Polar effects in free-radical reactions. New synthetic developments in the functionalization of heteroaromatic bases by nucleophilic radicals

The synthetic interest of the direct substitution of protonated heteroaromatic bases by nucleophilic carbon-centered radicals is furtheron developed by the following new achievements: i) utilization of the redoc system

in several solvents; ii) utilization of benzoyl peroxide in alcohols; iii) carbamoylation by HCONH₂ and H₂O₂ in the presence of catalytic amounts of Fe(II). These systems allow to obtain either substitution till now tried without success or reactions of industrial interest. Polar effects play a dominant role in determining reactivity, selectivity and synthetic applications; in particular the role of the strongly nucleophilic intermediate radicals of pyridinyl type in the rearomatization step is emphasized.     

Hypervalent iodine as good leaving group: oxidative rearrangement of 1-IODO-2-methoxy-2-arylalkanes.

A new example of the good leaving group properties of hypervalent iodine is reported: oxidative rearrangement of 1-iodo-2-methoxy-2-arylalkanes 1 (R=alkyl) provides, via 1,2-aryl shift, alkyl benzyl ketones 3 in good yields.     

Steric and polar effects in free-radical reactions. - An unusual type of azocoupling by free radical decomposition of diazonium salts

A new free-radical azocoupling has been accomplished by decomposition of diazonium salts with monoelectronic reducing agents in the presence of 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one. Steric and polar factors are responsible of the unusual behaviour.     

Chaotic and fractal patterns for interacting nonlinear waves

Using an appropriate reduction method, a quite general new integrable system of equations 2 + 1 dimensions can be derived from the dispersive long-wave equation. Various soliton and dromion solutions are obtaining by selecting some types of solutions appropriately. The interaction between the localized solutions is completely elastic, because they pass through each other and preserve their shapes and velocities, the only change being a phase shift. The arbitrariness of the functions included in the general solution implies that approximate lower dimensional chaotic patterns such as chaotic–chaotic patterns, periodic–chaotic patterns, chaotic line soliton patterns and chaotic dromion patterns can appear in the solution. In a similar way, fractal dromion patterns and stochastic fractal excitations also exist for appropriate choices of the boundary conditions and/or initial conditions.     

EXAFS characterization of dendrimer-Pt nanocomposites used for the preparation of Pt/gamma-Al2O3 catalysts

Pt/gamma-Al2O3 catalysts were prepared using hydroxyl-terminated generation four (G4OH) PAMAM dendrimers as the templating agents and the various steps of the preparation process were monitored by extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectroscopy. The EXAFS results indicate that, upon hydrolysis, chlorine ligands in the H(2)PtCl(6) and K(2)PtCl(4) precursors were partially replaced by aquo ligands to form [PtCl3(H2O)3]+ and [PtCl2(H2O)2] species, respectively. The results further suggest that, after interaction of such species with the dendrimer molecules, chlorine ligands from the first coordination shell of Pt were replaced by nitrogen atoms from the dendrimer interior, indicating that complexation took place. This process was accompanied by a substantial transfer of electron density from the dendrimer to platinum, indicating that the dendrimer plays the role of a ligand. Following treatment of the H(2)PtCl(6)/G4OH and K(2)PtCl(4)/G4OH complexes with NaBH4, no substantial changes were observed in the electronic or coordination environment of platinum, indicating that metal nanoparticles were not formed during this step under our experimental conditions. However, when the reduction treatment was performed with H2, the formation of extremely small platinum clusters, incorporating no more than four Pt atoms was observed. The nuclearity of these clusters depends on the length of the hydrogen treatment. These Pt species remained strongly bonded to the dendrimer. Formation of larger platinum nanoparticles, with an average diameter of approximately 10 A, was finally observed after the deposition and drying of the H(2)PtCl(6)/G4OH nanocomposites on a gamma-Al(2)O(3) surface, suggesting that the formation of such nanoparticles may be related to the collapse of the dendrimer structure. The platinum nanoparticles formed appear to have high mobility because subsequent thermal treatment in O2/H2, used to remove the dendrimer component, led to further sintering.     

