Oxygen‐Dependent Photocatalytic Water Reduction with a Ruthenium(imidazolium) Chromophore and a Cobaloxime Catalyst

Detailed investigations of a photocatalytic system capable of producing hydrogen under pre‐catalytic aerobic conditions are reported. This system consists of the NHC precursor chromophore [Ru(tbbpy)₂(RR′ip)][PF₆]₃ (abbreviated as Ru(RR′ip)[PF₆]₃; tbbpy=4,4′‐di‐tert‐butyl‐2,2′‐bipyridine, RR′ip=1,3‐disubstituted‐1H‐imidazo[4,5‐f][1,10]phenanthrolinium), the reduction catalyst Co(dmgH)₂ (dmgH=dimethylglyoximato), and the electron donor ascorbic acid (AA). Screening studies with respect to solvent, cobaloxime catalyst, electron donor, pH, and concentrations of the individual components yielded optimized photocatalytic conditions. The system shows high activity based on Ru, with turnover numbers up to 2000 under oxygen‐free and pre‐catalytic aerobic conditions. The turnover frequency in the latter case was even higher than that for the oxygen‐free catalyst system. The Ru complexes show high photostability and their first excited state is primarily located on the RR′ip ligand. X‐ray crystallographic analysis of the rigid cyclophane‐type ligand dd(ip)₂(Br)₂ (dd(ip)₂=1,1′,3,3′‐bis(2,3,5,6‐tetramethyl‐1,4‐phenylene)bis(methylene)bis(1H‐imidazo[4,5‐f][1,10]phenanthrolinium)) and the catalytic activity of its Ru complex [{(tbbpy)₂Ru}₂(μ‐dd(ip)₂)][PF₆]₆ (abbreviated as Ru₂(dd(ip)₂)[PF₆]₆) suggest an intermolecular catalytic cycle.     

Dinitrogen Splitting Coupled to Protonation

The coupling of electron- and proton-transfer steps provides a general concept to control the driving force of redox reactions. N₂ splitting of a molybdenum dinitrogen complex into nitrides coupled to a reaction with Brønsted acid is reported. Remarkably, our spectroscopic, kinetic, and computational mechanistic analysis attributes N−N bond cleavage to protonation in the periphery of an amide pincer ligands rather than the {Mo−N₂−Mo} core. The strong effect on electronic structure and ultimately the thermochemistry and kinetic barrier of N−N bond cleavage is an unusual case of a proton-coupled metal-to-ligand charge transfer process, highlighting the use of proton-responsive ligands for nitrogen fixation.     

Supported Liquid Membrane Enrichment Studies of Natural Water Samples Applied to Liquid Chromatographic Determination of Triazine Herbicides

Abstract

A method for sample work-up and enrichment using Supported Liquid Membrane (SLM) and liquid chromatographic determination of triazine herbicides in natural waters was investigated. A porous PTFE membrane was impregnated with a water immiscible organic solvent, forming a barrier between two aqueous phases. With a flowing donor and a stagnant acceptor solution, an enrichment of the triazines was obtained. The various factors that influence the extraction efficiency and selectivity of the extraction procedure were experimentally studied. The obtained results were in good agreement with the developed theoretical model. The pH of the acceptor solution was found to be the critical limiting factor in obtaining higher extraction efficiencies and led to an extraction efficiency decrease with an increase in enrichment time. By increasing both the trapping capacity of the acceptor solution and the donor flow rate, the method detection limit of the triazines ranged from 0.03 to 0.16 μgL^?1 in natural waters with 20 minutes extraction time.     

The correspondence problem for metabonomics datasets

In metabonomics it is difficult to tell which peak is which in datasets with many samples. This is known as the correspondence problem. Data from different samples are not synchronised, i.e., the peak from one metabolite does not appear in exactly the same place in all samples. For datasets with many samples, this problem is nontrivial, because each sample contains hundreds to thousands of peaks that shift and are identified ambiguously. Statistical analysis of the data assumes that peaks from one metabolite are found in one column of a data table. For every error in the data table, the statistical analysis loses power and the risk of missing a biomarker increases. It is therefore important to solve the correspondence problem by synchronising samples and there is no method that solves it once and for all. In this review, we analyse the correspondence problem, discuss current state-of-the-art methods for synchronising samples, and predict the properties of future methods.     

On possible reasons for the selective heteroadagulation of mesenchyme human cells to the surface of acrylic hydrogels

Changes in the electrokinetic potential and hydrophilicity of hydrogels with different compositions occurring under the effect of adsorption of the components of nutrient media (initial and after 5 days of contact with mesenchyme 4BL2 human cells) are studied. It is shown that the selectivity of cell heteroadagulation to such hydrogels can be caused by the selective adsorption of water-soluble cell exometabolites on hydrogel surfaces.     

Autocatalytic decomposition of carbonic acid

Long held to be unstable or metastable in the gas phase, carbonic acid has successfully been produced and identified in its gaseous form in recent decades. Theoretical studies have indicated that isolated carbonic acid in the gas phase may in fact be quite stable, its decomposition attributable to the catalytic effect of water molecules, either present or produced in a chain reaction by an initially slow decomposition. In this study, a previously unreported autocatalytic decomposition route is studied using high‐accuracy ab initio quantum chemical methods. Results indicate that a carbonic acid dimer may react and decompose in a single‐step, highly concerted reaction. The transition state of this reaction was characterized, and the reaction pathway was found to have significantly lower activation energy than the uncatalyzed decomposition, and comparable or lower energy than the water‐catalyzed reaction. The results indicate that gaseous carbonic acid should be unstable even in the absence of water. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.