Extraction—spectrophotometric determination of trace amounts of iron in waters with pyrogallol red and zephiramine

The simple removal of excess of co-extracted reagent in the solvent extraction of metal complex anions with a quaternary ammonium salt greatly improves the determination of iron(II) with pyrogallol red and zephiramine. The method with pyrogallol red is suitable for the determination of trace amounts of iron in natural waters. The apparent molar absorptivities of the iron(II) complex in chloroform are 7.5×10⁴ and 10.3×10⁴ 1 mol^-1 cm^-1 at 560 and 298 nm, respectively. A large excess of reagent can be added, and the ternary complex can be completely extracted over the pH range 8.5–10. Masking agents allow most interferences to be suppressed. The method is suitable for the analysis of potable, river and sea waters.     

Grassmann manifold of aJH-algebra

We study the set of rankp idempotents in a topologically simple Hilbert Jordan algebra (JH-algebra for short). To produce the differential geometric structure on, we establish Jordan algebraic results concerning the structure of some two-generator subalgebras. We identify geodesics, the Riemannian distance and the sectional curvature of by using the Jordan algebraic structure.     

Benzoyl(acetylacetonato)nickel(II) complexes containing tertiary phosphine ligands. Their synthesis,dynamic behavior in solution,and decarbonylation

Carbon monoxide is readily inserted into the phenyl—nickel bond of PhNi(acac)(PR₃)_n to give benzoylnickel complexes, PhCONi(acac)PR₃ (R = Ph, Et, cyclo-C₆H₁₁), which were characterized by elemental analysis, IR and NMR spectroscopy, as well as chemical reactions. The reactions of the benzoylnickel complexes with methyl iodide and alcohols give acetophenone and corresponding benzoates, respectively, accompanied by some decomposition reactions. The solid benzoylnickel complexes when heated at elevated temperatures are decarbonylated and biphenyl, benzophenone and carbon monoxide are liberated. The dynamic behavior of the acac ligand in acetone solution was studied and the activation parameters for the acac exchange reactions were obtained. The decarbonylation reaction of the benzoyl complex PhCONi(acac)PPh₃ in acetone was studied by NMR, and found to be first order in the benzoylnickel complex.     

Base-labile tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) group on phenols

Phenols are deprotected with weak bases from their tert-butoxycarbonyl (Boc) derivatives. Boc deprotection with bases can avoid side reactions during the deprotection with acids. We note the lability of the Boc to bases and are able to utilize it as a new cleavage condition for synthetic studies.     

Tensammetric determination of microgram amounts of vanadium by catalytic oxidation of o-aminophenol

A tensammetric method is proposed for the determination of microgram amounts of vanadium, based on catalysis of the oxidation of o-aminophenol with sodium chlorate in acidic solution (pH 2.0). The oxidation product gives a very sensitive tensammetric wave; under optimum conditions, the wave-height is proportional to the concentration of va vanadium. From 0.2 to 3.0 mug of vanadium can be determined in a final volume of 50 ml. Mo(VI), W(VI), Mn(VII), Ce(IV) and large amounts of Al(III) and Fe(III) cause positive errors, and Hg(II) and thiosulphate negative errors. Interference from Fe(III), Al(III) and Cu(II) can be eliminated by solvent with oxine at about pH 8.0.     

Theoretical study of benzonitrile clusters in the gas phase and their adsorption onto a Au(111) surface

We made theoretical calculations for a benzonitrile molecule and its clusters in the gas phase and as adsorbed on the Au(111) surface, to explain the observation by scanning tunneling microscope, that is, the trimer formation of cyanophenyl porphyrins adsorbed onto the Au(111) surface. With regard to the gas-phase species, ab initio calculations showed that (1) the benzonitrile dimer has a single stable structure that is planar and antiparallel; (2) the trimer has two isoenergetic stable structures, that is, a planar and cyclic structure and an antiparallel and nonplanar one; (3) the clusters are more stable, at low temperatures, than the monomer. For the adsorbed species, we made quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical calculations in which the interaction between the adsorbates and the surface is evaluated in a molecular-mechanical way by using analytical potential functions and an image charge model. Because the stable structures were found to be similar to those in the gas phase, the cluster formation of adsorbed cyanophenyl porphyrins was attributed to the interaction between cyanophenyl groups, which is barely affected by adsorbate-surface interaction. It was also found that the adsorbed cyclic benzonitrile trimer is more stable than the monomer and the dimer because the relative stability is dependent on enthalpy alone. We therefore concluded that the preferential formation of trimers by the adsorbed cyanophenyl porphyrins is due to the negligible contribution of entropy to the relative stability of the adsorbed species and that the adsorption hardly changes the situation found in the gas phase.     

