Analysis of reaction products of cocaine and hydrogen peroxide by high-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

The change of chemical structure of cocaine in the presence of hydrogen peroxide, a main component of hair dye and decolorant treatments, was studied. High-performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) was used for the separation and identification of cocaine derivatives. After a mixture of cocaine and hydrogen peroxide solutions was incubated at 39 degrees C (this temperature is commonly used when the hair is treated with hair dye or decolorant) for 24 h, six reaction products were detected by LC/MS. Two of them were ecgonine methyl ester and benzoylecgonine, which are metabolites of cocaine. The other reaction products were assumed to be ortho-, meta- and para-hydroxycocaines and dihydroxycocaine, in each of which the benzene ring was hydroxylated by the reaction. These five reaction products (except for dihydroxycocaine) were found immediately after mixing cocaine and hydrogen peroxide. Therefore, the above reaction products might be present in the hair of cocaine users that had treated their hair with hair dye or decolorant.     

Photocurrent generation system incorporated with antenna function

Porphyrin accumulation onto a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of imidazole-substituted porphyrins by a supramolecular method to form a chain structure leads to significant increase of light absorption in the visible light region and therefore photocurrents.     

Quantal phases, disorder effects, and superconductivity in spin-Peierls systems

In view of recent developments in the investigation on cuprate high- T(c) superconductors and the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO3, we study the effect of dilute impurity doping on the spin-Peierls state in quasi-one-dimensional systems. We identify a common origin for the emergence of antiferromagnetic order upon the introduction of static vacancies and superconductivity for mobile holes.     

Collisional granular flow as a micropolar fluid

We show that a micropolar fluid model successfully describes collisional granular flows on a slope. A micropolar fluid is the fluid with internal structures in which coupling between the spin of each particle and the macroscopic velocity field is taken into account. It is a hydrodynamical framework suitable for granular systems which consists of particles with macroscopic size. We demonstrate that the model equations can quantitatively reproduce the velocity and the angular velocity profiles obtained from the numerical simulation of the collisional granular flow on a slope using a simple estimate for the parameters in the theory.     

Novel carbon-carbon bond formation reaction of methoxyallene oxide promoted by TiI(4)

Methoxyallene oxide was readily prepared in situ by epoxidation of methoxyallene with 3-chloroperbenzoic acid, and the subsequent reaction with aldehydes or acetals was promoted by titanium tetraiodide and additives to give 2,3-dialkoxy- or 3-hydroxy-2-methoxy ketones in good yields.     

Synthesis of novel liquid crystals having the perfluoropyrrolidino group

Novel liquid crystals which have the perfluoropyrrolidino group, a heterocyclic perfluoroalkyl group, and which show smectic phases have been synthesized with perfluoro-(2-pyrrolidinopropionyl fluoride) as one of the starting materials. Analogues with a polymerizable functional group also have been prepared and polymerized to give side chain liquid crystal polymers.     

Regio-specific total synthesis of (±)-2-hydroxyaklavinone

The tricyclic quinone 8 was successfully synthesized from naphthazalin, and the total synthesis of (±)-2-hydroxyaklavinone via 8 was accomplished in an overall yield of about 18% through the regio-controlled route.     

Low-frequency and high-frequency relaxations in dynamic electric birefringence of poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) in m-cresol

The dc component Δn of the electric birefringence of poly(γ-benzyl-L -glutamate) in m-cresol is measured under an ac electric field at frequencies from 0.5 Hz to 200 kHz for solutions covering the dilute and semidilute regions. The dispersion curve indicates that at low frequencies Δn decreases with increasing frequency (low-frequency relaxation). For high-molecular-weight polymers at high concentration, Δn becomes negative at high frequency and its absolute value decreases with further increase in frequency (high-frequency relaxation). A unified theory for the two relaxations is developed on the basis of a model in which, in the semidilute regime, the rodlike polymer is confined in a cage formed by neighboring polymers and the lifetime of the cage lies between relaxation times of the two relaxations. The low-frequency relaxation is ascribed to end-over-end rotation of the polymer and the high-frequency relaxation to the rotation within a limited angle in the cage. The dependences of relaxation parameters on polymer concentration and molecular weight are reasonably explained by the theory.     

The decay of 101Ag

The decay of ¹⁰¹Ag have been studied using β- and γ-spectrometers in singles and coincidence modes. A half-life of 11.4 ± 0.3 min was obtained and a decay scheme was proposed. The first excited state was established at 80.3 keV and a half-life of 4.8 ± 0.5 ns was suggested. The resultant level structure of ¹⁰¹Pd is compared to a theoretical calculation with strong band mixing.