Analytical algorithm for molecular modeling

A molecular modeling procedure, based on internal coordinates and strictly analytical even in the most intricated cases, is described. Internal coordinates, always nonredundant, become mutually independent and can be varied without constraints. Structural refinement from diffraction data (Least-square method, LS) can be done using the classical Gauss-Newton approach and avoiding Lagrange multipliers. A comparative test done using published data has shown that while the new method gives rise to a structural refinement in perfect agreement with the known structure, the traditional methods (z-matrix and constraints based) does not work.     

Gel-free IEF in a membrane-sealed multicompartment cell for proteome prefractionation

A minidevice for performing gel-free proteome prefractionation via conventional IEF in soluble carrier ampholyte buffers is reported here. It consists of a compact block of polyoxymethylene in which eight samples and two electrode chambers are machined. Each of the eight sample chambers can be filled with up to 120 microL of sample and has the following size: 7 mm width, 3 mm depth and 10 mm height. The anodic and cathodic compartments have the same width and height as the sample chambers, but with a depth of 6 mm, thus accepting up to 250 microL of electrodic solutions. Focusing is in general accomplished in 2 h with a voltage gradient of up to 1000 V (7 cm electrode distance). Easy fractionation and collection of the content of the eight chambers is achieved by simply pressing a rubber diaphragm against the edges of the thin walls separating each well, this automatically breaking liquid continuity. The performance of this device has been tested by subfractionating total cell lysates of a human cancer cell line (U2Os) and of Escherichia coli bacterial cells, and by analysing the content of each chamber by mono-dimensional SDS-PAGE and 2-D maps.     

Romancing the "hidden proteome", Anno Domini two zero zero seven

The mechanism of action and properties of a solid-phase ligand library made of hexapeptides, for capturing the "hidden proteome", i.e. the low- and very low-abundance proteins constituting the vast majority of species in any proteome, be it a cell or tissue lysate or a biological fluid, are here reviewed. Mechanisms of adsorption are evaluated, as well as different protocols for en bloc or sequential elution of the captured polypeptides. Examples are given of capture of proteins from serum, human platelet extracts, bacterial extract and egg white. The increment in detection of low-abundance species appears to be of at least four-fold as compared with untreated samples. One particular aspect of this capture is the adsorption of a high proportion of small peptides (in the Mr 600-8000 Da range) that are normally lost upon electrophoretic two-dimensional mapping. Such a peptide population, in human sera, may be of particular importance since it may contain protein cleavage products of diagnostic value.     

Pseudo-character expansions forU(N)-invariant spin models onCP N−1

We define a set of orthogonal functions on the complex projective spaceCP ^N–1, and compute their Clebsch-Gordan coefficients as well as a large class of 6-j symbols. We also provide all the needed formulae for the generation of high-temperature expansions forU(N)-invariant spin models defined onCP ^N–1.     

Optimisation and characterisation of biosensors based on polyaniline

With lower limits of detection and increased stability constantly being demanded of biosensor devices, characterisation of the constituent layers that make up the sensor has become unavoidable, since this is inextricably linked with its performance. This work describe the optimisation and characterisation of two aspects of sensor performance: a conductive polymer layer (polyaniline) and the immobilised protein layer. The influence of the thickness of polyaniline films deposited electrochemically onto screen-printed electrode surfaces is described in this work in terms of its influence on a variety of amperometric sensor performance characteristics: time to reach steady state, charging current, catalytic current, background current and signal/background ratios. The influence of polymer film thickness on the conductivity and morphology of finished films is also presented.

An electrostatic method of protein immobilisation is used in this work and scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with gold-labelled antibodies and back-scattered electron detection has enabled the direct visualisation of individual groups of proteins on the sensor surface. Such information can provide an insight into the performance of sensors under influence of increasing protein concentrations.