Blue myoglobin reconstituted with an iron porphycene shows extremely high oxygen affinity

Myoglobin will be a good scaffold for engineering a function into proteins. To modulate the physiological function of myoglobin, almost all approaches have been demonstrated by site-directed mutagenesis, however, there are few studies which show a significant improvement in the function. In contrast, we focused on the replacement of heme in the protein with an artificial prosthetic group. Recently, we prepared a novel myoglobin reconstituted with an iron porphycene as a structural isomer of mesoheme. The bluish colored reconstituted myoglobin is relatively stable and the deoxymyoglobin reversibly binds ligands. Interestingly, the O2 affinity of the reconstituted myoglobin, 1.1 x 109 M-1, is a significant 1,400-fold higher than that of the native myoglobin. Furthermore, the unfavorable autoxidation kinetics show 7-fold decrease in rate for the reconstituted myoglobin relative to the native myoglobin, indicating the stable oxy-form against autoxidation. The net results come from the slow dissociation of the O2 ligand in the reconstituted myoglobin, koff = 0.11 s-1, because of the formation of strong hydrogen bond between His64 and negatively charged dioxygen. The present study indicates that the replacement of native heme with an artificially created prosthetic group will give us a unique function into a hemoprotein.     

Microbiological synthesis of 16-ketopregnanes from steroidal sapogenins

Incubation of diosgenone (1, 25D-spirost-4-en-3-one) with Verticillium theobromae (Turconi) Mason et Hughes (CBS) afforded 20α-hydroxypregn-4<ne-3,16-dione (3) and 3α,11β,20α-trihydroxy-5α-pregnan-16-one (4). The same transformation products were also obtained by the use of Stachylidium bicolor Link (IFO 6647). Isolation and identification processes of the products are discussed.     

Preliminary calculations on excited states of the oxygen molecule

It is well known that the energy interval separating ³ _u ^– and ³ _u ⁺ states of O₂, as given by the conventional ASMO method, is too large. In order to resolve this difficulty, removal of the equivalence restrictions usually employed in the orbital theory is proposed. Thus the orbital exponent of one antibonding _g MO is allowed to take a different value from the other _g's. Variational calculations show that the resulting outermost orbital is much more diffuse than the others. This model of a single diffuse orbital brings about a considerable energy lowering for the ³ _u ^– state and thus the agreement of the ³ _u ^– - ³ _u ⁺ interval with experiment is improved.

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Zusammenfassung Die konventionelle ASMO-Theorie liefert bekanntlich eine viel zu große Differenz der Terme ³ _u ^– und ³ _u ⁺ von O₂, weswegen der Vorschlag gemacht wird, die üblicherweise vorgenommene Äquivalenz-Einschränkung fallen zu lassen. Der Orbital-Exponent eines lockernden MO's kann von dem der übrigen _g's abweichen. Rechnungen zeigen, daß das äußerste MO viel diffuser als die anderen ist und daß die Energie des ³ _u ^– -Zustandes beträchtlich erniedrigt wird.

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Résumé La séparation entre les états ³ _u ^{– 3} _u ⁺ de O₂ donnée par la méthode ASMO conventionnelle est connue pour être trop grande. Afin de résoudre cette difficulté la levée des restrictions d'équivalence ordinairement utilisées est proposée. Ainsi l'exposant orbital d'une des orbitales moléculaires antiliantes _g peut prendre une valeur différente de celui de l'autre orbitale antiliante _g. Des calculs variationnels montrent que l'orbitale la plus haute ainsi obtenue est beaucoup plus diffuse que les autres. Ceci a pour effet de diminuer considérablement l'énergie de l'état ³ _u ^– , améliorant la séparation entre les états ³ _u ^– et ³ _u ⁺ .

     

Precise synthesis of poly(macromonomer)s containing sugars by repetitive ring-opening metathesis polymerisation

Various poly(macromonomer)s containing sugars have been prepared by ROMP of norbornene macromonomers substituted with ROMP block copolymers containing acetal-protected sugars as the side chain, which upon removal of the protecting group affords a novel amphiphilic architecture.