Assessing ion-exchange properties and purity of lipophilic electrolytes by potentiometry and spectrophotometry

Many ionic salts synthesized using metathesis are often found to contain significant amounts of impurities, despite careful control of the weighing of starting materials. In this work, a potentiometric method is devised to monitor ion-exchange properties (or ‘purity’) of an organic solvent containing a lipophilic electrolyte. Its permselective behaviour is monitored by treating the solvent as a liquid membrane and contacting it with two aqueous solutions with different electrolyte activities. This electrolyte mismatch results in a drastic potential change when excess lipophilic cation-exchanger is titrated with anion-exchanger, altering the membrane from being cation to anion responsive. Here, the cation-exchanger potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate (KTpClPB) dissolved in nitrobenzene was titrated with tetradodecylammonium chloride (TDDACl), in contact with Ag/AgCl electrodes placed in aqueous 1 M and 10^?2 M KCl, respectively. The predicted potential change of ?214 mV was observed at the equivalence point, forming the inert lipophilic electrolyte ETH 500, in a very small concentration range of added anion-exchanger (0.8% for ±10 mV), suggesting good precision. The approach was confirmed by monitoring absorbance and fluorescence intensity changes of the chromoionophore Nile Blue. This method may be applied for the synthesis of a range of highly lipophilic salts for which established metathesis protocols are not suitable.     

When is water not water? Exploring water confined in large reverse micelles using a highly charged inorganic molecular probe

The interior water pool of aerosol OT (AOT) reverse micelles tends toward bulk water properties as the micelle size increases. Thus, deviations from bulk water behavior in large reverse micelles are less expected than in small reverse micelles. Probing the interior water pool of AOT reverse micelles with a highly charged decavanadate (V(10)) oligomer using (51)V NMR spectroscopy shows distinct changes in solute environment. For example, when an acidic stock solution of protonated V(10) is placed in a reverse micelle, the (51)V chemical shifts show that the V(10) is deprotonated consistent with a decreased proton concentration in the intramicellar water pool. Results indicate that a proton gradient exists inside the reverse micelles, leaving the interior neutral while the interfacial region is acidic.     

Bis­[N‐(6‐amino‐3,4‐di­hydro‐3‐methyl‐5‐nitro­so‐4‐oxopyrimidin‐2‐yl)­glycyl­glycinato]­tri­aqua­calcium: ­coordination polymer chains linked by hydrogen bonds

In the title compound, [Ca(C₉H₁₁N₆O₅)₂(H₂O)₃], the Ca atom lies on a twofold rotation axis in C2/c and the three water mol­ecules are all disordered, each over two sites having equal occupancy. The anion acts as a bridging ligand between pairs of Ca sites on the same twofold axis, thus forming a one‐dimensional coordination polymer, with the chains lying along the twofold axes. These chains are linked by multiple O—H?O and N—H?O hydrogen bonds into a single three‐dimensional framework.     

A Short-Lived but Highly Cytotoxic Vanadium(V) Complex as a Potential Drug Lead for Brain Cancer Treatment by Intratumoral Injections

The chemistry and short lifetimes of metal-based anti-cancer drugs can be turned into an advantage for direct injections into tumors, which then allow the use of highly cytotoxic drugs. The release of their less toxic decomposition products into the blood will lead to decreased toxicity and can even have beneficial effects. We present a ternary V^V complex, 1 ([VOL¹L²], where L¹ is N-(salicylideneaminato)-N′-(2-hydroxyethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine and L² is 3,5-di-tert-butylcatechol), which enters cells intact to induce high cytotoxicity in a range of human cancer cells, including T98g (glioma multiforme), while its decomposition products in cell culture medium were ≈8-fold less toxic. 1 was 12-fold more toxic than cisplatin in T98g cells and 6-fold more toxic in T98g cells than in a non-cancer human cell line, HFF-1. Its high toxicity in T98g cells was retained in the presence of physiological concentrations of the two main metal-binding serum proteins, albumin and transferrin. These properties favor further development of 1 for brain cancer treatment by intratumoral injections.     

