Experimental determination and prediction of bilitranslocase transport activity

The transport activity of a membrane protein, bilitranslocase (T.C. # 2.A.65.1.1), which acts as a transporter of bilirubin from blood to liver cells, was experimentally determined for a large set of various endogenous compounds, drugs, purine and pyrimidine derivatives. On these grounds, the structure-activity models were developed following the OECD principles of QSAR models and their predictive ability for new chemicals was evaluated. The applicability domain of the models was estimated by Euclidean distances criteria according to the applied modeling method. The selection of the most influential structural variables was an important stage in the adopted modeling methodology. The interpretation of selected variables was performed in order to get an insight into the mechanism of transport through the cell membrane via bilitranslocase. Validation of the optimized models was performed by a previously determined validation set. The classification model was build to separate active from inactive compounds. The resulting accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.73, 0.89, and 0.64, respectively. Only active compounds were used to develop a predictive model for bilitranslocase inhibition constants. The model showed good predictive ability; Root Mean Squared error of the validation set, RMS(V)=0.29 log units.     

Electrically tunable diffraction of light from 2D nematic colloidal crystals

We show that diffraction of visible light from 2D dipolar nematic colloidal crystals can be tuned electrically. When the external electric field of ∼ 1V/μm is applied in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the 2D colloidal crystal, the induced strain is highly anisotropic, and the inter-colloidal spacing changes by as much as 20% along one direction and ∼ 2% along the perpendicular one. Although the speed of response is in the range of several seconds, this novel mechanism could provide interesting photonic applications.     

Nonlinear magnetic response in ruthenocuprates

We have performed an investigation of the nonlinear magnetic response in ruthenocuprates. A negative, diverging-like peak at the main magnetic transition T_N in RuSr₂ RECu₂O₈ (RE = Gd, Y) indicates a possible canted antiferromagnetic order. Another well defined feature above T_N points to a blocking of superparamagnetic particles through the T^-3 dependence of the third harmonic at higher temperatures. Below T_N a nondiverging peak appears, which is strongly affected by the addition of 10% of Cu ions in the RuO₂ planes. In RuSr₂ RE _2-xCe_xCu₂O₁₀ the main magnetic transition T_M is accompanied by two characteristic temperatures in the third harmonic of the ac susceptibility, in agreement with recent studies from μSR and M?ssbauer spectroscopy. We find that the spin-spin correlation temperature is the same in both families of ruthenocuprates.     

Electron-Poor Acridones and Acridiniums as Super Photooxidants in Molecular Photoelectrochemistry by Unusual Mechanisms

Electron-deficient acridones and in situ generated acridinium salts are reported as potent, closed-shell photooxidants that undergo surprising mechanisms. When bridging acyclic triarylamine catalysts with a carbonyl group (acridones), this completely diverts their behavior away from open-shell, radical cationic, ‘beyond diffusion’ photocatalysis to closed-shell, neutral, diffusion-controlled photocatalysis. Brønsted acid activation of acridones dramatically increases excited state oxidation power (by +0.8 V). Upon reduction of protonated acridones, they transform to electron-deficient acridinium salts as even more potent photooxidants (*E_1/2=+2.56–3.05 V vs SCE). These oxidize even electron-deficient arenes where conventional acridinium salt photooxidants have thusfar been limited to electron-rich arenes. Surprisingly, upon photoexcitation these electron-deficient acridinium salts appear to undergo two electron reductive quenching to form acridinide anions, spectroscopically-detected as their protonated forms. This new behaviour is partly enabled by a catalyst preassembly with the arene, and contrasts to conventional SET reductive quenching of acridinium salts. Critically, this study illustrates how redox active chromophoric molecules initially considered photocatalysts can transform during the reaction to catalytically active species with completely different redox and spectroscopic properties.     

Oxidation state and proton doping level in copolymers of 2-aminobenzoic acid and 2-methoxyaniline

UV-vis spectra of homopolymers and copolymers of 2-aminobenzoic acid (OAB) and 2-methoxyaniline (OMA) were analyzed in order to obtain information about the oxidation state and proton doping level of these polymers. Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) was used as a solvent in which protonated forms of polyanilines are preserved and a mixture of N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone and triethylamine (0.5 %) as a solvent (NMP/TEA) in which polyanilines are assumed to be non-protonated. Polymers were prepared in the emeraldine salt form, externally doped with HCl. It was found that only external doping is eliminated in NMP/TEA while internal doping by carboxylate groups bound in OAB units remains operative. Since doped quinoid units do not contribute to the quinoid band (Q-band at 630 nm), the intensity ratio of the Q-band and benzenoid band (B-band at 320 nm) cannot be simply correlated with the oxidation state of poly(OMA-co-OAB) copolymers in contrast to poly(OMA) and polyaniline. Spectra of copolymers with less than 60 % of OMA units as well as those of poly(OAB) in DMSO and NMP/TEA are almost identical due to internal doping, which is proposed to lead to structures in which main-chain protons are coulombically bound with immobile carboxylate anions. In the spectra of copolymers with less than 60 % of OMA units, a well-resolved band occurs at 500 nm, which can be ascribed to alternating or close-to-alternating sequences of OMA and OAB units.     

Potential of AMnO3 (A=Ca,Sr, Ba,La) as Active Layer in Inorganic Perovskite Solar Cells

Inorganic perovskite CaMnO was proposed as a substitution for the TiO anatase in electron transport layers of solar cells containing the hybrid perovskite CH NH PbI based on increased mobility of electrons and better optical matching. Due to a suitable band gap concerning the absorption of sunlight, we investigate the potential of CaMnO and similar manganite perovskites, where Ca is replaced by either Sr, Ba or La, as an absorber layer in inorganic perovskite solar cells. In this study, we have used optical measurements on the synthesized AMnO (A=Ca, Sr, Ba, La) samples to aid density functional theory calculations (DFT) in order to accurately simulate the electronic and optical properties of AMnO compounds and gauge their potential for the role of absorber layer. Both experimental measurements and theoretical calculations show suitable band gap of 1.1-1.5 eV, depending on the compound, and absorption coefficients of the order of cm in the visible part of the spectrum.