High pressure raman study of isotropic lineshapes of aqueous sodium nitrate solutions

The isotropic lineshape of the v₁ (A₁) stretching mode of the nitrate ion in solutions of sodium nitrate has been studied at 25°C as a function of NaNO₃ concentration ranging from 0.1 to 6M. The pressure dependence has been determined for 1 and 6M solutions at pressures ranging from 1 bar to 3 kbar. The isotropic band becomes more asymmetric with increasing concentration, and its v₁ peak frequency undergoes a blue shift both with increased concentration and increased pressure. At low concentration the vibrational correlation function is well described by the Kubo formula, whereas at higher concentration it becomes more Gaussian. The experimental data indicate that the v₁ vibrational lineshape in aqueous solutions of NaNO₃ is dominated by strong intermolecular interactions which produce inhomogeneous broadening at higher concentration.     

Conformational energy penalties of protein-bound ligands

The conformational energies required for ligands to adopt their bioactive conformations were calculated for 33 ligand–protein complexes including 28 different ligands. In order to monitor the force field dependence of the results, two force fields, MM3 and AMBER, were employed for the calculations. Conformational analyses were performed in vacuo and in aqueous solution by using the generalized Born/solvent accessible surface (GB/SA) solvation model. The protein-bound conformations were relaxed by using flat-bottomed Cartesian constraints. For about 70% of the ligand–protein complexes studied, the conformational energies of the bioactive conformations were calculated to be 3 kcal/mol. It is demonstrated that the aqueous conformational ensemble for the unbound ligand must be used as a reference state in this type of calculations. The calculations for the ligand–protein complexes with conformational energy penalties of the ligand calculated to be larger than 3 kcal/mol suffer from uncertainties in the interpretation of the experimental data or limitations of the computational methods. For example, in the case of long-chain flexible ligands (e.g. fatty acids), it is demonstrated that several conformations may be found which are very similar to the conformation determined by X-ray crystallography and which display significantly lower conformational energy penalties for binding than obtained by using the experimental conformation. For strongly polar molecules, e.g. amino acids, the results indicate that further developments of the force fields and of the dielectric continuum solvation model are required for reliable calculations on the conformational properties of this type of compounds.     

Quasiperiodic trajectories in the unimolecular dissociation of ethyl radicals by time-frequency analysis

Direct classical trajectory calculations for ethyl radical, C2H5, at the HCTH147@6-31 +G**/6-31G** level of theory support the experimental observation that the dissociation of highly excited ethyl radicals to ethylene and and a hydrogen atom can occur much more slowly than predicted by statistical rate theories. Only 78% of the trajectories of ethyl radicals prepared in a microcanonical ensemble with 120-kcal/mol excitation energy above the zero-point energy and zero total angular momentum dissociate to form C2H4 + H. The remaining hot ground-state ethyl radicals have a lifetime of >2 ps, during which a time-frequency analysis finds them trapped for extended periods of time in long-lived quasiperiodic trajectories.     

Synthesis of Novel Isothionucleosides as Potential Antiviral Agents

The synthesis of novel isothionucleosides is described. The thioether moiety was prepared via a highly regioselective opening of chiral thiirane 9 with vinylmagnesium bromide.     

A versatile set up for implementing different flow analysis approaches: Spectrophotometric determination of nickel in steel alloys

An arrangement capable of implementing the four principal types of flow analysis processes, monosegmented flow analysis (MSFA), flow injection analysis with multicommutation and binary sampling (FIA-MBS), flow injection analysis with sandwich sampling (FIA-SS) and sequential injection analysis (SIA) is described. The core of the flow manifold is a six-way solenoid valve that is assembled together with three three-way solenoid valves in order to provide a versatile flow network. Software was written in VisualBasic 3.0 to give a friendly working structure allowing the user to easily choose the flow variables and the kind of flow system. The reliability of the flow set up for implementation of the four flow analysis systems was evaluated by means of the spectrophotometric determination of nickel in steel alloys, based on the formation of a colored complex with dimethylglyoxime (DMG). The performances of the four different flow methodologies were compared. The reagent consumptions per determination were 4.0 mg of triethanolamine, 6.0 mg of potassium persulfate and 0.6 mg of DMG. When the flow set up was instructed through the software to implement MSFA, FIA-MBS, and FIA-SS approaches, a sampling frequency of 40 samples/h was obtained, while 30 samples could be processed per hour in the SIA mode. The precisions, evaluated as the relative standard deviation of ten determinations were 0.7%, 1.6%, 1.8% and 3.1% for the MFSA, FIA-MBS, FIA-SS and SIA systems, respectively. The results for determination of nickel in steel alloys presented good agreement with the reference method (ICP OES), showing no significant difference at a confidence level of 95%.     

