Differentiation of isobaric compounds using chemical ionization reaction mass spectrometry

The technique of proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry (PTR-MS) couples a proton transfer reagent, usually H3O+, with a drift tube and mass spectrometer to determine concentrations of volatile organic compounds. Here we describe a first attempt to use chemical ionization (CI) reagents other than proton transfer species inside a PTR-MS instrument. The ability to switch to other types of CI reagents provides an extra dimension to the technique. This capability is demonstrated by focusing on the ability to distinguish several isobaric aldehydes and ketones, including the atmospherically important molecules methacrolein and methyl vinyl ketone. Two CI reagents were selected, H3O+ and NO+, both being cleanly generated in a low intensity radioactive source prior to injection into the drift tube. By recording spectra with both of these reagents, the contributions from different isobaric molecules can be separated by virtue of their unique spectrometric 'fingerprints'. The work demonstrates that this form of instrumentation is not restricted to proton transfer reagents and is the basis of a more general technique, chemical ionization reaction mass spectrometry (CIRMS).     

BLEACHING OF PURPLE MEMBRANE WITH O-SUBSTITUTED HYDROXYLAMINES

Abstract The retinal Schiff base of bacteriorhodopsin, in the purple membrane from Halobacterium halobium , can be cleaved by hydroxylamine in the presence of light. We have further investigated this reaction with a series of O -substituted hydroxylamines, RONH₂, where R = -H (HA), -CH₃ (MHA), -SO₃− (HAS), benzyl- (BHA), p -nitrobenzyl- (NBHA), and pentafluorobenzyl- (FBHA). All except MHA caused light-induced bleaching of the purple membrane and the chromophore could be regenerated from apomembrane and all- trans retinal. Relative bleaching rate constants were obtained from V = QI _a k ₀ X /( k _r+ k ₀ X ), where V = bleaching rate, Q = quantum yield, I a = absorbed light intensity, X = hydroxylamine concentration, k ₀= rate constant for bleaching and k _r= rate constant for return of photoexcited bacteriorhodopsin to the initial state. This equation fits the time-, concentration- and intensity-dependences of the bleaching reactions in 0.02 M phosphate, pH 7.0. The rate constants k ₀ relative to HA were: MHA: 0; HAS: 0.3; HA: 1.0; BHA: 1.8; FBHA: 10.1; NBHA: 10.8. The relative rate constants do not correlate with the basicity of the derivatives. Instead, the results suggest that the retinal Schiff base is near a non-polar cavity into which an aromatic group can be inserted.     

Metabolic fingerprinting of Ephedra species using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and principal component analysis

The metabolomic analysis of Ephedra species was performed using 1H-NMR spectroscopy and multivariate data analysis. A broad range of metabolites could be detected by 1H-NMR spectroscopy without any chromatographic separation. The principal component analysis used to reduce the huge data set obtained from the 1H-NMR spectra of the plant extracts clearly discriminated three different Ephedra species. The major differences in Ephedra sinica, Ephedra intermedia and Ephedra distachya var. distachya were found to be due to benzoic acid analogues in the aqueous fraction and ephedrine-type alkaloids in the organic fraction. Based on this metabolomic recognition, one of nine commercial Ephedra materials evaluated was shown to be a mixture of Ephedra species. This method will be a useful tool for chemotaxonomic analysis and authentification of Ephedra species including quality control of plant materials.     

Tandem Michael‐addition/cyclization synthesis and EGFR kinase inhibition activity of pyrido[2,3‐d]pyrimidin‐7(8H)‐ones

5‐Methoxy and 5‐anilinopyrido[2,3‐d]pyrimidin‐7(8H)‐ones 2a‐2f were obtained by a tandem Michael addition‐cyclization reaction of methanol and anilines with pyrimidinylpropynoate 5. Methoxy derivative 2a was obtained in 62% yield by treatment of 5 with methanol and potassium carbonate. Anilino derivatives 2b‐2f were prepared in 31–71% yields by reacting 5 with the corresponding anilines in refluxing methanol. This methodology accomplishes Michael‐addition and pyridopyrimidinone ring formation in one‐pot and affords the desired products in reasonable yield without chromatography. Propynoate 5 did not react with 4‐cyanoaniline under these conditions. Reaction of 5 with 2‐aminopyridine gave the unexpected arylpyrido[2,3‐d]pyrimidinone 8 in 58% yield and reaction of 5 with imidazole afforded Michael‐adduct 9 in 69% yield. Compounds 2a and 5 were submicromolar inhibitors of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase.     

Mechanistic study of enantiomeric recognition with native gamma-cyclodextrin by capillary electrophoresis,reversed-phase liquid chromatography,nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,electrospray mass spectrometry and circular dichroism techniques

The possible mechanisms for the chiral recognition of 2(S)-(3,5-bis-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-[3(S)-(4-fluorophenyl)-4-(1H-[1,2,4]triazol-3-ylmethyl)-morpholin-2(R)-yloxy]-ethanol (compound A) and its enantiomer with native gamma-cyclodextrin (gamma-CD) were investigated using capillary electrophoresis (CE), reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), proton (1H), fluorine (19F) and carbon (13C) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and circular dichroism (CD). All experiments provided clear evidence of the formation of diastereomeric complexes between the enantiomers and gamma-CD. Proton, fluorine and carbon NMR spectra suggested that both aromatic rings, with mono-fluoro and bis-tri-fluoro functional groups, on the guest molecule were partially included into the cavity of the gamma-CD. ESI-MS spectra indicated that the diastereomeric complexes have a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio. The binding constants of the diastereomeric complexes obtained by CE, RPLC and CD were compared. The effects of the gamma-CD concentration, organic modifiers and temperature on the CE-chiral separation were also investigated.     

