12-tetracyano-9,10-anthraquinodimethane (TCAQ) as the acceptor moieties. The resultant triads either with a symmetric A–D–A or an asymmetric D′–D–A structure show intense absorption bands in the visible spectral region due to efficient intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) from the HOMO localized on the BDF core to the LUMO localized on the AQ or the TCAQ unit. Electronic interactions between these redox-active components were studied by a combination of cyclic voltammetry, spectroelectrochemistry, UV-visible and ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. Analysis of the femtosecond excited-state dynamics reveal that all triads undergo a rapid charge recombination process which occurs within a few picoseconds, indicating that ethylenic linkers can facilitate electron delocalization among BDF and AQ/TCAQ units and thus impart effective electronic interactions between them.     

Biosynthesis of phloroglucinol

Substantial concentrations of phloroglucinol were synthesized by Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5 expressing the plasmid-localized phlACBDE gene cluster responsible for biosynthesis of 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol. Expression in Escherichia coli of a single gene in this cluster, P. fluorescens Pf-5 phlD, led to extracellular accumulation of phloroglucinol. Purification of PhlD to homogeneity afforded an enzyme that catalyzed the conversion of malonyl-CoA into phloroglucinol with Km = 5.6 muM and kcat = 10 min-1. Acetylase and deacetylase activities were observed with the catalyzed interconversions of phloroglucinol, 2-acetylphloroglucinol, and 2,4-diacetylphloroglucinol when phlACB was expressed in E. coli. Beyond the mechanistic implications attendant with the identification of an enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of malonyl-CoA into phloroglucinol, PhlD provides the basis for environmentally benign syntheses of phloroglucinol and resorcinol from glucose.     

Synthesis and conformational analysis of 6-C-methyl-substituted 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranosyl mono- and disaccharides

Several 6-C-substituted 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-beta-D-glucopyranosides (beta-D-GlcNAc monosaccharides 1a-3a and 1,4-linked disaccharides 1b-3b) were studied by solution NMR spectroscopy. Conformational analysis of the (6S)- and (6R)-C-methyl-substituted beta-d-GlcNAc monosaccharides indicates that the stereodefined methyl groups impose predictable conformational biases on the exocyclic C-5-C-6 bond, as determined by (1)H-(1)H and (13)C-(1)H coupling constants. Variable-temperature NMR experiments in methanol-d(4) were performed to determine DeltaDeltaH and DeltaDeltaS values derived from the two lowest energy conformers. These indicate that while the influence of 6-C-methyl substitution on conformational enthalpy is in accord with the classic principles of steric interactions, conformational preference in solution can also be strongly affected by other factors such as solvent-solute interactions and solvent reorganization.     

Photoinduced electron transfer in linear triarylamine-photosensitizer-anthraquinone triads with ruthenium(II), osmium(II), and iridium(III)

A rigid rod-like organic molecular ensemble comprised of a triarylamine electron donor, a 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) ligand, and a 9,10-anthraquinone acceptor was synthesized and reacted with suitable metal precursors to yield triads with Ru(bpy)(3)(2+), Os(bpy)(3)(2+), and [Ir(2-(p-tolyl)pyridine)(2)(bpy)](+) photosensitizers. Photoexcitation of these triads leads to long-lived charge-separated states (τ = 80-1300 ns) containing a triarylamine cation and an anthraquinone anion, as observed by transient absorption spectroscopy. From a combined electrochemical and optical spectroscopic study, the thermodynamics and kinetics for the individual photoinduced charge-separation and thermal charge-recombination events were determined; in some cases, measurements on suitable donor-sensitizer or sensitizer-acceptor dyads were necessary. In the case of the ruthenium and iridium triads, the fully charge-separated state is formed in nearly quantitative yield.