Reactive uptake of nitric acid onto sodium chloride aerosols across a wide range of relative humidities

Reactive uptake coefficients for nitric acid onto size-selected (d(ve) = 102 and 233 nm) sodium chloride aerosols are determined for relative humidities (RH) between 85% and 10%. Both pure sodium chloride and sodium chloride mixed with magnesium chloride (X(Mg/Na) = 0.114, typical of sea salt) are studied. The aerosol is equilibrated with a carrier gas stream at the desired RH and then mixed with nitric acid vapor at a concentration of 60 ppb in a laminar flow tube reactor. At the end of the reactor, the particle composition is determined in real time with a laser ablation single particle mass spectrometer. For relative humidities above the efflorescence relative humidity (ERH), the particles exist as liquid droplets and the uptake coefficient ranges from 0.05 at 85% RH to >0.1 near the ERH. The droplet sizes, relative humidity and composition dependencies, are readily predicted by thermodynamics. For relative humidities below the ERH, the particles are nominally "solid" and uptake depends on the amount of surface adsorbed water (SAW). The addition of magnesium chloride to the particle phase (0.114 mole ratio of magnesium to sodium) facilitates uptake by increasing the amount of SAW. In the presence of magnesium chloride, the uptake coefficient remains high (>0.1) down to 10% RH, suggesting that the displacement of chloride by nitrate in fine sea salt particles is efficient over the entire range of conditions in the ambient marine environment. In the marine boundary layer, displacement of chloride by nitrate in fine sea salt particles should be nearly complete within a few hours (faster in polluted areas)-a time scale much shorter than the particle residence time in the atmosphere.     

Temporal variability of the telluric sodium layer

The temporal variability of the telluric sodium layer is investigated by analyzing 28 nights of data obtained with the Colorado State University LIDAR experiment. The mean height power spectrum of the sodium layer was found to be well fitted by a power law over the observed range of frequencies, 10 microHz to 4 mHz. The best-fitting power law was found be be 10(beta)nu(alpha), with alpha=-1.79+/-0.02 and beta=1.12+/-0.40. Applications to wavefront sensing require knowledge of the behavior of the sodium layer at kilohertz frequencies. Direct measurements at these frequencies do not exist. Extrapolation from low-frequency behavior to high frequencies suggests that this variability may be a significant source of error for laser guide star adaptive optics in large-aperture telescopes.     

Rietveld refinement of the cocrystal 2,4‐dihydroxybenzoic acid–N′‐(propan‐2‐ylidene)nicotinohydrazide (1/1)

A further example of using a covalent‐bond‐forming reaction to alter supramolecular assembly by modification of hydrogen‐bonding possibilities is presented. This concept was introduced by Lemmerer, Bernstein & Kahlenberg [CrystEngComm (2011), 13 , 55–59]. The title structure, C₉H₁₁N₃O·C₇H₆O₄, which consists of a reacted niazid molecule, viz.N′‐(propan‐2‐ylidene)nicotinohydrazide, and 2,4‐dihydroxybenzoic acid, was solved from powder diffraction data using simulated annealing. The results further demonstrate the relevance and utility of powder diffraction as an analytical tool in the study of cocrystals and their hydrogen‐bond interactions.     

Direct,Enantioselective, and Nickel(II) Catalyzed Reactions of N-Azidoacetyl Thioimides with Trimethyl Orthoformate: A New Combined Methodology for the Rapid Synthesis of Lacosamide and Derivatives

A direct and highly enantioselective reaction of N-azidoacetyl-1,3-thiazolidine-2-thione with trimethyl orthoformate catalyzed by Tol-BINAPNiCl₂ in the presence of TESOTf and 2,6-lutidine is reported. The heterocyclic scaffold can be easily removed by addition of a wide array of amines to give the corresponding enantiomerically pure 2-azido-3,3-dimethoxypropanamides in high yields. Appropriate manipulation of the N-benzyl amide derivative provides an efficient access to the antiepileptic agent lacosamide through a new enantioselective C−C bond-forming process. DFT computational studies uncover clues for the understanding of the remarkable stereocontrol of the addition of a nickel(II) enolate to a putative oxocarbenium intermediate from trimethyl orthoformate.     

