H2O‐Catalyzed Route to Early Lanthanide Tribromide THF and DME Solvates from Oxides

A convenient one‐pot synthetic protocol towards THF and DME solvates of lanthanum and other early lanthanide tribromides was developed using the water‐catalyzed reaction of lanthanide(III) oxides with highly reactive Me₃SiBr in situ formed from commercially available disilane Si₂Me₆ and Br₂. This practical route allows to obtain the target lanthanum tribromide solvates [LaBr₃(thf)₄] ( 1a ) and [LaBr₃(dme)₂]₂ ( 1b ) as well as analogous early lanthanide molecular tribromide solvates [NdBr₃(thf)₄] ( 2a ), [NdBr₃(dme)₂] ( 2b ), [SmBr₃(thf)₂] ( 3a ), and [SmBr₃(dme)₂] ( 3b ) difficult to prepare by other solution‐based procedures. The molecular structure of 1b· 2CH₂Cl₂ was determined by an XRD study.     

Kinetics of the grignard reaction with silanes in diethyl ether and ether-toluene mixtures

Kinetics of the reactions of butylmagnesium chloride and phenylmagnesium bromide with tetraethoxysilane and methyltrichlorosilane was investigated in diethyl ether and diethyl ether-toluene mixtures. Replacement of ether by toluene significantly accelerates the reaction with alkoxysilanes, while no effect was found for the reaction with chlorosilanes. We established that the reaction with alkoxysilanes consists of replacement of a donor molecule at the magnesium center by the silane followed by subsequent rearrangement of the complex to products through a four-center transition state. Chlorosilanes react differently without solvent molecule replacement but also via a four-center transition state. Large negative activation entropies are consistent with formation of cyclic transition states. Small activation enthalpy values together with remarkable exothermicity point to early transition states of the reactions.     

Products and mechanism of some halogenation reactions of 1-sulfonyl-substituted tricyclo[4.1.0.0<Superscript>2,7</Superscript>]heptanes

Reactions of 1-methylsulfonyl- and 1-phenylsulfonyltricyclo[4.1.0.0^2,7]heptanes with iodine, dioxane dibromide, and dichloro-λ³-iodanylbenzene (under irradiation) gave products of stereoselective syn addition of halogen at the C¹–C⁷ central bicyclobutane bond. 7-Methyl-1-phenylsulfonyltricyclo[4.1.0.0^2,7]-heptane reacted with dioxane dibromide in carbon tetrachloride to produce a mixture of 2-bromo- and 2,3-dibromo-1-methyl-exo-7-phenylsulfonylnorcaranes at a ratio of 1: 4 as a result of cleavage of the C¹–C² bicyclobutane bond. 7-Bromo- and 7-methoxycarbonyl-1-phenylsulfonyltricyclo[4.1.0.0^2,7]heptanes take up bromine exclusively at the C¹–C⁷ central bond with strict syn stereoselectively. The regio- and stereoselectivity of the addition and their relations with the halogen nature were interpreted with account taken of structural specificities of intermediate 6-sulfonyl-substituted 6-norpinanyl radicals determined by ab initio quantumchemical calculations using 6-31G basis set.     

Kinetics and Mechanism of a Reaction of Phenylacetylene with Carbon Monoxide and Butanol in Toluene Catalyzed by a Palladium(0) Complex in the Presence of Trifluoroacetic Acid and Triphenylphosphine

The reaction of phenylacetylene with CO and n-butanol in toluene (363 K) catalyzed by the Pd(dba)₂/m(CF₃COOH)/n(Ph₃P) system (dba is dibenzylideneacetone; 2 m 8; 10 n 30) is studied. The initial rate of the main product (butyl 2-phenylpropenoate) buildup is found to depend on the pressure of CO and the concentrations of reactants and system components. The state of the catalyst under reaction conditions is studied in situby IR spectroscopy. A kinetic model is developed based on the experimental results. This model corresponds to the mechanism that resembles the hydride mechanism in the type of main intermediates in the catalytic cycle.     

Direct electrochemistry of recombinant tobacco peroxidase on gold

Direct electron transfer (DET) reactions of recombinant tobacco peroxidase (rTOP), namely direct electroreduction of Compound I/Compound II and heme Fe^3+/2+ conversion, were studied on gold electrodes. rTOP of wild type, non-glycosylated, was produced using an Escherichia coli expression system. At pH 5.0, the redox potential for direct electrochemical transformation of the Fe^3+/2+ of the peroxidase heme was −143 mV vs. AgAgCl, and 0.26 ± 0.07 pmol of the adsorbed rTOP were in DET contact with the gold electrode. The total amount of the adsorbed rTOP estimated from QCM data was 53 ± 5 pmol/cm² or 1.67 pmol when referred to the surface area of the electrodes used for electrochemical measurements. Of 1.67 pmol of adsorbed rTOP, only 0.76 pmol were catalytically active. DET between Au and the enzyme was also studied in the reaction of the bioelectrocatalytic reduction of H₂O₂ by cyclic voltammetry and amperometric detection of H₂O₂ at +50 mV with rTOP-modified Au electrodes placed in a wall-jet flow-through electrochemical cell. Maximal bioelectrocatalytic current response of the rTOP-modified gold electrodes to H₂O₂ was observed at pH 5.0 and stemmed from its bioelectrocatalytic reduction based on DET between Au and the active site of rTOP. Kinetic analysis of the DET reactions gave 52% of the adsorbed rTOP molecules active in DET reactions (0.4 pmol of adsorbed catalytically active rTOP, correspondingly), which correlated well with the non-catalytic-voltammetry data. DET was characterised by a heterogeneous ET rate constant of 13.2 s⁻¹, if one takes into account the QCM data, and 19.6 s⁻¹, if the amount of rTOP estimated from the data on DET transformation of Fe^3+/2+ couple of rTOP is considered. The sensitivity for H₂O₂ obtained for the rTOP-modified Au electrodes was 0.7 ± 0.1 A M⁻¹ cm⁻². These are the first ever-reported data on DET reactions of anionic plant peroxidases on bare gold electrodes.     

