Homolytic C-H and N-H bond dissociation energies of strained organic compounds

High-level computations at G3, CBS-Q, and G3B3 levels were conducted, and good-quality C-H and N-H bond dissociation energies (BDEs) were obtained for a variety of saturated and unsaturated strained hydrocarbons and amines for the first time. From detailed NBO analyses, we found that the C-H BDEs of hydrocarbons are determined mainly by the hybridization of the parent compound, the hybridization of the radical, and the extent of spin delocalization of the radical. The ring strain has a significant effect on the C-H BDE because it forces the parent compound and radical to adopt certain undesirable hybridization. A structure-activity relationship equation (i.e., BDE (C-H) = 61.1-227.8 (p(parent)% - 0.75)(2) + 152.9 (p(radical)% - 1.00)(2) + 40.4 spin) was established, and it can predict the C-H BDEs of a variety of saturated and unsaturated strained hydrocarbons fairly well. For the C-H BDEs associated with the bridgehead carbons of the highly rigid strained compounds, we found that the strength of the C-H bond can also be predicted from the H-C-C bond angles of the bridgehead carbon. Finally, we found that N-H BDEs show less dependence on the ring strain than C-H BDEs.     

Native and stearic acid modified ceria-zirconia supports in normal and reversed-phase HPLC

Porous ceria-zirconia composite with narrow particle size distribution and large specific surface area was synthesized by a sol-gel process. Chromatographic properties of the native supports was investigated in normal phase mode for the separation of test mixtures of basic, neutral and acidic compounds. The new packing material exhibited polar and basic properties, which are suitable for the separation of basic compounds. Lypophilic packing has been obtained by the modification of the ceria-zirconia with stearic acid, which exhibited strong hydrophobicity relative to the native packing. Therefore, the modified ceria-zirconia behaves as a reversed-phase packing material. Different selectivity towards basic compounds was observed on the new packing compared to the native ceria-zirconia and conventional ODS stationary phase.     

Study on the Tautomer Interconversion of 3-Oxo Pentanoate During Gas Chromatography

Enol and keto tautomers of methyl 3-oxo pentanoate could be separated on a HP-5 capillary column. The chromatographic peaks were identified by examining characteristic mass ions arose from the corresponding enol and keto molecular ions. The study showed that the area percentage of enol tautomer is a function of temperature of the column. Treating the column as a reactor, the energy of activation for the on-column tautomerization could be extracted (35.1 kJ mol⁻¹) by monitoring the loss of the enol tautomer, because the reaction is found to obey pseudo first-order kinetics. The enthalpy and the entropy changes (ΔH = −3.98 kJ mol⁻¹, ΔS = −7.89 J K⁻¹mol⁻¹) for the enol-to-keto reaction in the stationary phase were also obtained.     

Probing the kinetic landscape of transient peptide-protein interactions by use of peptide (15)n NMR relaxation dispersion spectroscopy: binding of an antithrombin peptide to human prothrombin

Protein-ligand interactions may lead to the formation of multiple molecular complexes in dynamic exchange, affecting the kinetic and thermodynamic characteristics of the binding equilibrium. We followed the dissociation kinetics of the transient and specific complex of an antithrombotic peptide N-acetyl-Asp(55)-Phe-Glu-Glu-Ile-Pro(60)-Glu-Glu-Tyr-Leu-Gln(65) with human prothrombin by use of (15)N NMR relaxation dispersion spectroscopy of the peptide. Every one of the five (15)N-labeled adjacent residues of the peptide exhibited apparently different kinetic exchange and relaxation behaviors, which were especially evident at different concentrations of prothrombin. Binding-induced (15)N relaxation dispersion of residues Phe(56), Glu(57), Glu(58), and Ile(59) can be fitted phenomenologically to a two-site on-and-off exchange mechanism with physically feasible relaxation and kinetic parameters obtained for residues Phe(56), Glu(58), and Ile(59), independent of the prothrombin concentration. The apparent kinetic parameters of Glu(57) show some dependence on the concentration of prothrombin and the extracted transverse relaxation rate for Glu(57) in the bound state was severalfold higher than that expected for a protein-peptide complex with a size of approximately 72 kDa. In addition, the equilibrium population of the bound peptide obtained for Glu(57) was inconsistent with those for Phe(56), Glu(58), and Ile(59) and with the prothrombin/peptide ratios used in the experiments. These discrepancies can be explained by the presence of two conformations for the peptide-protein complex exchanging at a rate of approximately 100 s(-)(1). In all, our study shows that fast dissociation of protein-peptide complexes can be studied quantitatively using peptide (15)N NMR relaxation dispersion measurements without a precise knowledge of the peptide and protein concentrations. In addition, protein titration was found to improve the accuracy of quantitative analysis and may make it possible to determine the rate of conformational changes within the protein-peptide complex.