Characterization of tri-o-methylcellulose by one- and two-dimensional NMR methods

Tri-O-methylcellulose was prepared from partially O-methylated cellulose and its chemical shifts (¹H and ¹³C), and proton coupling constants were assigned using the following NMR methods: (1) One-dimensional ¹H and ¹³C spectra of the title compound were used to assign functional groups and to compare with literature data; (2) double quantum filtered proton–proton correlation spectroscopy (¹H, ¹H DQF-COSY) was used to assign the chemical shifts of the network of 7 protons in the anhydroglucose portion of the repeat unit; (3) the heteronuclear single-quantum coherence (HSQC) spectrum was used to establish connectivities between the bonded protons and carbons; (4) the heteronuclear multiple-bond correlation (HMBC) spectrum was used to connect the hydrogens of the methyl ethers to their respective sugar carbons; (5) the combination of HSQC and HMBC spectra was used to assign the ¹³C shifts of the methyl ethers; (6) all spectra were used in combination to verify the assigned chemical shifts; (7) first-order proton coupling constants data (J_H,H in Hz) were obtained from the resolution-enhanced proton spectra. The NMR spectra of tri-O-methylcellulose and other cellulose ethers do not resemble the spectra of similarly substituted cellobioses. Although the ¹H and ¹³C shifts and coupling constants of 2,3,6-tri-O-methylcellulose closely resemble those of methyl tetra-O-methyl-β-D -glucoside, there are differences with regard to the chemical shifts and the order of appearances of the resonating nuclei of the methyl ether appendages and the proton at position 4 in the pyranose ring. H4 in tri-O-methylcellulose is deshielded by the acetal system comprising the β-1→4 linkage, and it resonates downfield. H4 in the permethylated glucoside is not as deshielded by the equitorial O-methyl group at C4, and it resonates upfield. The order of appearance of the ¹H and ¹³C resonances in the spectra of the tri-O-methylcellulose repeat unit (from upfield to downfield) are H2 < H3 < H5 < H6a < H3a < H2a < pro R H6B < H4 < pro S H6A ≪ H1 and C6a < C3a < C2a < C6 < C5 < C4 < C2 < C3 ≪ C1, respectively. Close examination of the pyranose ring coupling constants of the repeat unit in tri-O-methylcellulose supports the ⁴C₁ arrangement of the glucopyranose ring. Examination of the proton coupling constants about the C5-C6 bond (J_5,6A and J_5,6B) in the nuclear Overhauser effect difference spectra revealed that the C6 O-methyl group is predominantly in the gauche gauche conformation about the C5-C6 bond for the polymer in solution. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.* J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 37: 4019–4032, 1999     

Random quantum operations

We define a natural ensemble of trace preserving, completely positive quantum maps and present algorithms to generate them at random. Spectral properties of the superoperator Φ associated with a given quantum map are investigated and a quantum analogue of the Frobenius-Perron theorem is proved. We derive a general formula for the density of eigenvalues of Φ and show the connection with the Ginibre ensemble of real non-symmetric random matrices. Numerical investigations of the spectral gap imply that a generic state of the system iterated several times by a fixed generic map converges exponentially to an invariant state.     

Water-soluble, cyclodextrin-functionalized semiconductor nanocrystals: Preparation and pH-dependent aggregation and emission properties

Using peramino-functionalized β-cyclodextrin molecules for phase.transfer of hydrophobic CdSe multishell nanocrystals into water, we obtained hydrophilic nanoparticles with high quantum yield (up to 50%). At pH > 9, the aqueous solution of these nanocrystals remained stable for several months. The nanoparticles showed a strong influence of the pH of the aqueous solution on the emission of the nanocrystals: the quantum yield varied reversible from ∼10% at pH=6 to ∼50% at pH=14, an effect which according to particle size characterization by dynamic light-scattering and asymmetric flow field-flow fractionation has mainly been attributed to reversible partial aggregation of the hydrophilic nanocrystals at lower pH-values. Additionally, prolonged irradiation in the presence of oxygen led to a strong enhancement of the photoluminescence intensity of the nanocrystals.     

9‐(2,6‐Dichloro­phen­oxycarbonyl)‐10‐methyl­acridinium trifluoro­methane­sulfonate and its precursor 2,6‐dichloro­phenyl acridine‐9‐carboxyl­ate

The title compounds, C₂₁H₁₄Cl₂NO₂⁺·CF₃O₃S⁻, (I), and C₂₀H₁₁Cl₂NO₂, (II), form triclinic crystals. Adjacent cations of (I) are oriented either parallel or antiparallel; in the latter case, they are related by a centre of symmetry. Together with the CF₃SO₃⁻ anions, the antiparallel‐oriented cations of (I) form layers in which the mol­ecules are linked via a network of C—H·O and π–π inter­actions (between the benzene rings). These layers, in turn, are linked via a network of multidirectional π–π inter­actions between the acridine rings, and the whole lattice is stabilized by electrostatic inter­actions between ions. Adjacent mol­ecules of (II) are oriented either parallel or antiparallel; in the latter case, they are related by a centre of symmetry. Parallel‐oriented mol­ecules are arranged in chains stabilized via C—H·Cl inter­actions. These chains are oriented either parallel or antiparallel and are stabilized, in the latter case, via multidirectional π–π inter­actions and more generally via dispersive inter­actions. Acridine and independent benzene moieties lie parallel in the lattices of (I) and (II), and are mutually oriented at an angle of 33.4 (2)° in (I) and 9.3 (2)° in (II).     

