Short-range order and F ion diffusion inside the Pb1 − xAlxF2 + x solid solution Part II: Al NMR investigation and proposal of clustering process

A ²⁷Al nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) investigation at room temperature of the Pb_{1 − x}Al_xF_{2 + x} (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.12) solid solution and of the ordered Pb₉Al₂F₂₄ phase is carried out. Two different types of aluminium ions are identified and their ratio is determined as a function of x. A clustering process based on the formation of column clusters, more and more extended when x increases, is proposed on the basis of results issued from the ¹⁹F (Part I) and ²⁷Al NMR investigations.     

Synthesis and antibacterial activities of water‐soluble methacrylate polymers containing quaternary ammonium compounds

New water‐soluble methacrylate polymers with pendant quaternary ammonium (QA) groups were synthesized and used as antibacterial materials. The polymers with pendant QA groups were obtained by the reaction of the alkyl halide groups of a previously synthesized functional methacrylate homopolymer with various tertiary alkyl amines containing 12‐, 14‐, or 16‐carbon alkyl chains. The structures of the functional polymer and the polymers with QA groups were confirmed with Fourier transform infrared and ¹H and ¹³C NMR. The degree of conversion of alkyl halides to QA sites in each polymer was determined by ¹H NMR to be over 90% in all cases. The number‐average molecular weight and polydispersity of the functional polymer were determined by size exclusion chromatography to be 32,500 g/mol and 2.25, respectively. All polymers were thermally stable up to 180 °C according to thermogravimetric analysis. The antibacterial activities of the polymers with pendant QA groups against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were determined with broth‐dilution and spread‐plate methods. All the polymers showed excellent antibacterial activities in the range of 32–256 μg/mL. The antibacterial activity against S. aureus increased with an increase in the alkyl chain length for the ammonium groups, whereas the antibacterial activity against E. coli decreased with increasing alkyl chain length. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 5965–5973, 2006     

Die Oxydationswirkung von Natrium-1,2-naphthochinon-4-sulfonat

Zusammenfassung Die Reaktionen von Natrium-1,2-naphthochino-4-sulfonat mit -Aminosäuren, primären aliphatischen Aminen, Dicarbonsäuren, aliphatischen -Hydroxysäuren und primären Alkoholen werden beschrieben. In allen diesen Fällen reagiert Natrium-1,2-naphtochinon-4-sulfonat als Oxydationsmittel und wird zu dem entsprechenden Diphenol reduziert.     

Ab initio Computational Modeling of Glyphosate Analogs: Conformational Perspective

A historical perspective on the application of conformational analysis to structure-based ligand design approach is presented. The application of isodensity molecular electrostatic potential surfaces with the conformational energy surfaces (CES) have allowed us to reach pertinent conclusions for aiding synthetic and biochemical studies. Here we illustrate such an application on the modeling of the potent analogs of an important, environmentally stringent herbicidal compound glyphosate by constructing conformational energy surfaces. The systems were modeled by substituting F, Cl, and NH— OH moiety to the position of pharmacophoric nitrogen center in glyphosate structure. All the calculations were thoroughly performed with ab initio MO theory at Hartree–Fock method using 3-21G(d) basis functions. On the basis of the results, we identified the bioactive conformations for N-fluoro-glyphosate, N-chloro-glyphosate, and N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate as (−38^∘, 77^∘), (−61^∘, 111^∘), and (−167^∘, −169^∘), respectively. Geometry optimization of certain selected conformations of these compounds using hybrid DFT method with 6–31+G(d) basis functions provides nearly equal values of φ and ψ. Moreover, the results indicate that the global minimum structures of N-fluoro and N-chloro analogs of glyphosate show cyclic conformation whereas the N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate global minimum structure shows spyrocyclic and zig-zag conformation. Also, the predicted bioactive conformation of N-hydroxyamino analog optimally overlaps with glyphosate backbone in EPSPS complex with 0.1 Å RMSD value. However, the other two compounds slightly deviate from the backbone of glyphosate with RMSD of 0.92 Å for N-fluoro-glyphosate and 0.83 Å for N-chloro-glyphosate. The linear N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate exhibits relatively more number of intermolecular hydrogen bond interactions as compared to the other two analogs. Further, comparison of CES of previously studied glyphosate analogs such as N-hydroxy-glyphosate (2.2 μM) and N-amino-glyphosate (0.61 μM) with the present systems reveals the order of activity as: N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate > N-fluoro-glyphosate > N-chloro-glyphosate based on CES flexibility. Also, the calculated heats of formation of N-fluoro-glyphosate, N-chloro-glyphosate, and N-hydroxyamino-glyphosate are −288, −209, and −288 kcal/mol, respectively, which clearly indicate that the N-hydroxyamino and N-fluoro analogs of glyphosate are thermodynamically more stable than N-amino-glyphosate (−278 kcal/mol).     

