Potential of prodendronic polyamines with modulated segmental charge density as novel coating for fast and efficient analysis of peptides and basic proteins by CE and CE‐MS

In this work, the suitability of a new polymer family has been investigated as capillary coatings for the analysis of peptides and basic proteins by CE. This polymer family has been designed to minimize or completely prevent protein–capillary wall interactions and to modify the EOF. These coating materials are linear polymeric chains bearing as side cationizable moiety a dentronic triamine derived from N,N,N’,N’‐tetraethyldiethylenetriamine (TEDETA), which is linked to the backbone through a spacer (unit labeled as TEDETAMA). Four different polymers have been prepared and evaluated: a homopolymer which comprised only of those cationizable repetitive units of TEDETAMA, and three copolymers that randomly incorporate TEDETAMA together with neutral hydrosoluble units of N‐(2‐hydroxypropyl) methacrylamide (HPMA) at different molar percentages (25:75, 50:50 and 75:25). It has been demonstrated that the composition of the copolymers influences the EOF and therefore the separation of the investigated biopolymers. Among the novel polymers studied, poly‐(TEDETAMA‐co‐HPMA) 50:50 copolymer was successfully applied as coating material of the inner capillary surface in CE‐UV and CE‐MS, providing EOF reversing together with fast and efficient baseline separation of peptides and basic proteins. Finally, the feasibility of the polymer‐coated capillary was shown through the analysis of lysozyme in a cheese sample.     

Asymmetric Synthesis of Fluorinated Isoindolinones through Palladium‐Catalyzed Carbonylative Amination of Enantioenriched Benzylic Carbamates

The asymmetric synthesis of fluorinated isoindolinones has been achieved by a palladium‐catalyzed aminocarbonylation reaction of the corresponding α‐fluoroalkyl o‐iodobenzylamines. A base‐mediated anti β‐hydride elimination process was suggested to explain the partial erosion of the optical purity observed in some cases. This mechanistic rationale enabled the minimization of this partial racemization by fine‐tuning the pK_a of the base.     

Analysis of chiral amino acids in cerebrospinal fluid samples linked to different stages of Alzheimer disease

Chiral micellar electrokinetic chromatography with laser-induced fluorescence detection (chiral-MEKC-LIF) was used to investigate D- and L-amino acid contents in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples related to different Alzheimer disease (AD) stages. CSF samples were taken from (i) control subjects (S1 pool), (ii) subjects showing a mild cognitive impairment who remained stable (S2 pool), (iii) subjects showing an mild cognitive impairment that progressed to AD (S3 pool) and (iv) subjects diagnosed with AD (S4 pool). The optimized procedure only needed 10 μL of CSF and it included sample cleaning, derivatization with FITC and chiral-MEKC-LIF separation. Eighteen standard amino acids were baseline separated with efficiencies up to 703,000 plates/m, high sensitivity (LODs in the nM range) and good resolution (values ranging from 2.6 to 9.5). Using this method, L-Arg, L-Leu, L-Gln, γ-aminobutyric acid, L-Ser, D-Ser, L-Ala, Gly, L-Lys, L-Glu and L-Asp were detected in all the CSF samples. S3 and S4 samples (i.e. AD subjects) showed significant lower amounts of L-Arg L-Lys, L-Glu and L-Asp compared to the non-AD S1 and S2 samples, showing in the S4 group the lowest amounts of L-Arg L-Lys, L-Glu and L-Asp. Moreover, γ-aminobutyric acid was significantly higher in AD subjects with the highest amount also found for S4. No significant differences were observed for the rest of amino acids including D-Ser. Based on the obtained chiral-MEKC-LIF data, it was possible to correctly classify all the samples into the four groups. These results demonstrate that the use of enantioselective procedures as the one developed in this work can provide some new light on the investigations of AD, including the discovery of new biomarkers related to different stages of AD.     

Building an empirical mass spectra library for screening of organic pollutants by ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography/hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Hybrid quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (QTOF MS) has gained wide acceptance in many fields of chemistry, for example, proteomics, metabolomics and small molecule analysis. This has been due to the numerous technological advances made to this mass analyser in recent years. In the environmental field, the instrument has proven to be one of the most powerful approaches for the screening of organic pollutants in different matrices due to its high sensitivity in full acquisition mode and mass accuracy measurements. In the work presented here, the optimum experimental conditions for the creation of an empirical TOF MS spectra library have been evaluated. For this model we have used a QTOF Premier mass spectrometer and investigated its functionalities to obtain the best MS data, mainly in terms of mass accuracy, dynamic range and sensitivity. Different parameters that can affect mass accuracy, such as lock mass, ion abundance, spectral resolution, instrument calibration or matrix effect, have also been carefully evaluated using test compounds (mainly pesticides and antibiotics). The role of ultra-high-pressure liquid chromatography (UHPLC), especially when dealing with complex matrices, has also been tested. In addition to the mass accuracy measurements, this analyser allows the simultaneous acquisition of low and high collision energy spectra. This acquisition mode greatly enhances the reliable identification of detected compounds due to the useful (de)protonated molecule and fragment ion accurate mass information obtained when working in this mode. An in-house empirical spectral library was built for approximately 230 organic pollutants making use of QTOF MS in MS(E) mode. All the information reported in this paper is made available to the readers to facilitate screening and identification of relevant organic pollutants by QTOF MS.     

