Quantitative analysis of sea-bed sediments from Eastern Black Sea by EDXRF spectrometry

Sea-bed sediments from Eastern Black Sea have been analyzed for their Fe, Ba and Sr contents using the methods of standard addition and energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF). Samples were prepared from powder sifted by a 200 mesh sieve. An annular 100 mCi²⁴¹Am radioactive source emitting 59.543 keV photons was used for excitation and a Ge(Li) detector, which has a 190 eV FWHM for 5.9 keV photons was used for intensity measurements. 2048 channels of the MCA are employed for 20 or 30 min. Dried and ground sea-bed sediments are found to contain 2.95–7.50% Fe, 0.032–0.268% Ba and about 73–273 ppm Sr. These results agree with those obtained via atomic absorption methods.     

Single-step fabrication of patterned gold film array by an engineered multi-functional peptide

This study constitutes a demonstration of the biological route to controlled nano-fabrication via modular multi-functional inorganic-binding peptides. Specifically, we use gold- and silica-binding peptide sequences, fused into a single molecule via a structural peptide spacer, to assemble pre-synthesized gold nanoparticles on silica surface, as well as to synthesize nanometallic particles in situ on the peptide-patterned regions. The resulting film-like gold nanoparticle arrays with controlled spatial organization are characterized by various microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. The described bio-enabled, single-step synthetic process offers many advantages over conventional approaches for surface modifications, self-assembly and device fabrication due to the peptides' modularity, inherent biocompatibility, material specificity and catalytic activity in aqueous environments. Our results showcase the potential of artificially-derived peptides to play a key role in simplifying the assembly and synthesis of multi-material nano-systems in environmentally benign processes.     

Self-assembly of class II hydrophobins on polar surfaces

Hydrophobins are structural proteins produced by filamentous fungi that are amphiphilic and function through self-assembling into structures such as membranes. They have diverse roles in the growth and development of fungi, for example in adhesion to substrates, for reducing surface tension to allow aerial growth, in forming protective coatings on spores and other structures. Hydrophobin membranes at the air-water interface and on hydrophobic solids are well studied, but understanding how hydrophobins can bind to a polar surface to make it more hydrophobic has remained unresolved. Here we have studied different class II hydrophobins for their ability to bind to polar surfaces that were immersed in buffer solution. We show here that the binding under some conditions results in a significant increase of water contact angle (WCA) on some surfaces. The highest contact angles were obtained on cationic surfaces where the hydrophobin HFBI has an average WCA of 62.6° at pH 9.0, HFBII an average of 69.0° at pH 8.0, and HFBIII had an average WCA of 61.9° at pH 8.0. The binding of the hydrophobins to the positively charged surface was shown to depend on both pH and ionic strength. The results are significant for understanding the mechanism for formation of structures such as the surface of mycelia or fungal spore coatings as well as for possible technical applications.     

Controlling the surface chemistry of graphite by engineered self-assembled peptides

The systematic control over surface chemistry is a long-standing challenge in biomedical and nanotechnological applications for graphitic materials. As a novel approach, we utilize graphite-binding dodecapeptides that self-assemble into dense domains to form monolayer-thick long-range-ordered films on graphite. Specifically, the peptides are rationally designed through their amino acid sequences to predictably display hydrophilic and hydrophobic characteristics while maintaining their self-assembly capabilities on the solid substrate. The peptides are observed to maintain a high tolerance for sequence modification, allowing control over surface chemistry via their amino acid sequence. Furthermore, through a single-step coassembly of two differently designed peptides, we predictably and precisely tune the wettability of the resulting functionalized graphite surfaces from 44° to 83°. The modular molecular structures and predictable behavior of short peptides demonstrated here give rise to a novel platform for functionalizing graphitic materials that offers numerous advantages, including noninvasive modification of the substrate, biocompatible processing in an aqueous environment, and simple fusion with other functional biological molecules.     

Catalytic methanolysis of hydrazine borane: a new and efficient hydrogen generation system under mild conditions

Safe and efficient hydrogen storage is a major obstacle for using hydrogen as an energy carrier. Therefore, intensive efforts have been focused on the development of new materials for chemical hydrogen storage. Of particular importance, hydrazine borane (N(2)H(4)BH(3)) is emerging as one of the most promising solid hydrogen carriers due to its high gravimetric hydrogen storage capacity (15.4 wt%) and low molecular weight. Herein, we report metal catalyzed methanolysis of hydrazine borane (N(2)H(4)BH(3), HB) as a fast hydrogen generation system under mild conditions. When trace amounts of nickel(ii) chloride (NiCl(2)) is added to the methanol solution of hydrazine borane ([HB]/[Ni] ≥ 200) the reaction solution releases 3 equiv. of H(2) with a rate of 24 mol H(2) (mol Ni min)(-1) at room temperature. The results reported here also includes (i) identification of the reaction products by using ATR-IR, DP-MS, (1)H and (11)B NMR spectroscopic techniques and the establishment of the reaction stoichiometry, (ii) investigation of the effect of substrate and catalyst concentrations on the hydrogen generation rate to determine the rate law for the catalytic methanolysis of hydrazine borane, (iii) determination of the activation parameters (E(a), ΔH(#), and ΔS(#)) for the catalytic methanolysis of hydrazine borane by using the temperature dependent rate data of the hydrogen generation.     

