Self-organized lipid-porphyrin bilayer membranes in vesicular form: nanostructure,photophysical properties,and dioxygen coordination

An amphiphilic tetraphenylporphyrin and its iron complex bearing four phospholipid substituents, in which a trimethylolethane residue connects the two acyl chains (lipid-porphyrins), have been synthesized. The free-base lipid-porphyrin 6a self-organizes in aqueous media to form spherical unilamellar vesicles with a diameter of 100 nm and a uniform thickness of 10 nm, which corresponds to twice the length of the molecule. In the visible absorption spectrum, the porphyrin Soret band was significantly red-shifted (12 nm) relative to that of the monomer in benzene/MeOH solution due to the excitonic interaction of the porphyrin chromophores. The [symbol: see text]-A isotherm of 6a gave an area per molecule of 2.2 nm2, which allowed the estimation of the number of molecules in a single vesicle (2.3 x 10(4)). Double-layered Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films of 6a on a glass surface exhibited an absorption spectrum identical to that of the 6a vesicles in bulk aqueous solution, and this suggests that they contain similar geometric arrangements of the porphyrin moieties. Exciton calculations on the basis of our structural model reproduced the bathochromic shift of the Soret band well. In the photophysical properties of the 6a vesicles, the characteristics of J-aggregated porphyrins substantially predominate: strong fluorescence and extremely short triplet lifetime. The iron complex 6b with a small molar excess of 1-dodecylimidazole (DIm) also formed spherical unilamellar vesicles (100 nm phi). Scanning force microscopy after evaporation on a graphite surface revealed 6b/DIm vesicles with a vertical height of 19.8 nm, which coincided with the thickness of the double bilayer membranes. The ferrous 6c formed a bis(DIm)-coordinated low-spin FeII complex under an N2 atmosphere. Upon addition of O2 to this solution, a kinetically stable O2 adduct was formed at 37 degrees C with a half-life of 17 h. Distinct gel-phase (liquid-crystal) transitions of the lipid-porphyrin membranes were clearly observed; the free base 6a displayed a higher transition temperature (56 degrees C) than the iron complex. Magnetic circular dichroism and infrared spectroscopic studies proved that molecular O2 coordinates to the self-organized lipid-porphyrinatoiron(II) vesicles in aqueous media.     

57Fe Mössbauer study of FeNx (x=0.25≈0.91) alloys

⁵⁷Fe Mössbauer measurements have been perforned at the first time on iron nitrides, FeN_x(x>0.5), films prepared by rf sputtering and the measurements for γ-FeN_0.09, γ'-Fe₄N, ε-Fe_2–3N and ζ-Fe₂N have been also performed. Two new phases for x>0.5 have been identified: One has a ZnS-type structure denoted by γ" Another phase is denoted by γ''' in which iron atoms constitute a fcc lattice but the details of occupation sites of nitrogen atoms are not yet clear. The isomer shift of γ" relative to α-Fe at 300 K is rather small in comparison with that of other well known nitrides. The roam temperature Mössbauer spectra of γ''' consist of a sum of two doublets. Mössbauer spectra of γ" at 10 K do not indicate magnetically split pattern, but those of γ''' show magnetically split patterns at 10 K with the hyperfine fields of 30 T and 48 T, respectively. The component of 48 T is due to oxides, not due to nitrides.     

Studies on the biosynthesis of terrecyclic acid A II confirmation of the cyclization mechanism and hydrogen shifts using [2-2H3]acetate and [213C2H3]acetate

Feeding experiments with [2-³H₃]acetate and [2-¹³C²H₃]acetate in $\text{Aspergillus terreus}$ Thom No. 14 indicated that the hydrogen at C-2 in terrecyclic acid A is incorporated without migration from the precursor acetic acid; the results favour our group's earlier speculation for the cyclization to the tricyclic skeleton in the biosynthetic scheme.     

Retardation of discoloration of poly(vinyl chloride) and decolorization of discolored poly(vinyl chloride) with diimide

Retardation of discoloration of poly(vinyl chloride) with diimide was studied in dimethylformamide at 130°C. with the use of p-toluenesulfonylhydrazide (PSH) as a source of diimide. A process was proposed that involved prolonging the induction periods of discoloration by inhibiting the development of conjugated polyene structure. The optimum proportion of PSH was one fourth of the poly(vinyl chloride), the best results. Furthermore, poly(vinyl chloride) discolored by thermal degradation in o-dichlorobenzene or gamma-ray irradiation under vacuum was decolorized in solution at 130°C. by addition of PSH. The decolorized poly(vinyl chloride) thus obtained was thermally stable compared with that obtained by oxidative methods.     

