Molecular Rectangle Formed by Head-to-tail Self-Assembly of 1-(Dipyrrin-2-yl)-1-(dipyrrin-3-yl)methane

1-(Dipyrrin-2-yl)-1-(dipyrrin-3-yl)methane, the N-confused analog of biladiene-ac, is prepared by condensation of 2,3-dipyrromethane with two molecules of 2-formylpyrrole in dichloromethane in the presence of hydrogen bromide. Self-assembly of the ligand with Zn(II) in dichloromethane and methanol offers a dinuclear dimeric complex with a ligand:metal ratio of 2:2. X-Ray crystal structure analysis reveals two ligands bound through a head-to-tail pattern to two zinc centers to form a severely distorted helical conformation, which has the shape of a rectangle.     

Mutual Solubilities of Water and Alkanes

Summary.  The evaluation of mutual solubility data for systems water with n-alkanes, isoalkanes, and cycloalkanes along the three phase line is reported and a formula for the prediction of solubility of alkanes in water is developed. Then a cubic equation of state with an added term, which accounts for hydrogen bonding is used for correlation of liquid–liquid equilibrium data and for prediction of solubility of water in hydrocarbons using alkane in water solubility data. Comparison of the predicted and experimental solubilities is performed using all accessible experimental data. With this approach it is possible to predict the solubilities of water in alkanes with good accuracy over the temperature range up to about 20 K below critical temperature. Solubility of alkanes in water can also be calculated using experimental data for solubility of water in alkanes but results of these calculations are more sensitive to experimental errors of the data. Corresponding author: E-mail: macz@ichf.edu.pl Received August 5, 2002; accepted (revised) September 13, 2002 Published online March 13, 2003 RID="a" ID="a" Dedicated to Prof. Dr. H. Gamsj?ger on the occasion of his 70^th birthday anniversary     

A preliminary study on fabrication of nanoscale fibrous chitosan membranes in situ by biospecific degradation

A new approach for in situ fabrication of nanoscale fibrous chitosan membrane by biospecific degradation under physiological situation was studied. The chitosan binary blend membranes were fabricated by solvent casting of chitosan solution containing highly deacetylated chitosan (HDC) and moderately deacetylated chitosan (MDC) with different ratio. The biodegradation process was performed in PBS (pH 7.4) containing lysozyme at the temperature of 37 °C. Experimental results from weight loss, reducing sugar in surrounding media, FT-IR, X-ray diffraction, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and SEM throughout the study showed that the biospecific degradation by lysozyme had removed MDC component selectively. When the ratio of MDC in the binary blend membranes amounted to 0.5, nanoscale domains of HDC and MDC were obtained, and thus a nanoscale fibrous structure was fabricated after biospecific degradation of MDC. This nanofibrous structure and the biospecific degradation of chitosan membranes can have potential advantages and interesting implications in tissue engineering and drug delivery.     

The mechanism of thermal decomposition of Co(NO3)2 · 2H2O

The mechanism of thermal decomposition of Co(NO₃)₂ · 2H₂O was found to involve stages in which Co(NO₃)₃ and Co₂O₃ · H₂O are formed both of which decompose to Co₃O₄. During the process, the total cobalt enters the +3 oxidation state, which is consistent with the results reported by Mehandjiev [2].

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Zusammenfassung Es wurde gefunden, daß der Zersetzungsmechanismus von Co(NO₃)₂ · 2H₂O Schritte umfaßt, bei denen Co(NO₃)₃ sowie Co₂O₃ · H₂O gebildet werden, beides weiterzerfallend zu Co₃O₄. Während des Vorganges erreicht das Gesamtkobalt die Oxidationsstufe +3, was mit Ergebnissen von Mehandjiev übereinstimmt [2].

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, , CO₃O₄. , .

     

A nanoscale vesicular polydiacetylene sensor for organic amines by fluorescence recovery

We report a nanoscale lipid membrane-based sensor of conjugated polydiacetylene (PDA) vesicles for fluorescence detection of organic amines. The vesicle sensor was constructed by incorporation of a BODIPY fluorescent dye into the PDA vesicles. The fluorescent properties of the resulting vesicles can be manipulated by adjusting lipid components, and are controlled by environmental and solution conditions. The fluorescence of the BODIPY dye was significantly quenched in the polymerization of diacetylene lipid vesicles by a UV irradiation process. However, it was sufficiently recovered by external stimuli such as a hike of solution pH. The fluorescence recovery process was reversible, and a decrease in solution pH resulted in repeated quenching. The reported system transforms an external stimulus into a large fluorescence intensity change, demonstrating great potential in developing new signal reporting method for biosensor design. The quench-recovery phenomenon of the BODIPY-PDA is believed to be related to the energy transfer between the dye and the PDA conjugate backbone. The vesicle sensor was applied for detecting an organic amine, triethylamine (TEA) and a large linear relationship was obtained between the increase in fluorescence intensity and the concentrations of TEA. The detection limit of TEA by vesicle sensors using fluorescence recovery was found to be 10 μM.     

