Multitracer study on permeation of rare earth elements through a supported liquid membrane

Separation by means of supported liquid membranes is a useful method for the preparation and preconcentration of radioactive nuclides. The permeation of rare earth elements through a bis(2-ethylhexyl) hydrogen phosphate-decalin membrane supported on a microporous polytetrafluoroethylene sheet was studied using a multitracer containing radioactive nuclides of Sc, Zr, Nb, Hf, Ce, Pm, Gd, Yb, and Lu. Permeation rates of these elements from feed solutions of various acidity to receiving solutions of 0.5 mol·dm⁻³ HCl were determined simultaneously. The feed solution at pH 1.4 gave the highest permeation rate for Ce, Pm, and Gd, amounting to about 95% of permeation for Ce and Pm, 80% for Gd, and 10% for Yb in 21 h. Scandium, Zr, Nb, Hf, and Lu were not transported at all from the feed solution. Permeation rates of Yb and Lu from the feed solution at pH 1.4 to receiving solutions of 0.75, 1.0, 2.3, and 4.0 mol·dm⁻³ HCl increased with the concentration. The results obtained indicate that the light rare earth elements can be separated from the heavy ones by this method.     

Acylation of hydrazides with acetic acid and formic acid

In peptide synthesis, hydrazides are important intermediates for the azide coupling method. A hydrazide is converted to the corresponding azide in the presence of an acid and a nitrite. When acetic acid (or formic acid) is used as the acid, partial acetylation (or formylation) of the hydrazide occurs as a side reaction. Formylation of the hydrazide is much faster than acetylation. Removal of the formyl group on the hydrazide with hydrazine and hydroxylamine was studied. The rate of deformylation with hydrazine treatment is faster than that with hydroxylamine treatment.     

Chiral amplification in macromolecular helicity assisted by noncovalent interaction with achiral amines and memory of the helical chirality

Poly[(4-carboxyphenyl)acetylene] (poly-1) exhibits an intense induced circular dichroism (ICD) in the UV-visible region upon complexation with excess (R)-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylamine ((R)-2), owing to the formation of a predominantly single-handed helical conformation of the polymer backbone. In the presence of a small amount of (R)-2, poly-1 showed a very weak ICD due to the lack of a single-handed helical conformation. However, we have found that the co-addition of the excess bulky, achiral 1-naphthylmethylamine (5) with a small amount of (R)-2 caused a dramatic increase in the ICD magnitude, comparable to the full ICD induced by excess (R)-2. This indicates that an almost single-handed helix can be induced on poly-1 upon complexation with a small amount of (R)-2 assisted by achiral 5. Furthermore, the induced single-handed helical poly-1 could be successfully memorized by the replacement of (R)-2 and 5 with achiral 2-aminoethanol or n-butylamine.     

Cidep study of radical-ion pair systems: Photooxidation reactions of carbazoles by maleic anhydride in alcohol solution

Photooxidation (charge transfer) reactions of carbazole derivatives by maleic anhydride (MA) in alcoholic media are studied by a time-resolved cw-ESR (TRESR) and Fourier transform ESR (FTESR) techniques. The CIDEP spectra observed in the systems (methyl-, ethyl-, and phenyl-substituted carbazoles with MA) remarkably depend on the MA concentration. Under the high concentration conditions, an emissive TM (triplet mechanism) polarization with a slight A/E (absorption/emission) pattern of the RPM (radical pair mechanism) is observed. In the low concentration of MA, a TM-like absorptive polarization is superimposed on the A/E pattern of the RPM. Since this reaction takes place exclusively through the triplet state, this spectral phase reveals that the singlet state of the radical-ion pair (RIP) has an energy higher than that of the triplet state, in other words, the sign of the apparent exchange interaction of the present RIP systems is positive. The total absorptive polarization observed in the low concentration of MA is tentatively explained by the polarization transfer from the excited triplet state of carbazoles in thermal equilibrium.     

Electrophoretic mobility of the polymer-like micelles of tetradecyldimethylamine oxide hemihydrochloride

Effects of the surfactant concentration C_d and the NaCl concentration C_s on the electrophoretic mobilities U of the well-characterized polymer-like micelles have been investigated by the electrophoretic light scattering, using tetradecyldimethylamine oxide hemihydrochloride (C14DMAO·1/2HCl). At the high ionic strength of 0.1 mol kg⁻¹ NaCl, the electrophoretic mobilities were independent of C_d (5 mM < C_d < 100 mM), despite the concentration-dependent micelle growth of the polymer-like micelles. This suggests that the electrophoretic mobility of the polymer-like micelle at high ionic strengths is independent of the contour length (i.e., the molecular weight), as found on linear polyelectrolytes. Somewhat surprisingly, the entanglements of the polymer-like micelles gave small effect on the electrophoretic mobilities in the examined range of the surfactant concentration above an overlap concentration. The mobilities of the polymer-like micelle decreased with √C_s in a single exponential manner in the range of C_s from 0.02 to 0.3 mol kg⁻¹. It is suggested that the cylinder model can be applied to the electrophoretic mobilities of the polymer-like micelles at high ionic strengths (i.e. a free-draining behavior), since the persistence length of the polymer-like micelle (20 nm) is much larger than the Debye length at high ionic strength.     

