Highly Enhanced Emission of Visible Light from Core–Dual‐Shell‐Type Hybridized Nanoparticles

Core–dual‐shell‐type hybridized nanoparticles (NPs) having Au‐core/dye‐doped silica inner shell/Au outer shell are successfully fabricated by developing a biphasic process that is a kind of so‐called “one‐pot” method. The resulting hybridized NPs exhibit evidently about 20‐fold enhancement of fluorescence intensity, increase in fluorescence quantum yield, and decrease in fluorescence lifetime. These effects depend on the metal nanostructure being optimized, compared with the reference hybridized NPs with neither a Au‐core nor a Au outer shell, due to the gap‐mode effect induced by localized surface plasmon resonance in the core–dual‐shell‐type MIM‐like nanostructure. More detailed elucidation concerning the enhancement mechanism will provide the possibility of photonic device application, for example as a high‐performance point light source, nanolaser, or sensor for bioimaging in the visible region in the near future.     

First synthesis and anticancer activity of phosmidosine and its related compounds

This paper describes the first synthesis of phosmidosine and phosmidosine B, i.e., nucleotide antibiotics composed of 8-oxoadenosine and L-proline which are connected via a unique N-acyl phosphoramidate linkage. Phosmidosine has a yet-undetermined chiral center at the phosphorus atom of the N-acyl phosphoramidate linkage. Phosmidosine B is a demethylated phosmidosine derivative with no chirality on the phosphorus. Phosmidosine B was successfully synthesized by the reaction of an N-acetyl-8-oxoadenosine 5'-O-phosphoramidite derivative with an N-protected prolinamide in the presence of 5-(3,5-dinitrophenyl)-1H-tetrazole. The successful synthesis of phosmidosine was achieved by use of a tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) group, which was found to be selectively introduced into the 7-NH function of 8-oxoadenosine and to serve as a pseudo-protecting group due to its steric effect in such manner that the unmasked 6-amino group was not phosphitylated. Final coupling reaction of the 8-oxoadenosine 5'-phosphoramidite derivative with N-tritylprolinamide followed by full deprotection gave a mixture of phosmidosine and its diastereoisomer. The (13)C NMR spectra of the diastereomers suggest that the slow-eluted diastereomer 1b is the naturally occurring phosmidosine. The growth inhibitory activity of phosmidosine 1b, its diastereomer 1a, and phosmidosine B in various tumor cell lines was evaluated by the MTT assay. As the result, phosmidosine B showed high anticancer activities and both the diastereomers 1a and 1b of phosmidosine isolated were found to have similar but approximately 10 times higher anticancer activities than phosmidosine B. Moreover, it turned out that these phosmidosine derivatives showed characteristic inhibitory activities against cancer cells independent of their p53 phenotypes. These results suggest that phosmidosine and its related compounds would be promising as a new type of anticancer agents having a wide range of inhibitory activities against tumor cells.     

Reaction of carbonyl compounds with trialkylsilyl phenylselenide and tributylstannyl hydride under radical conditions

A novel method for the hydrosilylation of carbonyl compounds has been developed. When carbonyl compounds were allowed to react with trimethylsilyl phenylselenide and tributylstannyl hydride in the presence of a catalytic amount of AIBN as the radical initiator, hydrosilylation of the carbonyl compounds efficiently proceeded to give the corresponding silyl ethers in moderate to good yields. In the absence of carbonyl compounds, the triethylsilyl hydride was obtained by the reaction of PhSeSiEt(3) with Bu(3)SnH. Although the tributylgermyl phenylselenide instead of PhSeSiMe(3) was treated with tributylstannyl hydride in the presence of a benzaldehyde under radical conditions, hydrogermylated product was not obtained and tributylgermyl hydride was mainly formed.     

Hydrogen bonding on the surface of poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate)

Hydrogen bonding on the interface and in the bulk of a poly(2-methoxyethyl acrylate) (PMEA) thin film has been investigated by sum frequency generation, infrared reflection absorption, and Raman scattering measurements in different kinds of solutions containing hydrogen-bonding donators. These results indicate that the majority of the carbonyl groups on the PMEA surface are hydrogen-bonded with water or ethanol molecules, while the PMEA bulk is still dominated by the free carbonyl group.     