Extraction Equilibria between Benzene and Water of Uni- and Bivalent Metal Picrates with Lariat 16-Crown-5: Effect of the Side Arms on the Extraction Ability and Selectivity

The overall extraction constants (K_ex) of uni- andbivalent metal picrates with 15-(2,5-dioxahexyl)-15-methyl-16-crown-5(L16C5) were determined between benzene and water at 25°C. TheK_ex values were analyzed into the constituent equilibriumconstants, i.e., the extraction constant of picric acid, the distributionconstant of the crown ether, the stability constant of the metalion–crown ether complex in water, and the ion-pair extraction constantof the complex cation with the picrate anion. The K_ex valuedecreases in the orders Ag⁺ > Na⁺ >Tl⁺ > K⁺ > Li⁺ andPb²⁺ > Ba²⁺ > Sr²⁺ for theuni- and bivalent metals, respectively, which are the same as those observedfor 16C5. The extraction selectivity was found to be governed by theselectivity of the ion-pair extraction of the L16C5–metal picratecomplex rather than by that of the complex formation in water. Theextraction ability of L16C5 is smaller for all the metals than that of 16C5,which is mostly attributed to the higher lipophilicity of L16C5. Differencesin the extraction selectivity between L16C5 and 16C5 were observed for thebivalent metals but little for the univalent metals. The side-arm effect onthe extraction selectivity was interpreted on the basis of the negativecorrelation between the effect on the complex stability constant in waterand that on the ion-pair extraction constant.     

On the dynamics of ferro- and antiferro-electric liquid crystals

Abstract

In this work, a set of Landau–Ginzburg equations to investigate the dynamic properties of ferro- and antiferro-electric smectic phases is formulated on the basis of the elastic continuum theory of compressible smectics. In the present framework, the polarization electric field is consistently taken into account through the Poisson equation as seen in our previous work. As a practical application, a few numerical results are presented for the surface-stabilized geometry with inclined and chevron layer structures. An asymmetric bistable switching is found to be achieved in the chevron layer structure under an alternating external field. In an inclined layer structure, however, a symmetric switching is found to be possible. In addition, it is first presented from a theoretical standpoint that the compressible smectic layer structure may be drastically deformed in the chevron and inclined layer structures with a sufficiently large external field.     

A study of two dimensional smectic layer structure

Abstract

In this paper, an analysis of two dimensional smectic layer structure is presented to clarify the layer distortion between two chevrons directed towards opposite directions. From numerical computations, it is found that a parallelogram region appears between two antiparallel chevrons for a sufficiently large molecular tilt and thick sample. The elastic free energy density is found to concentrate near the boundaries of the kinks of the layer structure. In addition the field effect on such a pair of chevrons is presented to show that it is efficient to apply an electric field so as to obtain a quasi-bookshelf structure.     

Numerical study of QCD phase diagram at high temperature and density by a histogram method

We study the QCD phase structure at high temperature and density adopting a histogram method. Because the quark determinant is complex at finite density, the Monte-Carlo method cannot be applied directly. We use a reweighting method and try to solve the problems which arise in the reweighting method, i.e. the sign problem and the overlap problem. We discuss the chemical potential dependence of the probability distribution function in the heavy quark mass region and examine the applicability of the approach in the light quark region.     

False Detection of Cyanide Ion in Photographic Processing Waste Solutions Using Standardized Reference Methods

Abstract

Although cyanide compounds are not incorporated in photographic processing solutions, false detection of cyanide ion is often encountered during the determination of total cyanide by various standardized methods such as ISO, ANSI and JIS. Various organic compounds and nitrogen compounds in the processing solutions were examined because of this false detection. The results suggest that hydrogen cyanide is formed by a reaction between these compounds during the distillation process for the separation of total cyanide, even though ISO, ANSI and JIS were used. The results support the following three mechanisms of cyanide formation involved in the process: (1) Hydroxylammonium salts reacts with another ingredient, formaldehyde, to form formaldoxime, which then decomposes to HCN. (2) Hydroxylammonium is oxidized by air to form nitrite ion, which subsequently reacts with organic compounds such as aminocarboxylic acids and aromatic amines (the colour-developing agent) to form HCN. (3) Potassium permanganate oxidizes aromatic amines to form HCN.