Reversal of elution order of N‐(2,4‐dinitrophenyl)‐proline and N‐(2,4‐dinitrophenyl)‐serine in HPLC by BSA chiral stationary phase

N‐(2,4‐dinitrophenyl)‐proline and N‐(2,4‐dinitrophenyl)‐serine were enantiomerically resolved on the BSA chiral stationary phase by HPLC in reversed‐phase mode. Effects of chromatographic conditions on enantioseparation and elution order have been investigated in detail. For these two samples, reversal of enantiomer elution order was observed by changing buffer pH, the content of acetonitrile, or alcohol modifiers in mobile phase, which is firstly reported in the BSA chiral stationary phase studies. More interestingly, combined effect between buffer pH and the content of acetonitrile was also observed. In addition, coelution range of enantiomers varied along with the content of acetonitrile in mobile phase.     

A Stereoselective Synthetic Route To (E)-α,β-Unsaturated Thioesters

Terminal alkynes 1 react with Cp₂Zr(H)Cl (Cp = η⁵-C₅H₅) and CO to give acylzirconocene chloride derivatives 2, which are trapped with arylsulfenyl chlorides to afford (E)-α,β-unsaturated thioesters.     

Water PMF for predicting the properties of water molecules in protein binding site

Water is an important component in living systems and deserves better understanding in chemistry and biology. However, due to the difficulty of investigating the water functions in protein structures, it is usually ignored in computational modeling, especially in the field of computer‐aided drug design. Here, using the potential of mean forces (PMFs) approach, we constructed a water PMF (wPMF) based on 3946 non‐redundant high resolution crystal structures. The extracted wPMF potential was first used to investigate the structure pattern of water and analyze the residue hydrophilicity. Then, the relationship between wPMF score and the B factor value of crystal waters was studied. It was found that wPMF agrees well with some previously reported experimental observations. In addition, the wPMF score was also tested in parallel with 3D‐RISM to measure the ability of retrieving experimentally observed waters, and showed comparable performance but with much less computational cost. In the end, we proposed a grid‐based clustering scheme together with a distance weighted wPMF score to further extend wPMF to predict the potential hydration sites of protein structure. From the test, this approach can predict the hydration site at the accuracy about 80% when the calculated score lower than ?4.0. It also allows the assessment of whether or not a given water molecule should be targeted for displacement in ligand design. Overall, the wPMF presented here provides an optional solution to many water related computational modeling problems, some of which can be highly valuable as part of a rational drug design strategy. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Improvement in Uranium Adsorption Properties of Amidoxime-Based Adsorbent Through Cografting of Amine Group

Amidoxime (AO)/amine co-functionalized polypropylene fiber adsorbents were prepared. The all-polymeric structures were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), optical microscope, contact angle meter and electron spin resonance (ESR) analysis methods, confirming the grafting, modification, and amidoximation stages gravimetrically, spectroscopically, and visually. The properties for the removal of uranyl(VI) from aqueous solutions were investigated. For amidoxime (AO) fiber, high adsorption rate was observed within the first 30 minutes and the plateau value of 40.6% uranium loading (0.0812 mg/g) was reached at around 30 minutes. The adsorption equilibrium for AO/amine fiber was attained within 20 minutes, resulting in the adsorption of 92.6% uranium loading (0.185 mg/g). The percentage of adsorption increases with increasing pH value (2–6), reaches a maximum at pH 6.0 and then remains almost constant for AO/amine fiber, whereas reduces slightly for AO fiber.     

Removal of uranium(VI) from aqueous solutions by carboxyl-rich hydrothermal carbon spheres through low-temperature heat treatment in air

Carboxyl-rich hydrothermal carbon spheres were prepared by simply heating pristine hydrothermal carbon spheres (HCSs) at lower temperature in air, and the textural properties were characterized using Boehm titrations, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and elemental-analysis. The result of Boehm titrations indicated that the content of carboxyl groups on HCSs increased significantly from 0.53 to 3.81 mmol/g after heat-treatment at 300 °C, which was also confirmed by FT-IR and EA qualitatively. The ability of heat-treated HCSs has been explored for the removal and recovery of uranium from aqueous solutions, and the influences of different experimental parameters, such as heat-treatment temperature, contact time and ionic strength, on adsorption were investigated. The U(VI) sorption capacity of HCSs increased from 55.0 to 179.95 mg/g after heat-treatment at 300 °C for 5 h. Selective adsorption studies showed that the heat-treated HCSs could selectively remove U(VI), and the selectivity coefficients were improved after heat-treatment in the presence of co-existing ions, Na(I), Ni(II), Sr(II), Mn(II), Mg(II) and Zn(II). The adsorbent HCSs could be effectively regenerated by 0.05 mol/L HCl solution for the removal and recovery of U(VI). Complete removal (99.0 %) of U(VI) from 1.0 L industry wastewater containing 15.0 mg U(VI) ions was possible with 5.0 g heat-treated HCSs. In addition, a reaction mechanism for newly generating carboxyl groups on pristine HCSs surface during heat-treatment process and uranyl ion interaction with carboxyl-rich hydrothermal carbon spheres were also supposed.     