Highly selective growth of vertically aligned double‐walled carbon nanotubes by a controlled heating method and their electric double‐layer capacitor properties

Vertically aligned double‐walled carbon nanotubes (DWCNTs) with the highest selectivity of 90% were synthesized by a controlled heating method and their electric double‐layer capacitor characteristics were evaluated. DWCNT arrays had a specific capacitance of 83 F/g, which is one of the highest values among CNT arrays in a nonaqueous solution and is almost equivalent to that for single‐walled CNT (SWCNT) arrays reported previously. At the same specific capacitance, DWCNTs with superior structural properties are more promising for practical capacitors than SWCNTs. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Thermal decomposition of ethane in shock waves

The thermal decomposition of ethane was studied behind reflected shock waves over the temperature range 1200–1700 K and over the pressure range 1.7?2.5 atm, by both tracing the time variation of absorption at 3.39 μm and analyzing the concentration of the reacted gas mixtures. The mechanism to interpret well not only the earlier stage of C₂H₆ decomposition, but also the later stage was determined. The rate constant of reactions, C₂H₆ → CH₃ + CH₃, C₂H₆ + C₂H₃ → C₂H₅ + C₂H₄, C₂H₅ → C₂H₄ + H were calculated. The rate constants of the other reactions were also discussed.     

Supercritical fluid chromatography with post-column addition of supporting electrolyte solution for electrochemical determination of tocopherol and tocotrienol isomers

A supercritical fluid chromatography with electrochemical detection system was developed for the simultaneous determination of tocopherol and tocotrienol isomers. The supercritical fluid chromatography with electrochemical detection system was connected with an additional pump to create a flow path to add a supporting electrolyte solution. The supporting electrolyte solution was mixed with a mobile phase in a post-column fashion, enabling the independent control of the separation and detection. After optimization of the measurement conditions, vitamin E isomers and an internal standard substance (2,2,5,7,8-pentamethyl-6-hydroxychroman) were separated within 30 min using a mixture of supercritical carbon dioxide and methanol (99:1, v/v) as a mobile phase and a cyanopropyl column (4.6 mm inner diameter × 250 mm length, 5 μm). For the electrochemical detection, methanol containing 1.0 mol/L ammonium acetate was used as a supporting electrolyte solution, and the applied potential was set at +0.8 V. This analytical method showed good linearity (5–100 μg/mL) and repeatability (less than 2.5% relative standard deviation, n = 6) and was applicable to the determination of tocopherol and tocotrienol isomers in nutrition supplements.     

Comparison of the accuracy of periodic reaction field methods in molecular dynamics simulations of a model liquid crystal system

A periodic reaction field (PRF) method is a technique to estimate long‐range interactions. The method has the potential to effectively reduce the computational cost while maintaining adequate accuracy. We performed molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of a model liquid‐crystal system to assess the accuracy of some variations of the PRF method in low‐charge‐density systems. All the methods had adequate accuracy compared with the results of the particle mesh Ewald (PME) method, except for a few simulation conditions. Furthermore, in all of the simulation conditions, one of the PRF methods had the same accuracy as the PME method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis of Phenanthrene Derivatives by Intramolecular Cyclization Utilizing the [1,2]‐Phospha‐Brook Rearrangement Catalyzed by a Brønsted Base

The synthesis of functionalized phenanthrene derivatives was achieved by intramolecular cyclization utilizing the [1,2]‐phospha‐Brook rearrangement under Brønsted base catalysis. Treatment of biaryl compounds having an α‐ketoester moiety and an alkyne moiety at the 2 and 2′ positions, respectively, with diisopropyl phosphite in the presence of a catalytic amount of phosphazene base P2‐tBu provides 9,10‐disubstituted phenanthrene derivatives in high yields. This reaction involves the generation of an ester enolate through an umpolung process, that is, addition of diisopropyl phosphite to a keto moiety followed by the [1,2]‐phospha‐Brook rearrangement, the intramolecular addition to an alkyne, and the [3,3] rearrangement of the allylic phosphate moiety in a consecutive fashion.