Three-dimensional acentric coordination polymers formed from the linkage of cobalt and nickel malonate quadratic layers through a kinked organodiimine: Synthesis,structure, thermal properties and magnetochemistry

Hydrothermal synthesis has afforded a pair of isostructural acentric three-dimensional coordination polymers {[M₂(malonate)₂(dpa)(H₂O)₂] · 2H₂O}_n (M = Co, 1; M = Ni, 2; dpa = 4,4′-dipyridylamine), which were structurally characterized via single-crystal X-ray diffraction and spectroscopically and thermally analyzed. Both materials exhibit exotridentate malonate ligands conjoining metal atoms into grid-like [M(malonate)(H₂O)]_n layers; in turn, these are connected into 3-D sqp lattices (4⁴6⁶ topology) through tethering dpa ligands. The central kink and inter-ring torsion within the dpa ligands enforces the acentric Aba2 space group of crystals of 1 and 2. Antiferromagnetic coupling (g = 2.08(2), J = –1.05(8) cm⁻³) was observed within the malonate-bridged layer motifs within the cobalt derivative 1. In contrast, the nickel congener 2 exhibited ferromagnetic coupling (g = 2.201(1), J = 0.289(1) cm⁻³).     

Analysis of Renal Cell Carcinoma Cell Response to the Enhancement of 5-aminolevulinic Acid-mediated Protoporphyrin IX Fluorescence by Iron Chelator Deferoxamine†

As a tumor photodiagnostic agent, 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is metabolized in the heme biosynthesis pathway to produce protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) with fluorescence. ALA-PpIX fluorescence was evaluated in human renal cell carcinoma (RCC) cell lines and non-tumor HK-2 cell lines. We found that extracellular PpIX level was correlated with ABCG2 activity, illustrating its importance as a PpIX efflux transporter. Extracellular PpIX was also related to the K_m of ferrochelatase (FECH) that chelates PpIX with ferrous iron to form heme. The V_max of FECH was higher in all RCC cell lines tested than in the HK-2 cell line. TCGA dataset analysis indicates a positive correlation between FECH expression and RCC patient survival. These findings suggest FECH as an important biomarker in RCC. Effects of iron chelator deferoxamine (DFO) on the enhancement of PpIX fluorescence were assessed. DFO increased intracellular PpIX in both tumor and non-tumor cells, resulting in no gain in tumor/non-tumor fluorescence ratios. DFO appeared to increase ALA-PpIX more at 1-h than at 4-h treatment. There was an inverse correlation between ALA-PpIX fluorescence and the enhancement effect of DFO. These results suggest that enhancement of ALA-PpIX by DFO may be limited by the availability of ferrous iron in mitochondria following ALA administration.     

Upcycling of Polybutadiene Facilitated by Selenium-Mediated Allylic Amination

Accumulation of end-of-life plastics presents ongoing environmental concerns. One strategy to solve this grand challenge is to invent new techniques that modify post-consumer waste and impart new functionality. While promising approaches for the chemical upcycling of commodity polyolefins and polyaromatics exist, analogous approaches to repurpose unsaturated polymers (e.g., polybutadiene) are scarce. In this work, we propose a method to upcycle polybutadiene, one of the most widely used commercial rubbers, via a mild, metal-free allylic amination reaction. The resulting materials have tunable thermal and surface wetting properties as a function of both sulfonamide identity and grafting density. Importantly, this approach maintains the parent alkene microstructure without evidence of olefin reduction, olefin transposition, and/or chain scission. Based on these findings, we anticipate future applications in the remediation of complex elastomers and vulcanized rubbers.     

Tracking phototactic responses and modeling motility of Synechocystis sp. strain PCC6803

The unicellular cyanobacterium Synechocystis sp. Strain PCC 6,803 exhibits phototaxis by moving along a surface towards a light source. This process requires Type IV pili and a phytochrome-like photoreceptor coupled to a complex signal transduction pathway. Cells progress through different phases of interaction before the development of finger-like projections moving in the direction of the light that are characteristic of phototaxis. To probe the interaction between individual cells during the initial phase of phototaxis we tracked and analyzed a large number of cells. We observed that individual cells have limited motility, but when cells divide and/or aggregate to attain a certain minimal group size, enhanced motility and phototaxis is observed. At the later stages of motility, there is noticeable phototactic behavior which results in the appearance of the finger-like projections. Our results indicate that cells prefer to move over areas previously traversed by other cells and confine themselves to these areas and that cells alter local surface characteristics allowing for enhanced motility. Based on cell tracking data we present a preliminary random walk model showing the forces that might interact to create the typical phases of phototaxis and motility. In this model, we can simulate the formation of finger-like projections that are characteristic of phototaxis.     

