Single flexible hydrophobic polyelectrolyte molecules adsorbed on solid substrate: transition between a stretched chain, necklace-like conformation and a globule

Single flexible polyelectrolyte molecules of poly(2-vinylpyridine) undergo conformational transition from a stretched wormlike coil to a necklace-like globule, and to a compact globule depending on pH and ionic strength in aqueous solution in good agreement with recent theoretical reports. AFM investigations allow the visualization of details of the chain conformation on mica and the extraction of quantitative statistics of molecular dimensions.     

Accurate variational calculations of the ground 2Po(1s22s22p) and excited 2S(1s22s2p2) and 2Po(1s22s23p) states of singly ionized carbon atom

In this article we report accurate nonrelativistic variational calculations of the ground and two excited states of C(+) ion. We employ extended and well optimized basis sets of all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussians to represent the wave functions of the states. The optimization of the basis functions is performed with a procedure employing the analytic gradient of the energy with respect to the nonlinear parameters of the Gaussians. The calculations explicitly include the effects due to the finite nuclear mass. The calculated transition energies between the three states are compared to the experimentally derived values. Finally, we present expectation values of some small positive and negative powers of the interparticle distances and contact densities.     

Structure of salted and discharged globules of hydrophobic polyelectrolytes adsorbed from aqueous solutions

In this article, we compare structures of protonated poly(2-vinylpyridine) globules (2D compact coils on the surface) adsorbed on the mica surface from aqueous solution when the shrinking is brought about either by discharging the molecules at an elevated pH or by adding monovalent and polyvalent salts. We study the structure of the PE coils using in situ atomic force microscopy experiments in aqueous solutions in a liquid cell. The abrupt coil-to-globule transition caused by pH changes and the discharge of polymer chains resulted in compact globules. If the pH corresponding to extended coil conformation remains unchanged, the coil shrinks due to the added salt. The size of the globule in the latter case corresponds to the unperturbed dimension of the polymer coil. There is no essential difference in the dimensions of the globules as obtained in the presence of monovalent and multivalent counterions for the studied ionic strength. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 48: 1623–1627, 2010     

Non-Born-Oppenheimer variational calculation of the ground-state vibrational spectrum of LiH+

Very accurate, rigorous, variational, non-Born-Oppenheimer (non-BO) calculations have been performed for the fully symmetric, bound states of the LiH(+) ion. These states correspond to the ground and excited vibrational states of LiH(+) in the ground (2)Sigma(+) electronic state. The non-BO wave functions of the states have been expanded in terms of spherical N-particle explicitly correlated Gaussian functions multiplied by even powers of the internuclear distance and 5600 Gaussians were used for each state. The calculations that, to our knowledge, are the most accurate ever performed for a diatomic system with three electrons have yielded six bound states. Average interparticle distances and nucleus-nucleus correlation function plots are presented.     

Darwin and mass-velocity relativistic corrections in the non-Born-Oppenheimer calculations of pure vibrational states of H2

The Darwin and mass-velocity relativistic corrections have been calculated for all pure vibrational states of the H2 using the perturbation theory and very accurate variational wave functions obtained without assuming the Born-Oppenheimer (BO) approximation. Expansions in terms of explicitly correlated Gaussians with premultipliers in the form of even powers of the internuclear distance were used for the wave functions. With the inclusion of the two relativistic corrections to the non-BO energies the transition energies for the highest states agree more with the experimental results.     

Assembling hyperbranched polymerics

A condensed overview discusses the existing grafting approaches and the surface behavior of various hyperbranched polymers. We focus on the recent strategies and corresponding characterization of the resulting surface morphologies and structures with a number of relevant recent results from the authors' own research and existing literature. Some results discussed here are important for prospective applications of hyperbranched polymers in biomedical fields, for resistive coatings, tough blends, and reinforced nanocomposites are briefly summarized as well. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 50: 83–100, 2012     

Synthesis of substituted 4-oxo-2-thioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinazolines and 4-oxo-3,4-dihydroquinazoline-2-thioles

We have developed a liquid-phase synthesis of combinatorial libraries of new disubstituted 4-oxo-2-thioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinazolines and trisubstituted 4-oxo-3,4-dihydroquinazoline-2-thioles. The former were prepared using two general procedures: (i) cyclization of substituted methyl anthranilates with isothiocyanates, or (ii) cyclization of substituted 2-(methylcarboxy)benzeneisothiocyanates with primary amines or hydrazines. 4-Oxo-3,4-dihydroquinazoline-2-thioles were prepared by S-alkylation of disubstituted 4-oxo-2-thioxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydroquinazolines with alkyl or aryl halides. The hydrolysis of methyl benzimidazo[1,2-c]quinazoline-6(5H)-thione-3-carboxylate led to the corresponding acid. This acid was utilized in the synthesis of new benzimidazo[1,2-c]quinazoline-6(5H)-thione-3-carboxamide and S-substituted 6-mecaptobenzimidazo[1,2-c]quinazoline-3-carboxamide libraries.     

Double- and triple-consecutive O-insertion into tert-butyl and triarylmethyl structures

[reaction: see text] The concecutive Criegee rearrangement reactions were studied for tert-butyl trifluoroacetate, triarylcarbinols, and benzophenone ketales with trifluoroperacetic acid (TFPAA) in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA). The formation of methyl acetate and methyl trifluoroacetate indicates that the consecutive double-O-insertion process has taken place for tert-butyl trifluoroacetate. The intermediate dimethoxymethylcarbonium ion was detected below 5 degrees C. A consecutive triple-O-insertion process has been observed for triarylmethanols and benzophenone ketals. A new high yield method of corresponding diaryl carbonates synthesis was developed.     

Cascade of coil-globule conformational transitions of single flexible polyelectrolyte molecules in poor solvent

We show that hydrophobic flexible polyelectrolyte molecules of poly(2-vinylpyridine) and poly(methacryloyloxyethyl dimethylbenzylammonium chloride) are trapped and frozen due to adsorption on the mica surface, and the observed AFM single molecule structures reflect the molecular conformation in solution. An increase of the ionic strength of the solution induces the cascade of abrupt conformational transitions due to the intrachain segregation from elongated coil to compact globule conformations through intermediate pearl necklace-globule conformations with different amounts of beads per chain. The length of the necklaces and the number of beads decrease, while the diameter of beads increases with the increase of ionic strength. Coexistence at the same time of extended coils, necklaces with different amounts of beads, and compact globules indicates the cascade of the first-order-type phase transitions.