Ionic liquid high-temperature gas sensor array.

A novel sensor array using seven room-temperature ionic liquids (ILs) as sensing materials and a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) as a transducer was developed for the detection of organic vapors at ambient and elevated temperatures. Ethanol, dichloromethane, benzene, and heptane were selected as representative gas analytes for various kinds of environmental pollutants and common industrial solvents. The QCM/IL sensors responded proportionately and reversibly to the organic vapor concentrations (i.e., ethanol, heptane, and benzene) in the gas phase from 0 to 100% saturation at room and elevated temperatures (e.g., 120 degrees C) but deviated from this linear relationship at high concentrations for dichloromethane, a highly volatile compound. Linear discriminant analysis was used to analyze the sensing patterns. Excellent classifications were obtained for both known and unknown concentrations of vapor samples. The correct classifications were 100% for known concentration samples and 96% for samples with unknown concentrations. Thermodynamics and ATR-FT-IR studies were conducted to understand specific molecular interactions, the strength of the interaction between ILs and organic vapors, and the degree of ordering that takes place upon dissolution of the vapors in ILs. The different response intensity of the QCM/IL sensors to the organic vapors depends on the different solubilities of organic vapors in ILs and varying molecular/ion interactions between each organic vapor and IL. The diverse set of IL studied showed selective responses due to structural differences. Therefore, a sensor array of ILs would be able to effectively differentiate different vapors in pattern recognitions, facilitating discrimination by their distinctive patterns in response to organic vapors in both room and high temperatures.

Photochemistry of A1E, a retinoid with a conjugated pyridinium moiety: competition between pericyclic photooxygenation and pericyclization.

The photochemistry of the retinoid analogue A1E shows an oxygen and solvent dependence. Irradiation of A1E with visible light (lambda(irr) = 425 nm) in methanol solutions resulted in pericyclization to form pyridinium terpenoids. Although the quantum yield for this cyclization is low (approximately 10(-4)), nevertheless the photochemical transformation occurs with quantitative chemical yield with remarkable chemoselectivity and diastereoselectivity. Conversely, irradiation of A1E under the same irradiation conditions in air-saturated carbon tetrachloride or deuterated chloroform produced a cyclic 5,8-peroxide as the major product. Deuterium solvent effects, experiments utilizing endoperoxide, phosphorescence, and chemiluminescence quenching studies strongly support the involvement of singlet oxygen in the endoperoxide formation. It is proposed that, upon irradiation, in the presence of oxygen, A1E acts as a sensitizer for generation of singlet oxygen from triplet oxygen present in the solution; the singlet oxygen produced reacts with A1E to produce cyclic peroxide. Thus, the photochemistry of A1E is characterized by two competing reactions, cyclization and peroxide formation. The dominant reaction is determined by the concentration of oxygen, the concentration of A1E, and the lifetime of singlet oxygen in the solvent employed. If the lifetime of singlet oxygen in a given solvent is long enough, then oxidation (peroxide formation) is the major reaction. If the singlet oxygen produced is quenched by the protonated solvent molecules faster than singlet oxygen reacts with A1E, then cyclization dominates.

Factors Contributing to Aromatic Stacking in Water: Evaluation in the Context of DNA.

We report the use of thermodynamic measurements in a self-complementary DNA duplex (5'-dXCGCGCG)(2), where X is an unpaired natural or nonnatural deoxynucleoside, to study the forces that stabilize aqueous aromatic stacking in the context of DNA. Thermal denaturation experiments show that the core duplex (lacking X) is formed with a free energy (37 °C) of -8.1 kcal·mol(-1) in a pH 7.0 buffer containing 1 M Na(+). We studied the effects of adding single dangling nucleosides (X) where the aromatic "base" is adenine, guanine, thymine, cytosine, pyrrole, benzene, 4-methylindole, 5-nitroindole, trimethylbenzene, difluorotoluene, naphthalene, phenanthrene, and pyrene. Adding these dangling residues is found to stabilize the duplex by an additional -0.8 to -3.4 kcal·mol(-1). At 5 µM DNA concentration, T(m) values range from 41.7 °C (core sequence) to 64.1 °C (with dangling pyrene residues). For the four natural bases, the order of stacking ability is A > G ≥ T = C. The nonpolar analogues stack more strongly in general than the more polar natural bases. The stacking geometry was confirmed in two cases (X = adenine and pyrene) by 2-D NOESY experiments. Also studied is the effect of ethanol cosolvent on the stacking of natural bases and pyrene. Stacking abilities were compared to calculated values for hydrophobicity, dipole moment, polarizability, and surface area. In general, hydrophobic effects are found to be larger than other effects stabilizing stacking (electrostatic effects, dispersion forces); however, the natural DNA bases are found to be less dependent on hydrophobic effects than are the more nonpolar compounds. The results also point out strategies for the design nucleoside analogues that stack considerably more strongly than the natural bases; such compounds may be useful in stabilizing designed DNA structures and complexes.

C-Nucleosides Derived from Simple Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

We describe the synthesis, structure and DNA incorporation of a class of novel aromatic C-deoxynucleosides in which benzenes and larger polycyclic aromatics serve as DNA base analogs. Novel approaches have been developed for glycosidic bond formation and for epimenzation of the anomeric substitutents to ß-configuration, and we describe some of the properties of such compounds in DNA.

Naphthalene, Phenanthrene, and Pyrene as DNA Base Analogues: Synthesis, Structure, and Fluorescence in DNA.

We describe the synthesis, structures, and DNA incorporation of deoxyribonucleosides carrying polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons as the DNA "base" analogue. The new polycyclic compounds are 1-naphthyl, 2-naphthyl, 9-phenanthrenyl, and 1-pyrenyl deoxynucleosides. The compounds are synthesized using a recently developed C-glycosidic bond formation method involving organocadmium derivatives of the aromatic compounds coupling with a 1α-chlorodeoxyribose precursor. The principal products of this coupling are the α-anomers of the deoxyribosides. An efficient method has also been developed for epimerization of the α-anomers to ß-anomers by acid-catalyzed equilibration; this isomerization is successfully carried out on the four polycyclic nucleosides as well as two substituted phenyl nucleosides. The geometry of the anomeric substitution is derived from (1)H NOE experiments and is also correlated with a single-crystal X-ray structure of one α-isomer. Three of the polycyclic C-nucleoside derivatives are incorporated into DNA oligonucleotides via their phosphoramidite derivatives; the pyrenyl and phenanthrenyl derivatives are shown to be fluorescent in a DNA sequence. The results (1) broaden the scope of our C-glycoside coupling reaction, (2) demonstrate that (using a new acid-catalyzed epimerization) both α- and ß-anomers are easily synthesized, and (3) constitute a new class of deoxynucleoside derivatives. Such nucleoside analogues may be useful as biophysical probes for the study of noncovalent interactions such as aromatic π-stacking in DNA. In addition, the fluorescence of the phenanthrene and pyrene nucleosides may make them especially useful as structural probes.