Reaction Engineering Aspects of α-l,4-D-Glucan Phosphorylase Catalysis

Some important process properties of α-l,4-D-ghican phosphorylases isolated from the bacteriumCorynebacterium callunae and potato tubers (Solatium tuberosum) were compared. Apart from minor differences in their stability and specificity (represented by the maximum degree of maltodextrin conversion) and a 10-fold higher affinity of the plant phosphorylase for maltodextrin (K _M of 1.3 g/L at 300 mM of orthophosphate), the performances of both enzymes in a continuous ultrafiltration membrane reactor were almost identical. Product synthesis was carried out over a time course of 300–400 h in the presence or absence of auxiliary pullulanase (increasing the accessibility of the glucan substrate for phosphorolytic attack up to 15–20%). The effect of varied dilution rate and reaction temperature on the resulting productivities was quantitated, and a maximum operational temperature of 40°C was identified.     

On-line determination of organophosphorus pesticides in water by solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography with thermionic-selective detection

This paper describes the extraction of 49 organophosphorus pesti-cides (OPPs) from water samples using solid-phase microextraction (SPME). Three fibers, including a 15-μm XAD-coated fiber, a 85-μm polyacrylate-coated fiber, and a 30-μm polydimethylsilox-ane-coated fiber (PDMS), were evaluated here. The effects of stirring and the addition of NaCl to the sample were examined for the polyacrylate-coated fiber. The precision of the technique was examined for all three fibers and the extraction kinetics were investigated using the XAD- and polyacrylate-coated fibers. With some exceptions, the XAD- and polyacrylate-coated fibers performed better than the PDMS-coated fiber. The superiority of the XAD-nd polyacrylate-coated fiber. The superiority of the XAD- and polyacrylate-coated fibers over the PDMS-coated fibers can be attribuibuted to the aromatic functionalities of the XAD and the polar functionalities in the polyacrylate. The relatively high percent RSDs indicate that the SPME technique needs to be further refined before it can be used for anything other than screening. A more effective form of agitation than mechanical stirring may be neccessary to reduce variability and achieve a faster equilibrium between the sample and the SPME fiber.     

Syntheses and reactions of some 4,5-dihaloimidazole-2-carboxylic acid derivatives

The preparation of 5H,10H-diimidazo[1,2-a:1′,2′-d]pyrazine-5,10-dione ( 2a ) and its 2,3,7,8-tetrabromo- and 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro- analogs ( 2b and 2c , respectively) is reported. These dimers, when allowed to react with various anilines, afford imidazole-2-carboxamides ( 3a-c ).     

(1-Adamantanethio)pyridines and tetrahydropyridines from the reaction of 1-adamantanethiol with pyridine I-oxide in acetic anhydride

The reaction of pyridine 1-oxide with 1-adamantanethiol in acetic anhydride produced a mixture of 2- and 3-(1-adamantanethio)pyridines, 1-aeetyl-2-(1-adamantanethio)-3-hydroxy-4-acetoxy-1,2,3,4-telrahydropyridine and the corresponding 3-acetoxyderivative. Pure substances were separated by means of column chromatography on alumina. The tetrahydropyridines were identified by means of their proton magnetic and mass spectra. 4-(1-Adamantanethio)pyridine was synthesized from 4-chloropyridinc and 1-adamantanethiol. The three isomeric (1-adamantanethio)-pyridines were, each, cleaved by concentrated hydrochloric acid to give 1-chloroadamantane and the corresponding pyridinethiol.     

Reductive claisen rearrangements of anthraquinone allyl ethers

Gentle heating of allyloxyanthraquinones with sodium dithionite in dimethylformanide - water effects a rapid and controlled rearrangement to give high yields of 2-allyanthraquinones.     

On the number of faces of centrally-symmetric simplicial polytopes

I. Bárány and L. Lovász [Acta Math. Acad. Sci. Hung.40, 323–329 (1982)] showed that ad-dimensional centrally-symmetric simplicial polytopeP has at least 2 ^d facets, and conjectured a lower bound for the numberf _i ofi-dimensional faces ofP in terms ofd and the numberf ₀ =2n of vertices. Define integers A. Björner conjectured (unpublished) that (which generalizes the result of Bárány-Lovász sincef _d–1 = h _i ), and more strongly that , which is easily seen to imply the conjecture of Bárány-Lovász. In this paper the conjectures of Björner are proved.Partially supported by NSF grant MCS-8104855. The research was performed when the author was a Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at Caltech.