Self-organization of water in lithium/nitrobenzene system.

The effect of lithium ion on the ordering of water in water-saturated nitrobenzene has been probed by 2H NMR, diffusion ordered spectroscopy and neutron scattering. It was shown that increased water concentration in LiClO4/wet nitrobenzene results in the formation of a metastable solvatomer with mixed water and nitrobenzene character, Li+(W/NB). This species is shown to decay over hours to two solvatomers, one dominated by nitrobenzene Li+(NB) and the other dominated by water Li+(W).

1H NMR investigation of thermally triggered insulin release from poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) microgels.

We describe investigations of insulin release from thermoresponsive microgels using variable temperature (1)H NMR. Microgel particles composed of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) were loaded with the peptide via a swelling technique, and this method was compared to simple equilibrium partitioning. Variable temperature (1)H NMR studies suggest that the swelling loading method results in enhanced entrapment of the peptide versus equilibrium partitioning.

NMR study of lithium ion in nitrobenzene/water system.

The goal of this project has been to elucidate the solvation states and kinetics involved in the transfer of Li ions between nitrobenzene and water. A large interface area has been realized by confining one phase in polymer beads and suspending them in the other phase. A 2D 7Li-NMR spectroscopic result of such a system obtained on a 400 MHz instrument has shown that the rate of the Li ion transfer exchange between nitrobenzene and water is too fast to resolve individual solvatomers.

Iso-coenzyme A.

Iso-coenzyme A is an isomer of coenzyme A in which the monophosphate is attached to the 2'-carbon of the ribose ring. Although iso-CoA was first reported in 1959 (Moffatt, J. G.