A rhenium tris-carbonyl derivative as a single core multimodal probe for imaging (SCoMPI) combining infrared and luminescent properties

A rhenium tris-carbonyl derivative has been designed to couple infrared and luminescent detection in cells. Both spectroscopies are consistent with one another; they point out the reliability of the present SCoMPI (for Single Core Multimodal Probe for Imaging) for bimodal imaging and unambiguously indicate a localization at the Golgi apparatus in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells.     

The Riemann Solution for the Injection of Steam and Nitrogen in a Porous Medium

We solve the model for the flow of nitrogen, vapor, and water in a porous medium, neglecting compressibility, heat conductivity, and capillary effects. Our choice of injection conditions is determined by the application to clean up polluted sites. We study all mathematical structures, such as rarefaction, shock waves, and their bifurcations; we also develop a systematic method to find fundamental solutions for thermal compositional flows in porous media. In addition, we unexpectedly find a rarefaction evaporation wave which has not been previously reported in any other study.     

Quantification of carbohydrate structures in size fractionated aquatic humic substances by two-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance

Two-dimensional phase sensitive C,H correlation spectra were successfully applied to the quantification of carbohydrate substructures in aquatic humic substance (HS) fractions obtained by tangential flow multistage ultrafiltration (TFMSTUF) of a selected bog water HS (HO13, German Research Program DFG-ROSIG) as well as a river HS (Suwannee River Fulvic Acid Reference of the International Humic Substances Society, IHSS). It turns out that after size fractionation the HS samples give very well resolved C,H-correlation spectra which offer a great potential for substructure quantification. Details of the combined substructure quantification technique, novel in HS characterization, are presented. The results of the combined procedure point out that carbohydrate moieties predominantly occur in higher molecular mass fractions (> 10 kDa) of isolated HS.     

Nanoparticles and the Environment

Journal of Nanoparticle Research -     

Aeroacoustical coupling in a ducted shallow cavity and fluid/structure effects on a steam line

A pure tone phenomenon has been observed at 460 Hz in a piping steam line. The acoustical energy has been identified to be generated in an open gate valve and to be of cavity noise type. This energy is then transmitted to the main pipe by fluid/structure coupling. The objectives here are to display the mechanism of the flow acoustic coupling in the cavity and in the duct through an aeroacoustical analysis and to understand the way of energy transfer from the fluid to the main pipe through a vibroacoustical analysis. Concerning the first objective, an experimental study by means of 2/7 scale models in air is analysed by means of numerical flow simulation. The flow acoustic phenomena are modelled by computing the Euler equations. Two different computations are carried out: in the first one, a pure Euler modelling is used, in the second one, a boundary layer obtained from experimental data is introduced in the computation in order to have a realistic flow profile upstream the cavity. The boundary layer flow profile appears to be essential to recover the experimentally observed coupling between the shear-layer instability and the acoustical transverse mode of the pipe. The numerical results confirm that the second aerodynamic mode is responsible for the oscillation. While the predicted frequency agrees about 1% with the scale model experiments, the predicted amplitude is approximately 15 dB too low. For the second objective, fluid/structure coupling in the main pipe is studied using two fully coupled methods. The first method consists in a modal analysis of the line using a fluid–structure finite element model. The second one is based on the analysis of dispersion diagrams derived from the local equations of cylindrical shells filled with fluid. The way of energy transfer in transverse acoustical waves coupled with flexion-ovalization deformations of the pipe is highlighted using both methods. The dispersion diagrams allow a fast and accurate analysis. The modal analysis using a finite-element model may complete the first one with quantitative data. The link between the fluid/acoustic and the fluid/structure analysis is then the excitation of the transverse acoustical mode of the duct.     

Aspects of heterogeneous enantioselective catalysis by metals

Some aspects of metal-catalyzed heterogeneous enantioselective reactions are reviewed with specific reference to four different systems where the phenomena that control enantioselection appear to be very different. In the case of glucose electro-oxidation, it is clear that any intrinsic chirality present at the metal surface plays a vital role. With α-keto hydrogenation, achiral surfaces modified by the adsorption of chiral agents become effective enantioselective catalysts and the formation of extended arrays of chiral species appears not to be of importance: instead a 1:1 docking interaction controlled by hydrogen bonding between the adsorbed chiral modifier and the prochiral reactant determines the outcome. Hydrogen bonding also plays a central role in β-ketoester hydrogenation, but here fundamental studies indicate that the formation of ordered arrays involving the reactant and chiral ligand is of importance. Asymmetric C═C hydrogenation, though relatively little studied, has the potential for major impact in synthetic organic chemistry both on the laboratory scale and in the manufacture of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The structural attributes that determine whether a given chiral ligand is effective have been identified; the ability to form strong covalent bonds with the metal surface while also resisting hydrogenation and displacement by the strongly adsorbing reactant under reaction conditions is an essential necessary condition. Beyond this, ligand rigidity in the vicinity of the chirality center coupled with resistance to SAM formation is a critically important factor whose absence results in racemic chemistry.     

Tropylium ion mediated α-cyanation of amines

Tropylium ion mediated α-cyanation of amines is described. Even in the presence of KCN, tropylium ion is capable of oxidizing various amine substrates, and the resulting iminium ions undergo salt metathesis with cyanide ion to produce aminonitriles. The byproducts of this transformation are simply cycloheptatriene, a volatile hydrocarbon, and water-soluble potassium tetrafluoroborate. Thirteen total substrates are shown for the α-cyanation procedure, including a gram scale synthesis of 17β-cyanosparteine. In addition, a tropylium ion mediated oxidative aza-Cope rearrangement is demonstrated.