The concentration dependence of the proton chemical shift and the deuterium quadrupole coupling parameter for binary solutions of ethanol

Enhanced Lycopene Extraction from Tomato Peels by Optimized Mixed-Polarity Solvent Mixtures

Mounting evidence from clinical and epidemiological studies suggests that lycopene, the most abundant carotenoid in tomatoes, may be beneficial in the prevention or treatment of some important diseases. Ripe tomato peels are the richest source of lycopene, but the use of conventional solvent extraction methods without pretreatment of the plant material results in very poor recovery. The reason lies in the localization of lycopene in the plant tissue and the low permeability of the latter to solvent molecules. In this paper, a mixture design procedure was used to formulate solvent mixtures allowing the recovery of lycopene from non-pretreated tomato peels. Two ternary systems were investigated: (a) n-hexane-ethanol-acetone and (b) ethyl lactate-ethanol-acetone. Optimization of the ternary mixture composition led to a recovery of over 90% of the lycopene present in the peels. The high extraction efficiency was explained in terms of lycopene affinity combined with the ability to swell the plant material. A tomato oleoresin with high antioxidant activity and a lycopene content of about 13% (w/w) was also produced. Overall, the results indicate that highly effective solvents for direct recovery of lycopene from tomato peels can be easily prepared by a mixture design approach.

Operando spectroscopic analyses for the ammonia absorption process of sodium borohydride

The ammonia absorption process of sodium borohydride for ammonia storage has been studied by using the operando NMR and FT-IR measurements under various ammonia pressures. As a result, the characteristic variation in the chemical states of both materials due to the liquefaction has been clarified.

Simultaneous determination of deuteron quadrupole coupling constants and rotational correlation times: the model case of hydrogen bonded ionic liquids

We show that deuteron quadrupole coupling constants, and reorientational correlation times of molecular bonds N–D that are involved in hydrogen bonding, can be determined from NMR T₁ relaxation time experiments simultaneously by assuming anisotropic motion.

The influence of like-charge attraction on the structure and dynamics of ionic liquids: NMR chemical shifts, quadrupole coupling constants, rotational correlation times and failure of Stokes–Einstein–Debye

The formation of clusters of like-charge influences the structure and dynamics of ionic liquids.

Deuteron quadrupole coupling constants and reorientational correlation times in protic ionic liquids

We describe a method for the accurate determination of deuteron quadrupole coupling constants and reorientational correlation times in protic ionic liquids by means of NMR relaxations time experiments, DFT-calculations and molecular dynamics simulations.

Molecular Solution Behaviour of an Intermediate Biofuel Feedstock: Acetone-Butanol-Ethanol (ABE)

Mixtures of acetone, butanol, and ethanol (ABE) are common intermediate products in the production of biofuels via biomass fermentation. Their separation to yield, for example, bio-butanol, is still difficult due to the lack of a fundamental understanding of these mixtures at the molecular level. In order to bridge this gap, a detailed analysis of characteristic features of the vibrational spectrum is carried out. A systematic study of the binary solutions of acetone with ethanol and butanol does not only reveal a universal behaviour at the molecular level when acetone is mixed with short-chain alcohols, it also shows that the phenomena at a length scale between the molecules and in the macroscopic solution need to be taken into account to understand the structure-property relationships. The size of self-associated molecule clusters seems to determine whether or not a system exhibits an azeotrope. When a second alcohol is added to an acetone/alcohol solution, no additional non-idealities are induced, which is advantageous for modelling ternary ABE mixtures and for improving their processing in the production of biofuels.

1H chemical shifts in NMR: Part 23, the effect of dimethyl sulphoxide versus chloroform solvent on 1H chemical shifts

The 1H chemical shifts of 124 compounds containing a variety of functional groups have been recorded in CDCl3 and DMSO-d6 (henceforth DMSO) solvents. The 1H solvent shift Delta delta = delta(DMSO) - delta(CDCl3) varies from -0.3 to +4.6 ppm. This solvent shift can be accurately predicted (rms error 0.05 ppm) using the charge model of alpha, beta, gamma and long-range contributions. The labile protons of alcohols, acids, amines and amides give both, the largest solvent shifts and the largest errors. The contributions for the various groups are tabulated and it is shown that for H.C.C.X gamma-effects (X = OH, NH, =O, NH.CO) there is a dihedral angle dependence of the gamma-effect. The group contributions are discussed in terms of the possible solvent-solute interactions. For protic hydrogens, hydrogen bonding is the dominant interaction, but for the remaining protons solvent anisotropy and electric field effects appear to be the major factors.

