Extracting meaningful standard enthalpies and entropies of activation for surface reactions from kinetic rates

Unraveling the Dynamic Molecular Motions of a Twin-Cavity Cage with Slow Configurational but Rapid Conformational Interconversions

Featuring diverse structural motions/changes, dynamic molecular systems hold promise for executing complex tasks. However, their structural complexity presents formidable challenge in elucidating their kinetics, especially when multiple structural motions are intercorrelated. We herein introduce a twin-cavity cage that features interconvertible C3- and C1-configurations, with each configuration exhibiting interchangeable P- and M-conformations. This molecule is therefore composed of four interconnected chiral species (P)-C3, (M)-C3, (P)-C1, (M)-C1. We showcase an effective approach to decouple these sophisticated structural changes into two kinetically distinct pathways. Utilizing time-dependent 1H NMR spectroscopy at various temperatures, which disregards the transition between mirror-image conformations, we first determine the rate constant (kc) for the C3- to C1-configuration interconversion, while time-dependent circular dichroism spectroscopy at different temperatures quantifies the observed rate constant (kobs) of the ensemble of all the structural changes. As kobs ≫ ${{\rm { \gg }}}$ kc, it allows us to decouple the overall molecular motions into a slow configurational transformation and rapid conformational interconversions, with the latter further dissected into two independent conformational interchanges, namely (P)-C3← → ${ \mathbin{{\stackrel{\textstyle\rightarrow} { {\smash{\leftarrow}\vphantom{_{\vbox to.5ex{\vss}}}} } }} }$ (M)-C3 and (P)-C1← → ${ \mathbin{{\stackrel{\textstyle\rightarrow} { {\smash{\leftarrow}\vphantom{_{\vbox to.5ex{\vss}}}} } }} }$ (M)-C1. This work, therefore, sheds light on the comprehensive kinetic study of complex molecular dynamics, offering valuable insights for the rational design of smart dynamic materials for applications of sensing, separation, catalysis, molecular machinery, etc.

Efficient and Easily Recyclable Catalyst for the Alkylation Reaction of Phenol and tert-Butyl Alcohol

tert-Butylphenol is widely used as an intermediate in organic synthesis, and the catalyst for the alkylation reaction of phenol and tert-butyl alcohol is the key to synthesizing tert-butylphenol. In our work, a catalyst, 1H-imidazole-1-acetic acid tosilate ([HIMA]OTs), was synthesized and characterized, and an efficient and easily recyclable catalytic system of an ionic liquid was established. In addition, the kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were calculated; the positive value of ΔH* indicated the endothermic nature of the alkylation reaction, and the positive value of ΔS* and negative value of ΔG* implied that the process of alkylation of phenol and tert-butyl alcohol was spontaneous in the current reaction system. The recovery experiments of [HIMA]OTs were performed, and an excellent recycling performance was obtained. This method provides a potential way for the industrial synthesis of tert-butylphenol.

Kinetic Microscale Thermophoresis for Simultaneous Measurement of Binding Affinity and Kinetics

Microscale thermophoresis (MST) is a versatile technique to measure binding affinities of binder-ligand systems, based on the directional movement of molecules in a temperature gradient. We extended MST to measure binding kinetics as well as binding affinity in a single experiment by increasing the thermal dissipation of the sample. The kinetic relaxation fingerprints were derived from the fluorescence changes during thermodynamic re-equilibration of the sample after local heating. Using this method, we measured DNA hybridization on-rates and off-rates in the range 10⁴ -10⁶  m^-1  s^-1 and 10^-4 -10^-1  s^-1 , respectively. We observed the expected exponential dependence of the DNA hybridization off-rates on salt concentration, strand length and inverse temperature. The measured on-rates showed a linear dependence on salt concentration and weak dependence on strand length and temperature. For biomolecular interactions with large enthalpic contributions, the kinetic MST technique offers a robust, cost-effective and immobilization-free determination of kinetic rates and binding affinity simultaneously, even in crowded solutions.

Activated complex theory is a classical theory suitable for food science with appropriate use

Activated complex theory (ACT), apart from Van 't Hoff equation, has long been applying as an alternative tool to connect the kinetics (reaction rate constant, k) and thermodynamics parameters (including standard enthalpy of activation, △H⁺⁺; standard entropy of activation, △S⁺⁺; standard Gibbs free energy of activation, △G⁺⁺). The study mainly focuses on ACT application in food systems, especially oil and fruit juice processing. Considering there are several improper calculations or mistakes often found in papers published recently in 2014-2019, three considerations are presented when applying the ACT, including 1) Understand that the reaction should be a single chemical elementary step; 2) Ensure that the units used should be consistent; 3) Effectively analyze the kinetics and thermodynamic parameters by choosing proper temperatures. This study is expected to further improve the understanding and correct application of this well-known theory in future work.