Changes in the near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectra of long-chain diacetylene derivatives through photopolymerization in Langmuir–Blodgett films

Photopolymerization of cadmium 10,12-pentacosadiynoate (CdDA) in Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films, with the molecular packing well arranged by moderate preannealing, was investigated with near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. Greenish films of polydiacetylene with an absorption wavelength of 705 nm were obtained through the photopolymerization of preannealed monomer LB films, and this resulted in an extended π-conjugate system based on the well-ordered monomer in a two-dimensional arrangement. The electronic structures of the polydiacetylenes were found to be correlated to the variation of the molecular arrangements in the films from the changes in the NEXAFS spectra through photopolymerization in the LB films. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 2329–2336, 2004     

Measurement of circular dichroism spectra of liquid/liquid interface by centrifugal liquid membrane method.

The direct measurement of the circular dichroism (CD) spectra of liquid/liquid interface has been achieved for the first time by the centrifugal liquid membrane (CLM) method combined with a conventional CD spectropolarimetry. In the sample chamber of the CD spectropolarimeter, a cylindrical glass cell containing small amounts of organic and aqueous phases was rotated at ca. 7000 rpm to generate a two-phase liquid membrane with a high specific interfacial area. The CD spectra of the J-aggregate of protonated 5,10,15,20-tetraphenylporphyrin formed at the toluene/sulfuric acid interface in the rotating cell have been measured. The results demonstrated the novelty and advantages of this method.     

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering from oleate-stabilized silver colloids at a liquid/liquid interface.

Oleate-stabilized silver colloids of 5-nm-diameter were adsorbed to a toluene/water interface, and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra from these colloids were measured under the total internal reflection (TIR) condition. From the observed spectra, we examined the states of oleate ions and toluene molecules on silver colloids at the liquid/liquid interfacial region. The TIR-SERS spectra of oleate ions showed stronger peaks of the carboxylate group and the ethylene group than those of alkyl chains. From these results, it was found that the oleate ions were adsorbed on the silver surface in two different ways at the liquid/liquid interface; the carboxylate group adsorbed in the organic phase side, while the ethylene group adsorbed in the aqueous phase side. The shifts of the toluene in the interfacial SERS spectra were identical to those of bulk toluene, though the relative intensities among the peaks were not same. This result suggested that the toluene was adsorbed with a weak interaction, but was significantly enhanced by the local electromagnetic field at the colloid surface.     

Rate coefficient for the reaction of CCl3 radicals with ozone

The rate coefficient for the reaction of CCl₃ radicals with ozone has been measured at 303 ± 2 K. The CCl₃ radicals were generated by the pulsed laser photolysis of carbon tetrachloride at 193 nm. The time profile of CCl₃ concentration was monitored with a photoionization mass spectrometer. Addition of the O₃–O₂ mixture to this system caused a decay of the CCl₃ concentration because of the reactions of CCl₃ + O₃ → products (5) and CCl₃ + O₂ → products (4). The decay of signals from the CCl₃ radical was measured in the presence and absence of ozone. In the absence of ozone, the O₃–O₂ mixture was passed through a heated quartz tube to convert the ozone to molecular oxygen. Since the rate coefficient for the reaction of CCl₃ + O₂ could be determined separately, the absolute rate coefficient for reaction ( 5 ) was obtained from the competition among these reactions. The rate coefficient determined for reaction ( 5 ) was (8.6 ± 0.5) × 10^?13 cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1 and was also found to be independent of the total pressure (253–880 Pa of N₂). This result shows that the reaction of CCl₃ with O₃ cannot compete with its reaction with O₂ in the ozone layer. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 35: 310–316, 2003     

Applying a Mode Selector to Improve the Pulse-Compression Performance of Asymmetric-Coupled-Waveguide-Based Dispersion Compensators

An InGaAsP slab-type asymmetric-coupled-waveguide-based dispersion compensator with a mode selector has been designed and fabricated. The mode selector is necessary to select either a symmetric [with a positive group-velocity dispersion (GVD)] or antisymmetric (with a negative GVD) supermode. These supermodes exist simultaneously in the dispersion-compensation region of the device. Pulse-compression experiments were used to test the dispersion compensator, evaluating the function of the mode selector. A theoretical study of the experimental results shows that the mode selector obtains a very strong selectivity (nearly 100%) for the antisymmetric supermode.     

