Synthesis of Acrylamide Molecularly Imprinted Polymers Immobilized on Graphite Oxide through Surface-Initiated Atom Transfer Radical Polymerization

A novel acrylamide (AA) molecularly imprinted polymer was synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) on graphite oxide (GO) particles. Propionamide (PAM) was used as a dummy template molecule, hydroxy ethyl acrylate (HEA) as a functional monomer, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EDMA) as a crosslinking agent, and acetonitrile as both solvent and dispersion medium. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and infrared spectroscopy (IR) confirmed that the molecularly imprinted polymers (MIP) were successfully grafted onto the surface of the GO particles. The corresponding adsorption kinetic curves and adsorption isotherms showed that the AA adsorption reached equilibrium after 5 h, with large amounts of AA being adsorped in the first 100 min. The maximum AA adsorption capacity was 123.48 µmol g^?1 according to Scatchard analysis, which indicated that the MIP possesses good AA adsorption capacity. This MIP-GO material was used to selectively determine AA in fried food samples.     

Aminocalix[4]arene: the effect of pH on the dynamics of gate and portals on the hydrophobic cavity

The pH of a solution shows a significant effect on the dynamics of the gate (formed by eight benzylic functions) and portal on the hydrophobic cavity of receptor. At pH 5.8 the gate closes and prohibits the entry of anionic guests. However, at pH 7.3 the gate opens and allows the entry of anionic guests into the hydrophobic cavity. It is the first time that anionic receptor efficiently recognizes anionic guests.     

Theoretical investigation of histidine-tryptophan preferential interactions

Several histidine-tryptophan complexes (either stacked or T-shaped), derived from the crystal structures available in the Brookhaven Protein Data Bank, have been examined with molecular mechanics (MM), using the Tripos force field with Gasteiger-Hückel charges, whose trend was found to be analogous to the AMBER or CHARMM ones. The MM results were compared to the ab initio MP2 results, with and without counterpoise (CP) correction, previously obtained using extended basis sets on 5-methylimidazole and indole as model systems. MM seems to underestimate the interaction energy between the two monomers when compared to the uncorrected MP2 results, while the agreement is much better after including the CP correction at the MP2 level in all cases. MM was thus used to qualitatively analyse the dependence of the stacking energy on the ring rotation at a variable distance and ring centroid displacement for these systems, while keeping the rings in parallel planes. An analogous study was carried out for a T-shaped adduct. Received: 24 March 1998 / Accepted: 3 September 1998 / Published online: 1 February 1999     

Design and Synthesis of Chiral Molecular Tweezers Based on Deoxycholic Acid

Molecular tweezers is a novel type of artificial receptors, which not only offer the advantage of efficient construction but also their surfaces can be tailored for specific applications. The clefts of molecular tweezers are particularly effective in regard to complementarity with substrates since functional groups attached to the interior of the cleft converge on substrates held inside1. So, in recent years, the molecular tweezers receptors have attracted more and more attention in molecular …     

Contribution of Solvation Energy in Protein‐Peptide Recognition Systems

The contribution of solvation energy to guiding molecular recognition for six rigid protein‐peptide systems bad been evaluated by the variation in the number of the identified native‐like configurations and in the driving force of specific interaction resulting from the addition of the explicit solvation term in the force field function. The AMBER force field energy and the total energy including the force field energy and the WZS solvation energy were calculated for sampled configurations. The results obtained by the calculations of both force field and total energies were compared with each other. It suggests that the contribution of solvation energy is important to guiding the specific recognition of the systems in which the ligands possess larger hydrophobic or aromatic residues while the protein receptors provide the active surfaces with hydrophobic property.     

Liquid-crystal phase equilibria of Lennard-Jones chains

Liquid-crystal phase equilibria of Lennard-Jones chain fluids and the solubility of a Lennard-Jones gas in the coexisting phases are calculated from Monte Carlo simulations. Direct phase equilibria calculations are performed using an expanded formulation of the Gibbs ensemble. Monomer densities, order parameters, and equilibrium pressures are reported for the coexisting isotropic and nematic phases of: (1) linear Lennard-Jones chains, (2) a partially-flexible Lennard-Jones chain, and (3) a binary mixture of linear Lennard-Jones chains. The effect of chain length is determined by calculating the isotropic-nematic coexistence of linear Lennard-Jones chain fluids made of 8, 10, and 12 segments (8-, 10-, 12-mer). The effect of molecular flexibility on the isotropic-nematic equilibrium is studied for a Lennard-Jones 10-mer chain fluid with one freely-jointed segment at the end of the chain. An isotropic-nematic phase split and fractionation are reported for a binary mixture of linear 7-mer and 12-mer chains. Simulation results are compared with theoretical results as obtained from a recently developed analytical equation of state based on perturbation theory. Excellent agreement between theory and simulations is observed. The solubility of a monomer Lennard-Jones gas in the coexisting isotropic and nematic phases is estimated using the Widom test-particle insertion method. A linear relationship between solubility difference and density difference at isotropic-nematic coexistence is observed. It is shown that gas solubility is independent of the nematic ordering of the fluid, at constant temperature and density conditions.     

Harmonic Force Field and Mean Amplitudes for Gallium Tribromide and Triiodide Dimers

Harmonic force fields are developed for the Ga₂Br₆ and Ga₂I₆ molecules. The analysis confirms previous assignments of experimental frequencies. Mean amplitudes of vibration are calculated.     

Spectral and Indo-Molecular Orbital Studies of n →∗ Transitions in Symmetric Diazines

Abstract

Experimental and theoretical (INDO-MO) studies of n → transitions have been carried out for seven symmetric diazines. In all cases, there is very good agreement between the theoretical predictions and experimental observations on the symmetry of the lowest energy n→? singlet state.     

Free energy reconstruction from steered dynamics without post-processing

Various methods achieving importance sampling in ensembles of nonequilibrium trajectories enable one to estimate free energy differences and, by maximum-likelihood post-processing, to reconstruct free energy landscapes. Here, based on Bayes theorem, we propose a more direct method in which a posterior likelihood function is used both to construct the steered dynamics and to infer the contribution to equilibrium of all the sampled states. The method is implemented with two steering schedules. First, using non-autonomous steering, we calculate the migration barrier of the vacancy in Fe-α. Second, using an autonomous scheduling related to metadynamics and equivalent to temperature-accelerated molecular dynamics, we accurately reconstruct the two-dimensional free energy landscape of the 38-atom Lennard-Jones cluster as a function of an orientational bond-order parameter and energy, down to the solid–solid structural transition temperature of the cluster and without maximum-likelihood post-processing.     

Molecular Dynamic Study for Chiral Discrimination of a -Phenylethylamine by Modified Cyclodextrin in Gas Chromatography

A molecular dynamic method in conjunction with a statistic test has been utilized to model chiral recognition of a -phenylethylamine on heptakis (2,6-di-O-butyl-3-O-butyryl)-b -cyclodextrin in gas chromatography. The modelling data correlated with the chromatographic elution order, and indicated that the preferred site of a -phenylethylamine is the interior of cavity.