50 years of superbases made from organolithium compounds and heavier alkali metal alkoxides

A review of reactions of organolithium compounds (RLi) with alkali metal alkoxides is presented. On the one hand, simple lithium alkoxides form adducts with RLi the reactivity of which differs only slightly from that of RLi. On the other hand, after mixing heavier alkali metal alkoxides (R’OM, M = Na, K, Rb, Cs) with RLi, a new system is formed, which has reactivity that dramatically exceeds that of the parent RLi. A metal interchange, according to the equation RLi + R’OM = RM + R’OLi, occurs in this system, giving rise to a superbase. This reaction is frequently used for the preparation of heavier alkali metal organometallic compounds. Similar metal interchange takes place between R’OM and compounds such as lithium amides and lithium enolates of ketones or esters, thus demonstrating the general nature of this procedure. Superbases react easily with many types of organic compounds (substrates), resulting in the formation of a heavier alkali metal derivative of the substrate (metalation). The metalated substrate can react in situ with an electrophile to yield the substituted substrate, a procedure that is frequently used in synthetic and polymer chemistry. An improved mechanism of metal interchange and reaction of superbases with substrates is proposed.      

Simultaneous determination of main reaction components in the reaction mixture during biodiesel production

The proposed analytical method allows for simultaneous determination by GC using a programed temperature vaporization injector and a flame ionization detector of the main reaction components (i.e. glycerol, methyl esters, mono‐, di‐, and triacylglycerols) in the reaction mixture during biodiesel production. The suggested method is convenient for the rapid and simple evaluation of the kinetic data gained during the transesterification reaction and, also partially serves as an indicator of the quality of biodiesel and mainly, as the indicator of the efficiency of the whole production process (i.e. the conversion of triacylglycerols to biodiesel and its time progress). The optimization of chromatographic conditions (e.g. the oven temperature program, injector setting, amount of derivatization reagent, and the derivatization reaction time) was performed. The method has been validated with crude samples of biodiesel made from waste‐cooking oils in terms of linearity, precision, accuracy, sensitivity, and limits of detection and quantification. The results confirmed a satisfactory degree of accuracy and repeatability (the mean RSDs were usually below 2%) necessary for the reliable quantitative determination of all components in the considerable concentration range (e.g. 10–1100 μg/mL in case of methyl esters). Compound recoveries ranging from 96 to 104% were obtained.     

Reduction potentials and acidity constants of Mn superoxide dismutase calculated by QM/MM free-energy methods

We used two theoretical methods to estimate reduction potentials and acidity constants in Mn superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), namely combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanics (QM/MM) thermodynamic cycle perturbation (QTCP) and the QM/MM-PBSA approach. In the latter, QM/MM energies are combined with continuum solvation energies calculated by solving the Poisson-Boltzmann equation (PB) or by the generalised Born approach (GB) and non-polar solvation energies calculated from the solvent-exposed surface area. We show that using the QTCP method, we can obtain accurate and precise estimates of the proton-coupled reduction potential for MnSOD, 0.30±0.01 V, which compares favourably with experimental estimates of 0.26-0.40 V. However, the calculated potentials depend strongly on the DFT functional used: The B3LYP functional gives 0.6 V more positive potentials than the PBE functional. The QM/MM-PBSA approach leads to somewhat too high reduction potentials for the coupled reaction and the results depend on the solvation model used. For reactions involving a change in the net charge of the metal site, the corresponding results differ by up to 1.3 V or 24 pK(a) units, rendering the QM/MM-PBSA method useless to determine absolute potentials. However, it may still be useful to estimate relative shifts, although the QTCP method is expected to be more accurate.     

Dinuclear and 1D iron(III) Schiff base complexes bridged by 4-salicylideneamino-1,2,4-triazolate: X-ray structures and magnetic properties

Four new iron(III) complexes were obtained by the reaction of 4-salicylideneamino-1,2,4-triazole (Hsaltrz) and selected dinuclear μ-oxo-bridged iron(III) Schiff base complexes [{FeL(4)}(2)(μ-O)], where L(4) represents a terminal tetradentate dianionic Schiff-base ligand. X-ray structural analysis revealed a novel bridging mode of κN,κO of the saltrz ligand to form dinuclear complexes [{Fe(salen)(μ-saltrz)}(2)]·CH(3)OH (1) (H(2)salen = N,N'-ethylenebis(salicylimine)) and [{Fe(salpn)(μ-saltrz)}(2)] (2) (H(2)salpn = N,N'-1,2-propylenbis(salicylimine)), whereas one-dimensional (1D) zig-zag chains were formed in the case of [{Fe(salch)(μ-saltrz)}·0.5CH(3)OH](n) (3) (H(2)salch = N,N'-cyclohexanebis(salicylimine)) and [Fe(salophen)(μ-saltrz)](n) (4) (H(2)salophen = N,N'-o-phenylenebis(salicylimine)). It was also shown that the rigidity of the terminal ligand L(4) can be considered as the key factor for the molecular dimensionality of the products. The thorough magnetic analysis based on SQUID experiments, including the isotropic exchange and the zero-field splitting of both temperature and field dependent data, was performed for dimeric (1 and 2) and also for polymeric compounds (3 and 4) and revealed weak antiferromagnetic exchange mediated by the saltrz anions with much larger D-parameter (|D|?|J|).     

Linear error propagation law and plug-in estimators

In mixed linear statistical models the best linear unbiased estimators need a known covariance matrix. However, the variance components must be usually estimated. Thus a problem arises what is the covariance matrix of the plug-in estimators.     

A note on reduction of the number of parameters in linear statistical models

In certain settings the mean response is modeled by a linear model using a large number of parameters. Sometimes it is desirable to reduce the number of parameters prior to conducting the experiment and prior to the actual statistical analysis. Essentially, it means to formulate a simpler approximate model to the original “ideal” one. The goal is to find conditions (on the model matrix and covariance matrix) under which the reduction does not influence essentially the data fit. Here we try to develop such conditions in regular linear model without and with linear restraints. We emphasize that these conditions are independent of observed data.     

Die mittlere freie Weglänge von Exzitonen in Gegenwart von Dislokationen

Zusammenfassung In der Arbeit wird der Einfluss von Kantendislokationen auf die mittlere freie Weglänge eines nicht lokalisierten Exzitons untersucht. Es wird die Dislokationendichte abgeschätzt, die benötigt wird, damit, mit Rücksicht auf die endliche Lebensdauer des Exzitons, die Dislokationen die Bewegung des Exzitons im Kristall beeinflussen können. Man gelangt zu dem Schluss, dass bei genügend grosser Dichte der Dislokationen und bei Temperaturen nahe 0 °K, der Einfluss der Dislokationen auf die mittlere freie Weglänge des Exzitons den Einfluss der Wärmeschwingungen des Gitters übertrifft.