Hydrolysis of (CH3)3Sn+ in Various Salt Media

The hydrolysis of trimethyltin(IV) has been studied by potentiometry (H⁺ -glass electrode) and calorimetry in various salt media (NaNO₃, NaCl, KCl, Na₂SO₄, and NaNO₃—NaCl mixtures). The effect of ionic strength on the hydrolysis constants is accounted for by a simple Debye–Hückel type equation and by Pitzer equations. The results allow us to obtain H for hydrolysis and the temperature dependence of the Pitzer parameters. The resulting coefficients can be used to examine the speciation of (CH₃)₃Sn⁺ in multicomponent electrolyte solutions, such as natural waters, over a wide range of temperature and ionic strength.     

Self-assembled nanocages for hydrophilic guest molecules

Reverse polymeric micelles are obtained following the association of polymeric amphiphiles in apolar media. To this date, reports of pharmaceutical applications for such micelles have been scarce, mainly because these systems have been studied in solvents that are not suitable for medical use. Here, alkylated star-shaped poly(glycerol methacrylate) polymers have been proposed in the design of oil-soluble reverse polymeric micelles. Micellar behavior was studied in various apolar solvents, including ethyl oleate, a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle. The polymers were shown to assemble into spherical nanostructures (<40 nm) as determined by cryogenic transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy studies. Interestingly, the reverse micelles were able to encapsulate various peptides/proteins (vasopressin, myoglobin, and albumin) in substantial amounts and facilitate their solubilization in oil. The nature of both the polymer used in micelle formation and the guest molecules was found to influence the ability of the micelle to interact with hydrophilic compounds.     

Xanthophyll-cycle dependence of the energy transfer between carotenoid dark states and chlorophylls in NPQ mutants of living plants and in LHC II

The Car S₁ → Chl energy transfer efficiency, Φ_Transfer, in xanthophyll-cycle mutants of living plants and LHC II was investigated by selective Car S₁ two-photon excitation. Before high-light illumination Φ_Transfer, of the violaxanthin deficient mutant npq2 is 30% smaller than the corresponding value for wild type plants. For the zeaxanthin deficient mutant, npq1, Φ_Transfer is 30% larger. Wild type Arabidopsis thaliana is the only variant which is capable of a light-dependent decrease of up to 40% and complete recovery to the original Φ_Transfer values. In contrast, Φ_Transfer remains constant during dark adaptation in both mutants. Surprisingly, changes in Φ_Transfer of LHC II preparations were less than 5% only, when substituting violaxanthin by zeaxanthin.     

Coexisting lamellar phases in water-oil-surfactant systems induced by the addition of an amphiphilic block copolymer

We report here a pioneering study using quadrupolar splitting NMR to detect new phases and phase compositions in the quasi-ternary microemulsion system water-decane-C(10)E(4)/PEP5-PEO5. The striking observation is that at certain compositions the polymer is apparently no longer incorporated into the membranes of the lamellar phase due to space restrictions. The polymer therefore induces a phase separation into two different lamellar phases L(alpha)(1) and L(alpha)(2) such that it fits into L(alpha)(1) while the excess surfactant forms a polymer-free L(alpha)(2) phase.     

Application of high-performance liquid chromatography diode array detection and mass spectrometry to the analysis of characteristic compounds in various essential oils

A high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was established using an analytical reversed-phase column and gradient elution to achieve chromatographic separation of typical compounds in essential oils. For detection, a diode array detector monitoring different wavelengths simultaneously as well as a mass spectrometer (MS) were used. Atmospheric pressure chemical ionization operating in the positive mode turned out to be a suitable tool to detect volatiles of different chemical classes and to identify them in essential oil matrices. Characteristic fingerprints of eucalyptus, lavender, may chang, pine, rosemary, thyme, and turpentine essential oils monitored at a representative wavelength (220 nm) demonstrated the suitability of HPLC in essential oil analysis. Additional monitoring wavelengths (210, 250, and 280 nm) provided useful information about the identity of the specific component and opened the possibility to differentiate presumably coeluting compounds by means of their distinct absorption behavior. Finally, peak assignment in seven essential oils was performed on the basis of characteristic retention times and UV and MS data of a broad set of reference volatiles.     

Effect of the Dispersing Agent on the Electrochemical Response of Glassy Carbon Electrodes Modified with Dispersions of Carbon Nanotubes

The electrochemical response of a glassy carbon electrode modified with carbon nanotubes (CNT) dispersed in two solvents, water and DMF, and two polymers, chitosan and Nafion is reported. The films were homogeneous when the dispersing agent was water or DMF. In the case of polymers, the surfaces present areas with different density of CNTs. A more sensitive electrochemical response was obtained when CNTs are dispersed in the solvents. In the case of CNT dispersed with polymers, the nature of the polymer demonstrated to be a critical parameter not only for dispersing the nanotubes but also for the electrochemical activity of the resulting electrodes.     

One-pot synthesis of poly-substituted tetramic acids for the preparation of putative turn mimics

A one-pot synthesis of poly-substituted tetramic acids and of their six-membered ring analogs have been obtained in one step by reaction of N-Boc dipeptides, activated as their O-succinimidyl esters (Boc-AA-AA-OSu), with the sodium anion of dibenzyl malonate. The adducts spontaneously cyclize to form five or six-member rings. To check whether this class of compounds may be used to promote reverse-turn conformations, one adduct was further derivatized. The formation of a hydrogen bond between the NH–Boc and the carbonyl at C2 of the heterocycle is highlighted, upon analysis of the product by IR, ¹H NMR, and MD techniques, thus suggesting that these compounds are good candidates to promote reverse-turn conformations or other secondary structures and may be used for the formation of new foldamers.     

On the Influence of Polynomial De-aliasing on Subgrid Scale Models

In this work we investigate the interplay of polynomial de-aliasing and sub-grid scale models for large eddy simulations based on discontinuous Galerkin discretizations. It is known that stability is a major concern when simulating underresolved turbulent flows with high order nodal collocation type discretizations. By changing the interpolatory character of the nodal collocation type discretization to a projection based discretization by increasing the number of quadrature points (polynomial de-aliasing), one is able to remove the aliasing induced stability problems. We focus on this effect and on the consequence for large eddy simulations with explicit subgrid scale models. Often, subgrid scale models have to achieve two possibly conflicting tasks in a single simulation: firstly stabilizing the numerics and secondly modeling the physical effect of the missing scales. Within a discontinuous Galerkin approach, it is possible to use either a fast (but potentially aliasing afflicted) nodal collocation discretization or a projection-based (but computationally costly) variant in combination with an explicit subgrid scale model. We use this framework to investigate the effect on the appropriate model parameter of a standard Smagorinsky subgrid scale model and of a Variational Multiscale Smagorinsky formulation. For this we first consider the 3-D viscous Taylor-Green vortex example to investigate the impact on the stability of the method and second the turbulent flow past a circular cylinder to investigate and compare the accuracy of the results. We show that the aliasing instabilities of collocative discretizations severely limit the choice of the model constant, in particular for high order schemes, while for de-aliased DG schemes, the closure model parameters can be chosen independently from the numerical scheme. For the cylinder flow, we also find that for the same model settings, the projection-based results are in better agreement with the reference DNS than those of the collocative scheme.