On-line gas chromatographic monitoring of catalyst processes in a microfabricated chemical reactor

A microfabricated catalyst reactor, prepared from glass and polydimethylsiloxane, has been directly interfaced to a gas chromatograph permitting real time reaction monitoring allowing rapid catalyst characterisation.     

Determination of 1,4-dioxane impurity levels in Triton X-100 raw material by gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection

Triton X-100 (octoxynol 9) is a commercially available surfactant used as a solvent detergent in numerous pharmaceutical applications including virus inactivation. A byproduct formed during its synthesis is 1,4-dioxane, the cyclic dimer of ethylene oxide and a possible carcinogen to humans. The United States Pharmacopoeia (USP) contains a labor-intensive 1,4-dioxane test for Triton X-100. The method couples vacuum distillation to extract the 1,4-dioxane from the Triton X-100 matrix followed by gas chromatography (GC) using a packed column with flame-ionization detection. In order to provide a more automated and specific test methodology, a headspace GC-mass spectrometry (MS) method has been developed for this application. Analyte quantitation is accomplished by the method of standard additions. The automated sample preparation, coupled with the specificity inherent in high-efficiency capillary column separations together with single-ion MS detection, results in an assay that is more efficient, accurate, and precise than the USP procedure. Performance characteristics of the headspace GC-MS method are contrasted with those characteristics of the USP methodology.     

Synthesis,chemistry, and dynamic NMR study of new atropisomeric 4-dialkylamino-5-chloro-1,2-dithiole-3-thiones

[reaction: see text] Reaction of N-(2-phthalimidoethyl)-N-alkylisopropylamines and S(2)Cl(2) gave atropisomeric (by dynamic NMR) 4-N-(2-phthalimidoethyl)-N-alkylamino-5-chloro-1,2-dithiole-3-thiones that quantitatively cycloadded to dimethyl or diethyl acetylenedicarboxylate to give a novel class of stable thioacid chlorides, which in turn reacted with 1 or 2 equiv of secondary amines to give thioamides.     

An extensible and systematic force field,ESFF, for molecular modeling of organic,inorganic, and organometallic systems

ESFF is a rule-based force field designed for modeling organic, inorganic, and organometallic systems. To cover this broad range of molecular systems, ESFF was developed in an extensible and systematic manner. Several unique features were introduced including pseudoangle and a dot product function representing torsion energy terms. The partial atomic charges that are topology-dependent are determined from ab initio (DFT) calculated electronegativity and hardness for valence orbitals. The van der Waals parameters are charge-dependent, and correlated with the ionization potential for atoms in various valence states. To obtain a set of well-defined and physically meaningful parameters, ESFF employs semiempirical rules to translate atomic-based parameters to parameters typically associated with a covalent valence force field. The atomic parameters depend not only on atom type, but also on internal type, thus resulting in a more accurate force field. This article presents the theory and the method used to develop the force field. The force field has been applied to molecular simulations of a wide variety of systems including nucleic acids, peptides, hydrocarbons, porphyrins, transition metal complexes, zeolites, and organometallic compounds. Agreement with the experimental results indicates that ESFF is a valuable tool in molecular simulations for understanding and predicting both crystal and gas phase molecular structures.     

Calculating excitation energies with the help of cumulants

Recently, it has been shown that the ground-state energy of a quantum many-body system can be written in terms of cumulants. In this article, we show that the energies of excited states can be expressed similarly. These representations are suitable for various approximation schemes, e.g., projection techniques. The explicit use of cumulants ensures size consistency in all approximations. The theory is then applied to the computation of the energy bands of a semiconductor with a diamond structure. As we focus especially on the effects of electron correlations, we consider a simplified model and rederive results obtained previously by the variational local ansatz method. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Geometry optimization of periodic systems using internal coordinates

An algorithm is proposed for the structural optimization of periodic systems in internal (chemical) coordinates. Internal coordinates may include in addition to the usual bond lengths, bond angles, out-of-plane and dihedral angles, various "lattice internal coordinates" such as cell edge lengths, cell angles, cell volume, etc. The coordinate transformations between Cartesian (or fractional) and internal coordinates are performed by a generalized Wilson B-matrix, which in contrast to the previous formulation by Kudin et al. [J. Chem. Phys. 114, 2919 (2001)] includes the explicit dependence of the lattice parameters on the positions of all unit cell atoms. The performance of the method, including constrained optimizations, is demonstrated on several examples, such as layered and microporous materials (gibbsite and chabazite) as well as the urea molecular crystal. The calculations used energies and forces from the ab initio density functional theory plane wave method in the projector-augmented wave formalism.     

1,4-thiazepines, 1,4-benzothiazepin-5-ones,and 1,4-benzothioxepin orthoamides via multicomponent reactions of isocyanides

The intramolecular Ugi four-component condensation between 6-oxo-4-thiacarboxylic acids, benzylamines, and cyclohexyl isocyanide gave hexahydro-1,4-thiazepin-5-ones and 1,4-benzothiazepin-5-ones, in some cases with high stereoselectivity, and the intramolecular Passerini three-component reaction, in the presence of catalytic amine, gave tetracyclic 1,4-benzothioxepin orthoamides.     

Viscoelastic properties of single polysaccharide molecules determined by analysis of thermally driven oscillations of an atomic force microscope cantilever

We report on single molecule measurements of the viscoelastic properties of the polysaccharide dextran using a new approach which involves acquiring the power spectral density of the thermal noise of an atomic force microscope cantilever while holding the single molecule of interest under force-clamp conditions. The attractiveness of this approach when compared with techniques which use forced oscillations under constant loading rate conditions is that it is a near-equilibrium measure of mechanical response which provides a more relevant probe of thermally driven biomolecular dynamics. Using a simple harmonic oscillator model of the cantilever-molecule system and by subtracting the response of the free cantilever taking into account hydrodynamic effects, the effective damping zetamol and elastic constant kmol of a single molecule are obtained. The molecular elasticity measured by this new technique shows a dependence on applied force that reflects the chair-boat conformational transition of the pyranose rings of the dextran molecule which is in good agreement with values obtained directly from the gradient of a conventional constant loading rate force-extension curve. The molecular damping is also seen to follow a nontrivial dependence on loading which we suggest indicates that it is internal friction and not work done on the solvent that is the dominant dissipative process.     

Photo-Oxidation of phenosafranine and neutral red in the presence of iron(III): Determination of trace amounts of iron and phosphate

Summary Phenosafranine (Ph) and Neutral Red (NR) in the presence of iron(III) are decolorized by illumination with light of wavelength shorter than 360 nm. The decolorization mechanism involves ·OH radicals, formed during the photo-excitation of hydrolysed iron(III) species. In the presence of oxygen, iron(III) acts as a catalyst in the photochemical process. The photo-oxidation of Ph and NR is followed by measuring the decrease in absorbance of the dyes, and linear calibration graphs in the range 1–11 ppm of iron are obtained. The decrease in the fluorescence of phenosafranine has also been used to measure the photo-oxidation of this dye, and is linearly related to iron concentration in the range 0.1–1.1 ppm. Phosphate strongly inhibits the iron(III)-catalysed photodecolorization and this can be made the basis of a method for its determination (concentration limit 1×10^–5 M).

---

Photooxydation von Phenosafranin und Neutralrot in Gegenwart von Eisen(III): Bestimmung von Spuren Eisen und Phosphat

Zusammenfassung Phenosafranin (Ph) und Neutralrot (NR) werden in Gegenwart von Fe(III) durch Belichtung unter 360 nm entfärbt. Der Mechanismus dieses Vorgangs erfordert die Gegenwart von OH-Radikalen, die sich bei Belichtung von hydrolysierten Fe(III)-Verbindungen bilden. In Gegenwart von Sauerstoff wirkt Fe(III) als Katalysator der photochemischen Reaktion. Die Photooxydation von Ph und NR läßt sich durch Abnahme der Absorbanz der beiden Farbstoffe verfolgen. Dabei ergeben sich lineare Eichkurven für 1–11 ppm Fe. Die Abnahme der Fluoreszenz von Ph dient ebenfalls zur Messung der Photooxydation dieses Farbstoffes und verläuft für 0,1–1,1 ppm Fe linear. Phosphat hindert die Fe(III)-katalysierte Photoentfärbung, was als Grundlage für die Phosphatbestimmung bis zu 1×10^–5 M dienen kann.