Choice of chemical conditions in order to obtain linear titration curves in potentiometry

In the titration of an acid HA with a strong base, [HA] diminishes, on the whole, in proportion to the addition of titrant. However, [HA] = K_HA[H] [A], and if [A] is kept constant [HA] will be proportional to [H]. Therefore if [H] instead of [HA] is plotted against ml of titrant added, one obtains a linear titration curve. [A] is kept constant by addition of NaA before titration in such high concentration that the formation of A can be neglected during the titration. When an acid stronger than acetic acid is titrated, sodium acetate can be used as the added salt. Even mixtures of adds, mono- or polybasic, then yield'straight titration curves since one is in fact titrating acetic acid in the presence of excess of acetate. For weaker acids sodium sulphite is used. In the oxidation-reduction titration of, for example, ferrous iron with permanganate, the potential measured is dependent on the ratio [Fe²⁺]/[Fe³⁺]. If [Fe³⁺] is kept constant by the addition of ferric chloride before the titration, the potential win be dependent only on [Fe²⁺]. Since this diminishes in proportion to the added volume of titrant, straight titration curves can be obtained in this case also. No correction for dilution should be made.     

Characterisation of variant forms of prophenin: mechanistic aspects of the fragmentation of proline-rich peptides

Prophenin 1 (PF-1) is a 79-residue polypeptide originally isolated from porcine leukocytes. Its amino acid sequence has been determined by a combination of mass spectrometry and Edman degradation (Harwig SSL. et al. FEBS Lett. 1995; 362: 65). Prophenin (PF) and variants thereof are also found in organic extracts of porcine pulmonary tissue (Wang Y. et al. FEBS Lett. 1999; 460: 257). In the present study we have characterised the variant forms of PF found in these extracts using nano-electrospray (nano-ES) high resolution and tandem mass spectrometry. The major forms of PF found in these extracts by nano-ES mass spectrometry are the 80-residue polypeptides prophenin-2-Pyr (PF-2-Pyr) and prophenin-2-Gln (PF-2-Gln). Prophenin-2-Pyr is refractory to Edman degradation due to the presence of an N-terminal pyroglutamic residue. In PF-2-Gln the N-terminal residue is glutamine and the C-terminus is amidated. In porcine pulmonary extracts PF-1 is present to only a minor extent. Other shorter polypeptides are also found in these extracts including 18- and 17-residue C-terminal fragments of PF. The primary structure of PF is highly unusual in that it shows four almost perfect decamer repeats of FPPPN(V/F)PGPR and, out of the 79/80 residues, 42 are proline and 14 are phenylalanine. Tryptic digestion of PF gives peptides containing the decamer repeat and collision-induced dissociation of these peptides provides an insight into the fragmentation mechanisms of proline-rich peptides. Facile cleavage within the Pro-Pro-Pro sequence of these peptides suggests the involvement of a cyclic peptide in the fragmentation mechanism. Fragmentation mechanisms that account for the formation of fragment ions at other cleavage sites are also discussed.     

Chiral diethylzinc complexes with diamine ligands: synthesis, crystal structure and enantioselective solvent-free alkylation

In search for conglomerates of stereochemically labile organometallic reagents, three new complexes between diethylzinc and diamine ligands have been synthesized and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods. Ligands include N,N,N′,N′-tetraethylethylenediamine (teeda), N-isopropyl-N,N′,N′-trimethylethylenediamine (itmeda), and (−)-sparteine (spa). Diethylzinc forms monomeric complexes, exhibiting a distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry around zinc in all three complexes, viz. [ZnEt₂(teeda)] (1), [ZnEt₂(itmeda)] (2), and [ZnEt₂(spa)] (3). Both 1 and 2 are stereochemically labile and exhibit chiral complexes, displaying different types of conformational chirality, but they form racemic crystals. By using the chiral crystals of 3 in a nucleophilic addition to benzaldehyde in the absence of solvent at low temperature, an increase in ee from approximately 8 to 10% was obtained (compared to the same reaction in solution). It thus seems feasible, not only to retain the enantioselectivity obtained in solution, but perhaps even to increase the ee by using solventless reactions.     

Separation of phases at low temperatures in a one-dimensional continuous gas

We show the existence of a phase separation at low temperatures in a one-dimensional one-component classical gas in the canonical ensemble with interactionhard core –1/r , 1<2. This implies that for sufficiently low temperatures there are values of the chemical potential at which the pressure is not differentiable as a function of the chemical potential.Research supported by the Swedish research councils NFR and STUF