Permutations and riemann surfaces

Another combinatorial proof of a theorem of Ree's on permutations is offered. This proof makes use of the notion of the genus of pair of permutations.     

Probing the anomeric effect. The diaminomethylene group: Calculations of N?C?N-containing molecular systems1

A study of systems containing the title moiety is described, with special reference to the anomeric effect. We have calculated ab initio, using Gaussian-80 with the 3-21G basis set, all basic conformations of methylene-diamine (H₂N? CH₂? NH₂) and its N-methyl derivative with full geometry optimization of energy minima and barriers. The structural data thus obtained, were then employed to parameterize Allinger's MM2-80 force field in a procedure similar to that described for oxygen derivatives, including hydrogen-bonding effects and C? N bond shortening in tertiary amines. This modification, termed MM2-AE was then used to calculate larger molecules, including N,N′-di- and N,N,N′,N′-tetramethyl-methylenediamine, various 1,3-diazane systems, and 1,4,5,8-tetraazadecalin derivatives of established (x-ray) structures. The results are discussed in light of their verificative and predictive power and appear to validate MM2-AE as a useful computational procedure.     

Radiative corrections set up inflation: dynamical models

We establish the possibility that the initial configuration of fields for an inflationary period in the early universe can be set up by radiative corrections to the tree-level potential. A maximum of the radiatively-corrected potential can occur at an energy scale just above the Planck scale; we consider that the scalar (inflaton}) field rolls down from this maximum. In a model, we find that the radiative corrections also induce a minimum in the potential at a non–zero value of the energy scale somewhat below the Planck scale.     

pH-dependent behavior of surface-immobilized artificial leucine zipper proteins

The coiled-coil protein motif occurs in over 200 proteins and has generated interest for a range of applications requiring surface immobilization of the constituent peptides. This paper describes an investigation of the environment-responsive behavior of a monolayer of surface-immobilized artificial proteins, which are known to assemble to form coiled-coil structures in bulk solution. An extended version of the quartz crystal microbalance (QCM-D) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) are independently employed to characterize the adsorption of the proteins to a gold surface. The data suggest that the molecules arrange in a closely packed layer orientated perpendicular to the surface. QCM-D measurements are also employed to measure pH-induced changes in the resonant frequency (f) and the energy dissipation factor (D) of a gold-coated quartz crystal functionalized with the formed monolayer. Exposure of the protein monolayer to a pH 4.5 solution results in a shift of 43 Hz in f and a shift of -0.7 x 10(-6) in D as compared to pH 7.4. In contrast, increasing the pH to 11.2, results in f and D shifts of -17 Hz and 0.6 x 10(-6), respectively. The magnitude of the observed shifts suggests that the proteins form a rigid layer at low pH that can be hydrated to a fluid layer as the pH is increased. These observations correlate with spectroscopic changes that indicate a reduction in the helical content of the protein in bulk solutions of high pH.     

Characterization of structural transitions from aqueous solution to a lipid phase for α-MSH

Fluorescence spectroscopy results show that the α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone peptide (α-MSH) interacts with acidic lipid vesicles. Detectable structural changes are concomitant with the passage of a tryptophan residue from aqueous to lipidic media. The observed multiexponential decay of fluorescence, rationalized as originating from three rotameric populations of the tryptophan residue, has been used together with a matrix algorithm to find the most probable conformational families of α-MSH in water and lipid environments. A model is discussed in which the same conformational families occur in various phases, although with different probabilities. A conformational family in which χ₁ of the Trp9 side chain is in the trans-rotameric conformation is shown to have structural features highly appropriate to interact with negatively charged biological membranes, which are also in accordance with previous molecular dynamics simulations and with structures engineered in α-MSH analogs that show an increased potency in biological essays. The gauche minus and gauche plus side-chain conformations of Trp9, on the other hand, yield conformations more likely to predominate in aqueous solution. NMR spectroscopy measurements of α-MSH analogs indicate the existence in aqueous solution of a β strand in the vicinity of Trp9. A similar structural feature was found in the present conformational analysis for the gauche minus and gauche plus side-chain rotamers of Trp9. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.