Design, synthesis, and biological activities of some branched carbasugars: construction of a substituted 6-oxabicyclo[3.2.1]nonane skeleton

Transformation of cyclohexa-2,4-diene-1,2-diylbis(methylene) diacetate to various carbasugars is described. Photooxygenation of a cyclohexadiene derivative gave a bicyclicendoperoxide, which was reduced with thiourea to [2-[(acetyloxy)methyl]cyclohexa-2,4-dien-1-yl]methyl acetate. Epoxidation of the remaining double bond followed by epoxide ring-opening and hydrolysis of the acetate groups gave one of the target hexols. The bicyclic endoperoxide was rearranged to a diepoxide with CoTPP. The diepoxide was reacted with sulfamic acid in acetic anhydride, resulting in the formation of a new branched carbasugar as well as in the formation of cyclitols with a 6-oxabicyclo[3.2.1]nonane skeleton. The mechanism of the formation of the products is discussed. The inhibition activity of six cyclitol derivatives was tested against α-glycosidase.     

Manganese(III) acetate mediated synthesis of 3-trifluoroacetyl-4,5-dihydrofurans and 3-(dihydrofuran-2(3H)-ylidene)-1,1,1-trifluoroacetones by free radical cyclization. Part 1

2-Trifluoroacetyl-4,5-dihydrofurans were obtained by manganese(III) acetate mediated radical cyclization of trifluoromethyl-1,3-dicarbonyl compounds (1a-c) with conjugated alkenes (2a-h). The reaction of 1,1,1-trifluoropentane-2,4-dione (1a) with propenylbenzene and 1,1-diphenyl-1-butene surprisingly yielded 3-(dihydrofuran-2(3H)-ylidene)-1,1,1-trifluoroacetones besides 3-trifluoroacetyl-4,5-dihydrofurans.     

A Study of Adsorption of Water Vapour on Wool under Static and Dynamic Conditions

Adsorption of water vapour on wool provides not only textile comfort, but also convenience in transportation due to increase in its bulk density. The adsorption and desorption isotherms of water vapour for wool were determined by both volumetric technique using a Coulter Omnisorp 100CX instrument and gravimetric method employing a Cahn 2000 electronic microbalance. Adsorption isotherm fitting to B.E.T. model and hysteresis on desorption was observed. The average effective diffusion coefficient of water in wool was found to be 8.4 × 10^-14 m²s^-1 at 25°C from gravimetric data. The effects of packing height and air velocity on the breakthrough curves were also investigated in the wool packed columns. For pseudo first order model, k values changing between 0.33 × 10^-6 – 69 × 10^-6 s^-1 was obtained for 2.2–6.4 cm s^-1 air velocity and 0.05–0.20 m packing height ranges.     

Aluminium fractionation using cation exchange: comparison of results obtained after fractionation in the field and in the laboratory

Dissolved aluminium was fractionated in the field and the laboratory using a cation-exchange method. Although absolute differences between results obtained from field and laboratory fractionations were generally small, relative differences, expressed as the ratio between labile aluminium determined after laboratory fractionation (Al_ll) and that obtained after field fractionation (Al_lf) could be large. The differences found were not statistically significant, although this may simply reflect the spread in the results. Al_ll/Al_lf had no apparent relationship with the temperature difference between the field and the lab. Although some significant correlations were found between Al_ll/Al_lf and H⁺, no significant correlations were found with the equivalent relative difference in {H⁺} between the lab and the field; nor was any significant correlation found with dissolved organic carbon.     

Investigation of spectroscopic studies and DFT calculations on glucofuranose derivatives of dithiophosphonates

Abstract

2,4-Bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-1,3,2,4-dithiadiphosphetane-2,4-disulfide (Lawesson’s reagent: LR) was reacted with 1,2:5,6-di-O-cyclohexylidene-α-D-glucofuranose and 1,2:5,6-di-O-isopropylidene-α-D-glucofuranose in toluene and gave rise to crude dithiophosphonic acids. The crude dithiophosphonic acids were treated with excess triethylamine and the triethylammonium salts of dithiophosphonic acids (1) and (2) were isolated by crystallization method. Compounds 1 and 2 were characterized by elemental analysis, IR, and NMR (¹H-, ¹³C- and ³¹P-) spectroscopies and mass spectrometry. In addition, NMR spectra, the electronic properties (the electronic chemical potential, electronegativity, chemical hardness and the global electrophilicity index) and NBO analysis of compound 2 have been calculated by using the Gaussian 16?W program. The electronic properties were calculated using Highest Occupied Molecular Orbital (HOMO) and Lowest Unoccupied Molecular Orbital (LUMO) energies by density functional method (DFT/B3LYP) at 6-31G(d,p) level. The HOMO and LUMO energies are ?5.9 and ?0.72?eV, respectively. The HOMO–LUMO energy difference is 5.18?eV and this value shows that compound 2 has a high stability and low reactivity.