Education by Teaching Analytical Chemistry in Romania

A review is given on the history of the development of analytical chemistry in Romania, its present role in University teaching, and on measures that are planned in order to improve teaching and education.Received January 12, 2003; accepted March 7, 2003 Published online July 16, 2003     

Austauscher mit cyclischen Polyethern als Ankergruppen—II: Anwendungen

Exchangers with cyclic polyethers as anchor groups have a large range of applications such as separations of cations with a common anion, of anions with a common cation, and of neutral organic compounds, and the determination of water by elution chromatography. Some crown ether monomers, especially 4- and 4,4′-alkyl-substituted benzo-derivatives are suitable for extractions and their adducts with heteropoly acids are used as liquid ion-exchangers. The exchangers are also applied in thin-layer chromatography and thin-layer electrophoresis. Furthermore the exchangers are successfully used in preparative chemistry, e.g., in salt conversions in order to isolate salts which are difficult to prepare by other means, in isolation and purification of organic compounds, and for anion activation in organic reactions.     

Carbon Participation in the Solvolysis of 6-exo-substituted 2-exo- and 2-endo-Norbornyl p-Toluenesulfonates. Norbornanes part 5

The solvolysis rates and products of the 6-exo-substituted 2-exo- 1a - 1u , and 2-endo-norbornyl p-toluenesulfonates 2a - 2u , have been determined. In general, the rate constants for 1 and 2 (log k) correlate well with the inductive constants σ of the substitutents at C(6); however, their sensitivity to σ is much larger in the 2-exo-series 1 than in the 2-endo-series 2 . This differential transmission of polar effects is the cause of decreasing 2-exo/2-endo rate ratios from 2388 for R = t-C₄H₉ to 0.37 for R = Br, i. e. with increasing electron attraction by the substituent. The high sensitivity of the rate constants for the 2-exo-p-toluenesulfonates 1 to σ indicates an unusually strong inductive interaction between C(6) and the incipient cationic center at C(2). This interaction is ascribed to the participation of the pentacoordinate C(6)-atom, i. e. to 1,3-bridging, a consequence of steric hindrance of nucleophilic solvent participation in norbornanes. Donor substituents enhance 1,3-bridging, lead to faster reactions and to the formation of 2-exo substitution products. Conversely, acceptor substituents reduce 1,3-bridging, decrease rates and facilitate the formation of 2-endo substitution products. Graded 1,3-bridging is discussed in the light of Winstein's nonclassical ion concept.     

Accurate double many-body expansion potential energy surface for triplet H3+. II. The upper adiabatic sheet (2(3)A')

We report on a global potential energy hypersurface for the upper sheet of the lowest triplet state of H3+. The analytic representation is based on the double many-body expansion theory. The ab initio data points, calculated with a large cc-pV5Z basis, are represented with a root mean square deviation of only 5.54 cm(-1) in the energy region below the H(+)+2H(2S) dissociation threshold. The quasi-bound vibronic states supported by this surface have also been calculated.     

Rydberg-London potential for diatomic molecules and unbonded atom pairs

We propose and test a pair potential that is accurate at all relevant distances and simple enough for use in large-scale computer simulations. A combination of the Rydberg potential from spectroscopy and the London inverse-sixth-power energy, the proposed form fits spectroscopically determined potentials better than the Morse, Varnshi, and Hulburt-Hirschfelder potentials and much better than the Lennard-Jones and harmonic potentials. At long distances, it goes smoothly to the London force appropriate for gases and preserves van der Waals's "continuity of the gas and liquid states," which is routinely violated by coefficients assigned to the Lennard-Jones 6-12 form.     

Polar Substituent Effects in the Solvolysis of Primary and Tertiary Alkyl Halides. Polar Effect IX

When the Hammett-Taft equation log (k/k_o)=ρ^q · σ is applied to the solvolysis of the 3-substituted propyl bromides 6a-6i in ethanol/water 4:1 (v/v) log k correlates linearly with σ except in cases where R exerts an anchimeric effect. The reaction constant ρ^q for 6 is ? 0.12 and is typical for a nucleophilic solvent-assisted k_s process at a primary C-atom. The tertiary halides 1 and 3 , however, which react with little or no nucleophilic solvent assistance, i.e. by k_c processes, lead to larger ρ^q values of ?0.71 and ?1.14, respectively. The reaction constant p^q is therefore a sensitive gauge for charge development in the transition state for solvolysis of saturated compounds.     

Model studies for the synthesis of galbonolide B

The construction of the fourteen membered ring present in galbonolide B 1 is reported. The 10,11-diene system present in the southern portion of has been constructed using an ester enolate rearrangement/silicon mediated fragmentation cascade, whilst the macrocycle has been synthesised following a Johnson rearrangement/mercury assisted ring closure protocol.     

Multiple-steering QM-MM calculation of the free energy profile in chorismate mutase

A novel technique for computing free energy profiles in enzymatic reactions using the multiple steering molecular dynamics approach in the context of an efficient QM-MM density functional scheme is presented. The conversion reaction of chorismate to prephenate catalyzed by the Bacillus subtilis enzyme chorismate mutase has been chosen as an illustrative example.     

Effect of synthesis method and buffer composition on the LCST of a smart copolymer of N‐isopropylacrylamide and acrylic acid

Responsive polymers have been the focus of many studies during the past decade because of their ability to change according to environmental stimuli. In this paper, we report on the development of a method to synthesize a pH/temperature‐sensitive linear copolymer, poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide‐ co‐acrylic acid)(poly(NIPAAm‐co‐AAc)), with a molecular weight of about 10⁶–10⁵ Da in water using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator. The effects of the following on the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the copolymer and homopolymer of NIPAAm were investigated: the type of buffer salts and pH changes of test solutions, molecular weight and concentration of homopolymer/copolymer solutions, and AAc monomer molar feed ratio (mol%). The effects of different synthesis methods on the molecular weight and on the AAc content were also evaluated. The mechanism of action in environments with different pH values is discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.