The interaction between poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and salts in aqueous media: The “salting-out” phenomenon as studied by attenuated total reflection/fourier transform infrared spectroscopy

The effect of two strong salting-out salts (Na₂SO₄ and K₂SO₄) on the temperature-induced phase-separation process in aqueous solutions of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) was examined by attenuated total reflectance/Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and viscosity measurements. On the basis of these measurements, a detailed scenario of the phase-separation process was deduced. The phase-separation scenario of solutions containing PNIPA and water was altered in the presence of sulfate ions. Here, the sulfate ions induced partial intrachain collapse, manifested by a relatively compact structure well below the lower critical solution temperature. This led to a more gradual, smooth phase transition, with temperature-resolved intrachain collapse and interchain aggregation and a lesser extent of hysteresis. Although at the macrolevel one may not be able to differentiate among various scenarios altering the solvent into a poor solvent, the aforementioned microlevel measurements provided a way to expose the difference between raising the temperature and adding cosolutes. Follow-up studies on the effect of salting-in salts will be presented. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 33–46, 2004     

Ground-state dynamics of α-methylstyrene. I. Thermally induced oligomerization in bulk

α-Methylstyrene (α-Me-St) in bulk undergoes a variety of thermally induced processes which we investigated in detail by product-distribution analysis. The oligomeric products, shown by GC–MS coupling techniques and independent syntheses, consisted of nine dimers and nine trimers with no detectable higher oligomers or polymers. Two isomeric cyclobutanes and one of the open-chain unsaturated dimers were formed by a conventional two-step cycloaddition; a Flory-type diradical was the common intermediate. In contrast to these 2π + 2π products, the majority of the remaining oligomers could not be interpreted on the basis of π-electron interaction between closed shell molecules. Their structures, however, were compatible with a free radical process in which cumyl(MH·) and 1,4-dimethyl-1-phenyl-tetrahydronaphthalene-yl(THN·), which are consecutive products of 4π + 2π and 2π + 2π interactions, respectively, were involved in addition and transfer reactions. Because of the small rate of initiation and the obvious lack of free radical recombination products, a mechanism was suggested in which MH· and THN· radicals react predominantly in a closed sequence of elementary processes and to a rather small extent only by bimolecular free radical termination. Two sorts of stabilization steps, hydrogen transfer to monomer (R_nH· + M → R_n + MH·) and hydrogen abstraction from a hypothetical 4π + 2π intermediate I (R_nH· + I → R_nH₂ + THN·), are attributed to the high rates of unsaturated and saturated oligomer formation.     

Amperometric biosensors for glucose based on carbon paste modified electrodes

The modification of carbon-paste electrodes by incorporation of the enzyme glucose oxidase (GOD) is described. The resulting probes can be operated as amperometric glucose sensors in the presence or absence of a mediator (1,1'-dimethylferrocene) mixed into the paste. Extended linear calibration ranges have been obtained up to 90 and 5OmM glucose respectively. The electrode responses were rapid, reaching steady-state values within 30-40 sec. Advantages of using a GOD-paste formulation are suggested. Plasma glucose assays were correlated with spectrophotometric determinations based on glucose oxidase (y = 1.07x - 0.16, r = 0.973, n = 17).     

Novel Reactions of Organomolybdenum and Organotungsten Compounds: Additive–Reductive Carbonyl Dimerization,Spontaneous Transformation of Methyl Ligands into μ-Methylene Ligands,and Selective Carbonylmethylenation

Hitherto there was no reaction known that permits transformations of R¹R²-CO → 0.5 R¹R²R³C–CR¹R²R³ in one step. This type of additive–reductive carbonyl dimerization is now possible using alkoxy(alkyl)tungsten(v) complexes with aromatic, heteroaromatic or α,β-unsaturated aldehydes and ketones. When a corresponding phenyl complex was employed in a test experiment, it was revealed that an aliphatic ketone could be used as the substrate in this reaction. A second interesting type of reaction is the transformation of CH₃ ligands into μ-CH₂ ligands, which occurs during the treatment of MeLi or Me₃Al with molybdenum or tungsten chlorides (oxidation states VI and V, for Mo additionally IV) at low temperatures with liberation of CH₄. Here, the question arises as to whether the intermediate involved has a terminal CH₂ ligand (Schrock carbene complex) or a μ-CH₃ ligand (CH₃ bound by a two-electron three-center bond to two metal atoms). Of all the μ-CH₂ complexes obtained, those which were synthesized by the action of MeLi on molybdenum chlorides can be recommended as reagents for carbonylmethylenation of aldehydes and ketones. They display high selectivity, very low basicity, a surprising resistance to protons, they are readily available, can be easily modified and, as regards their selective behavior, they have been investigated more thoroughly than other readily accessible carbonylmethylenation reagents of comparable selectivity. The results of NMR spectroscopic investigations on the structure of the μ-CH₂ complexes, and associated reaction mechanisms are discussed. A survey of carbonylmethylenation reagents, which have been reported in the literature, permits comparisons to be made with carbonylmethylenating molybdenum and tungsten complexes.     

