Effect of labile hydrogens on measurement of tritium preserved in hydrogens of cellulose

Various f-elements are separated as anionic complexes from both acidic and alkaline solutions by precipitation with alkylpyridinium salts. The precipitates are also cationic surfactants where the simple counter-ion (e.g. nitrate or chloride) is replaced by the negatively charged complex anion of an actinide or lanthanide. The low solubility of these precipitates is explained by a strong affinity of divalent complex counter-ions of f-elements to the quaternary nitrogen. Precipitations in solutions of nitric acid allow to separate tetravalent f-elements from other metals, in alkaline carbonate solutions tetravalent and hexavalent actinides are precipitated simultaneously. The last procedure yields precipitates, which are very intimate mixtures of hexavalent and tetravalent actinides. This allows to prepare mixed oxides in a simple way.     

Diethylhydrogensilyl cyclic diethylsilylene derivatives in gas chromatography/mass spectrometry of hydroxylated steroids. III-Fragmentations of 5β-pregnane-17,20,21-triol derivatives

A reaction of N,O-bis-(diethylhydrogensilyl) trifluoroacetamide with 5β-pregnane-17,20,21-triols afforded diethylhydrogensilyl (DEHS) cyclic diethylsilylene (DES) derivatives. 5β-Pregnane-3α,17α,20β,21-tetraol yielded the 3α,21-bis-DEHS-17α,20β-DES compound, whereas the structure of the major product from its 20α isomer was assigned as the 3α,17α-bis-DEHS-20α,21-DES derivative, which would undergo facile isomerization to the unstable 3α,21-bis-DEHS-17α,20α-DES structure under electron ionization. Fragmentations of these DEHS-DES compounds are discussed on the basis of isotope labelling experiments, linked scanning data, and accurate mass measurements.     

Ingenuity in performing replica permutation: How to order the state labels for improving sampling efficiency

In the replica-permutation method, an advanced version of the replica-exchange method, all combinations of replicas and parameters are considered for parameter permutation, and a list of all the combinations is prepared. Here, we report that the temperature transition probability depends on how the list is created, especially in replica permutation with solute tempering (RPST). We found that the transition probabilities decrease at large replica indices when the combinations are sequentially assigned to the state labels as in the originally proposed list. To solve this problem, we propose to modify the list by randomly assigning the combinations to the state labels. We performed molecular dynamics simulations of amyloid-β(16–22) peptides using RPST with the “randomly assigned” list (RPST-RA) and RPST with the “sequentially assigned” list (RPST-SA). The results show the decreases in the transition probabilities in RPST-SA are eliminated, and the sampling efficiency is improved in RPST-RA.     

Synthesis and healing properties of poly(arylether sulfone)–poly(alkylthioether) multiblock copolymers containing disulfide bonds

Thermoplastic elastomers composed of soft and hard segments are important elastic and processable synthetic polymers. The microphase‐separated soft domains show low glass transition temperature and possess sufficient chain mobility at room temperature. In this study, we report the synthesis and healing properties of multiblock copolymers containing disulfide bonds as dynamic covalent bonds. The multiblock copolymers composed of poly(arylether sulfone) and poly(alkylthioether) segments were synthesized by oxidative coupling polymerization of the corresponding thiol‐terminated oligomers. Atomic force microscopy phase images, differential scanning calorimetry, and dynamic mechanical analysis curves indicated the microphase‐separated morphology of the multiblock copolymer. Self‐healing properties of the polymer were evaluated by changes in the elongation at break of the cut/adhered samples. The elongation recovery increased with UV irradiation time, and the multiblock copolymer showed a 93% recovery after UV irradiation for 5 h. The healing efficiency induced by UV irradiation, determined by subtracting the recovery without UV irradiation, was calculated to be 51%. According to the UV spectra and solubility changes after UV irradiation, the main healing factor in this study was the crosslinking reactions caused by thiyl radicals generated from UV irradiation instead of disulfide exchange reactions. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55, 3545–3553