A New Tool in Peptide Engineering: A Photoswitchable Stilbene‐type β‐Hairpin Mimetic

Peptide secondary structure mimetics are important tools in medicinal chemistry, as they provide analogues of endogenous peptides with new physicochemical and pharmacological properties. The development, synthesis, photochemical investigation, and conformational analysis of a stilbene‐type β‐hairpin mimetic capable of light‐triggered conformational changes have been achieved. In addition to standard spectroscopic techniques (nuclear Overhauser effects, amide temperature coefficients, circular dichroism spectroscopy), the applicability of self‐diffusion measurements (longitudinal eddy current delay pulsed‐field gradient spin echo (LED‐PGSE) NMR technique) in conformational studies of oligopeptides is demonstrated. The title compound shows photoisomerization of the stilbene chromophore, resulting in a change in solution conformation between an unfolded structure and a folded β‐hairpin.     

One‐Dimensional,Cofacial Porphyrin Polymers Formed by Self‐Assembly of meso‐Tetrakis(ERE Donor) Zinc(II) Porphyrins

A series of meso‐tetrakis‐(ERE donor) zinc(II) porphyrins n Zn (ERE donor=4‐R‐3,5‐bis[(E)‐methyl]phenyl; 1 Zn: E=NMe₂, R=Br; 2 Zn: E=NMe₂, R=H; 3 Zn: E=OMe, R=Br; 4 Zn: E=OMe, R=H) have been synthesized in excellent yields. As a result of the combination of a Lewis acidic site and eight Lewis basic sites within one molecule, monomeric molecules of n Zn self‐assemble to form one‐dimensional porphyrin polymers [ n Zn]_∞ in the solid state, as confirmed for 1 Zn and 3 Zn by X‐ray crystallography. The coordination environment around the zinc(II) ions in these polymers is octahedral. They are ligated by four equatorial nitrogen atoms of the porphyrin and two apical E atoms (E=N, O) provided by the EBrE donor groups of adjacent n Zn molecules. Complexes 2 Zn and 4 Zn did not form single crystals, but solid‐state UV/Vis analysis points to the formation of similar structures. Solution UV/Vis and ¹H NMR spectroscopy indicated that interactions between 1 Zn and 2 Zn monomers in the polymers are stronger than between 3 Zn and 4 Zn monomers. Interestingly, they also revealed that the presence of a neighboring bromine atom in the EBrE donor groups has a considerable influence on the coordination properties of the benzylic N or O atoms. The zinc(II) ions of the porphyrins most likely adopt only hexacoordination in the solid state, owing to the unique predisposition of Lewis acidic and basic sites in the n Zn molecules. Several parameters of the aggregates, for example, the interplanar separation between porphyrins and the zinc–zinc distances, change as a function of the coordinating E groups. The high degree of modularity in their synthesis makes these zinc(II) porphyrins an interesting new entry in noncovalent multiporphyrin assemblies.     

Kinetics and mechanism of gold dissolution in thiourea solutions: Effect of sulfide ions

Chronoamperograms for gold in solutions containing 0.1 M thiourea, 0.5 M H₂SO₄, and catalytically active sulfide ions at the concentration c ₁ from 1 × 10^?5 to 4 × 10^?5 M are obtained at different potentials with the aid of an automated setup intended for renewing the electrode surface directly in the solution by cutting off a thin surface layer of the metal. It is shown that the results of measurements of the current practically coincide at a constant value of the product c ₁ t, where t is the time period elapsed after the renewal of the electrode surface. Such a coincidence testifies to a diffusion nature of processes that hamper accumulation of sulfide ions at the gold surface. This fact permitted the use of a procedure developed previously for the calculation of polarization curves at constant values of surface coverage θ by catalytically active ions. At θ = const, the voltammetric curves for gold in sulfide-containing thiourea solutions are shown to correspond to the Tafel equation. With the surface coverage increasing, the effective values of the exchange current i ₀, transfer coefficient α, and anodic reaction order with respect to thiourea P _a increase from the values i }~ 10^?5 A cm^?2, α }~ 0.12, and P _a = 0.2, which are characteristic of pure solutions, to 2 × 10^?4 A cm^?2, α }~ 0.5, and P _a = 1.1 (at θ }~ 0.5). An interpretation to the established regularities is given.     