An NMR investigation of the importance of intramolecular hydrogen bonding in determining the conformational equilibrium of ethylene glycol in solution

Although conformational analysis by NMR of ethylene glycol indicates generally strong preferences for the gauche conformation in solvents ranging from water to chloroform, the bulk of the NMR evidence indicates that intramolecular hydrogen bonding between the hydroxyl groups is unlikely to be a significant factor in determining that preference, except possibly in fairly non-polar solvents. The 'gauche effect' is clearly very important, especially in aqueous solution.

Calculation of the Deuteron Quadrupole Relaxation Rate in a Mixture of Water and Dimethyl Sulfoxide

An approach is presented that allows NMR relaxation rates to be determined for a complex mixture, and it is applied to a dimethyl sulfoxide/water solution. This approach is novel for such systems, having only been used for simple systems such as atomic liquids or atomic ions in liquids until now. It involves use of a predetermined, quantum mechanical, multidimensional property surface in a simulation. The results are used in conjunction with the simulated rotational correlation time to calculate the deuteron quadrupole coupling constant (DQCC), in an analogous approach to the one used by experimentalists, and to examine the surprising experimental findings for the composition dependence of the DQCC in the dimethyl sulfoxide/water mixture. Experiments have suggested that the DQCC for a mixture of 5% dimethyl sulfoxide in water is close to the DQCC of ice, whereas its value increases to a value close to the gas value with further dilution.(1) The results are further critically analyzed using combinations of different experimental and theoretical results from the literature.

Probing transport and microheterogeneous solvent structure in acetonitrile-water mixtures and reversed-phase chromatographic media by NMR quadrupole relaxation

Mixtures of CH(3)CN and H(2)O are the predominant solvent systems used in reversed-phase liquid chromatographic (RPLC) separations, as well as in a multitude of other applications. In addition, acetonitrile is the simplest model for an amphiphilic molecule possessing both organic and polar functional groups. Although many studies have focused on this solvent system, the general nature of the intermolecular interactions are not fully understood, and a microscopic description of the proposed microheterogeneity that exists is still not clearly established. In the present study, we measure the spin-lattice relaxation times (T(1)) of (14)N to determine reorientational correlation times (tau(c)) of CH(3)CN-H(2)O solvent mixtures over the entire binary composition range and at temperatures ranging from 25.0 to 80.0 degrees C. At all compositions, the microscopic observable, tau(c), is found to be directly proportional to the macroscopic solution viscosity when scaled for temperature (eta/T). This indicates that for a constant composition, this system's dynamics are well described by hydrodynamic theory on a microscopic level. These results suggest that under appropriate conditions, the measurement of changes in quadrupolar relaxation times is a reliable means of determining changes in solution viscosity. We stress the importance of this approach in systems not amenable to traditional viscosity measurements, such as those having species in interfacial regions. This approach is used to examine the changes in the interfacial solution viscosity of CH(3)CN-H(2)O mixtures in contact with a commercially available C(18)-bonded stationary phase. The measurements indicate that CH(3)CN is motionally hindered at the stationary phase surface. The surface affected CH(3)CN has a larger dependence of tau(c) on temperature than the bulk CH(3)CN, indicating greater changes in the interfacial viscosity as a function of temperature. Additionally, the bulk relaxation data show direct correlations to existing models of proposed regions of structure for CH(3)CN-H(2)O mixtures. Using a microscopic hydrodynamic approach, we show that, quite unexpectedly, each of the experimentally determined parameters in the viscosity correlation plots change simultaneously, and we propose that these are indicative of changes in the distribution of species for this microheterogeneous liquid system. Although distinct regions for the onset of microheterogeneity have previously been proposed, within the framework of a microscopic hydrodynamic model and the recently proposed model of Reimers and Hall,(1) the present data support the existence of a microheterogeneous solvent structure that varies continuously over the full range of temperatures and compositions examined.

Rotational motion in liquid water is anisotropic: a nuclear magnetic resonance and molecular dynamics simulation study

Experimental NMR measurements of the deuterium and (17)O T(1) relaxation times in deuterium-enriched liquid water have been performed from 275 to 350 K. These relaxation times can yield rotational correlation times of appropriate molecule-fixed unit vectors if the quadrupole coupling constants and asymmetry parameters are known. We determine the latter from ab initio studies of water clusters and experimental chemical shift measurements. We find that the rotational correlation time for the OD bond vector in D(2)(16)O varies from 5.8 ps at 275 K to 0.86 ps at 350 K, and that the rotational correlation time for the out-of-plane vector of dilute D(2)(17)O in D(2)(16)O varies from 4.4 ps at 275 K to 0.64 ps at 350 K. These results indicate that the rotational motion of water is anisotropic. Molecular dynamics simulations of liquid water are in good agreement with these experiments at the higher temperatures, but the simulation results are considerably faster than experiment at the lower temperatures.