Rapid wide-scope screening of drugs of abuse, prescription drugs with potential for abuse and their metabolites in influent and effluent urban wastewater by ultrahigh pressure liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry

In the present work, a rapid method with little sample handling has been developed for determination of 23 selected volatile organic compounds in environmental and wastewater samples. The method is based on headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) followed by gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS) determination using triple quadrupole analyzer (QqQ) in electron ionization mode. The best conditions for extraction were optimised with a factorial design taking into account the interaction between different parameters and not only individual effects of variables. In the optimized procedure, 4 mL of water sample were extracted using a 10 mL vial and adding 0.4 g NaCl (final NaCl content of 10%). An SPME extraction with carboxen/polydimethylsiloxane 75 μm fiber for 30 min at 50°C (with 5 min of previous equilibration time) with magnetic stirring was applied. Chromatographic determination was carried out by GC-MS/MS working in Selected Reaction Monitoring (SRM) mode. For most analytes, two MS/MS transitions were acquired, although for a few compounds it was difficult to obtain characteristic abundant fragments. In those cases, a pseudo selected reaction monitoring (pseudo-SRM) with three ions was used instead. The intensity ratio between quantitation (Q) and confirmation (q) signals was used as a confirmatory parameter. The method was validated by means of recovery experiments (n=6) spiking mineral water samples at three concentration levels (0.1, 5 and 50 μg L(-1)). Recoveries between 70% and 120% were generally obtained with relative standard deviations (RSDs) lower than 20%. The developed method was applied to surface water and wastewater from a wastewater treatment plant and from a municipal solid-waste treatment plant. Several compounds, like chloroform, benzene, trichloroethylene, toluene, tetrachloroethylene, dibromochloromethane, xylenes and bromoform were detected and confirmed in all the samples analyzed.     

Synthesis,characterization, crystal structure and cytotoxicity of 2,4-bis(selenomethyl)quinazoline

Organoselenium compounds have already been reported to be good anticarcinogenic candidates. A new selenoquinazoline derivative, 2,4-bis(selenomethyl)quinazoline (compound 1), has been synthesized, spectroscopically characterized and its crystal structure has been studied. An intermolecular coupling between C₂ and \( {\text{H}}_{5}^{\prime } \) in the Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlation (HMBC) experiment has been observed. Assuming that the head-to-tail overlap of parallel molecules (as identified by X-ray diffraction) remains in solution to give bimolecular entities, the π–π interaction enables heteronuclear coupling between the former atoms with a three-bond distance [C₂···(π–π)···\( {\text{C}}_{5}^{\prime } \)–\( {\text{H}}_{5}^{\prime } \)]. The crystal structure of compound 1 has been solved by X-ray diffraction. It crystallizes in triclinic system, space group P?1. Unit cell parameters are a = 7.4969(7) Å, b = 8.7008(8) Å, c = 10.1666(9) Å, α = 110.215(2)°, β = 90.354(2)°, γ = 115.017(1)°. Linear chains in crystals of compound 1 are generated by C–H···Se and Se···Se bonds between molecules. Furthermore, head-to-tail overlap of parallel molecules, in which π–π interactions can occur, is observed. Compound 1 exhibited a cytotoxic effect in all of the evaluated tumoral cell lines and showed a higher cytotoxic effect in colon and breast cancer cell lines than etoposide, which was used as a reference compound.     

Electronic structure of HgBa2Ca(n-1)Cu(n)O(2n+2) (n = 1, 2, 3) superconductor parent compounds from periodic hybrid density functional theory

The electronic structure of HgBa(2)Ca(n) (-1)Cu(n)O(2n+2) (n = 1, 2, and 3) high T(c) superconductor parent compounds has been investigated by means of periodic hybrid density functional theory. Similar to other cuprates, these materials are predicted to exhibit an antiferromagnetic ground state with well localized S = 1/2 magnetic centers at the Cu(2+) sites. However, the presence of the HgO(2) structural units largely defines the nature of states dominating the energy range around Fermi energy. This results in a complex charge transfer character of the insulating gap which decreases when increasing the number of CuO(2) planes in the unit cell, to the point that in the HgBa(2)Ca(2)Cu(3)O(8) compound it becomes so small that one can claim that the resulting material is metallic. Nevertheless, the metallic character arises from the HgO(2) structural units and coexists with the antiferromagnetic order arising from the localized spins at the Cu(2+) sites.     

Photocatalytic methane decomposition over vertically aligned transparent TiO2 nanotube arrays

We report here on a study of vertically aligned TiO(2) nanotube arrays grown by the one-step anodic oxidation technique and their photocatalytic performance for methane decomposition. Quantitative activity data as a function of film thickness is obtained.     

Magnetic circular dichroism of the first spin-forbidden transition in 2[Cr(en)3Cl3] . KCl . 6H2O

The longitudinal Zeeman effect of the ² E ←⁴ A ₂ transition of the Cr⁺³ ion in single crystals of 2[Cr(en)₃Cl₃] . KCl . 6H₂O has been measured using circularly polarized light as a function of magnetic field strength between 0 and 160 kgauss at ～80 K. The g factor for the ground state was determined to be g _‖(⁴ A ₂) = 2·01±0·05, in agreement with the E.S.R.-determined value. The ratio between the excited state g values and that of the ground state was determined; using the value g _‖(⁴ A ₂) = 1·99, the g factors g _‖(2) = 2·61±0·04 and g _‖() = 1·47±0·04 were obtained.