Differences in the reaction of electron deficient olefins with organocopper(I)-Lewis acid reagents and evidence for a dianionic equivalent

Treatment of diethyl fumarate and triethoxycarbonylethylene with Bu₂CuLi·AlCl₃ led to 1,4-addition to give butylated products in high yields. In sharp contrast, diethyl maleate and tetraethoxycarbonylethylene predominantly gave the respective reduction products. The first evidence for a presumed dianionic intermediate by trapping with some electrophiles was also presented.     

Swelling and deswelling kinetics of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gels

Swelling and deswelling kinetics was investigated for three types of cylindrical poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) gels differing in crosslink density. The temperature dependence curves of the volume of the gel specimens were different from one another. One of the gel specimens was considered as a critical gel showing the continuous volume phase transition. The volume change process of the specimens after a temperature jump was examined. In the deswelling processes with temperature jumps to temperatures higher than 35 degrees C, a phase separation was observed in the gel specimens and the volume change slowed down due to the homogenization after the phase separation. The value of the diffusion constant obtained without the phase separation decreased rapidly as temperature approaches the transition temperature. The rapid decrease for the critical gel indicates the emergence of the critical slowing-down. The value of the critical exponent for the correlation length suggests that the universality class for the volume phase transition of the critical PNIPA gel belongs to the class for the classical theory.     

Droplet formation in a microchannel network

A method is given for generating droplets in a microchannel network. With oil as the continuous phase and water as the dispersed phase, pico/nanoliter-sized water droplets can be generated in a continuous phase flow at a -junction. The channel for the dispersed phase is 100 microm wide and 100 microm deep, whereas the channel for the continuous phase is 500 microm wide and 100 microm deep. For given experimental parameters, regular-sized droplets are reproducibly formed at a uniform speed. The diameter of these droplets is controllable in the range from 100-380 microm as the flow velocity of the continuous phase is varied from 0.01 m s(-1) to 0.15 m s(-1).     

A spot test for ammonium ion by the color band formation method

Removing nutrients from wastewaters is important in controlling eutrophication. Processes for removing nutrients require accurate control of operational conditions, and it is necessary to monitor nutrient concentrations during the removal process. For this purpose, a simple and accurate analytical method is especially important for small-scale wastewater treatment facilities. Here, we report a simple colorimetric method for determining NH₄⁺-N in wastewater. The method is to detect NH₄⁺-N by a color band length formed in a minicolumn, and similar methods for heavy metals detection were reported by Morosanova et al. In this study, the length of the color band of indonaphthol dye trapped on an adsorbent in a minicolumn was linearly correlated with NH₄⁺-N concentration in the range 1-10 mg NH₄⁺-N l⁻¹ under optimized conditions. This methods was developed on the basis of our previously reported color band methods for orthophosphate and nitrite determination, but the adsorbent used in this work consisted of an admixture of synthetic hydrotalcite particles and poly(vinyl chloride) particles coated with equal amounts of benzylcetyldimethylammonium chloride and biphenyl. When the method was applied to actual wastewaters, the results corresponded well with the results obtained by the standard method, and suspended solids (SS) and dissolved organic pollutants did not interfere with detection.     

Studies on the chemical modification of monensin. II. Measurement of sodium ion permeability of monensylamino acids using sodium-23 nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

A technique to assay Na+ ions in cells is presented. Intracellular and extracellular Na+ ions in a suspension of guinea pig erythrocytes were conveniently determined by using sodium-23 nuclear magnetic resonance (23Na-NMR), in combination with two anionic shift reagents: Dy(TTHA)3- and Dy(PPPi)2(7-). Monensin (1), monensylalanine (2b), monensylserine (2c), and monensylphenylalanine (2d) induced large increases of intracellular Na+ ion concentration ([Nain]), while monensylglycine (2a), monensyltyrosine (2e), monensylaspartic acid (2f), and monensylglutamic acid (2g) showed slight increases. The values of initial increasing rate (Vi) of 2a-g were much smaller than that of 1. This fact was probably due to the lower lipophilicity of 2a-g than 1, because a good correlation was observed between Vi and Rm50 values of 1 and 2a-g. This lower lipophilicity is a consequence of conformational differences between 1 and 2a-g.     

Extraction—spectrophotometric determination of traces of thallium in lead,cadmium, indium and zinc metals with tri-n-octylamine

A sensitive spectrophotometric method is described for the determination of thallium in lead, cadmium, indium and zinc metals. Optimal conditions have been established for the extraction and determination of thallium. Thallium is extracted as its bromo complex with tri-n-octylamine and then converted to an iodo complex, the absorbance of which is measured at 400 nm. As little as 1 p.p.m. of thallium in lead, cadmium and zinc metals, and 2 p.p.m. of thallium in indium metal can be determined.     

O-Alkylations of pyridoxine and pyridoxamine

O-Alkylations of pyridoxine 1 and pyridoxamine 5 were carried out in acetone in the presence of sodium ethoxide and potassium iodide to give 5-alkoxy-6-methyl-3,4-(bishydroxymethyl)pyridines 2a-j and 5-alkoxy-4-aminomethyl-6-methyl-3-hydroxyrnethylpyridines 6a-e .