HPLC with light scatter detector and chemometric data evaluation for the analysis of cocoa butter and vegetable fats

High performance liquid chromatography equipped with an evaporative light scatter detector was carried out in order to proof the authenticity of cocoa butter. Signals of 17 characteristic triglycerides have been used to develop two chemometric models. PLS was applied for quantitation while neural nets were used for classification. The sample pool was divided in a training set of 18 and a prediction set of 14 samples. The samples included mixtures of several vegetable fats with cocoa butter. A 15 × 4 × 1 feed forward net could be trained and within the prediction set only 2 samples were not correctly assigned. A PLS model with 9 factors was applied and the mean prediction error was found to be 2.5%. The small number of samples was found to be sufficient to show the potential of this data evaluation. Results are expected to improve with a greater data pool.     

Dispersability of multiwalled carbon nanotubes in polycarbonate-chloroform solutions

The dispersion of commercial multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs, Nanocyl™ NC7000) in chloroform and in polycarbonate (PC)-chloroform solutions was investigated by variation of the polymer concentration, MWCNT amount and sonication time and compared with PC/MWCNT composites, which were processed by melt mixing, subsequently dissolved in chloroform and dispersed via sonication under the same conditions. The sedimentation behaviour was characterised under centrifugal forces using a LUMiSizer^® separation analyser. The space and time resolved extinction profiles as a measure of the stability of the dispersion and the particle size distribution were evaluated. Sonication up to 5 min gradually increases the amount of dispersed particles in the solutions. A significant improvement of the MWCNT dispersion in chloroform was achieved by the addition of PC indicating the mechanism of polymer chain wrapping around the MWCNTs. In dispersions of melt mixed PC/MWCNT composites the dispersion of MWCNTs is significantly enhanced already at a low sonication time of only 0.5 min due to very efficient polymer wrapping during the melt mixing process. However, the best dispersion quality does not lead to the highest electrical conductivity of thin composite films made of these PC/MWCNT dispersions.     

Integration of High‐Frequency M‐Type Hexagonal Ferrite Inductors in LTCC Multilayer Modules

Monolithic hexagonal BaCo_1,3Ti_1,3Fe_9,4O₁₉ ferrite multilayers sintered at 900°C exhibit a fine‐grained microstructure with permeability of μ′ = 16 and a resonance frequency f_r ≥ 1GHz. Co‐firing of hetero‐laminates of ferrite with CT700 glass–ceramic LTCC tapes and with polycrystalline zinc titanate (ZT) LTCC tapes was studied. Co‐firing at 900°C of ferrite/CT700 leads to multilayers with cracks caused by substantial thermal expansion mismatch. Co‐fired ferrite/ZT multilayer laminates exhibit a permeability of μ′ = 16 and do not show any defects. Hexagonal ferrite multilayer inductor elements were integrated into ZT‐based multilayer LTCC modules and co‐fired at 900°C with Ag metallization.     

Interaction of Alpha Synuclein and Microtubule Organization Is Linked to Impaired Neuritic Integrity in Parkinson’s Patient-Derived Neuronal Cells

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is neuropathologically characterized by the loss of dopaminergic neurons and the deposition of aggregated alpha synuclein (aSyn). Mounting evidence suggests that neuritic degeneration precedes neuronal loss in PD. A possible underlying mechanism could be the interference of aSyn with microtubule organization in the neuritic development, as implied by several studies using cell-free model systems. In this study, we investigate the impact of aSyn on microtubule organization in aSyn overexpressing H4 neuroglioma cells and midbrain dopaminergic neuronal cells (mDANs) generated from PD patient-derived human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) carrying an aSyn gene duplication (SNCA^Dupl). An unbiased mass spectrometric analysis reveals a preferential binding of aggregated aSyn conformers to a number of microtubule elements. We confirm the interaction of aSyn with beta tubulin III in H4 and hiPSC-derived mDAN cell model systems, and demonstrate a remarkable redistribution of tubulin isoforms from the soluble to insoluble fraction, accompanied by a significantly increased insoluble aSyn level. Concordantly, SNCA^Dupl mDANs show impaired neuritic phenotypes characterized by perturbations in neurite initiation and outgrowth. In summary, our findings suggest a mechanistic pathway, through which aSyn aggregation interferes with microtubule organization and induces neurite impairments.     

Untersuchungen zur proteasekatalysierten und chemischen Peptidbindungsknüpfung mit α-trifluormethylsubstituierten α-Aminosäuren

Protease Catalyzed and Chemical Peptide Bond Formation with α-Trifluoromethyl Substituted α-Amino Acids Subtilisin, α-chymotrypsin and papain catalyzed hydrolyses of α-trifluoromethyl substituted N-benzyloxycarbonyl amino acid methylesters (Z-TFM-Xaa-OMe) 1 can be achieved only in the case of 3,3,3-trifluoroalanine. Enzymatic incorporation of Z-TFM amino acids 2 into N-terminal position of dipeptides also fails. In contrary, dipeptides with a TFM amino acid moiety in N-terminal position, e.g. TFM-Phg-L-Phe-OMe 5 , react with H-Leu-NH₂ to give the corresponding tripeptides 6 in high yield. Z protected dipeptide derivatives 8 with N-terminal TFM amino acids can be obtained via 4-trifluoromethyl-5-(4H)-oxazolones 7 .     

Tailoring the Morphology of Responsive Bioinspired Bicomponent Fibers

Nature is an intriguing inspiration for designing a myriad of functional materials. However, artificial mimicking of bioinspired structures usually requires different specialized procedures and setups. In this study, a new upscalable concept is presented that allows to produce two bioinspired, bicomponent fiber morphologies (side‐by‐side and coaxial bead‐on‐string) using the same electrospinning setup, just by changing the employed spinning solvent. The generated fiber morphologies are highly attractive for thermoresponsive actuation and water harvesting. Another challenge solved in this work is the compositional characterization of complex fiber morphologies. Raman imaging and atomic force microscopy is introduced as a powerful method for the unambiguous characterization of complex bicomponent fiber morphologies. The work opens the way for the construction of heterostructured fiber morphologies based on different polymers combinations, offering high potential for applications as actuators, smart textiles, water management, drug release, and catalysis.     

Correlation of carbon nanotube dispersability in aqueous surfactant solutions and polymers

In order to assess the dispersability of carbon nanotube materials, tubes produced under different synthesis conditions were dispersed in aqueous surfactant solutions and the sedimentation behaviour under centrifugation forces was investigated using a LUMiFuge stability analyzer. The electrical percolation threshold of the nanotubes after melt mixing in polyamide 6.6 was determined and the state of dispersion was studied. As a general tendency, the nanotubes having better aqueous dispersion stability showed lower electrical percolation threshold and better nanotube dispersion in the composites. This indicates that the investigation of the stability of aqueous dispersions is also able to give information about the nanotubes inherent dispersability in polymer melts, both strongly influenced by the entanglement and agglomerate structure of the tubes within the as-produced nanotube materials.The shape of the nanotubes in the aqueous dispersions was assessed using a SYSMEX flow particle image analyzer and found to correspond to the shape observed from cryofractured surfaces of the polymer composites.