Aqueous olefin metathesis

According to popular belief, oxygen and water are the natural enemies of organometallic reactions and therefore must be excluded rigorously from the reaction vessel. This belief is founded in the case of the highly reactive nucleophilic metal alkylidene complexes that were used in early catalytic olefin metathesis. However, owing to the high stability of the ruthenium carbene complexes introduced by Grubbs, metathesis in water has become reality.     

Ruthenium Olefin Metathesis Catalysts Featuring N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands Tagged with Isonicotinic and 4-(Dimethylamino)benzoic Acid Rests: Evaluation of a Modular Synthetic Strategy

A modular and flexible strategy towards the synthesis of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands bearing Brønsted base tags has been proposed and then adopted in the preparation of two tagged NHC ligands bearing rests of isonicotinic and 4-(dimethylamino)benzoic acids. Such tagged NHC ligands represent an attractive starting point for the synthesis of olefin metathesis ruthenium catalysts tagged in non-dissociating ligands. The influence of the Brønsted basic tags on the activity of such obtained olefin metathesis catalysts has been studied.     

Thermoelectric transport in the three terminal quantum dot

The thermoelectric transport in the system composed of a quantum dot in contact with superconducting, ferromagnetic and normal metal electrodes has been studied. Such a system can support pure spin current in the normal electrode. In the limit of a large superconducting gap and weak coupling between the dot and the electrodes we investigate the sub-gap charge and spin transport via Andreev mechanism using the standard master equation technique, which is known to be valid in the sequential tunnelling regime. The Zeeman splitting of the dot level induces pure spin current in the ferromagnetic electrode under an appropriate bias. This opens a novel possibility to switch the spin current between two electrodes by electric means. The calculated spin and charge thermopower coefficients attain very large values, of the order of a few hundreds μV K(-1), and show similar dependences on the position of the on-dot energy level and temperature.     

Photo-physical and structural interactions between viologen phosphorus-based dendrimers and human serum albumin

This work deals with photo-physical and structural interactions between viologen phosphorus dendrimers and human serum albumin (HSA). Viologens are derivatives of 4,4′-bipyridinium salts. Aiming to rationalize the parameters governing such interactions eight types of these polycationic dendrimers in which the generation, the number of charges, the nature of the core and of the terminal groups vary from one to another, were designed and used. The influence of viologen-based dendrimers' on human serum albumin has been investigated. The photo-physical interactions of the two systems have been monitored by fluorescence quenching of free l-tryptophan and of HSA tryptophan residue. Additionally, using circular dichroism (CD) the effect of dendrimers on the secondary structure of albumin was measured. The obtained results show that viologen dendrimers interact with human serum albumin quenching its fluorescence either by collisional (dynamic) way or by forming complexes in a ground state (static quenching). In some cases the quenching is accompanied by changes of the secondary structure of HSA.     

Implementation of the multireference Brillouin-Wigner and Mukherjee's coupled cluster methods with non-iterative triple excitations utilizing reference-level parallelism

In this paper we discuss the performance of the non-iterative state-specific multireference coupled cluster (SS-MRCC) methods accounting for the effect of triply excited cluster amplitudes. The corrections to the Brillouin-Wigner and Mukherjee's MRCC models based on the manifold of singly and doubly excited cluster amplitudes (BW-MRCCSD and Mk-MRCCSD, respectively) are tested and compared with exact full configuration interaction results for small systems (H(2)O, N(2), and Be(3)). For the larger systems (naphthyne isomers) the BW-MRCC and Mk-MRCC methods with iterative singles, doubles, and non-iterative triples (BW-MRCCSD(T) and Mk-MRCCSD(T)) are compared against the results obtained with single reference coupled cluster methods. We also report on the parallel performance of the non-iterative implementations based on the use of processor groups.     

X-ray analysis at 150?K, synthesis and theoretical calculations of 1-naphthaleneacrylic acid

The X-ray structure, synthesis, theoretical calculation and IR spectra of 1-naphthaleneacrylic acid are reported. The titled compound crystallizes in the monoclinic C 2/c space group with unit cell parameters: a = 14.556(3), b = 5.1332(10), c = 26.832(5) ?, β = 97.02(3)°, V = 1989.8(7) ?³, Z = 8 and form typical centrosymmetric hydrogen-bonded dimers. Theoretical calculations of 1-naphthylacrylic acid isolated molecule and hydrogen-bonded dimer have been carried out using density functional theory at the B3LYP level. For optimized structures the vibrational spectra have been then calculated and compared with experimental IR spectrum. The assignment and characterization of theoretical vibrational spectra were based on the potential energy distribution analysis. This comparison has shown that the theoretical spectrum for the dimer structure is in good agreement with the experimental one. Structural comparisons with naphthalene, and with some substituted 2-propenoic acids have shown influence of the substituent on conformation of the naphthalene ring or 2-propenoic moiety.