Formation and isomerisation of theO-sulphito complex of 1,4,7,10,13-penta-azacyclohexadecanecobalt(III)

Summary Dissolved SO₂ reacts rapidly with [Co([16]aneN₅)OH]²⁺ to give [Co([16]aneN₅OSO₂]⁺([16]aneN₅=1,4,7,10, 13-penta-azacyclohexadecane), which on immediate acidification loses SO₂ to give [Co([16]aneN₅)OH₂]³⁺. The O-bonded sulphito complex (_max 526 nm) undergoes a slow linkage isomerisation to give the S-bonded species [Co([16]aneN₅)SO₃]⁺ (_max 466 nm), rather than an internal redox reaction. The S-bonded complex has been isolated and characterised as the perchlorate salt [Co([16]aneN₅) (SO₃H)](ClO₄)₂.     

Diffusion coefficients of the monomer and oligomers in hydroxyethyl methacrylate

The diffusion coefficients are reported of rubbery ternary systems consisting of the polymer, its monomer analogue (i.e., the saturated equivalent of the monomer), and trace quantities of oligomers (dimer, trimer, tetramer and hexamer) for 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA). These have been obtained with pulsed‐field‐gradient NMR spectroscopy with a polymer weight fraction (f_p) of 0 ≤ f_p ≤ 0.4. The oligomers are macromonomers synthesized with a cobalt catalytic chain‐transfer agent. The diffusion coefficients are about an order of magnitude smaller than those for monomers such as methyl methacrylate; this effect is ascribed to hydrogen bonding in HEMA. The diffusion coefficient D_i of an i‐meric oligomer has been fitted with moderate accuracy by an empirical universal scaling relation, D_i(f_p)/D₁(f_p) ≈ i, previously found to provide an adequate fit to corresponding data for styrene and for methyl and butyl methacrylates. The approximate empirical scaling relation seems to hold for a remarkably wide range of types of monomer/polymer systems. These results are of use in modeling rates and molecular weight distributions in free‐radical polymerization, particularly for termination (which is chain‐length‐dependent and is controlled by the diffusion coefficient of chains of the low degrees of polymerization studied here). © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 41: 2491–2501, 2003     

Cu3(mu-S)2]3+ clusters supported by N-donor ligands: progress toward a synthetic model of the catalytic site of nitrous oxide reductase

By treating Cu(I) complexes of neutral, bidentate N-donor ligands with S8, clusters with novel delocalized mixed-valence [Cu3(mu-S)2]3+ cores have been isolated. X-ray crystal structures and UV-vis and resonance Raman spectral features of these clusters reveal similarities to the tetracopper-sulfide "CuZ" site in nitrous oxide reductase. A delocalized S = 1 ground state for the mixed-valent CuIIICu2II cores is supported by the observation of high symmetry in the X-ray structures and 10-line hyperfine features arising from coupling to three equivalent Cu ions in EPR spectra obtained at room temperature (shown) and 10 K. The delocalization we observe contrasts with the localization reported previously for a [Cu3(mu-O)2]3+ analogue (Root, D. E.; Henson, M. J.; Machonkin, T.; Mukherjee, P.; Stack, T. D. P.; Solomon, E. I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 4982), which we rationalized through DFT calculations.     

Investigation of Pd leaching from supported Pd catalysts during the Heck reaction

Palladium supported on amorphous silica, mercapto-functionalized silica, amine functionalized silica, and zeolite Y has been studied as a catalyst in the Heck reaction of iodobenzene with butyl acrylate in the presence of triethylamine base and dimethylformamide solvent. Trapping of soluble Pd with poly(4-vinylpyridine), hot filtration tests during the batchwise Heck reaction, and reaction tests of effluents from a fixed bed continuous reactor support the conclusion that leached Pd is the active phase in the Heck reaction for all of the catalysts tested. Two different paths of Pd leaching that depend on the chemical state of the Pd were elucidated in this study. Oxidative addition of aryl halide to reduced Pd caused leaching of samples containing metallic particles. However, for a zeolite Y sample containing unreduced cationic Pd, the presence of triethylamine base was required to leach Pd into solution. These two paths of Pd leaching are consistent with the generally accepted mechanism of the Heck reaction.     

Theoretical study of the CH2 + O photodissociation of formaldehyde adsorbed on the Ag(111) surface

Configuration interaction calculations of the ground and excited states of the H2CO molecule adsorbed on the Ag(111) surface have been carried out to study the photoinduced dissociation process leading to polymerization of formaldehyde. The metal-adsorbate system has been described by the embedded cluster and multireference configuration interaction methods. The pi electron-attachment H2CO- and n-pi* internally excited H2CO* states have been considered as possible intermediates. The calculations have shown that H2CO* is only very weakly bound on Ag(111), and thus that the dissociation of adsorbed formaldehyde due to internal excitation is unlikely. By contrast, the H2CO- anion is strongly bound to Ag(111) and gains additional vibrational energy along the C-O stretch coordinate via Franck-Condon excitation from the neutral molecule. Computed energy variations of adsorbed H2CO and H2CO- at different key geometries along the pathway for C-O bond cleavage make evident, however, that complete dissociation is very difficult to attain on the potential energy surface of either of these states. Instead, reneutralization of the vibrationally excited anion by electron transfer back to the substrate is the most promising means of breaking the C-O bond, with subsequent formation of the coadsorbed O and CH2 fragments. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the most stable state for both dissociation fragments on Ag(111) is a closed-shell singlet, with binding energies relative to the gas-phase products of approximately 3.2 and approximately 1.3 eV for O and CH2, respectively. Further details of the reaction mechanism for the photoinduced C-O bond cleavage of H2CO on the Ag(111) surface are also given.