Synthesis of [4,5-Bis(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-dioxolan-2-yl]nucleosides as Potential Inhibitors of HIV

The synthesis of 1,3-dioxolan-2-ylnucleosides and related chemistry is described. We have shown that 2-methoxy-1,3-dioxolane (6) reacts with silylated thymine and trimethylsilyl triflate to give the acyclic formate ester 1-[2-(formyloxy)ethyl]thymine (8) rather than 1-(1,3-dioxolan-2-yl)thymine (7). A tentative mechanism which could explain this result is discussed. On the other hand, 2-methoxy-1,3-dioxolane 13c reacts with silylated bases to give [4,5-bis(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-dioxolan-2-yl]nucleosides, thus representing the first examples of this novel class of compounds. The nature of the nucleobase and the hydroxyl protecting groups was found to have great influence on the reaction and on the stability of the nucleosides. Compounds 16 and 18 were found to be inactive when tested for anti HIV-1 activity in vitro.     

Theoretical studies of organometallic compounds. I. All electron and pseudopotential calculations of Ti(CH3)nCl4 − n (n = 0–4)

The performance of effective core potentials (ECP) and model potentials (MP) has been studied by calculating the geometries and reaction energies of isodesmic reactions for the molecules Ti(CH₃)_nCl_{4 ? n} (n = 0–4) at the Hartree–Fock level of theory. The results are compared with data from all electron calculations and experimental results as far as available. The all electron calculations were performed with a 3-21G basis set from Hehre and a (53321/521/41) basis set from Huzinaga. For the ECP calculations the potentials developed by Hay and Wadt, and for the MP calculations, the model potentials developed by Sakai and Huzinaga, are employed. © 1992 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ligand-field excited states of metal hexacarbonyls

Over 35 years ago, the low-lying bands in the absorption spectra of metal hexacarbonyls were assigned to ligand-field (LF) excitations. Recent time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) calculations on M(CO)6 (M = Cr, Mo, W) are not in accord with this interpretation. Here we extend TDDFT calculations to the isoelectronic series V(CO)6-, Cr(CO)6, and Mn(CO)6+. By analyzing the trends in the energies of the various electronic excitations, we are able to fully assign the spectra of the complexes. In particular, we demonstrate that the LF excitation 1A1g -->1T1g is observed at 4.12 eV in the Mn(CO)6+ spectrum, but all LF features in the spectra of V(CO)6- and Cr(CO)6 are obscured by intense metal-to-ligand charge-transfer absorptions. Our results suggest that use of B3LYP as the exchange-correlation functional and inclusion of solvation effects through a continuum solvation model lead to the most accurate calculated transition energies.     

Engleromycin,a new cytochalasan from Engleromycesgoetzei Hennings

The structure of engleromycin isolated from $\text{Engleromyces}$$\text{goetzei}$ Hennings has been established as $\text{1}$ by spectral techniques.     

Prediction of adsorption behavior of activated carbons

A study was made of the effect of temperature on predictive equations recently developed and applied to gas adsorption by beds of activated and impregnated carbons. Adsorption parameters, obtained for the adsorbate DMMP on small gram quantities of impregnated carbon at 25°C and applied to carbon bed breakthru times, were analyzed for changes resulting from direct temperature effects on gas diffusion, adsorption—desorption equilibria, volume expansion, relative pressure, and adsorbate—adsorbent interactions. Modifications in the adsorption parameters, calculated for bed temperatures ranging between 40.3 and 46.7°C, were used in the kinetic equations to predict breakthru times for M10 gas filters, each containing 13,847 g of carbon. The predicted values compared very well with those experimentally determined, the mean deviation in breakthru time being 5.82%, without regard to sign. A general analysis of a 10°C rise in temperature, from 25 to 35°C, for the M10 gas filter under the test conditions used, showed that the breakthru time would be lowered 20.0 min, 87% of this lowering due to a reduced adsorption rate constant, 9% due to a reduced adsorption capacity, and 4% due to volume expansion effects on concentration and flowrate.