New Possible Applications of Heavy Main-Group Elements in Organic Synthesis

Aside from elements of the 2nd row, and one element of the 3rd row of the periodic system—Si, P, S, and Se, respectively, whose organoelement groups such as Me₃Si and Ph₃P^⊕ have proven useful in numerous organic syntheses—other elements of the 3rd as well as 4th and 5th row (Ge, As, Sn, Sb, Te, Pb, Bi) can also be used as components of synthetically useful organoelement groups, the elements As, Sn, and Pb, in particular, offering certain advntages over the others. Some of these organoelement groups are suitable equivalents for Li- or halogen-substituents attached to carbon; they stabilize carbanionic centers (minimum of this effect at the 3rd-row elements), and owing to their suitability as leaving groups in β-eliminations, also open up interesting synthetic possibilities. The thermally unduced syn- and silica-gel induced anti-elimination of Ph₃Sn, Ph₂Sb, Ph₃Pb, together with β-OH, are novel. With the newly synthesized compounds Ph_nEl—Ch₂—Li (El = Sn, Pb, As, Sb, Bi) and other α- and β-lithiated R_nEl- and Ph₂As(O)-reagents such organoelement groups can be introduced into organic compounds and exploited in organic and organoelement synthesis.     

Two new bounds on the size of binary codes with a minimum distance of three

We prove two new upper bounds on the size of binary codes with a minimum distance of three, namelyA(10, 3)76 andA(11, 3)152.     

An algebraic approach to the planar coloring problem

We point out a general relationship between the planar coloring problem withQ colors and the Temperley-Lieb algebra with parameter . This allows us to give a complete algebraic reformulation of the four color result, and to give algebraic interpretations of various other aspects of planar colorings.Work supported in part by NSF Grant #DMS-882602, the program for Mathematics and Molecular Biology, UC Berkeley, and a visiting fellowship of the Japan Society for the promotion of science at Kyoto University, Kyoto, JapanWork supported in part by DOE Contact #DE-AC02-76ERO3075 and by a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering     

Resolution of four k-region arene imines and mutagenicity of the optically pure aziridines

Racemic K-region imines of benz[a]anthracene, 7-methylbenz[a]anthracene, chrysene and benzo[a]pyrene ( 1–4 , respectively) have been resolved by high performance liquid chromatography on a column packed with amylose tris(3,5-dimethylphenylcarbamate) on silica gel. The absolute configuration of the resolved aziridines was assigned by comparison of their circular dichromism spectra to those of the corresponding enantiomerically pure arene oxides. The mutagenicity of the enantiomers of the arene imines was investigated using Salmonella typhimurium strains TA98 and TA100. Although all arene imines investigated were potent mutagens, quantitative and qualitative differences in the mutagenic activity were observed between enantiomers.     

The collisional quenching of O2*(1Δg) by NO and CO2

Rate coefficients for the collisional quenching of O₂^*(¹Δ_g) by NO and CO₂ at 2–8 torr and 300 K have been determined. k_NO = (2.48 ± 0.23) × 10^?17 cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1 and

= (2.56 ± 0.12) × 10^?18 cm³ molecule^?1 s^?1.     

Aromatic foldamers as scaffolds for metal second coordination sphere design

As metalloproteins exemplify, the chemical and physical properties of metal centers depend not only on their first but also on their second coordination sphere. Installing arrays of functional groups around the first coordination sphere of synthetic metal complexes is thus highly desirable, but it remains a challenging objective. Here we introduce a novel approach to produce tailored second coordination spheres. We used bioinspired artificial architectures based on aromatic oligoamide foldamers to construct a rigid, modular and well-defined environment around a metal complex. Specifically, aza-aromatic monomers having a tethered [2Fe–2S] cluster have been synthesized and incorporated in conical helical foldamer sequences. Exploiting the modularity and predictability of aromatic oligoamide structures allowed for the straightforward design of a conical architecture able to sequester the metal complex in a confined environment. Even though no direct metal complex–foldamer interactions were purposely designed in this first generation model, crystallography, NMR and IR spectroscopy concurred to show that the aromatic oligoamide backbone alters the structure and fluxional processes of the metal cluster.

Wrapping a [2Fe–2S] metal complex in an aromatic foldamer helix is introduced as a new approach to tailor a second coordination sphere.