Volume 2, Issue 3

A simple and rapid capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for the determination of aristolochic acid (AA) in dietary supplements and selected herbs is described. A clear separation of AA from other sample constituents was achieved within 5 minutes without any sample clean up. A mixture of 20 mM-morpholinethanesulphonic acid+10 mM-BisTrisPropane+0.2% hydroxyethylcelullose in 10% methanol serves as a background electrolyte. The linearity, accuracy, intra-assay and detection limit of the developed method are 200–6000 ng/mL, 95–103%, 3.5%, and 50 ng/ml, respectively. Ease of use, sufficient sensitivity and low running cost are the most important attributes of the CZE method. The proposed CZE method was compared with HPLC.

Melatonin was subjected to an oxidation to give 3-hydroxymelatonin. All spectroscopic data for this compound were collected. Ab initio calculations for both possible configurations were performed. X-ray data on N,O-diacetyl derivative of 3-hydroxymelatonin allowed the unambigous structure determination.

This study concerns the removal of the 137Cs+ and 60Co2+ β+γ-radioactive ions in Azolla caroliniana Willd. water fern. The living fern and two different types of biosorbent prepared from Azolla caroliniana were tested to remove the above-mentioned radioactive ions from dilute solutions, in the absence and in the presence of the ionic competition. Effective 137Cs+ and 60Co2+ ions removal from low radioactive wastewaters was demonstrated. The time dependent K d(t) values were calculated from the absorption data. These results indicate that removal process achieved equilibrium in about 120 min and that it involves two steps: rapid and slow absorption; the active process (metabolic bioaccumulation on the living fern) was responsible for above one half of the total removal process. A thin layer radiochromatography study leads to the conclusion that the biochemical components in which 137Cs+ and 60Co2+ place themselves are of a polysaccharide and lipoid fractions.

Synthesis of the first phosphorus (V) porphyrin-peptide conjugate was successfully accomplished. A biologically active peptide, leucine enkephalin, was constructed on the phosphorus atom of the 5,10,15,20-meso-tetraphenylporphinato dichlorophosphorus (V) chloride. The method involved solution phase peptide synthesis. The first C-terminal amino acid in the sequence of the peptide was axially attached to the porphyrin through a linker, 3-aminopropanol, and the remainder of leucine enkephalin was synthesized by subsequent additions of amino acids. Leucine enkephalin-P(V) porphyrin conjugate represents a new group of compounds, and its synthesis broadens potential applications of P(V) porphyrine, e.g. in photodynamic therapy.

A systematic quantum mechanical study of the possible conformations, their relative stabilities, vibrational and electronic spectra and thermodynamic parameters of methyl-3-methoxy-2-propenoate has been reported for the electronic ground (S0) and first excited (S1) states using time-dependent and time-independent Density Functional Theory (DFT) and RHF methods in extended basis sets. Detailed studies have been restricted to the E-isomer, which is found to be substantially more stable than the Z-isomer. Four possible conformers c′Cc, c′Tc, t′Cc, t′Tc, of which the first two are most stable, have been identified in the S0 and S1 states. Electronic excitation to S1 state is accompanied with a reversal in the relative stability of the c′Cc and c′Tc conformers and a substantial reduction in the rotational barrier between them, as compared with the S0 state. Optimized geometries of these conformers in the S0 and S1 states are being reported. Based on suitably scaled RHF/6-31G** and DFT/6-311G** calculations, assignments have been provided to the fundamental vibrational bands of both these conformers in terms of frequency, form and intensity of vibrations and potential energy distribution across the symmetry coordinates in the S0 state. A complete interpretation of the electronic spectra of the conformers has been provided.

An amperometric detector with a small thin mercury film electrode is described. The device demonstrates advantageous operational characteristics such as small dispersion (D<2) and “memory effect” (me<0.6%), extensive maximum sample frequency (msf −200 samples/h), and high sensitivity. It has been proven useful in flow-injection analysis at a constant potential under hydrodynamic conditions.

A differential pulse voltammetric (DPV) method for the determination of bromate in drinking water, after pre-concentration on γ-Al2O3, is proposed. The reduction peak of bromate has been observed at the potential Ep-−1.6 V in an ammonia buffer as a supporting electrolyte. The method has been successfully applied to determine a bromate concentration of 2.5 μg·l−1 in drinking water (RSD=6.1%, n=7). A sample pre-treatment with a column filled with mixed cation-exchange resin in Ag, Ba and H forms was needed before pre-concentration of bromate on alumina.

Aqueous solubilities of polychlorinated biphenyls have been correlated with topological molecular descriptors which are functions of local and global invariants of labeled hydrogen filled graphs. Morgan extended connectivity and nearest neighboring codes have been used as local graph invariants. The number of chlorine atoms in biphenyls has been employed as a global graph invariant. Present results show that taking into account correlation weights of global invariants gives quite reasonable improvement of statistical characteristics for the prediction of aqueous solubilities of polychlorinated biphenyls.

An analytical approach to the electron transport phenomena in molecular devices is presented. The analyzed devices are composed of various molecular bridges attached to two semi-infinite electrodes. Molecular system is described within the tight-binding model, while the coupling to the electrodes is analyzed through the use of Newns-Anderson chemisorption theory. The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics are calculated through the integration of transmission function in the standard Landauer formulation. The essential question of quantum interference effect of electron waves is diseussed in three aspects: (i) the geometry of a molecular bridge, (ii) the presence of an external magnetic field and (iii) the location of chemical substituent.

Synthesis, spectral properties and crystal structure of dimethylthallium(III) complexes with 2-mercaptonicotinic acid (2mna), 2-mercapto-methyl-nicotinate (2mmn), 2-mercapto-ethyl-nicotinate (2men) and 2-mercapto-isopropyl-nicotinate (2min) are reported. The compounds were characterized using IR, multinuclear NMR (1H,13C,205Tl) and mass spectrometry (electrospray, ES-API). The molecular structures of [TlMe2(2mna)]·H2O, (1), [TlMe2(2mmn)], (2), [TlMe2(2men)], (3) and [TlMe2(2min)], (4) were determined by the single-crystal X-ray diffraction. In 1, the monodeprotonate O,S-bidentate ligand chelates one dimethylthallium (III) unit and simultaneously bridges (O and S) between two of these organometallic units. The Tl-O1′ and Tl-S″ interactions are leading to polymeric chain linked in a three-dimensional network by the hydrogen bonds formed between the water molecule and the oxygen O (2) atom of the acid. The thallium atom is in a distorted octahedral environment with a [TlC2O2S2] kernel. Compounds 2, 3 and 4 are similar, in all the cases already mentioned the ligand is NH deprotonated and is strongly coordinated to two dimethylthallium (III) units through the N and S atoms. Two additional weak interactions with the O and S atoms lead to a [TlC2NOS2] kernel for the metal atom, in which the coordination polyhedron is a very distorted octahedron with the methyl groups occupying the apical positions.