Determination of Diffusion Coefficients for Binary Nonelectrolyte Mixtures. A Free-Volume Predictive Approach

A diaphragm cell has been used to measure mutual diffusion coefficients at 25°C for four binary nonelectrolyte mixtures: ethylbenzene + n-hexane, carbon tetrachloride + ethylbenzene, cyclohexane + p-xylene, and 1,2-dichloroethane + cyclohexane. A free-volume predictive approach for binary mutual diffusion coefficients was developed and tested. Only infinite dilution diffusion coefficients, some readily available pure substance data, and UNIFAC group contribution parameters are used in the model. No binary equilibrium thermodynamic information is required. For 73 binary systems with an overall average absolute deviation of 5.2%, it has been shown that the developed method is better than two commonly available reference methods for the prediction of liquid diffusion coefficients.     

Mass transfer to horizontal gas-generating electrodes

Mass transfer to a horizontal electrode during electrolytic evolution of oxygen and hydrogen at current densities of 100 to 10 000 A/m² is studied. The mass transfer intensity is evaluated from the diffusion layer thickness, which varies from 60 to 5 μm at such current densities. Calculations show that the decrease in the diffusion layer thickness is due to bubbles with a stationary interphase surface crossing the diffusion layer. During the hydrogen evolution, the diffusion layer thickness is nearly the same for vertical and horizontal electrodes. During the oxygen evolution, the diffusion layer is much thinner for a horizontal electrode. Additional decrease of the diffusion layer thickness during the evolution of oxygen is associated with the lesser solution density in the near-electrode layer and with its transport away by means of natural convection.     

A new algorithm for the fixed-node quantum Monte Carlo method

A novel algorithm is proposed for the fixed-node quantum Monte Carlo (FNQMC) method.In contrast to previous procedures,its "guiding function" is not optimized prior to diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (DMC) computation but synchronistically in the diffusion process The new algorithm can not only save CPU time,but also make both of the optimization and diffusion carried out according to the same sampling fashion,reaching the goal to improve each other This new optimizing procedure converges super-linearly,and thus can accelerate the particle diffusion During the diffusion process,the node of the "guiding function" changes incessantly,which is conducible to reducing the "fixed-node error" The new algorithm has been used to calculate the total energies of states X3B1 and a1A1 of CH2 as well as π-X2B1 and λ-2A1 of NH2 The singlet-triplet energy splitting (λEsT) in CH2 and π energy splitting in NH2 obtained with this present method are (45 542±1.840) and (141.644±1.589) kJ/mol,respectively The calculated     

Measurement of diffusion coefficients in multicomponent gas mixtures by the reversed-flow technique

Summary The reversed-flow method for measurement of gas diffusion coefficients in binary mixtures is now extended to simultaneous determination of effective diffusion coefficients for each substance in a multicomponent gas mixture. The method is applied to six ternary mixtures, each consisting of two gaseous hydrocarbons and H₂, He or N₂. The results are in agreement with a limiting case of the Stefan-Maxwell equations.     

带电胶体离子扩散与交换动力学的比较

Taking soil colloid and hydrated silica (quartz sand) as the experimental material, the comparative study has been made on the kinetics of ion diffusion and ion exchange in charged colloid and charged coarse disperse systems. The results showed that ion exchange kinetics in the two systems conform to the kinetic law of ion diffusion. Besides, through this comparative study on the kinetics of ion exchange and ion diffusion, a method has been advanced theoretically to estimate the quantity of adsorbed ion that is located in the inner of the Helmholtz layer. As far as hydrated silica is concerned , there were about 33 per cent of the total adsorbed quantity of Mg2+that were located in the inner of the Helmholtz layer under the given experimental conditions, bu tfor soil colloid the percentage was only 7.5.     

Mass transport in gas channels of electrochemical cells with a solid-oxide electrolyte: Allowing for the electrode reaction rates in numerical calculations

The concentration fields, Nusselt number distributions along the electrode, and ratios of concentrations of electrochemically active components at the entrance into and exit out of an electrochemical cell are determined by numerical integration of the convective-diffusion equation for a broad range of rate constants of electrode reactions, Peclet numbers, and geometrical parameters of channels. Three regions of parameter values are revealed. At low reaction rates (K _l < 0.5), mass transfer is completely determined by electrode kinetics; at high rates (K _l > 20), it is completely determined by the diffusion in the gas phase; and in the intermediate region of values of K _l it is necessary to allow for both the diffusion processes and the electrode reactions.Translated from Elektrokhimiya, Vol. 41, No. 3, 2005, pp. 317–324.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Ezin, Somov.