The infrared spectrum of cyclic-N3: theoretical prediction

We have carried out the first calculations of the infrared absorption spectrum of cyclic-N(3). Accurate vibrational energies and wave functions computed with incorporation of the geometric phase effect (via gauge theory) and using an ab initio potential energy surface were employed in this work. A sophisticated fully dimensional dipole moment function was constructed using accurate ab initio calculations and a three-dimensional-spline interpolation. Transformation of the dipole moment vector function from the reference frame associated with instantaneous principal axes of inertia to the laboratory-fixed reference frame was carried out using hyperspherical coordinates. We found that the permanent dipole moment of cyclic-N(3) in the ground vibrational state is relatively small (170 mD). The excited vibrational states show permanent dipole moments in the 10-25 mD range. The most intense part of the infrared absorption spectrum is observed in the deep infrared part of spectrum, 75-275?cm(-1), where five lines exhibit absolute absorption intensities in the range between 0.5 and 1.2 km/mol. These transitions correspond to excitation of the pseudorotational progression of states. Several unique spectroscopic features discussed in the paper should help to identify cyclic-N(3) in the laboratory.     

Hydrophilization of Magnetic Nanoparticles with Modified Alternating Copolymers. Part 1: The Influence of the Grafting

Iron oxide nanoparticles (NPs) with a diameter 21.6 nm were coated with poly(maleic acid-alt-1-octadecene) (PMAcOD) modified with grafted 5,000 Da poly(ethyelene glycol) (PEG) or short ethylene glycol (EG) tails. The coating procedure utilizes hydrophobic interactions of octadecene and oleic acid tails, while the hydrolysis of maleic anhydride moieties as well as the presence of hydrophilic PEG (EG) tails allows the NP hydrophilicity. The success of the NP coating was found to be independent of the degree of grafting which was varied between 20 and 80% of the -MacOD-units, but depended on the length of the grafted tail. The NP coating and hydrophilization did not occur when the modified copolymer contained 750 Da PEG tails independently of the grafting degree. To explain this phenomenon the micellization of the modified PMAcOD copolymers in water was analyzed by small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The PMAcOD molecules with the grafted 750 Da PEG tails form compact non-interacting disk-like micelles, whose stability apparently allows for no interactions with the NP hydrophobic shells. The PMAcOD containing the 5,000 Da PEG and EG tails form much larger aggregates capable of an efficient coating of the NPs. The coated NPs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, ζ-potential measurements, and thermal gravimetry analysis. The latter method demonstrated that the presence of long PEG tails in modified PMAcOD allows the attachment of fewer macromolecules (by a factor of ~20) compared to the case of non-modified or EG modified PMAcOD, emphasizing the importance of PEG tails in NP hydrophilization. The NPs coated with PMAcOD modified with 60% (towards all -MAcOD- units) of the 5,000 PEG tails bear a significant negative charge and display good stability in buffers. Such NPs can be useful as magnetic cores for virus-like particle formation.     

Impact of reaction products on the Grignard reaction with silanes and ketones

Grignard reactions with alkoxysilanes or carbonyl compounds produce alkoxymagnesium halides as by-products. Kinetic measurements for reactions of silanes and of a ketone were performed with Grignard reagents, enriched in alkoxymagnesium halides and taken in a great excess.The alkoxide-type reaction products complex tightly with Grignard reagents and enhance in this way their nucleophilicity, thus accelerating the reaction. However, alkoxides branched at α-C atom exert an unfavorable steric hindrance to reaction resulting in a decrease in the reaction rate.     

A novel mathematical mechanism of the critical endpoint generation

We develop a novel model of the QCD matter critical endpoint by matching the deconfinement phase transition curve with the nil line of the bag surface tension coefficient. As a result, this leads to a new structure of the leading singularities of isobaric partition, and in contrast to all previous studies of such models, the deconfined phase in our approach is defined not by an essential singularity of the isobaric partition function but its simple pole. As an unexpected result, we find out that the first order phase transition in this model is the surface tension induced transition. The sufficient conditions of its existence are analyzed and the possible physical consequences are discussed.     

Comparison of the efficiency of titanium(IV) and iron(III) oxide nanoparticles as mediators in suppression of bacterial growth by radiation of a blue (405 nm) light-emitting diode

The effect of blue (405 nm) radiation of a light-emitting diode in combination with titanium(IV) and iron(III) oxide nanoparticles on S. aureus 209 P, S. simulans, and D. hominis bacteria is studied. It is shown that, upon irradiation of bacteria by blue (405 nm) light, Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles have a stronger (by 5–30%) antibacterial effect than TiO₂ nanoparticles.