Synthesis, characterization, thermal and optical properties of styrene derivatives having pendant p-substituted benzylic ether groups

The derivatives of styrene monomer, 4-chlorophenyl-4-vinylbenzyl ether (M1), 4-methoxyphenyl-4-vinylbenzyl ether (M2), 4-ethylphenyl-4-vinylbenzyl ether (M3) and 1-naphtylphenyl-4-vinylbenzyl ether (M4) were synthesized. The normal free radical polymerization of monomers in 1,4-dioxane were performed by using 2,2′-azobisisobutyronitrile as an initiator at 65 °C. The monomers and their homopolymers were characterized by FT-IR, NMR and elemental analyses measurements. The thermal stability of polymers was investigated by thermogravimetric and differential scanning calorimetric analysis. Thermal degradation activation energies of the polymers were calculated by the Ozawa and Kissinger methods. In addition, photo-stability tests of the polymers under near-UV irradiation were performed.     

Water‐in‐Crude Oil Emulsions in the Burgan Oilfield: Effects of Oil Aromaticity,Resins to Asphaltenes Content (R/(R+A)), and Water pH

Asphaltenes and resins separated from emulsion samples collected from Burgan oil field were used with heptane‐toluene mixtures as model oil to study the effect of oil aromaticity, resin content, and pH of the aqueous phase on the stability of water in model emulsions. It was confirmed that, as long as the asphaltenes are completely solubilized, increasing aromaticity leads to less stable emulsions. A consistent correlation between emulsion stability and relative resin mass content (R/(R+A)) was observed for all three of the field samples. There was a sharp decrease in stability when the R/(R+A) value exceeded 0.75. Emulsion stability was enhanced at high pH and possibly at very low pH (<2).     

Investigation of metal activation of a partially purified polyphenol oxidase enzyme electrode

Biosensors can be developed using different biological materials and immobilization technologies. Enzymes are generally used in biosensor construction, and some enzymes need metal ions or small organic molecules as a cofactor for their activation. Polyphenol oxidases can be activated by several metal ions such as Cu²⁺, Mg²⁺, Zn²⁺, Mn²⁺, and Ni²⁺. In this study, a new measurement method has been developed that is based on the metal ion activation of the polyphenol oxidase enzyme used in the biosensor preparation, especially to determine the concentration of Mg²⁺ ions. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) (EC 1.10.3.1) was partially purified from potato (Solanum tuberosum) by using (NH₄)₂SO₄ precipitation, dialysis, and lyophylization processes. As a result of this processes, approximately 30-fold purification was achieved for PPO. For construction of the biosensor, the enzyme was immobilized on the dissolved oxygen probe membrane using gelatin and glutaraldehyde (2.5%). Using the biosensor, we obtained responses for catechol in the absence and presence of Mg²⁺ ions. Differences between the biosensor responses were related to the concentration of Mg²⁺ ions. The biosensor response depends linearly on concentration of Mg²⁺ ions between 0.05 and 7.5?mM. In the optimization studies, phosphate buffer (pH 7.0, 50?mM) and 35°C were determined to be the optimum conditions. This project will be a novel biosensor study and it might bring a new term, ‘activation based biosensor’ into the biosensor area.     

Synthesis, characterization, and biological evaluation of new oxime-phosphazenes

Hexachlorocylotriphosphazene (1) was reacted with 4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzaldehyde to give hexakis[(4-formyl-2-methoxy)phenoxy]cyclotriphosphazene (2). Hexakis[(4-(hydroxyimino)2-methoxy)phenoxy]cyclotriphosphazene (3) was synthesized by reaction of 2 with hydroxlamine hydrochloride in pyridine. Compound 3 was reacted with benzyl chloride, acetyl chloride, allyl bromide, benzoyl chloride, propanoyl chloride, 4-methoxybenzoyl chloride, 2-chlorobenzoyl chloride, chloroacetyl chloride, methyl iodide, and thiophene-2-carbonyl chloride. From these reactions, full or partially substituted compounds were obtained, usually in high yields. Pure or defined products could not be obtained from reaction of 3 with methacryloyl chloride and O-acetylsalicyloyl chloride. The structures of the compounds were determined by elemental analysis, and IR, ¹H, ¹³C, and ³¹P NMR spectroscopy. The synthesized compounds were screened for in-vitro antimicrobial activity against two Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis), two gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia), and fungal strains (Aspergillus niger, and Candida albicans) by the agar well diffusion method. Few compounds had significant activity against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. None of the compounds had antifungal activity except compounds 7 and 9, which had moderate activity.     