Energy Landscape of Aptamer/Protein Complexes Studied by Single‐Molecule Force Spectroscopy

Aptamers are single‐stranded nucleic acid molecules selected in vitro to bind to a variety of target molecules. Aptamers bound to proteins are emerging as a new class of molecules that rival commonly used antibodies in both therapeutic and diagnostic applications. With the increasing application of aptamers as molecular probes for protein recognition, it is important to understand the molecular mechanism of aptamer–protein interaction. Recently, we developed a method of using atomic force microscopy (AFM) to study the single‐molecule rupture force of aptamer/protein complexes. In this work, we investigate further the unbinding dynamics of aptamer/protein complexes and their dissociation‐energy landscape by AFM. The dependence of single‐molecule force on the AFM loading rate was plotted for three aptamer/protein complexes and their dissociation rate constants, and other parameters characterizing their dissociation pathways were obtained. Furthermore, the single‐molecule force spectra of three aptamer/protein complexes were compared to those of the corresponding antibody/protein complexes in the same loading‐rate range. The results revealed two activation barriers and one intermediate state in the unbinding process of aptamer/protein complexes, which is different from the energy landscape of antibody/protein complexes. The results provide new information for the study of aptamer–protein interaction at the molecular level.     

Synthesis, structure, spectroscopic properties, and electrochemistry of (1,8,15,22-tetrasubstituted phthalocyaninato)lead complexes

Three (1,8,15,22-tetrasubstituted phthalocyaninato)lead complexes Pb[Pc(alpha-OR)(4)] [H(2)Pc(alpha-OC(5)H(11))(4) = 1,8,15,22-tetrakis(3-pentyloxy)phthalocyanine; H(2)Pc(alpha-OC(7)H(15))(4) = 1,8,15,22-tetrakis(2,4-dimethyl-3-pentyloxy)phthalocyanine; H(2)Pc(alpha-OC(10)H(7))(4) = 1,8,15,22-tetrakis(2-naphthyloxy)phthalocyanine] (1-3) have been prepared as racemic mixtures by treating the corresponding metal-free phthalocyanines H(2)Pc(alpha-OR)(4) (4-6) with Pb(OAc)(2).3H(2)O in refluxing n-pentanol. The molecular structure of Pb[Pc(alpha-OC(5)H(11))(4)] (1) in the solid state has been determined by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. This compound, having a nonplanar structure, crystallizes in the monoclinic system with a P2(1)/c space group. Each unit cell contains two pairs of enantiomeric molecules, which are linked by weak coordination of the Pb atom of one molecule with an aza nitrogen atom and its neighboring oxygen atom from the alkoxy substituent of another molecule, forming a pseudo-double-decker supramolecular structure in the crystals with a short ring-to-ring separation, 2.726 A, and thus a strong ring-ring pi-pi interaction. The decreased molecular symmetry for these complexes has also been revealed by the NMR spectra of 1 and 2. The methyl protons of the 3-pentyloxy and 2,4-dimethyl-3-pentyloxy side chains of 1 and 2, respectively, are chemically inequivalent. In addition to the elemental analysis and various spectroscopic characterizations, these compounds have also been electrochemically studied. Two one-electron oxidations and up to five one-electron reductions have been revealed by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) methods.     

A sequential reaction process to assemble polysubstituted indolizidines, quinolizidines and quinolizidine analogues

The ω-iodo-α,β-alkynoates and their ketone, sulfone or phosphonate analogues react with δ-chloropropylamines in MeCN assisted with K₂CO₃ to undergo a sequential S_N2/Michael addition/S_N2/S_N2 reaction process, giving polysubstituted indolizidines or quinolizidines in good to excellent yields. This sequential reaction process is also compatible with three other substituted α,β-alkynoates, affording quinolizidine analogues in moderate to good yields.     

Association equlibria in acetonitrile solution of tetracyanoquinodimethanides

Trimetric ion (TCNQ)^2?₃ has been discovered in mixed solutions of TCNQ and LiTCNQ in acetonitrile. The estimated association constant isK_T = 5.6 × 10¹⁰ øl² mol^?2.     

Modification of catalytic adsorptive stripping voltammetric method of hexavalent chromium determination in the presence of DTPA and nitrate

The voltammetric procedure for determination of traces of Cr(VI) [Anal. Chim. Acta (1992) 262:103] was modified by changing the temperature of the measurements. It was found that at the temperature of 40 °C the time of decrease of the Cr(III) signal was shortened from 30 to 5 min. As a result the total analysis time was drastically shortened. The modified procedure does not show any disadvantage as compared to the original method. The results of Cr(VI) determination by the modified procedure are less affected by Cr(III) as compared to the original method. The detection limit of the method was 2.5 × 10^-11 mol L^-1 (1.2 ng L^-1). The validation of the modified procedure was performed by comparison of the results of analyses of tap and river water samples with those obtained using original procedure.