Glycopolymeric inhibitors of β‐glucuronidase. III. Configurational effects of hydroxy groups in pendant glyco‐units in polymers upon inhibition of β‐glucuronidase

Two kinds of new glycopolymers, (P(VB‐1‐GlcaH‐co‐AAm), 9 ) and (P(VB‐1‐Glco‐co‐AAm), 10 ), were synthesized through the radical copolymerization of styrene derivatives bearing pendant D ‐glucaric and D ‐gluconic moieties, N‐(p‐vinylbenzyl)‐1‐D ‐glucaramide (VB‐1‐GlcaH, 7 ), and N‐(p‐vinylbenzyl)‐D ‐gluconamide (VB‐1‐Glco, 8 ), with acrylamide (AAm). Glycopolymer 9 bearing the pendant glucaric moiety at the first position inhibited the hydrolysis of a model compound for xenobiotics‐β‐glucuronide conjugates, p‐nitrophenyl β‐D ‐glucuronide, uncompetitively, in contrast to the competitive inhibition in the presence of the corresponding isomeric glycopolymer bearing the pendant D ‐glucaric unit at the sixth position (P(VB‐6‐GlcaH‐co‐AAm), 3 ) reported in our previous article. On the other hand, another copolymer 10 bearing the gluconic moiety was found not to inhibit the hydrolysis as well as the corresponding copolymer bearing pendant gulonic unit (P(VB‐6‐Glco‐co‐AAm), 4 ). These results indicate that the hydrolysis is influenced not only by existence of pendant carboxyl units but also by the direction on the linkage of the glyco‐units to the polymer frame. Therefore the configurational position of hydroxy groups in pendant glyco‐units in macromolecular inhibitors may be essential for the interaction with β‐glucuronidase. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 4895–4903, 2006     

Preparation and certification of the new reference materials; plastics (disk form, JSAC 0621-0625) for determination of mercury using x-ray fluorescent analysis.

The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry has developed some new plastic certified reference materials (CRMs) for the analysis of mercury in polyester disks using XRF analysis. These CRMs (named as JSAC 0621-0625) were prepared by casting polyesters including a toluene solution of organometallic compounds as a standard. Concentrations of the five levels of mercury ranged from 0 to 250 mg/kg. Homogeneity tests of prepared disks had shown excellent results. Interlaboratory comparison study for the certification was performed by 15 laboratory participants. The z-scores in robust statistical method was applied for the evaluation of outliers. The certified values were assigned after discarding outliers. The uncertainties of certified values were determined as the confidence levels of 95%.     

Selective and simultaneous determination of phosphate and silicate ions in leaching process waters for ceramics glaze raw materials of narutal origin by ion-exclusion chromatography coupled with UV-detection after postcolumn derivatization.

The selective and simultaneous ion-exclusion chromatography (IEC) with UV-detection on a weakly acidic cation-exchange resin column in the H+ -form (TSKgel Super IC-A/C) was developed and applied for the simultaneous determination of phosphate and silicate ions as the water quality parameters required for optimizing the water-leaching process for ceramics glaze raw materials of natural origin including feldspar, woods-ash, and straw-ash. Phosphate and silicate ions in these water-leaching process water samples were separated selectively from the coexisting anions such as sulfate, chloride, nitrate and carbonate ions, based on the ion-exclusion separation mechanism. They were detected selectively and simultaneously by a postcolumn derivatization with molybdenum-yellow using the UV-detector. Under the optimized separation and detection conditions (eluent, 0-1 mM sulfuric acid; reactant, 10 mM sodium molybdate-25 mM sulfuric acid; detector, UV at 370 nm; temperature, 45 degrees C), the linearity of calibration was in the range 0.1 - 10 ppm for both phosphate and silicate ions, and the detection limits at S/N = 3 were 2.58 ppb for silicate ions and 4.75 ppb for phosphate ions. The effectiveness of this method was demonstrated in practical applications to the water-leaching process for some ceramics glaze raw materials.