Dendron to Central Core S1–S1 and S2–Sn (n>1) Energy Transfers in Artificial Special Pairs Containing Dendrimers with Limited Numbers of Conformations

Two dendrimers consisting of a cofacial free‐base bisporphyrin held by a biphenylene spacer and functionalized with 4‐benzeneoxomethane (5‐(4‐benzene)tri‐10,15,20‐(4‐n‐octylbenzene)zinc(II)porphyrin) using either five or six of the six available meso‐positions, have been synthesized and characterized as models for the antenna effect in Photosystems I and II. The presence of the short linkers, ‐CH₂O‐, and long C₈H₁₇ soluble side chains substantially reduces the number of conformers (foldamers) compared with classic dendrimers built with longer flexible chains. This simplification assists in their spectroscopic and photophysical analysis, notably with respect to fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). Both steady‐state and time‐resolved spectroscopic measurements indicate that the cofacial free bases and the flanking zinc(II)–porphyrin antennas act as energy acceptor and donor, respectively, following excitation in either the Q or Soret bands of the dendrimers. The rate constants for singlet electronic energy transfer (k_EET) extracted from the S₁ and S₂ fluorescence lifetimes of the donor in the presence and absence of the acceptor are ≤ (0.1–0.3)×10⁹ and ～2×10⁹ s^?1 for S₁→S₁ (range from a bi‐exponential decay model) and about 1.5×10¹² s^?1 for S₂→S_n (n>1). Comparisons of these experimental data with those calculated from Förster theory using orientation factors and donor–acceptor distances extracted from computer modeling suggest that a highly restricted number of the many foldamers facilitate energy transfer. These foldamers have the lowest energy by molecular modeling and consist of one or at most two of the flanking zinc porphyrin antennas folded so they lie near the central artificial special pair core with the remaining antennas located almost parallel to and far from it.     

The Mechanism of Biochemical NO-Sensing: Insights from Computational Chemistry

The binding of small gas molecules such as NO and CO plays a major role in the signaling routes of the human body. The sole NO-receptor in humans is soluble guanylyl cyclase (sGC) – a histidine-ligated heme protein, which, upon NO binding, activates a downstream signaling cascade. Impairment of NO-signaling is linked, among others, to cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases. In the present work, we use a combination of theoretical tools such as MD simulations, high-level quantum chemical calculations and hybrid QM/MM methods to address various aspects of NO binding and to elucidate the most likely reaction paths and the potential intermediates of the reaction. As a model system, the H-NOX protein from Shewanella oneidensis (So H-NOX) homologous to the NO-binding domain of sGC is used. The signaling route is predicted to involve NO binding to form a six-coordinate intermediate heme-NO complex, followed by relatively facile His decoordination yielding a five-coordinate adduct with NO on the distal side with possible isomerization to the proximal side through binding of a second NO and release of the first one. MD simulations show that the His sidechain can quite easily rotate outward into solvent, with this motion being accompanied in our simulations by shifts in helix positions that are consistent with this decoordination leading to significant conformational change in the protein.     

Threshold crack speed controls dynamical fracture of silicon single crystals

Fracture experiments of single silicon crystals reveal that after the critical fracture load is reached, the crack speed jumps from zero to approximately 2 km/sec, indicating that crack motion at lower speeds is forbidden. This contradicts classical continuum fracture theories predicting a continuously increasing crack speed with increasing load. Here we show that this threshold crack speed may be due to a localized phase transformation of the silicon lattice from 6-membered rings to a 5-7 double ring at the crack tip.     

Reversible photomechanical switching of individual engineered molecules at a metallic surface

We have observed reversible light-induced mechanical switching for individual organic molecules bound to a metal surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to image the features of individual azobenzene molecules on Au(111) before and after reversibly cycling their mechanical structure between trans and cis states using light. Azobenzene molecules were engineered to increase their surface photomechanical activity by attaching varying numbers of tert-butyl (TB) ligands ("legs") to the azobenzene phenyl rings. STM images show that increasing the number of TB legs "lifts" the azobenzene molecules from the substrate, thereby increasing molecular photomechanical activity by decreasing molecule-surface coupling.     

Baryon-number-induced Chern-Simons couplings of vector and axial-vector mesons in holographic QCD

We show that holographic models of QCD predict the presence of a Chern-Simons coupling between vector and axial-vector mesons at finite baryon density. In the Anti de Sitter/Conformal Field Theory dictionary, the coefficient of this coupling is proportional to the baryon number density and is fixed uniquely in the five-dimensional holographic dual by anomalies in the flavor currents. For the lightest mesons, the coupling mixes transverse rho and a1 polarization states. At sufficiently large baryon number densities, it produces an instability, which causes the rho and a1 mesons to condense in a state breaking both rotational and translational invariance.     

Role of polarization and alignment in photoactuation of nematic elastomers

Changing the orientational order in liquid-crystal elastomers leads to internal stresses and changes of the sample shape. When this effect is induced by light, due to photoisomerization of constituent molecular moieties, the photomechanical actuation results. We investigate quantitatively how the intensity and the polarization of light affect photoactuation. By studying dissolved, as well as covalently bonded azo-dyes, we determine the changes in absorption and the response kinetics. For the first time we compare the response of aligned monodomain, and randomly disordered polydomain nematic elastomers, and demonstrate that both have a comparable photoresponse, strongly dependent on the polarization of light. Polarization-dependent photoactuation in polydomain elastomers gives an unambiguous proof of its mechanism since it is the only experiment that distinguishes from the associated thermal effects.