Ion-selective electrode for gallium determination in nickel alloy, fly-ash and biological samples

A poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane of 2,9-dimethyl-4,11-diphenyl-1,5,8,12-tetraazacyclotetradeca-1,4,8,11-tetraene (DDTCT) with sodium tetraphenyl borate (STB) as an anion excluder and dibutyl phthalate (DBP), dibutyl butylphosphonate (DBBP), tris(2-ethylhexyl) phosphate (TEP) and tributyl phosphate (TBP) as plasticizing solvent mediators was prepared and investigated as a Ga(III)-selective electrode. The best performance was observed with the membrane having the ligand-PVC-DBP-STB composition 1:4:1:1, which worked well over a wide concentration range (1.45 × 10⁻⁶ to 0.1 mol L⁻¹) with a Nernstian slope of 28.7 mV per decade of activity between pH 4.0 and 10.0. This electrode showed a fast response time of 12 s and was used over a period of 100 days with good reproducibility (s = 0.3 mV). The selectivity coefficients for monovalent, divalent and trivalent cations indicate excellent selectivity for Ga(III) ions over a large number of cations. Anions such as Cl⁻ and SO₄²⁻ do not interfere and the electrode also works satisfactorily in partially water-alcohol medium. The practical utility of the membrane sensor has also been observed in solutions contaminated with detergents, i.e., cetyltrimethylammonium bromide and sodium dodecyl sulfate and used for the determination of gallium in nickel alloy, fly-ash and biological samples.     

A modified steepest descent method with applications to maximizing likelihood functions

In maximizing a non-linear function G(), it is well known that the steepest descent method has a slow convergence rate. Here we propose a systematic procedure to obtain a 1–1 transformation on the variables , so that in the space of the transformed variables, the steepest descent method produces the solution faster. The final solution in the original space is obtained by taking the inverse transformation. We apply the procedure in maximizing the likelihood functions of some generalized distributions which are widely used in modeling count data. It was shown that for these distributions, the steepest descent method via transformations produced the solutions very fast. It is also observed that the proposed procedure can be used to expedite the convergence rate of the first derivative based algorithms, such as Polak-Ribiere, Fletcher and Reeves conjugate gradient methods as well.     

Enantioseparations by capillary electro-chromatography: differences exhibited by normal- and reversed-phase versions of polysaccharide stationary phases

The influence of using normal-phase and reversed-phase versions of four commercial polysaccharide stationary phases on chiral separations was investigated with capillary electrochromatography (CEC). Both versions of the stationary phases, Chiralcel OD, OJ, and Chiralpak AD, AS were tested for the separation of two basic, two acidic, a bifunctional, and a neutral compound. Different background electrolytes were used, two at low pH for the acid, bifunctional and neutral substances, and three at high pH for the basic, bifunctional and neutral ones. This setup allowed evaluating differences between both stationary-phase versions and between mobile-phase compositions on a chiral separation. Duplicate CEC columns of each stationary phase were in-house prepared and tested, giving information about the intercolumn reproducibility. In general, reversed-phase versions of the current commercial polysaccharide stationary phases are found to be best for reversed-phase CEC, even though at high pH no significant differences were seen between both versions. Most differences were observed at low pH. For acidic compounds, it was seen that an ammonium formate electrolyte performed best, which is also an excellent electrolyte if coupling with mass spectrometry is desired. For basic, bifunctional and neutral compounds, no significant differences between the three tested electrolytes were observed at high pH. Here, a phosphate buffer is preferred as electrolyte because of its buffering capacities. However, if coupling to mass spectrometry is wanted, the more volatile ammonium bicarbonate electrolyte can be used as an alternative.     

The Tricyclooctanone Approach to the Total Synthesis of Steroids. The Cyclization of the A-CD Unit

The first steps of a novel approach to the total synthesis of 9, 11-dehydroestrone via tricyclo[3.3.0.0^2,8]octan-3-one (2) are described. One route involves a tandem-type transformation of the key intermediate 3 (A-CD unit) consisting of cyclopropane cleavage and ring B closure to afford C, 18-bisnor-13 α, 17 α-estradiol derivatives. E.g. the 3-methoxy-9 ζ-hydroxy-17 α-methanesulfonyloxy derivative (-)- 6 has been synthesized in 8 steps and 10% overall yield from 1,3-cyclohexadiene. As an alternative, the A-CD type intermediate 4b has been prepared and could be used for a ring C enlargement prior to cyclization.