Conformational features of oligocellulose acetates in the solid state and their implications for the structures of cellulose triacetate

DFT study of the influence of acetyl groups of cellulose acetate on its intrinsic birefringence and wavelength dependence

The effect of the acetyl groups of cellulose acetate (CA) on its intrinsic birefringence and its wavelength dependence was investigated using density functional theory (DFT). Seven types of CA repeating-unit models that differ in their degree of substitution (DS) and substitution sites were used in the calculations. The results suggested that the intrinsic birefringence (Δn°) and its wavelength dependence significantly depended on the conformations of the acetyl group at C6. Additionally, the intrinsic birefringence of CA films was estimated as the ensemble average of the calculated Δn° values of the conformers. The increase in the DS of CA led to a more negative intrinsic birefringence and a larger wavelength dependence. The computational results were in good qualitative agreement with the experimental results and suggested that conformational variety and/or its control would be important factors for the design of optical films containing CA.

CP/MAS (13)C NMR study of cellulose and cellulose derivatives. 2. Complete assignment of the (13)C resonance for the ring carbons of cellulose triacetate polymorphs

Complex ring (13)C resonance lines of the cross-polarization/magic angle spinning (CP/MAS) (13)C NMR spectra of cellulose triacetate (CTA) I and CTA II were completely assigned, for the first time, by (13)C-enriched CTA allomorphs. The (13)C-enriched CTA I was prepared by heterogeneous acetylation of bacterial cellulose which was biosynthesized by Acetobacter xylinum (A. xylinum) ATCC10245 from culture medium containing D-(2-(13)C)-, D-(3-(13)C)-, or D-(5-(13)C)glucose as a carbon source, while CTA II samples were obtained by solution acetylation of the (13)C-enriched bacterial celluloses. From comparison of the spectra of normal CTA prepared from ramie with those of the enriched CTA samples, it was revealed that all carbons composed of CTA I appeared as a singlet, while those of CTA II except for C1 were shown as equal-intensity doublets in the CP/MAS (13)C NMR spectrum. This finding suggests that CTA I is made up of one kind of glucopyranose residue while there are two magnetically inequivalent sites in the unit cell of CTA II in the same population.

Dynamic simulations of the molecular conformations of wild type and mutant xanthan polymers suggest that conformational differences may contribute to observed differences in viscosity

Xanthan gum is an exopolysaccharide secreted by the bacterium Xanthamonas campestris whose ability to make solutions viscous at low concentrations and over a pH and temperature range have generated much interest in both academic and industrial environments. Mutant Xanthamonas strains have been derived that produce xanthan gums with an altered or variant subunit chemical structure and different measured viscosities when compared with the wild type (wt) form of the polymer. Two variant gums were targeted as potentially interesting in this study, these being the nonacetylated tetramer (natet) and the acetylated tetramer (atet), which both lack a side-chain terminal mannose residue and in one case (natet) lacks an acetate group on an internal mannose residue. Solutions of these tetrameric gums possess viscosities higher (natet) and lower (atet) than the wt gum, and therefore we have attempted to determine whether these molecules possess unique conformational preferences when compared with the wt and with each other. In this manner we can initiate an understanding of how a polysaccharide's conformation contributes to its solution properties. The GEGOP software permits a sampling of the static and dynamic equilibrium states of carbohydrate molecules, and this software was employed to calculate equilibrium states of representative oligosaccharides with chemical structures representative of xanthan-like molecules. Energy minimization techniques revealed similar local minima for all three molecules. Some of these minima are comprised of elongate backbone conformations (A type) in which side chains fold onto backbone surfaces. Other minima with A backbones possessed side chains in less intimate backbone contact especially when calculations were performed with a low dielectric constant. This phenomenon was particularly pronounced in the wt molecule where an increased number of negatively charged side-chain residues experience charge repulsion resulting in reduced side-chain-backbone contact. Metropolis Monte Carlo (MMC) dynamic simulations performed with an elevated temperature factor (1000 K) allowed a better qualitative representation of conformational space than 300 K simulations. Employing a nonhierarchical cluster analysis method (population density profile: PDP) coupled with a classification scheme, it was possible to partition resulting MMC data sets into conformational families. This analysis revealed that in simulations performed with different dielectric constant values (10, 25, and infinity) all molecules possessed primarily A-type backbones. Less elongate, more open helical backbone forms (B, C, D, J, and Flat-a) did occur during the simulations but were populated to a lesser extent. In the natet molecule significantly open helical backbones existed (E, F, G, H, and I) that did not occur in the lower viscosity wt and atet molecules. PDP clustering methods and subsequent conformational classification applied to the first residue (mannose) of the side chain permitted a determination of side-chain orientation. Comparison of all three molecules indicated a larger population of side-chain conformational families in less direct backbone contact for the wt molecule than either of the variant molecules (natet/atet) suggesting that the side chains in the wt are more flexible. Thus, a major conformational difference between the high viscosity natet and the lower viscosities of the wt/atet is the increased amount of open helical backbone in the natet. In addition, the significant difference between the higher viscosity wt and the lower viscosity atet is the increase side-chain flexibility in the wt. We hypothesize that conformational differences of this kind could form a partial explanation of the observed differences in viscosity between these xanthan-like polymers.

Structure and solution conformations of a cyclic trisaccharide from high-resolution n.m.r. spectroscopy and molecular modelling

The conformational properties of a cyclic trisaccharide: [O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1----6)]3 1,6"-anhydride nonacetate (C36H48O24, 1) have been established by high-resolution 1H- and 13C-n.m.r. spectroscopy in conjunction with potential-energy and molecular-mechanics calculations. The n.m.r. parameters used were nuclear Overhauser enhancements (n.O.e.) and coupling constants. From theoretical models of the trisaccharide, a statistical-mechanics approach was used to compute an ensemble average-relaxation matrix from which the n.O.e. were calculated. The observed nuclear Overhauser enhancements as measured by n.m.r. spectroscopy may be satisfactorily modelled if averaging over two conformational states is considered. In solution, both conformations of the molecule exhibit three-fold symmetry; the beta-linked glucopyranose rings have the 4C1 conformation. In one conformer, the orientation about the (1----6) linkage is characterized by torsion angles phi = 79.5 degrees, psi = 143.5, and omega = -64.3. For the other conformer, these values are phi = -137.7, psi = 68.2, and omega = 45.6. The existence of such a conformer shows that solution behaviour is not dominated by the stabilizing influence of the exoanomeric effect.

Electron diffraction of synthetic polymers: the model compound approach to polymer structure

X-ray fiber diffraction is a technique most often used to establish the structure of chemically regular crystalline polymers. However, this technique has many shortcomings. Some of them are: ambiguities regarding the choice of the space group, limited intensity data, often large diffraction spots, and overlapping intensities. Microsingle crystals of synthetic polymers, when they can be produced, happen to have dimensions that are well suited to being studied by electron diffraction. Electron diffraction data from microsingle crystals often complement the X-ray fiber data. Strictly speaking, one does not solve the crystal structure of a polymer in the conventional way but rather one chooses from among many potentially acceptable models the one which fits the X-ray and/or the electron diffraction data best. The various steps of model building, its placing within the unit cell, and structure refinement will be discussed.