Interfacial adsorption state of protonated lipophilic porphyrins in a liquid-liquid system by using reflection spectrometry.

Analysis by reflection spectrometry was performed to clarify the interfacial adsorption of protonated lipophilic tetraphenylporphyrin derivatives in a dodecane-aqueous sulfuric acid system, and to confirm the utility of partial reflection spectroscopy. Interfacial adsorption was not observed for porphyrins substituted at the 2,6 positions of meso-phenyl groups, suggesting that the substituents prevent porphyrins from forming aggregates by steric hindrance. Polymorphous J-aggregates of acid dications were produced by tetra-p-tolylporphyrin with a saturated interfacial molecular density of 1.0 x 10(-10) mol cm(-2), which could yield 48 degrees as a mean tilting angle of the pyrrole ring plane from the interface normal. Partial-reflection spectrometry can provide sensitive detection and molecular orientation analysis of interfacial adsorbates.     

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     

Reaction kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid

The kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid were studied using a continuous‐flow tubular reactor. The reaction was carried out in the temperature range of 200–260°C and at a pressure of 20 MPa. Deamination was the primary reaction, indicated by the presence of significant amount of ammonia, fumaric acid, or maleic acid in the products. Other reaction products were pyruvic acid, malic acid, and traces of succinic and lactic acid. Traces of alanine were also detected, showing the possibility of decomposing high‐molecular weight amino acids to obtain simple amino acids such as glycine or alanine. Results on the effect of reaction parameters demonstrated that decomposition of aspartic acid is highly temperature dependent under hydrothermal conditions. For a slight temperature difference of 60°C (from 200 to 260°C), the first‐order reaction rate constants of 0.003 significantly increased to 0.231 s^?1. The activation energy was 144 kJ/mol, as calculated by the Arrhenius equation. No significant effect was exhibited by other reaction parameters such as pH and pressure. The results are useful in controlling the hydrolysis of proteinaceous materials toward high yield of aspartic acid under hydrothermal conditions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 175–180, 2007     

Synthesis of block copolymer with polystyrene and nylon units

Bis-ε-aminocaproylaminocaproylhexamethylenediamine ( I ) was synthesized as an analog of 6-nylon pentamer diamine, and its incorporation into block copolymers was studied with the use of α,ω-dihydroxyl, α,ω-bisdimethylchlorosilyl, and α,ω-diepoxy polystyrene. In the course of the experiments, the stability and the reactivity of 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and tetramethylene diisocyanate in aprotic dipolar solvents were examined by infrared spectroscopy. The only usable solvent, N-methylpyrrolidone, was found still inadequate for the synthesis involving I, diisocyanate, and α,ω-dihydroxyl polystyrene. A block copolymer having M _n = 18,000 was obtained by the reaction of I and α,ω-diepoxy polystyrene. All T_g values of the block copolymers were above 90°C, higher than for polystyrenes with corresponding molecular weight.     

Mycosamine orientation of amphotericin B controlling interaction with ergosterol: sterol-dependent activity of conformation-restricted derivatives with an amino-carbonyl bridge

Amphotericin B (AmB 1) is known to assemble together and form an ion channel across biomembranes. The antibiotic consists of mycosamine and macrolactone moieties, whose relative geometry is speculated to be determinant for the drug's channel activity and sterol selectivity. To better understand the relationship between the amino-sugar orientation and drug's activity, we prepared conformation-restricted derivatives 2-4, in which the amino and carboxyl groups were bridged together with various lengths of alkyl chains. K+ influx assays across the lipid-bilayer membrane revealed that ergosterol selectivity was markedly different among derivatives; short-bridged derivative 2 almost lost the selectivity, while 3 showed higher ergosterol preference than AmB itself. Monte Carlo conformational analysis of 2-4 based on NOE-derived distances indicated that the amino-sugar moiety of 2 comes close to C41 because of the short bridge, whereas those of 3 and 4 are pointing outward. The mutual orientation of the amino-sugar moiety and macrolide ring is so rigid in derivatives 2 and 3 that these conformations should be unchanged upon complex formation in lipid membranes. These results strongly suggest that the large difference in sterol preference between derivatives 2 and 3 is ascribed to the different orientation of amino-sugar moieties. These findings allowed us to propose a simple model accounting for AmB-sterol interactions, in which hydrogen bonding between 2'-OH of AmB and 3beta-OH of ergosterol plays an important role.