Layered structure of room-temperature ionic liquids in microemulsions by multinuclear NMR spectroscopic studies

Microemulsions form in mixtures of polar, nonpolar, and amphiphilic molecules. Typical microemulsions employ water as the polar phase. However, microemulsions can form with a polar phase other than water, which hold promise to diversify the range of properties, and hence utility, of microemulsions. Here microemulsions formed by using a room‐temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) as the polar phase were created and characterized by using multinuclear NMR spectroscopy. ¹H, ¹¹B, and ¹⁹F NMR spectroscopy was applied to explore differences between microemulsions formed by using 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([bmim][BF₄]) as the polar phase with a cationic surfactant, benzylhexadecyldimethylammonium chloride (BHDC), and a nonionic surfactant, Triton X‐100 (TX‐100). NMR spectroscopy showed distinct differences in the behavior of the RTIL as the charge of the surfactant head group varies in the different microemulsion environments. Minor changes in the chemical shifts were observed for [bmim]⁺ and [BF₄]^? in the presence of TX‐100 suggesting that the surfactant and the ionic liquid are separated in the microemulsion. The large changes in spectroscopic parameters observed are consistent with microstructure formation with layering of [bmim]⁺ and [BF₄]^? and migration of Cl^? within the BHDC microemulsions. Comparisons with NMR results for related ionic compounds in organic and aqueous environments as well as literature studies assisted the development of a simple organizational model for these microstructures.     

Measuring the solubility of benzoic acid in room temperature ionic liquids using chronoamperometric techniques

The electrochemical reduction of benzoic acid (BZA) has been studied at platinum micro‐electrodes (10 and 2 µm diameters) in acetonitrile (MeCN) and six room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs): [C₂mim][NTf₂], [C₄mim][NTf₂], [C₄mpyrr][NTf₂], [C₄mim][BF₄], [C₄mim][NO₃] and [C₄mim][PF₆] (where [C_nmim]⁺ = 1‐alkyl‐3‐methylimidazolium, [NTf₂]^? = bis(trifluoromethylsulphonyl)imide, [C₄mpyrr]⁺ = N‐butyl‐N‐methylpyrrolidinium, [BF₄]^? = tetrafluoroborate, [NO₃]^? = nitrate and [PF₆]^? = hexafluorophosphate). Based on the theoretical fitting to experimental chronoamperometric transients in [C₄mpyrr][NTf₂] and MeCN at several concentrations and on different size electrodes, it is suggested that a fast chemical step preceeds the electron transfer step in a CE mechanism (given below) in both RTILs and MeCN, leading to the appearance of a simple one‐electron transfer mechanism. The six RTIL solvents and MeCN were saturated with BZA, and potential‐step chronoamperometry revealed diffusion coefficients of 170, 4.6, 3.2, 2.7, 1.8, 0.26 and 0.96 × 10^?11 m² s^?1 and solubilities of 850, 75, 78, 74, 220, 2850 and 48 mM in MeCN and the six ionic liquids, respectively, at 298 K. The high solubility of BZA in [C₄mim][NO₃] may suggest a strong interaction of the dissolved proton with the nitrate anion. Although there are relatively few literature reports of solubilities of organic solutes in RTILs at present, these results suggest the need for further studies on the solubilities of organic species (particularly acids) in RTILs, because of the contrasting interaction of dissolved species with the RTIL ions. Chronoamperometry is suggested as a convenient methodology for this purpose. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Locking classical correlations in quantum States

We show that there exist bipartite quantum states which contain a large locked classical correlation that is unlocked by a disproportionately small amount of classical communication. In particular, there are (2n+1)-qubit states for which a one-bit message doubles the optimal classical mutual information between measurement results on the subsystems, from n/2 bits to n bits. This phenomenon is impossible classically. However, states exhibiting this behavior need not be entangled. We study the range of states exhibiting this phenomenon and bound its magnitude.     

Sixteen capillary electrophoresis applications for viral vaccine analysis

A broad range of CE applications from our organization is reviewed to give a flavor of the use of CE within the field of vaccine analyses. Applicability of CE for viral vaccine characterization, and release and stability testing of seasonal influenza virosomal vaccines, universal subunit influenza vaccines, Sabin inactivated polio vaccines (sIPV), and adenovirus vector vaccines were demonstrated. Diverse CZE, CE-SDS, CGE, and cIEF methods were developed, validated, and applied for virus, protein, posttranslational modifications, DNA, and excipient concentration determinations, as well as for the integrity and composition verifications, and identity testing (e.g., CZE for intact virus particles, CE-SDS application for hemagglutinin quantification and influenza strain identification, chloride or bromide determination in process samples). Results were supported by other methods such as RP-HPLC, dynamic light scattering (DLS), and zeta potential measurements. Overall, 16 CE methods are presented that were developed and applied, comprising six adenovirus methods, five viral protein methods, and methods for antibodies determination of glycans, host cell-DNA, excipient chloride, and process impurity bromide. These methods were applied to support in-process control, release, stability, process- and product characterization and development, and critical reagent testing. Thirteen methods were validated. Intact virus particles were analyzed at concentrations as low as 0.8 pmol/L. Overall, CE took viral vaccine testing beyond what was previously possible, improved process and product understanding, and, in total, safety, efficacy, and quality.