Evaluating reproducibility and similarity of mass and intensity data in complex spectra—applications to tubulin

We present a data processing approach based on the spectral dot product for evaluating spectral similarity and reproducibility. The method introduces 95% confidence intervals on the spectral dot product to evaluate the strength of spectral correlation; it is the only calculation described to date that accounts for both the non-normal sampling distribution of the dot product and the number of peaks the spectra have in common. These measures of spectral similarity allow for the recursive generation of a consensus spectrum, which incorporates the most consistent features from statistically similar replicate spectra. Taking the spectral dot product and 95% confidence intervals between consensus spectra from different samples yields the similarity between these samples. Applying the data analysis scheme to replicates of brain tubulin CNBr peptides enables a robust comparison of tubulin isotype expression and post-translational modification patterns in rat and cow brains.     

Dynamics of hyperthermal collisions of O(3P) with CO

The dynamics of O(3P) + CO collisions at a hyperthermal collision energy near 80 kcal mol-1 have been studied with a crossed molecular beams experiment and with quasi-classical trajectory calculations on computed potential energy surfaces. In the experiment, a rotatable mass spectrometer detector was used to monitor inelastically and reactively scattered products as a function of velocity and scattering angle. From these data, center-of-mass (c.m.) translational energy and angular distributions were derived for the inelastic and reactive channels. Isotopically labeled C18O was used to distinguish the reactive channel (16O + C18O 16OC + 18O) from the inelastic channel (16O + C18O 16O + C18O). The reactive 16OC molecules scattered predominantly in the forward direction, i.e., in the same direction as the velocity vector of the reagent O atoms in the c.m. frame. The c.m. translational energy distribution of the reactively scattered 16OC and 18O was very broad, indicating that 16OC is formed with a wide range of internal energies, with an average internal excitation of approximately 40% of the available energy. The c.m. translational energy distribution of the inelastically scattered C18O and 16O products indicated that an average of 15% of the collision energy went into internal excitation of C18O, although a small fraction of the collisions transferred nearly all the collision energy into internal excitation of C18O. The theoretical calculations, which extend previously published results on this system, predict c.m. translational energy and angular distributions that are in near quantitative agreement with the experimentally derived distributions. The theoretical calculations, thus validated by the experimental results, have been used to derive internal state distributions of scattered CO products and to probe in detail the interactions that lead to the observed dynamical behavior.     

Prediction of molecular properties including symmetry from quantum-based molecular structural formulas, VIF

Structurally covariant valency interaction formulas, VIF, gain chemical significance by comparison with resonance structures and natural bond orbital, NBO, bonding schemes and at the same time allow for additional prediction such as symmetry of ring systems and destabilization of electron pairs with respect to reference energy of -1/2 Eh. Comparisons are based on three chemical interpretations of Sinano?lu's theory of structural covariance: (1) sets of structurally covariant quantum structural formulas, VIF, are interpreted as the same quantum operator represented in linearly related basis frames; (2) structurally covariant VIF pictures are interpreted as sets of molecular species with similar energy; and (3) the same VIF picture can be interpreted as different quantum operators, one-electron density or Hamiltonian; for example. According to these three interpretations, bond pair, lone pair, and free radical electrons understood in terms of a localized orbital representation are recognized as having energies above, below, or equal to a predetermined reference, frequently-1/2 Eh. The probable position of electron pairs and radical electrons is predicted. The selectivity of concerted ring closures in allyl anion and cation is described. Symmetries of conjugated ring systems are predicted according to their numbers of pi-electrons and spin-multiplicity. The pi-distortivity of benzene is predicted.The 3c/2e- H-bridging bonds in diborane are derived in a natural way according to the notion that the bridging bonds will have delocalizing interactions between them consistent with results of the NBO method. Key chemical bonding motifs are described using VIF. These include 2c/1e-, 2c/2e-, 2c/3e-, 3c/2e-, 3c/3e-,3c/4e-, 4n antiaromatic, and 4n+2 aromatic bonding systems. Some common organic functional groups are represented as VIF pictures and because these pictures can be interpreted simultaneously as one-electron density and Hamiltonian operators, the valence shell electron pair repulsion method is applied toward understanding the energies of valence NBOs with respect to the reference energy of -1/2Eh.     

A study of the photochemistry of Diazo Meldrum's acid by ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopies

The photochemistry of Diazo Meldrum's acid (DM) was investigated by fs time-resolved UV-vis and IR spectroscopic methods. UV (266 nm) excitation of DM pumps the molecule to the S 5 and S 7 excited states. After fast internal conversion (IC), the S 2 state is formed, which will undergo Wolff rearrangement to form vibrationally excited ketene, which relaxes in 9 ps. The S 2 state will also relax to the S 1 state, which isomerizes to diazirine, fragments to form carbene, and relaxes further to the ground state of DM. The singlet carbene absorbs at 305 nm, is formed within 300 fs of the laser pulse, and has a lifetime of 2.3 ps in acetonitrile. The lifetime of DM in the S 2 and S 1 states is less than 300 fs. The quantum efficiency of DM decomposition is approximately 50% in chloroform with 266 nm excitation.     

Preparation of silyl substituted crotylzinc reagents and their highly diastereoselective addition to carbonyl compounds

Readily prepared beta-silyl substituted crotylzinc reagents undergo highly selective allylation of carbonyl compounds leading to syn-homoallylic alcohols.