Facile synthesis of gemini surface-active ATRP initiator and its use in soap-free AGET ATRP mini-emulsion polymerisation

A novel cationic gemini surfactant has been readily synthesised in 70 % total yield. The functional gemini surfactant can act both as an emulsifier and an atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP) initiator in mini-emulsion polymerisation of methyl methacrylate (MMA), in which no other emulsifier was required. 1-(Dimethylamino)dodecane (N,N-dimethyldodecylamine, DMDA) was found to be a good ligand in the activator generated by electron transfer (AGET) ATRP reaction. Kinetic studies indicated that the polymerisation featured controlled/living radical polymerisation.     

Simultaneous determination of cyromazine,melamine and their biodegradation products by ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography

An ion-pair high-performance liquid chromatography with ultraviolet detection method for the determination of cyromazine, melamine and its biodegradation products (ammeline, ammelide, cyanuric acid and biuret) was developed. C18 column was utilised to separate the six analytes with a mobile phase consisting of perchloric acid-ammonia solution and acetonitrile, under gradient elution and variable flow rate. The detection wavelengths were 205 nm for cyanuric acid and biuret and 222 nm for cyromazine, melamine, ammeline and ammelide. For analysis of sediment samples, the extraction solution containing acetonitrile, ammonia and water (80:10:10 by volume) was used to extract the analytes from sediment matrix. Using the extraction method for the spiked sediment sample, high linearity of matrix-matched standard curve could be obtained for the six analytes. The method detection limit was 0.1 μg g^?1 for melamine and cyromazine, 0.2 μg g^?1 for ammeline and ammelide, 1.2 μg g^?1 for cyanuric acid and 1.0 μg g^?1 for biuret in sediment matrix. The recoveries of these compounds were 70.1–98.3% and the relative standard deviations were 0.5–4.4%. Finally, the proposed method was successfully applied to the analysis of the sediment sample near the wastewater outlet of a melamine-producing factory.     

Fabrication of ZIF‐8@SiO2 Core–Shell Microspheres as the Stationary Phase for High‐Performance Liquid Chromatography

The unique features of high porosity, shape selectivity, and multiple active sites make metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) promising as novel stationary phases for high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). However, the wide particle size distribution and irregular shape of conventional MOFs lead to lower column efficiency of such MOF‐packed columns. Herein, the fabrication of monodisperse MOF@SiO₂ core–shell microspheres as the stationary phase for HPLC to overcome the above‐mentioned problems is reported. Zeolitic imidazolate framework 8 (ZIF‐8) was used as an example of MOFs due to its permanent porosity, uniform pore size, and exceptional chemical stability. Unique carboxyl‐modified silica spheres were used as the support to grow the ZIF‐8 shell. The fabricated monodisperse ZIF‐8@SiO₂ packed columns (5 cm long × 4.6 mm i.d.) show high column efficiency (23 000 plates m^?1 for bisphenol A) for the HPLC separation of endocrine‐disrupting chemicals (bisphenol A, β‐estradiol, and p‐(tert‐octyl)phenol) and pesticides (thiamethoxam, hexaflumuron, chlorantraniliprole, and pymetrozine) within 7 min with good relative standard deviations for 11 replicate separations of the analytes (0.01–0.39, 0.65–1.7, 0.70–1.3, and 0.17–0.91 % for retention time, peak area, peak height, and half peak width, respectively). The ZIF‐8@SiO₂ microspheres combine the advantages of the good column packing properties of the uniform monodisperse silica microspheres and the separation ability of the ZIF‐8 crystals.     

六水合三氯化铁催化3-甲基环己酮与丙酮酸乙酯交叉羟醛缩合制备薄荷内酯

用FeCl3·6H2O催化3-甲基环己酮与丙酮酸乙酯交叉羟醛缩合,制得2-(2-氧代-4-甲基环己叉基)丙酸乙酯和7a-羟基薄荷内酯,皂化后用硼氢化钠还原、酸化制得(±)-薄荷内酯,产率为51%。考察了3-甲基环己酮的烯醇式异构化的位置选择性和粗产物中(±)-薄荷内酯与(±)-异薄荷内酯异构体的比例。