Vessel effects in organic chemical reactions; a century-old,overlooked phenomenon

One of the most intriguing aspects of synthetic chemistry is the interplay of numerous dependent and independent variables en route to achieve a successful, high-yielding chemical transformation. The experienced synthetic chemist will probe many of these variables during reaction development and optimization, which will routinely involve investigation of reaction temperature, solvent, stoichiometry, concentration, time, choice of catalyst, addition sequence or quenching conditions just to name some commonly addressed variables. Remarkably, little attention is typically given to the choice of reaction vessel material as the surface of common laboratory borosilicate glassware is, incorrectly, assumed to be chemically inert. When reviewing the scientific literature, careful consideration of the vessel material is typically only given during the use of well-known glass-etching reagents such as HF, which is typically only handled in HF-resistant, polyfluorinated polymer vessels. However, there are examples of chemical transformations that do not involve such reagents but are still clearly influenced by the choice of reaction vessel material. In the following review, we wish to condense the most significant examples of vessel effects during chemical transformations as well as observations of container-dependent stability of certain molecules. While the primary focus is on synthetic organic chemistry, relevant examples from inorganic chemistry, polymerization reactions, atmospheric chemistry and prebiotic chemistry are also covered.

One of the most intriguing aspects of synthetic chemistry is the interplay of numerous dependent and independent variables en route to achieve a successful, high-yielding chemical transformation.     

Proteome Analysis of Aflibercept Intervention in Experimental Central Retinal Vein Occlusion

Aflibercept is a frequently used inhibitor of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the treatment of macular edema following central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO). Retinal proteome changes following aflibercept intervention in CRVO remain largely unstudied. Studying proteomic changes of aflibercept intervention may generate a better understanding of mechanisms of action and uncover aspects related to the safety profile. In 10 Danish Landrace pigs, CRVO was induced in both eyes with an argon laser. Right eyes were treated with intravitreal aflibercept while left control eyes received isotonic saline water. Retinal samples were collected 15 days after induced CRVO. Proteomic analysis by tandem mass tag-based mass spectrometry identified a total of 21 proteins that were changed in content following aflibercept intervention. In retinas treated with aflibercept, high levels of aflibercept components were reached, including the VEGF receptor-1 and VEGF receptor-2 domains. Fold changes in the additional proteins ranged between 0.70 and 1.19. Aflibercept intervention resulted in a downregulation of pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) (fold change = 0.84) and endoplasmin (fold change = 0.91). The changes were slight and could thereby not be confirmed with less precise immunohistochemistry and Western blotting. Our data suggest that aflibercept had a narrow mechanism of action in the CRVO model. This may be an important observation in cases when macular edema secondary to CRVO is resistant to aflibercept intervention.     

Bounds on the Probability of Failure in Random Vibration

A new method to construct upper and lower bounds for the failure probability of a structure exposed to random excitations is presented. The method is based on an extension of the classical inclusion-exclusion series of Rice where the main idea is to take into consideration only realizations which are in the safe area at a number of previous instants of time. By a numerical example it is demonstrated that this method may lead to rather sharp bounds.     

Analysis of the ν6(A″2) band of cyclopropane-d6 recorded under high resolution

The parallel band ν₆(A″₂) of C₃D₆ near 2336 cm^?1 has been studied with high resolution (Δν = 0.020 – 0.024 cm^?1) in the infrared. The band has been analyzed using standard techniques and the following parameters have been determined: B″ = 0.461388(20) cm^?1, D″_J = 3.83(17) × 10^?7 cm^?1, ν₀ = 2336.764(2) cm^?1, α^B = (B″ ? B′) = 8.823(12) × 10^?4 cm^?1, β^J = (D″_J ? D′_J) = 0, and α^C = (C″ ? C′) = 4.5(5) × 10^?4 cm^?1.     

On a Variational Definition for the Jensen-Shannon Symmetrization of Distances Based on the Information Radius

We generalize the Jensen-Shannon divergence and the Jensen-Shannon diversity index by considering a variational definition with respect to a generic mean, thereby extending the notion of Sibson’s information radius. The variational definition applies to any arbitrary distance and yields a new way to define a Jensen-Shannon symmetrization of distances. When the variational optimization is further constrained to belong to prescribed families of probability measures, we get relative Jensen-Shannon divergences and their equivalent Jensen-Shannon symmetrizations of distances that generalize the concept of information projections. Finally, we touch upon applications of these variational Jensen-Shannon divergences and diversity indices to clustering and quantization tasks of probability measures, including statistical mixtures.     

Ab initio MRD-CI investigation of the electronic spectrum of glyoxal (CHO)2

Multireference configuration interaction (MRD-CI) calculations are used to compute the electronic spectrum of glyoxal (CHO)₂, a key species in atmospheric chemistry. The calculations place the first dipole-allowed transition 1¹A_u←X¹A_g at 2.80?eV (442.8?nm) with an oscillator strength of 0.0002 and the dipole forbidden 1¹B_g?←?X¹A_g transition at 4.22?eV (293.8?nm), in accordance with prior experiments. In addition, a much stronger transition (3¹B_u?←?X¹A_g) at 8.51?eV (145.7?nm) is predicted, which has not yet been reported in the literature. This transition corresponds to 1b_g?→?2a_u excitation and can be characterized as π(CO)?→?π?(CO) type in accordance with the computed relatively large oscillator strength f?=?0.38. The corresponding triplet states are also computed.     

Positron studies of hydrogen-defect interactions in proton irradiated molybdenum

Molybdenum single crystals are irradiated at 20 K with 6 MeV protons. The radiation damage and lattice defect annealing is studied by positron lifetime spectroscopy in the temperature range from 15 to 720 K. Loss of vacancies due to recombination with mobile interstitials is observed at 40 K (Stage I) in agreement with resistivity measurements. This is the first time Stage I is observed by positrons below 77 K. The implanted hydrogen decorates the vacancies around 100 K, which is consistent with a hydrogen migration energy in molybdenum:E _M ^H = 0.3–0.4 eV. Clustering of spatially correlated vacancies takes place in a wide temperature region below the usual vacancy clustering stage (Stage III). Stage III is observed at rather low temperatures (400–480 K) due to the very high vacancy concentration. Hydrogen bound to vacancies and vacancy clusters is released above 540 K, which puts an upper limit to the hydrogen binding energy:E _B ^H 1.4 eV. The present work emphasizes the advantage of employing a vacancy sensitive technique to study hydrogen in metals, where its intrinsic solubility is low. In such metals (as molybdenum) both the effective solubility and the effective mobility of hydrogen are strongly influenced by the presence of vacancies.     

Gauge dependence of effective potential and self-consistent dimensional reduction

The gauge dependence of the effective potential determining the Kaluza-Klein radius self-consistently is contrasted to that belonging to a gauge theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking at finite temperature. Formally the two quantities are computed in the same way and obey the same Ward identities, but a gauge-independent approximation scheme is possible only in the latter case because of the coupling between the Goldstone field and the longitudinal vector field. The connection to the Ward identities of the two theories is also obtained.     

Broad-band wavelength-interrogated waveguide sensor

A wavelength-interrogated waveguide sensor system with a large wavelength range (≈60 nm) is presented. Dynamic measurements of changes in the refractive index of up to 0.33 refractive index units are demonstrated, without the need for mechanical adjustments during measurements. Furthermore, simultaneous detection of the in-coupling of both TE and TM polarization components is realized, which, for example, could be used for online monitoring of both thickness and refractive index of thin adlayers. PACS 42.79; 07.60