3J(HH)?Pμ,ν correlation for planar 7-membered cyclic π-systems—structural effects on 3J(HH)

It is shown that sterically unperturbed vicinal HH coupling constants in planar 7-membered π-systems correlate linearly with the HMO π-bond order: ³J(HH) = 20.91P_μ,_ν–3.85 (r.m.s. error 0.26 Hz, correlation coefficient =0.988). Systematic deviations from this relationship which most probably originate from valence angle changes are found for fused π-systems containing rings of different size. Model calculations using the CNDO/2 method as well as finite perturbation theory and INDO wave functions support the experimental findings. An improvement of existing ³J(HH)? P_μ,_ν correlations for planar 6-membered rings is possible if CNDO/2 π-bond orders are used instead of HMO or PPP-SCF data.     

A Characterization of Intermediate Weyl Coefficients

 In connection with an indefinite analogue of canonical systems of differential equations some subclasses of the Nevanlinna class come up. We give a criterion for a function to belong to in terms of its poles and residues. Received 5 December 2000; in revised form 31 October 2001     

One-step controllable synthesis for high-quality ultrafine metal oxide semiconductor nanocrystals via a separated two-phase hydrolysis reaction

A one-step synthesis method is described to prepare high-quality ultrafine inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals via a two-phase interface hydrolysis reaction under hydrothermal conditions. With the synthesis of ZrO2 quantum dots as an example, we show that the prepared nanocrystals have good monodispersity and high crystallinity, as well as other related superior properties, e.g., strong photoluminescence and excellent photocatalytic activities. Also the crystal size can be conveniently adjusted in the range below 10 nm through controlling the reaction temperature. Besides that, this method also shows other distinct advantages compared with other methods reported previously. First, the preparation process is simple and cheap and does not contain any complicated posttreatment procedure. Second, products (without coating) can be collected from the organic phase which effectively avoids grain aggregation induced by the capillary concentration in the water environment. Third, the production yield is very high (almost 100%) and the organic and water phases after reaction can be easily recycled for next reaction. Therefore, it provides a promising strategy for the large-scale industrial production of different kinds of high-quality inorganic nanocrystals.     

Immobilization of light-harvesting chlorophyll a/b complex (LHCIIb) studied by surface plasmon field-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy

The major light-harvesting chlorophyll a/ b complex (LHCIIb) of the photosynthetic apparatus in green plants can be viewed as a protein scaffold binding and positioning a large number of pigment molecules that engage in rapid excitation energy transfer. This property makes LHCIIb potentially interesting as a light harvester (or a model thereof) in photoelectronic applications. Such applications would require the immobilization of LHCIIb (or similar dye-protein complexes) on a solid surface. In this work, the immobilization of recombinant LHCIIb is tested and optimized on functionalized gold surfaces via a histidine 6 tag (His tag) in the protein moiety. Immobilization efficiency and kinetics are analyzed by using surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and surface plasmon field-enhanced fluorescence spectroscopy (SPFS). The latter was also used to assess the integrity of immobilized LHCIIb by recording Chl b-sensitized Chl a emission spectra. Since His tags have been included in a substantial number of recombinant proteins, the immobilization technique developed here for LHCIIb presumably can be extended to a large range of other membrane and water-soluble proteins.