Molecular structure and electron distribution of 4-nitropyridine N-oxide: Experimental and theoretical study of substituent effects

Is There an Adduct of Pyridine N-Oxide and Boron Trifluoride in the Gaseous State? Gas Electron Diffraction vs Mass Spectrometry

A study of saturated vapor over the pyridine N-oxide-boron trifluoride (PyO-BF3) adduct was carried out at T = 448(5) K by a synchronous gas electron diffraction/mass spectrometry (GED/MS) experiment. Due to the absence of ions in the mass spectrum, indicating the presence of a structure with an O-B dative bond, several models of vapor composition were tested by the GED method. It was found that the dominant molecular form (up to 100%) in vapor is the PyO-BF3 adduct. Using the DFT/M06-2X/aug-cc-pVTZ method, geometric optimization of the molecular ion [PyO-BF3]+ was carried out, which showed its intrinsic instability and dissociation into a [PyO]+ cation and a BF3 molecule. This study certainly demonstrates the significant advantage of the GED method to determine the qualitative and quantitative gas-phase composition of dative-bonded adducts and other noncovalent complexes as well, whereas the interpretation of mass spectra may be ambiguous due to the possible intrinsic instability of ions containing a dative bond. The nature of the O-B bond is discussed in terms of the natural bond orbitals (NBOs) and the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM). A comparison of structural and energetic parameters for PyO-BF3 and the previously studied BF3 adducts allows the theoretical comprehension of the nature of the O-B bond to be extended and to explain the different thermal stabilities of these compounds.

Sublimation Enthalpies of Substituted Pyridine N-Oxides

The enthalpies of sublimation of five substituted pyridine N-oxides were determined by the Knudsen effusion method with mass spectrometric control of the vapor composition within the framework of the second law of thermodynamics. The sublimation enthalpy of mono-substituted compounds 4-X-PyO depends on the nature of the substituent X and increases in the order CH3→NO2→OCH3. A difference is noted in the nature of dissociative ionization of disubstituted derivatives 2-CH3-4-NO2PyO and 3-CH3-4-NO2PyO. The relationship between the packing of molecules in crystals and the ΔH°subl values is considered.

Joint effects of antibiotics and quorum sensing inhibitors on resistance development in bacteria

Quorum sensing inhibitors (QSIs) are promising alternatives to antibiotics. While QSIs have great application potential in a variety of fields, their joint effects with antibiotics on bacteria, especially on antibiotic resistance mutations, remain largely unexplored. Herein, we report the joint effects of four commonly used antibiotics and two QSIs on bacterial growth and resistance mutations in E. coli. It was found that QSIs presented antagonistic or additive effects with antibiotics on bacterial growth, and more importantly, QSIs exhibited an attenuating effect on antibiotic-induced resistance mutations. Further analysis demonstrated that antibiotics might enhance resistance mutations by promoting the expressions of rpoS, lexA and recA, while QSIs attenuated the mutations by promoting the expressions of mutS and uvrD. The present research provides a comprehensive understanding of the joint effects of antibiotics and QSIs on bacteria, which may benefit the risk assessment of their combined exposure.