Measurement of storage time, estimation of ion number and study of absorption line profile in a Paul trap

Europium (Eu⁺) ions were confined in a Paul trap and detected by non-destructive method. Storage time of Eu⁺ ions achieved in vacuum was improved by orders of magnitude employing buffer gas cooling. The experimentally detected signal was fitted to the ion response signal and the total number of ions trapped was estimated. It is found that the peak signal amplitude as well as the product of FWHM and the peak signal amplitude is proportional to the total number of trapped ions. The trapped ion secular frequency was swept at different rates and its effect on the absorption line profile was studied both experimentally and theoretically.     

Correction: Dermatan sulfate in tunicate phylogeny: Order-specific sulfation pattern and the effect of [→4IdoA(2-Sulfate)β-1→3GalNAc(4-Sulfate)β-1→] motifs in dermatan sulfate on heparin cofactor II activity

After the publication of the work entitled "Dermatan sulfate in tunicate phylogeny: Order-specific sulfation pattern and the effect of [→4IdoA(2-Sulfate)β-1→3GalNAc(4-Sulfate)β-1→] motifs in dermatan sulfate on heparin cofactor II activity", by Kozlowski et al., BMC Biochemistry 2011, 12:29, we found that the legends to Figures 2 to 5 contain serious mistakes that compromise the comprehension of the work. This correction article contains the correct text of the legends to Figures 2 to 5.     

Single enantiomer, chiral donor-acceptor metal complexes from bisoxazoline pseudoracemates

[structure: see text] Single enantiomer, chiral donor-acceptor metal complexes were synthesized via the self-discriminating zinc(II) complexation of a pseudoracemic mixture of donor/acceptor-substituted bisoxazoline derivatives.     

Ligand Fluorination to Optimize Preferential Oxidation (PROX) of Carbon Monoxide by Water-Soluble Rhodium Porphyrins

Catalytic, low temperature preferential oxidation (PROX) of carbon monoxide by aqueous [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrinato]rhodium(III) tetrasodium salt, (1[Rh(III)]) and [5,10,15,20-tetrakis(3-sulfonato-2,6-difluorophenyl)-2,3,7,8,12,13,17,18-octafluoroporphyrinato]rhodium(III) tetrasodium salt, (2[Rh(III)]) is reported. The PROX reaction occurs at ambient temperature in buffered (4 ≤ pH ≤ 13) aqueous solutions. Fluorination on the porphyrin periphery is shown to increase the CO PROX reaction rate, shift the metal centered redox potentials, and acidify ligated water molecules. Most importantly, β-fluorination increases the acidity of the rhodium hydride complex (pK(a) = 2.2 ± 0.2 for 2[Rh-D]); the dramatically increased acidity of the Rh(III) hydride complex precludes proton reduction and hydrogen activation near neutral pH, thereby permitting oxidation of CO to be unaffected by the presence of H(2). This new fluorinated water-soluble rhodium porphyrin-based homogenous catalyst system permits preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide in hydrogen gas streams at 308 °K using dioxygen or a sacrificial electron acceptor (indigo carmine) as the terminal oxidant.     

Fluoride-Promoted Ligand Exchange in Diaryliodonium Salts

Diaryliodonium salts are shown to undergo rapid, fluoride-promoted aryl exchange reactions at room temperature in acetonitrile. Aryl exchange is shown to be exquisitely sensitive to the concentration of fluoride ion in solution; fast exchange is observed as the fluoride concentration approaches a stoichiometric amount at 50 mM substrate concentration. The reaction is slowed, but not halted if benzene is the solvent, indicating that free fluoride ion or a four-coordinate anionic I(III) species may be responsible for the exchange. The fluoride-promoted aryl exchange reaction is general and allows direct measurement of the relative stabilities of diaryliodonium salts featuring different aryl substituents. The aryl exchange reaction may be of practical use for the preparation of hitherto inaccessible diaryliodonium salts, thus it also has implications for labeling radiotracers for molecular imaging with ¹⁸F-fluoride (t_1/2 = 109.7 min).     

New high-energy luminescence bands from Co2+ in ZnSe

Three sharp absorption features in the energy range 2.36–2.55 eV have been detected in the transmission spectrum of Co-diffused ZnSe, and a number of luminescence transitions originating from the lowest of these states at 2.361 eV have been observed. Photoluminescence excitation spectra prove that these are high energy excited states of the Co²⁺_Zn impurity, a conclusion confirmed by comparison of measured and predicted luminescence energies. This represents the first identification of luminescence branching from a higher excited state of a transition metal ion in any semiconductor. The sharp, weakly phonon-coupled transitions involve either intra-impurity excitation or transitions from the impurity to localised states split off from a minimum in the conduction band. The implications of these observations for the mechanism of host-impurity energy transfer and for the nature of the excited state wavefunctions are discussed.