Determination of phosphonoformic acid in human plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection

Trisodium phosphonoformate (foscarnet) is used in the treatment of cytomegalovirus infections in immunocompromised patients, such as bone marrow and renal transplant recipients, as well as patients with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. A simple high-performance liquid chromatographic assay is described using an electrochemical detector. The method is accurate, precise and reproducible. Hydrochlorothiazide is used as the internal standard. This assay allows measurement of foscarnet in biological fluids at concentrations as low as 33 microM. This method is being used for the analysis of samples in clinical trials and is important in the evaluation of the pharmacokinetic disposition of the drug.     

Nickel speciation via voltammetric quantification of nickel metal,oxides and salts

A practical speciation method for a solid mixture of nickel species applicable to atmospheric monitoring of Ni⁰, Ni²⁺ and NiO_x is reported. This involves magnetic extraction of Ni⁰ to separate it from the water-soluble nickel salts and the insoluble oxides, followed by adsorptive stripping voltammetry to quantify the nickel in each fraction. The separation scheme was validated by using calibration standards and by simulating air-filter samples prepared with authentic nickel products. The recoveries of nickel were Ni⁰ 94–105% and total nickel 95–102%.     

Purification and partial characterization ofRhizomucor miehei lipase for ester synthesis

A commercialRhizomucor miehei lipase was purified by ammonium sulfate precipitation. Phenyl Sepharose 6 Fast Row hydrophobic interaction chromatography, and DEAE Sepharose Fast Flow anion-exchange chromatography. The recovery of lipase activity was 32% with a 42-fold purification. The molecular size of the purified enzyme was 31,600 Dalton and the pI 3.8. The enzyme was stable for at least 24 h within a pH range of 7.0-10.0, and 96.8% of the enzyme activity remained when kept at 30‡C for 24 h. Further, about 10–30% of the lipase activity was inhibited by K⁺, Li⁺, Ni⁺, Co²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mg²⁺, Sn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Ba²⁺, Ca²⁺, and Fe²⁺ ions and by SDS, but EDTA had no effect. Under the experimental conditions, the optimum temperature for the hydrolysis of olive oil was 50‡C (pH 8.0), and for the synthesis of 1-butyl oleate, 37‡C. It was concluded that hydrolytic activity of lipase alone is not a sufficient criterion for its synthetic potential. The optimal molar ratio of oleic acid and 1-butanol was 2:1 for 1-butyl oleate synthesis. The 1-butyl oleate yield was unaffected by purification of the enzyme after 12 h.     

Nickel-promoted ligand-free palladium-catalyzed Suzuki coupling reaction

Summary A Ni-promoted ligand free palladium catalyst system for Suzuki coupling of aryl bromides has been developed in high efficiency under mild reaction conditions. It was obtained in situ by introducing NiCl₂ to PdCl₂/PVP using a parallel high-throughput screening technique. A wide range of aryl bromides bearing a variety of functional groups was evaluated.     

Novel carboxylated oligothiophenes as sensitizers in photoelectric conversion systems

Novel carboxylated oligothiophenes with different thiophene units were designed and synthesized as photosensitizers in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) for efficient opto-electric materials. The introduction of -COOH into thiophene molecules can lead to a red shift of UV-visible absorption, increase light-harvesting efficiency, and enhance photoinduced charge transport by forming efficient covalent bonds to the substrate surface. A red shift of the absorption spectrum of oligothiophene is also achieved by the increase in the number of thiophene units. The DSSCs based on the oligomers have excellent photovoltaic performances. Under 100 mW cm(-2) irradiation a short-circuit current of 10.57 mA cm(-2) and an overall energy conversion efficiency of 3.36 % is achieved when pentathiophene dicarboxylated acid was used as a sensitizer. The incident photo-to-current conversion efficiency (IPCE) has a maximum as high as 80 %. In addition, photovoltage and photocurrent transients show that slow charge recombination in DSSCs is important for efficient charge separation and excellent photoelectric conversion properties of the oligomers. These initial and promising results suggest that carboxylated oligothiophenes are efficient photosensitizers.     