Metal Ion Guest Responsive Benzoxazine Dimers and Inclusion Phenomena of Cyclic Derivatives

This study was carried out with the aim to optimize the dissolution propertiesof diclofenac (DIC) – a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug sparingly solublein water – through association -with -cyclodextrin (CD). Theeffect of CD on the aqueous solubility of DIC was evaluated by thephase solubility method. The amount of DIC dissolved increased linearly withthe addition of CD according to an AL type plot and without precipitationof the complex. The apparent stability constant of the complex, calculated supposinga 1:1 stoichiometry, was 295 M^-1; this value was confirmed by circulardichroism analysis. DIC/CD interactions were also studied in water by¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. Equimolar DIC/CD solid systems were prepared by physical-mixing, kneading, co-evaporation andfreeze-drying, and their properties in the solid state studied by DifferentialScanning Calorimetry, X-ray powder diffractometry and Fourier-TransformInfrared analysis. For sake of comparison, the mixture of DIC and CDseparately lyophilized was investigated too. The results demonstrated that thefreeze-dried product had the highest degree of amorphization and they were inagreement with the existence of an inclusion complex in the solid state. Thedissolution profiles of the drug from each solid system were affected by its physico-chemical properties, the freeze-dried being the most rapidly dissolvingforms.     

Preparative two-dimensional gel electrophoresis with agarose gels in the first dimension for high molecular mass proteins

A two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) method that uses an agarose isoelectric focusing (IEF) gel in the first dimension (agarose 2-DE) was compared with an immobilized pH gradient 2-DE method (IPG-Dalt). The former method was shown to produce significant improvements in the 2-D electrophoretic separation of high molecular mass proteins larger than 150 kDa, up to 500 kDa, and to have a higher loading capacity, as much as 1.5 mg proteins in total for micropreparative runs. The extraction medium found best in this study for agarose 2-DE of mammal tissues was 6 M urea, 1 M thiourea, 0.5% 2-mercaptoethanol, protease inhibitor cocktail (Complete Mini EDTA-free), 1% Triton X-100 and 3% 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate (CHAPS). Trichloroacetic acid (TCA) treatment of the agarose gel after IEF is to be carefully weighed beforehand, because some high molecular mass proteins were less likely to enter the second-dimensional polyacrylamide gel after TCA fixation, and proteins such as mouse skeletal muscle actin gave pseudospots in the agarose 2-DE patterns without TCA fixation. As a good compromise we suggest fixation of proteins in the agarose gel with TCA for one hour or less. The first-dimensional agarose IEF gel containing Pharmalyte as a carrier ampholyte was 180 mm in length and 2.5-4.8 mm in diameter. The gel diameter was shown to determine the loading capacity of the agarose 2-DE, and 1.5 mg liver proteins in total were successfully separated by the use of a 4.8 mm diameter agarose gel.     

Viscosities of poly(N-vinylacetamide) solutions in the presence of salts, urea and guanidine hydrochloride

Summary  In the aqueous solutions of poly(N-vinylacetamide) in the presence of Na₂SO₄ or (NH₄)₂SO₄, the intrinsic viscosities were small and the Huggins constants were large compared with those in water. Similar but much less effects were observed for NaF. Opposite effects were found, however, for NaSCN. The poor solvent quality of aqueous sulfate solutions was significantly improved by the addition of guanidine hydrochloride to 3 M or higher. Urea was much less effective in improving the solvent quality. The different M28.8neffects observed between urea and GdnHCl may be explained by their different binding affinities to amide group. Solubilization of PNVA flocculates induced by the presence of 0.8 M Na₂SO₄ took place by adding urea to 1 M, although only small changes were detected in the viscosity behavior accompanying the addition of 1 M urea. Received: 12 June 1997 Accepted: 4 August 1997     

An analytical expression for the approximate dependence of the degree of counterion binding on the composition of ionic-nonionic mixed micelles

A simple analytical expression is presented to describe the dependence of the degree of counterion binding beta of ionic-nonionic mixed micelles on the composition x(I) (the micelle mole fraction of the ionic species): 1/(1-beta)=1-x(I)+x(I)/[1-beta(x(I)=1)]. In the application of the relation, the value of beta for the pure ionic micelle, beta(x(I)=1), should be known in advance. An equivalent expression was first proposed by Hall et al. on purely empirical grounds but in the present study the relation is derived on the basis of the Poisson-Boltzmann equation of the plate model of micelles in a salt-free medium. The insensitive nature of beta toward a change in micelle concentration as well as to the addition of a salt is also derived under reasonable approximations. When the relation was applied to 12 mixed micelles both with and without added salt, it described quite well the observed composition dependencies of all examples examined. Two other simple analytical expressions are also derived, but they are much less satisfactory in describing the experimental data.