Microfluidic platform for combinatorial synthesis in picolitre droplets

This paper presents a droplet-based microfluidic platform for miniaturized combinatorial synthesis. As a proof of concept, a library of small molecules for early stage drug screening was produced. We present an efficient strategy for producing a 7 × 3 library of potential thrombin inhibitors that can be utilized for other combinatorial synthesis applications. Picolitre droplets containing the first type of reagent (reagents A(1), A(2), …, A(m)) were formed individually in identical microfluidic chips and then stored off chip with the aid of stabilizing surfactants. These droplets were then mixed to form a library of droplets containing reagents A(1-m), each individually compartmentalized, which was reinjected into a second microfluidic chip and combinatorially fused with picolitre droplets containing the second reagent (reagents B(1), B(2), …, B(n)) that were formed on chip. The concept was demonstrated with a three-component Ugi-type reaction involving an amine (reagents A(1-3)), an aldehyde (reagents B(1-7)), and an isocyanide (held constant), to synthesize a library of small molecules with potential thrombin inhibitory activity. Our technique produced 10(6) droplets of each reaction at a rate of 2.3 kHz. Each droplet had a reaction volume of 3.1 pL, at least six orders of magnitude lower than conventional techniques. The droplets can then be divided into aliquots for different downstream screening applications. In addition to medicinal chemistry applications, this combinatorial droplet-based approach holds great potential for other applications that involve sampling large areas of chemical parameter space with minimal reagent consumption; such an approach could be beneficial when optimizing reaction conditions or performing combinatorial reactions aimed at producing novel materials.     

Impact of electron-electron interaction on the electron energy distribution function in molecular plasmas under rf field action

Calculations of the electron energy distribution and of relevant macroscopic quantities of collision-dominated, weakly ionized plasmas under rf field action have been performed with increasing degrees of ionization, and the impact of the electron-electron interaction on these quantities was determined. The investigations were performed for the gas plasmas in CO and H₂ as representatives of molecular plasmas The energy distribution and macroscopic quantities are obtained by solving the nonstationary Bolizmann equation for a given rf field and degree of ionization taking into accoung and additional Fokker-Planck term besides the collision integrals for the elastic and the main inelastic collision processes. In these molecular plasmas a remarkable impact of the electron-electron interaction connected with increasing Maxwellization is observed for degrees of ionization greater than 10.     

Do large molecules ionize?

A possible mechanism for the ionization or lack thereof in large molecules is discussed. The experimental observation is that the ionization efficiency rapidly decreases with increasing weight, whether one uses electron impact, single-photon or multi-photon ionization. Possible mechanisms for this decline in the yield of ions are considered. It is suggested that in larger molecules ionization occurs through the intermediate formation of charge pairs which can ionize in a unimolecular-like fashion due to an energy fluctuation. A more probable route is however for the charge pairs to recombine. Possible experimental tests of the proposed mechanism are considered and a scaling law for the mass-dependence is derived and shown to fit the available data.     

Solubility of gases in liquids. 18. High-precision determination of Henry fugacities for argon in liquid water at 2 to 40°C

The solubility of argon in pure liquid water was measured at ca. 100 kPa and from 2 to 40°C using an analytical method characterized by an imprecision of about ±0.05%. From the experimental results, Henry fugacities H _2,1 (T,P _s,1 ) (also known as Henry's Law constants or Henry coefficients) at the vapor pressure P _s,1 of water as well as Ostwald coefficients L _2,1 at infinite dilution were obtained. Measurements were made at roughly 0.5°C and/or 1° intervals between 2 and 8°C (region I), and at 5°C intervals above 10°C (region II). A difference plot lnH _2,1 /T suggests an unusual temperature dependence in region I, i.e., between 2 and 8°C. Because of this, the data were treated separately in two parts corresponding to these two regions. Our results are compared with the recent high-precision data of Krause and Benson (Henry fugacities), and with calorimetrically determined quantities (enthalpies and heat capacities of solution). Finally, experimental results are compared with values calculated via scaled particle theory.Communicated in part at the 2^nd International Symposium on Solubility Phenomena in Newark, New Jersey, August 12–15, 1986, and at the 4^th ISSP in Troy, New York, July 20–August 3, 1990.     

Targeting prohibited substances in doping control blood samples by means of chromatographic–mass spectrometric methods

Urine samples have been the predominant matrix for doping controls for several decades. However, owing to the complementary information provided by blood (as well as serum or plasma and dried blood spots (DBS)), the benefits of its analysis have resulted in continuously increasing appreciation by anti-doping authorities. On the one hand, blood samples allow for the detection of various different methods of blood doping and the abuse of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) via the Athlete Biological Passport; on the other hand, targeted and non-targeted drug detection by means of chromatographic–mass spectrometric methods represents an important tool to increase doping control frequencies out-of-competition and to determine drug concentrations particularly in in-competition scenarios. Moreover, blood analysis seldom requires in-depth knowledge of drug metabolism, and the intact substance rather than potentially unknown or assumed metabolic products can be targeted. In this review, the recent developments in human sports drug testing concerning mass spectrometry-based techniques for qualitative and quantitative analyses of therapeutics and emerging drug candidates are summarized and reviewed. The analytical methods include both low and high molecular mass compounds (e.g., anabolic agents, stimulants, metabolic modulators, peptide hormones, and small interfering RNA (siRNA)) determined from serum, plasma, and DBS using state-of-the-art instrumentation such as liquid chromatography (LC)–high resolution/high accuracy (tandem) mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS), LC–low resolution tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS).