The foam analogy: from phases to elasticity

By mapping the interactions of colloidal particles onto the problem of minimizing areas, the physics of foams can be used to understand the phase diagrams of both charged and fuzzy colloids. We extend this analogy to study the elastic properties of such colloidal crystals and consider the face-centered cubic, body-centered cubic and A15 lattices. We discuss two types of soft interparticle potentials corresponding to charged and fuzzy colloids, respectively, and we analyze the dependence of the elastic constants on density as well as on the parameters of the potential. We show that the bulk moduli of the three lattices are generally quite similar, and that the shear moduli of the two non-close-packed lattices are considerably smaller than in the face-centered cubic lattice. We find that in charged colloids, the elastic constants are the largest at a finite screening length, and we discuss a shear instability of the A15 lattice.     

Mass spectrometry analysis of synthetically myristoylated peptides

Myristoylpeptides were synthesized in order to determine if a neutral loss of 210 Da, C14H26O (the mass of the myristoyl moiety), was universal and observable by both liquid chromatography electrospray ionization quadrupole ion trap (LC-ESI-QIT) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight time-of-flight (MALDI-ToF/ToF) mass spectrometry. Myristoylation was successfully introduced on the N-terminus, internally on the amino group of lysine and arginine. Larger peptides and the arginine compounds needed elevated temperatures for myristoylation. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a chemically-synthesized myristoylated arginine in a peptide. Collision energy studies for the LC-ESI-QIT instrument showed that modified peptides and a loss of 210 Da could be detected under commonly used conditions (energy level between 30 and 42%) with picomole amounts of sample. The loss of myristoyl moiety is observed on the MALDI-Tof/Tof mass spectrometer as well. Due to the hydrophobic properties of the myristoyl moiety, it is not surprising that the modified peptides all formed at least dimers, and in some cases trimers. We were also able to distinguish a mixture of two mono-myristoylated peptides. MS3 data from the LC-ESI-QIT instrument on a di-myristoylated peptide indicates the loss of 210 Da at either the N-terminus or lysine. We were also able to analyze a mixture of modified and unmodified peptides on the MALDI-ToF/ToF instrument. The data presented in this paper demonstrates the constant neutral loss of the 210 Da, C14H26O, from both N-terminally and internally myristoylated peptides can be identified unambiguously using LC-ESI-QIT or MALDI-ToF/ToF mass spectrometers. This will be a useful tool in determining the myristoylation status of candidate proteins after enzyme digestion, and in elucidating the modification sites of internal myristoyl proteins.     

Spectrophotometric determination of bismuth after extraction of hexadecyltributylphosphonium tetraiodobismuthate(III) by microcrystalline benzophenone

Bismuth (0–110 μg) is determined spectrophotometrically at 495 nm after its adsorptive extraction from dilute sulphuric acid as hexadecyltributylphosphonium tetraiodobismuthate(III) on microcystalline benzophenone and dissolution of the solid phase in carbon tetrachloride. The effects of acidity, diverse ions and masking studies are reported. The system is applied to the determination of bismuth in pharmaceutical samples.     

Carbohydrates of cultivated varieties ofAlthea rosea

The polysaccharides of three cultivated varieties ofAlthea rosea have been investigated. The amounts of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances in various organs of the plant have been determined. It has been shown that the maximum amount of water-soluble polysaccharides and pectin substances is present in the flowers. Their monosaccharide compositions have been studied. The physicochemical characteristics of the pectin substances are given.     

Electronic-to-vibrational energy transfer reactions.X* + CO (X = O,I and Br)

The vibrational distribution of CO produced from the following two electronic-to-vibrational energy transfer reactions:

have been determined by means of infrared resonance absorption measurements employing a cw CO laser. The CO molecules formed in both reactions were found to be vibrationally excited up to the limits of available electronic energies carried by the excited atoms. A similar result was also observed in the Br(4²P_{$\text{1}\text{2}$}) + CO reaction, in which absorption occurred only in the 1 → 2 band. For the O^* + CO reaction the efficiency of E → V energy transfer was determined to be 16%. Our present results were found to be inconsistent with the impulsive (half-collision) model.     

Effects of chemical exchange and self-diffusion on the spin-echo signals in two-spin systems

A theoretical study is reported for nuclear spin echo in a two-spin system. It is assumed that the decay of the echo signals is due to translational diffusion of the molecules and to chemical exchange between magnetically distinct nuclei. The behavior of the spin system is described by McConnell's equations, as modified to include diffusion. The method of stationary Markov processes is applied to solve the equations of motion. Theoretical explanations are given for spin-echo observations.     

Synthetic thermally reversible gel systems. V

Differential thermal analysis has been used to study the fusion of aqueous thermally reversible gels of gelatin and polyacrylylglycinamide (PAG). In the case of gelatin gels, endotherms close to the melting point are readily observed and these are sometimes preceeded by a small exothermic heat of gel reorganization. Calculations are presented to show that breaking of the gelatin gel network requires only a small fraction of the observed endothermic heat of fusion and that most of the heat is required for melting larger crystallites within gelatin aggregates and for perhaps a helix → coil transition. Failure to observe endotherms by DTA over the known temperature range of fusion of PAG gels is consistent with prior measurements and conclusions. The noncrystallinity of PAG gels and soluble aggregates together with a heat of crosslinking of only ?5 to ?10 kcal/mole of crosslinks places the heat of fusion of PAG gels outside the lower limits of DTA sensitivity.     

Notes on Kuhn's ω″ molecular orbital method

(1) It is shown that, contrary to statements sometimes made, it is perfectly possible to obtain consistent sets of charges in Kuhn's ω″ molecular-orbital method, whatever the values of the parameters ω, ω′, ω″.

(2) Particular applications are made to the benzyl cation, and to the non-alternants fulvene, heptafulvene and azulene. It appears that including the ω-terms decreases the magnitude of the largest of the net atomic charges as calculated by the simple Hückel method, and results in an overall smoothing-out process. Further inclusion of the ω′-terms continues this smoothing-out process, but inclusion of the ω″-terms may sometimes slightly reverse this process.

(3) The charge distributions obtained for fulvene and azulene in (1) and (2) lead to molecular dipole moments which are still much too large.

In view of (3) it is not clear that the additional work involved in the inclusion of ω′ and ω″ is justified by the greater accuracy thus obtained.     

Potentiometric titration of hydrogen peroxide with an electropolished stainless steel electrode

The preparation and use of a stainless steel indicator electrode in the accurate potentiometric titration of aqueous hydrogen peroxide are described. The results agree excellently with those obtained by a standard colorimetric weight-titration procedure. The nature of the titration curves, potential changes and the factors affecting them are discussed. Rapid potentiometric titrations directly to the equivalence-point potential are possible, owing to the nature of the titration curve.     

Influence of extended π-conjugation units on carrier mobilities in conducting polymers

Carrier mobilities in thin films of copolymers with repeat units consisting of oligothiophenes bridged by Si atoms are measured over a range of doping levels, where the numbers of thienylenes in the repeat unit are 7, 8, 10, 12, and 14. The mobilities for these polymer films increased with the increase in doping level and the mobility enhancement followed an increasing order of the π-conjugation length. The magnitude of the mobility increase for the Si polymer comprising 14 thiophene units reached ca. 10⁴, implying that this π-conjugation length is almost sufficient to reproduce transport properties of polythiophenes.