Hydrophobic Monomers Recognize Microenvironments in Hydrogel Microspheres during Free-Radical-Seeded Emulsion Polymerization

The three-dimensional structure of nanocomposite microgels was precisely determined by cryo-electron micrography. Several nanocomposite microgels that differ with respect to their nanocomposite structure, which were obtained from seeded emulsion polymerization in the presence of microgels, were used as model nanocomposite materials for cryo-electron micrography. The obtained three-dimensional segmentation images of these nanocomposite microgels provide important insights into the interactions between the hydrophobic monomers and the microgels, that is, hydrophobic styrene monomers recognize molecular-scale differences in polarity within the microgels during the emulsion polymerization. This result led to the formation of unprecedented multi-layered nanocomposite microgels, which promise substantial potential in colloidal applications.     

Experimental Study on Time-Spread/Wavelength-Hop Optical Code Division Multiplexing with Dispersion-Compensating En/Decoder

10Gbit/s time-spread/wavelength-hop optical code generation and decoding are performed by dispersion-compensating fiber Bragg grating (FBG) en/decoder pair. Error-free 10km single mode fiber (SMF) transmission of 10Gbit/s optical code division multiplexing (OCDM) has been experimentally demonstrated.     

Stereocontrol of diene polymers by topochemical polymerization of substituted benzyl muconates and their crystallization properties

We report the stereocontrol of diene polymers by the topochemical polymerization of alkoxy-substituted benzyl muconates in the solid state. A monomer stacking structure is controlled by the weak intermolecular interactions in the monomer crystals, depending on the structure and position of the alkoxy-substituent. The translational and alternating types of molecular stacking structures in a column provide diisotactic and disyndiotactic polymers, respectively, by the solid-state polymerization under UV and γ-ray irradiation. On the other hand, the meso and racemo structures of the resulting polymers are determined by the molecular symmetry of the used muconate monomers. The various substituted benzyl ester polymers are transformed into the same ethyl ester polymers with the four types of tacticities. The structure and crystallization behavior of the substituted benzyl ester polymers as well as the ethyl ester polymers have been revealed in detail. We clarify the effects of the tacticity on the crystallization property of the stereoregular polymuconates. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 4952–4965, 2006     

Enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in apple juices by multi-beam circular dichroism detection

A multi-beam circular dichroism (CD) detector which is easily constructed by inserting inexpensive optics into a conventional photo-diode array detector has an advantage of simultaneous detection of the absorbance and CD. The enantiomeric purity determination of malic acid in beverages was performed by this detection system. Malic acid when complexed with Cu(II) was found to have an absorbance maximum at around 750 nm. The L-malic acid-Cu(II) complex showed a positive Cotton effect in its absorbance band and its anisotropy factor (delta epsilon/epsilon) was relatively large at about 1/170. This complex was retained on a reversed-phase column with the addition of racemic 2-hydroxy-3-methylbutyric acid to the mobile phase as the ligand. A plot of the relative peak areas between the CD and the absorption (delta abs/abs) versus optical purity showed good linearity with a correlation coefficient of 0.999, and the precision expressed as the relative standard deviation of the errors from the regression line was +/-2.7% (2sigma). The accuracy of the proposed method was assessed by capillary electrophoresis. Eight commercially available juice products were analyzed using this method. Five of them were thought to be adulterated with synthetic malic acid.     

C3 cyclopolymerization. I. Is the cyclopolymerization of 1,3-bis(p-vinylphenyl)-propane by means of radical or anionic initiators possible?

Polymerization of 1,3-bis(p-vinylphenyl) propane (St-C₃-St) was investigated by using radical and anionic initiators. Radical polymerization yielded linear polymer with pendant styryl groups in pertinent conditions without gelation. Anionic polymerization with n-butyllithium and sodium naphthalene produced insoluble polymers that, according to infrared (IR) spectroscopy, had no cyclized units. On the other hand, phenylmagnesium bromide gave soluble polymer in HMPA-benzene mixed solvent. Zero-valent nickel catalyst also gave soluble polymer. The soluble polymers could be analyzed by several spectroscopies, and it was confirmed that those obtained by anionic and coordination polymerization had no [3.3]paracyclophane units in the main chain. From these results it was concluded that cationic propagation could be assumed if the polymer Of St-C₃-St contained [3.3]paracyclophane units in the main chain.     

Mechanism of thermal 2+2 cycloaddition reactions between electron-donors and electron-acceptors : Reactions of heteronuclear cycloaddends,CO groups

The 2 + 2 cycloaddition and “ene” mechanisms previously proposed for electron-accepting homonuclear cycloaddends have been found to hold for heteronuclear ones. Only a difference recognized between them consists in the relative stability of intermediate species. We think the proposed mechanism including its variations can cover thermal 2 + 2 cycloaddition reactions between donors and acceptors and “ene” reactions.     

Identification and determination of sulphamethazine and N4-acetylsulphamethazine in meat by high-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode-array detection

A simple and selective method for the determination of sulphamethazine (SMT) and its metabolite, N4-acetylsulphamethazine (N4-AcSMT), in meat by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with photodiode-array detection was developed. The drugs were extracted from meat with 0.2% metaphosphoric acid-methanol (6:4), followed by a Bond-Elut C18 clean-up procedure. The HPLC separation was carried out on a Supersphere RP-18e column (125 X 4.0 mm I.D.) using 0.05 M sodium dihydrogenphosphate (pH 4.5)-acetonitrile (8:2) as the mobile phase at a flow-rate of 0.5 ml/min, and monitored with a photodiode-array detector. The recoveries of SMT and N4-AcSMT from meat fortified at 0.5 micrograms/g were 90.1-93.3 and 93.0-94.4%, respectively, with coefficients of variation of 1.9-3.2 and 1.5-2.7%. The limits of detection were 0.02 micrograms/g for each drug. SMT was found in ten samples of imported meat (12.5%) at levels ranging from 0.05 to 1.05 micrograms/g.     

Simultaneous assay of four stereoisomers of diltiazem hydrochloride. Application to in vitro chiral inversion studies

Summary The simultaneous stereospecific assay of four stereoisomers of diltiazem hydrochloride in bulk drug and aqueous solution was developed using HPLC on a Chiralcel OF column. The four isomers were quantitated with good precision by the internal standard method. The chiral inversion of (+)-cis-diltiazem hydrochloride in vitro, stability of its (2S, 3S) configuration in the solid and aqueous states was examined by HPLC. Chiral inversion of (+)-cis-diltiazem hydrochloride was not observed in the solid state, and its (2S, 3S) configuration was stable to heat, humidity and light. Chiral inversion of (+)-cis-diltiazem hydrochloride (2S, 3S) was observed in aqueous solution under UV, but not in aqueous solution stored at 80°C for 5h nor under visible light for 10 h. The (+)-cis-diltiazem hydrochloride (2S, 3S) epimerized to (+)-trans-diltiazem hydrochloride (2R, 3S) with a half-life of 5h in aqueous solution under UV but the reverse chiral inversion of (+)-trans-diltiazem hydrochloride (2R, 3S) to (+)-cis-diltiazem hydrochloride (2S, 3S) was not observed.