The Menshutkin Reaction in the Gas Phase and in Aqueous Solution: A Valence Bond Study

The recently developed (L. Song, W. Wu, Q. Zhang, S. Shaik, J. Phys. Chem. A 2004 , 108, 6017–6024) valence bond method coupled to a polarized continuum model (VBPCM) is applied to the Menshutkin reaction, NH₃+CH₃Cl→CH₃NH₃⁺+Cl^?, in the gas phase and in aqueous solution. The computed barriers and reaction energies at the level of the breathing orbital VB method (P. C. Hiberty, J. P. Flament, E. Noizet, Chem. Phys. Lett. 1992 , 189, 259), BOVB and VBPCM//BOVB, are comparable to CCSD(T) and CCSD(T)//PCM results and to experimental values in solution. The gas‐phase reaction is endothermic and leads to an ion‐pair complex via a late transition state. By contrast, the reaction in the aqueous phase is exothermic and leads to separate solvated ions as reaction products, via an early transition state. The VB calculations provide also the reactivity parameters needed to apply the valence bond state correlation diagram method, VBSCD (S. Shaik, A. Shurki, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1999 , 38, 586). It is shown that the reactivity parameters along with their semiempirical derivations provide together a satisfactory qualitative and quantitative account of the barriers.     

Effect of diluting agent on sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis with amperometric detection

Besides the running buffer, pH of buffer, separation voltage and sampling time, the diluting agent was studied in this paper as one of the important factors influencing the sensitivity in capillary electrophoresis (CE) with amperometric detection (AD) when electrokinectic sampling was used. Clonidine hydrochloride, hydrochlorothiazide and rutin, which are positively charged, neutral and negatively charged, respectively, in aqueous solutions, could be perfectly separated by CE with 25 mmol x L(-1) Na(2)B(4)O(7) - 50 mmol x L(-1) NaH(2)PO(4) as running buffer and detected by measuring their current responses with AD. Before CE running, some kinds of diluents including water, methanol, formamide, running buffer, hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide were, respectively, applied to dilute the stock solutions of above three analytes and their effects on the sensitivity of CE-AD were investigated. The results showed that for electrokinetic injection, the current responses of these three analytes were greatly affected in different ways when different diluting agents were used. This method was applied to simultaneously determine the active ingredients in one Chinese compound hypotensor named Zhen Ju Jiang Ya Pian, in which the contents of clonidine hydrochloride, hydrochlorothiazide and rutin is very different as 0.03 mg : 5 mg : 20 mg per tablet, and satisfactory results were obtained by adjusting their sensitivity by selecting the suitable diluting agent.     

光学活性含硅氨基酸的合成

光学纯的硅取代氨基酸是一类非天然的手性氨基酸合成子，在药物，植物保护 剂和精细化学品的合成具有极为广阔的应用前景，其合成方法包括化学不对称合成 及化学合成外消旋体－生物学拆分两种，综述了该方面的研究进展。     

Synthesis,crystal structure and two-photon property studies on a series of complexes derived from a novel Schiff base ligand

A new Schiff base ligand derived from S-benzyldithiocarbazate and 4-[N-hydroxy ethyl-N-(methyl)amino]benzaldehyde (HL, where H is a dissociable proton) and its Ni^II, Cu^II, Zn^II and Pd^II complexes were prepared and fully characterized. The structures of HL and Ni(L)₂ were determined by X-ray diffraction analysis, which revealed that the geometry of the Ni^II ion is square-planar with two equivalent Ni=N and Ni=S bonds, and that the two neighboring molecules in two layers have weak contact. The electronic spectra and solution fluorescence of the ligand and the complexes were studied, and the quantum yields of single-photon fluorescence for the compounds were determined. The compounds possess two-photon absorption (t.p.a.) character and the t.p.a. coefficient and t.p.a. cross-section were determined by the Z-scan technique. Especially, the Zn(L)₂complex and the HL ligand exhibit intensive two-photon fluorescence (t.p.f.) at 800 nm laser pulses in the femtosecond regime.     

Observation of self-ion-molecule reactions during collisionally activated dissociation in an ion-trap mass spectrometer

This paper describes the formation of protonated molecules ([M + H]+) and adduct ions by self-ion-molecule reactions (SIMR) during collisionally activated decomposition (CAD) of methyne addition ions ([M + CH]+) produced from chemical ionization (CI) or SIMR in both an external and internal source ion-trap mass spectrometer (ITMS). The CAD results for the methyne addition ions of dopamine produced from both SIMR and dimethyl ether CI undertaken in the external and internal source ITMS were compared in order to prove the occurrence of SIMR during CAD processes. Compared with the external source ITMS, the internal source ITMS is much more easily applicable to this type of reaction owing to the large population of neutral analytes present in the trap.