S-oxygenation of thiocarbamides I: Oxidation of phenylthiourea by chlorite in acidic media

The oxidation of 1-phenyl-2-thiourea (PTU) by chlorite was studied in aqueous acidic media. The reaction is extremely complex with reaction dynamics strongly influenced by the pH of reaction medium. In excess chlorite concentrations the reaction stoichiometry involves the complete desulfurization of PTU to yield a urea residue and sulfate: 2ClO2- + PhN(H)CSNH2 + H2O --> SO4(2-) + PhN(H)CONH2 + 2Cl- + 2H+. In excess PTU, mixtures of sulfinic and sulfonic acids are formed. The reaction was followed spectrophotometrically by observing the formation of chlorine dioxide which is formed from the reaction of the reactive intermediate HOCl and chlorite: 2ClO2- + HOCl + H+ --> 2ClO2(aq) + Cl- + H2O. The complexity of the ClO2- - PTU reaction arises from the fact that the reaction of ClO2 with PTU is slow enough to allow the accumulation of ClO2 in the presence of PTU. Hence the formation of ClO2 was observed to be oligooscillatory with transient formation of ClO2 even in conditions of excess oxidant. The reaction showed complex acid dependence with acid catalysis in pH conditions higher than pKa of HClO2 and acid retardation in pH conditions of less than 2.0. The rate of oxidation of PTU was given by -d[PTU]/dt = k1[ClO2-][PTU] + k2[HClO2][PTU] with the rate law: -d[PTU]/dt = [Cl(III)](T)[PTU]0/K(a1) + [H+] [k1K(a1) + k2[H+]]; where [Cl(III)]T is the sum of chlorite and chlorous acid and K(a1) is the acid dissociation constant for chlorous acid. The following bimolecular rate constants were evaluated; k1 = 31.5+/-2.3 M(-1) s(-1) and k2 = 114+/-7 M(-1) s(-1). The direct reaction of ClO2 with PTU was autocatalytic in low acid concentrations with a stoichiometric ratio of 8:5; 8ClO2 + 5PhN(H)CSNH2 + 9H2O --> 5SO4(2-) + 5PhN(H)CONH2 + 8Cl- + 18H+. The proposed mechanism implicates HOCl as a major intermediate whose autocatalytic production determined the observed global dynamics of the reaction. A comprehensive 29-reaction scheme is evoked to describe the complex reaction dynamics.     

Stereochemically stable double-helicate dinuclear complexes of bis(dipyrromethene)s: a chiroptical study

Helical zinc(II) complexes of bis(dipyrromethene)s bearing homochiral amide substituents were synthesized. Analysis of the products by chiral HPLC showed two diastereomeric major products and showed that dipyrromethene double-nuclear helicates are stereochemically stable and do not interconvert. Circular dichroism (CD) studies showed that the complexation reactions had proceeded with modest diastereomeric excesses. Analysis of an analogous symmetric zinc(II) bis(dipyrromethene) lacking homochiral substituents that could act as chromophores discounted induced CD by the chiral auxiliaries.     

Dinuclear zinc(II) double-helicates of homochirally substituted bis(dipyrromethene)s

[structure: see text] A series of bis(dipyrromethene)s substituted with aromatic amide and aliphatic ester homochiral auxiliaries have been prepared and complexed with zinc(II) ions to form double-helical dinuclear complexes. CD analysis of the crude complexes revealed that the helicates formed in a diastereoselective manner. The helicates have been resolved into their constituent M and P helices by HPLC, indicating that the helical sense of the complexes is stable to racemization.     

A Self-Assembled Cage with Endohedral Acid Groups both Catalyzes Substitution Reactions and Controls Their Molecularity

A self-assembled Fe₄L₆ cage complex internally decorated with acid functions is capable of accelerating the thioetherification of activated alcohols, ethers and amines by up to 1000-fold. No product inhibition is seen, and effective supramolecular catalysis can occur with as little as 5 % cage. The substrates are bound in the host with up to micromolar affinities, whereas the products show binding that is an order of magnitude weaker. Most importantly, the cage host alters the molecularity of the reaction: whereas the reaction catalyzed by simple acids is a unimolecular, S_N1-type substitution process, the rate of the host-mediated process is dependent on the concentration of nucleophile. The molecularity of the cage-catalyzed reaction is substrate-dependent, and can be up to bimolecular. In addition, the catalysis can be prevented by a large excess of nucleophile, where substrate inhibition dominates, and the use of tritylated anilines as substrates causes a negative feedback loop, whereby the liberated product destroys the catalyst and stops the reaction.     

