Copper(II)-catalyzed oxidation of d-alpha-tocopherol by oxygen in aqueous solution

alpha-Tocopherol (alpha-Toc) was solubilized in aqueous solutions using 13 solubilizing agents and the products of oxidation by oxygen in the presence and the absence of Cu(II) were analyzed by HPLC. In the presence of Cu(II), the oxidation was accelerated and 5-formyl-7,8-dimethyltocol and alpha-tocoquinone were the major oxidation products. Their yields greatly increased in the presence of Cu(II). The yields and the rates of formation of the products were dependent on the properties of solubilizing agents and other conditions as well as the presence of Cu(II) or other metal ions. It is suggested that slight changes in the structure of the solubilizing agents affect the course of the reaction.     

Chip-based nLC-TOF-MS is a highly stable technology for large-scale high-throughput analyses

Many studies focused on the discovery of novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of disease states are facilitated by mass spectrometry-based technology. HPLC coupled to mass spectrometry is widely used; miniaturization of this technique using nano-liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) usually results in better sensitivity, but is associated with limited repeatability. The recent introduction of chip-based technology has significantly improved the stability of nano-LC-MS, but no substantial studies to verify this have been performed. To evaluate the temporal repeatability of chip-based nano-LC-MS analyses, N-glycans released from a serum sample were repeatedly analyzed using nLC-PGC-chip-TOF-MS on three non-consecutive days. With an average inter-day coefficient of variation of 4 %, determined on log₁₀-transformed integrals, the repeatability of the system is very high. Overall, chip-based nano-LC-MS appears to be a highly stable technology, which is suitable for the profiling of large numbers of clinical samples for biomarker discovery.     

Determination of elemental composition of airborne dust and dust suspended in rain

To clarify the magnitude of wash-out effect of rain on the elemental composition of airborne dust and the possible origin of the dust, the dust samples were collected with a high-volume air sampler at the JAERI-Tokai. The dust suspended in rain was also collected from rain by filtration. Up to 20 elements in both types of the dust were determined by instrumental neutron activation analysis. It was found that the elements determined could be classified into 3 groups from the elemental composition and the elemental correlation in both types of the dust samples.     

Secondary hypervalent I(III)...O interactions: synthesis and structure of hypervalent complexes of diphenyl-lambda3-iodanes with 18-crown-6

Reported here for the first time are the synthesis and characterization of supramolecular complexes between diaryl-lambda(3)-iodanes and 18-crown-6 (18C6). Slow evaporation of solvents afforded 1:1 and 2:1 complexes between Ph(2)IBF(4) and 18C6 as stable crystals, depending on the conditions. X-ray crystal structures of these complexes indicated that each iodine atom contacts with the three adjacent oxygen atoms of 18C6 through two hypervalent secondary bonding and a weak interaction. (1)H NMR analyses and CSI-MS spectra showed that, in dichloromethane solution, Ph(2)IBF(4) exclusively forms the 1:1 complex with 18C6 (binding constant K(a), 1.02 x 10(3) M(-)(1)). The binding constants decrease with the increased solvent donor ability (Gutmann's DN). Changing the heteroatom ligand from BF(4) to the less nucleophilic PF(6) and AsF(6) increased the binding constant by about six times. Substitution of an electron-withdrawing group onto the para position of Ph(2)IBF(4) tends to increase in the complex stability. A linear Hammett relationship (rho = 0.59) between log K(a) and sigma(p)(+) values of substituents indicates that the diaryl-lambda(3)-iodanes with electropositive iodine(III) interact more efficiently with 18C6. Decreased binding magnitude was measured with 15C5, dibenzo-18C6, dibenzo-21C7, and dibenzo-30C10.     

Interactions of water and methanol with a mixture of copper and zinc metals: a theoretical <Emphasis Type="Italic">ab initio</Emphasis> study

Ab initio cluster quantum chemical calculations at the Hartree–Fock and second-order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory levels were carried out to mimic the interactions of water and methanol with a mixture of Cu and Zn metals. It was shown that both molecular and dissociative adsorption of methanol on a mixture of Cu and Zn metal catalyst are preferred over the corresponding adsorptions of water. Estimated transition-state structures for dissociation of methanol into CH·₃ and OH· lie about 9.0 and 22.0 kcal/mol higher compared to the dissociated (forward reaction) and molecular adsorption (reverse reaction) complexes, respectively. Based on distinct radicals' bond energies with the active sites of the catalyst considered, it is suggested that hydrogen molecules could be formed through a chain of homogeneous reactions of methyl radicals released into the gas phase with the water and/or methanol molecules.     

Formal catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of fostriecin

The common synthetic intermediate of a potent and promising anticancer agent, fostriecin, was synthesized using a unique method that combines four catalytic asymmetric reactions as shown above.