S-oxygenation of thiocarbamides. 3. Nonlinear kinetics in the oxidation of trimethylthiourea by acidic bromate

The oxidation of trimethylthiourea (TMTU) by acidic bromate has been studied. The reaction mimics the dynamics observed in the oxidation of unsubstituted thiourea by bromate with an induction period before formation of bromine. The stoichiometry of the reaction was determined to be 4:3, thus 4BrO(3)- + 3R(1)R(2)C=S+ 3H(2)O --> 4Br- + 3R(1)R(2)C=O + 3SO(4)(2-) + 6H+. This substituted thiourea is oxidized at a much faster rate than the unsubstituted thiourea. The oxidation mechanism of TMTU involves initial oxidations through sulfenic and sulfinic acids. At the sulfinic acid stage, the major oxidation pathway is through the cleavage of the C-S bond to form a reducing sulfur leaving group, which is easily oxidized to sulfate. The minor pathway through the sulfonic acid produces a very stable intermediate that is oxidized only very slowly to urea and sulfate. The direct reaction of aqueous bromine with TMTU was faster than reactions that form bromine, with a bimolecular rate constant of (1.50 +/- 0.04) x 10(2) M(-1) s(-1). This rapid reaction ensured that no oligooscillatory bromine formation was observed. The oxidation of TMTU was modeled by a simple reaction scheme containing 20 reactions.     

15N NMR chemical shifts for the identification of dipyrrolic structures

A variety of dipyrromethanes and dipyrromethenes have been prepared, and their 15N NMR chemical shifts have been measured by two-dimensional correlation to 1H NMR signals. The nitrogen atoms in five examples of dipyrromethanes consistently exhibit chemical shifts around -231 ppm, relative to nitromethane. Seven examples of hydrobromide salts of meso-unsubstituted dipyrromethenes consistently display 15N chemical shifts around -210 ppm, while their corresponding zinc(II) complexes exhibit chemical shifts around -170 ppm. The presence of electron-withdrawing substituents on one of the pyrrolic rings of dipyrromethenes affects the chemical shifts of both of the nitrogen nuclei in the molecule. Boron difluoride complexes of meso-unsubstituted dipyrromethenes display 15N chemical shifts around -190 ppm. Two examples of free-base dipyrromethenes bearing substituents at the meso-position exhibit 15N chemical shifts at approximately -156 ppm, and for the zinc complexes of these compounds at -162 ppm. One-bond nitrogen-hydrogen coupling constants, when measurable, were consistently in the range of -96 Hz. Since the measured 15N chemical shifts have such a high regularity correlated to structure, they can be used as diagnostic indications for identifying the structure of dipyrrolic compounds.     

What Constitutes a Nurturing Environment for the Growth of Mathematically Gifted Students?

This article describes a qualitative study to determine the influential forces in the development of mathematically gifted students. In-depth interviews were, conducted with four mathematically gifted students, the teacher/coach of these students, and a parent of one of the students. The content of the interviews was supplemented with survey data gathered from a select group of 12 teachers and two parent/gifted student pairs. An attitude survey inventory was given to the four gifted students, and their results were compared with two other groups of students generally looked upon as mathematically gifted. A discussion of the influential sources in the lives of gifted students, along with aspects that contributed to creating a nurturing environment, emerged from the data analysis.     

Glutamic acid 181 is negatively charged in the bathorhodopsin photointermediate of visual rhodopsin

Assignment of the protonation state of the residue Glu-181 is important to our understanding of the primary event, activation processes and wavelength selection in rhodopsin. Despite extensive study, there is no general agreement on the protonation state of this residue in the literature. Electronic assignment is complicated by the location of Glu-181 near the nodal point in the electrostatic charge shift that accompanies excitation of the chromophore into the low-lying, strongly allowed ππ* state. Thus, the charge on this residue is effectively hidden from electronic spectroscopy. This situation is resolved in bathorhodopsin, because photoisomerization of the chromophore places Glu-181 well within the region of negative charge shift following excitation. We demonstrate that Glu-181 is negatively charged in bathorhodopsin on the basis of the shift in the batho absorption maxima at 10 K [λ(max) band (native) = 544 ± 2 nm, λ(max) band (E181Q) = 556 ± 3 nm] and the decrease in the λ(max) band oscillator strength (0.069 ± 0.004) of E181Q relative to that of the native protein. Because the primary event in rhodopsin does not include a proton translocation or disruption of the hydrogen-bonding network within the binding pocket, we may conclude that the Glu-181 residue in rhodopsin is also charged.     

金属氧化物与现代微电子学——过渡金属前体化合物及转化为材料的化学过程

金属氧化物薄膜如HfO₂（被称为高k电介质）是现代微电子器件的关键组件,广泛用于计算机（平板电脑,笔记本电脑和台式机）、智能电话、智能电视、汽车和医疗设备中。具有大介电常数（k）的金属氧化物已经取代了介电常数小的SiO₂（k=3.9）,从而使得微电子元件进一步小型化。过渡金属化合物在化学气相沉积（CVD）和原子层沉积（ALD）中被广泛用作前体,通过与O₂、H₂O或O₃的反应生成金属氧化物薄膜。微电子金属氧化物膜是纳米材料最广泛应用的一个领域。本文概观该领域的最新进展,包括我们对d⁰过渡金属配合物与O₂反应的研究。     

Resonance pacemakers in excitable media

Chemical waves are initiated in an excitable medium by resonance with local periodic forcing of the excitability. Experiments are carried out with a photosensitive Belousov-Zhabotinsky medium, in which the excitability is varied according to the intensity of the imposed illumination. Complex resonance patterns are exhibited as a function of the amplitude and frequency of the forcing. Local resonance-induced wave initiation transforms the medium globally from a quiescent excitable steady state to a periodic state of successive traveling waves.