Determination of solvation descriptors for terpene hydrocarbons from chromatographic measurements.

Gas chromatographic retention data on 107 terpene hydrocarbons from the literature together with other data have been used to obtain a set of Abraham descriptors for these 107 compounds. For 88 aliphatic cyclic terpene hydrocarbons, a fragmentation scheme was constructed that allows key descriptors to be estimated just from structure. The total set of descriptors, including those estimated by the fragmentation schemes, were then used to predict water-octanol partition coefficients for the 88 compounds, there being good agreement with values calculated from a number of well-known programs. For a small number of terpene hydrocarbons, there was good agreement between predicted and experimental values of nasal pungency thresholds, and predicted and experimental gas-blood, gas-oil, and gas-water partition coefficients. It is suggested that the descriptors obtained for the 107 terpene hydrocarbons can be used to predict water-solvent partition coefficients, gas-solvent partition coefficients, and partition coefficients in a number of biological systems.

Determination of partition coefficients of refrigerants by gas liquid chromatographic headspace analysis.

Gas-water partition coefficients, K(w), and gas-solvent partition coefficients, K(s), have been determined for chlorodifluoromethane and for 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexafluoropropane by headspace analysis, using a very simple experimental procedure. These partition coefficients then yield water-solvent partition coefficients, P(s). Where comparisons can be made there is excellent agreement with literature values for K(w) and P(s). The obtained values of K(s) and P(s) can be used to obtain physicochemical properties, or descriptors, for the refrigerants. Combination of these descriptors with previous equations we have developed enables partition coefficients to be obtained for a host of systems.

The biological and toxicological activity of gases and vapors.

A large amount of data on the biological and toxicological activity of gases and vapors has been collected from the literature. Processes include sensory irritation thresholds, the Alarie mouse test, inhalation anesthesia, etc. It is shown that a single equation using only five descriptors (properties of the gases and vapors) plus a set of indicator variables for the given processes can correlate 643 biological and non-lethal toxicological activities of 'non-reactive' compounds with a standard deviation of 0.36 log unit. The equation is scaled to sensory irritation thresholds obtained by the procedure of Cometto-Muñiz, and Cain provides a general equation for the prediction of sensory irritation thresholds in man. It is suggested that differences in biological/toxicological activity arise primarily from transport from the gas phase to a receptor phase or area, except for odor detection thresholds where interaction with a receptor(s) is important.

Prediction of milk/plasma concentration ratios of drugs and environmental pollutants.

A large database of milk/plasma ratios, M/P, for 179 drugs and hydrophobic environmental pollutants has been constructed from literature data. Application of linear analyses shows that drugs preferentially partition into the aqueous and the protein phases of milk, but that the pollutants partition into the fat phase. No useful linear equation could be obtained for the entire 179 compound data set, but an artificial neural network with only five Abraham descriptors as input resulted in errors in log(1+M/P) of only 0.0574, 0.116 and 0.093 log units for a training set of 135 compounds, an internal test set of 22 compounds and an external test set of 22 compounds respectively. These errors correspond to 0.203, 0.193 and 0.334 log units respectively when transformed into errors in log(M/P).

Concentration-detection functions for the odor of homologous n-acetate esters.

Using air-dilution olfactometry, we measured concentration-response functions for the odor detection of the homologous esters ethyl, butyl, hexyl, and octyl acetate. Stimuli were delivered by means of an 8-station vapor delivery device (VDD-8) specifically designed to capture odor detection performance by humans under environmentally realistic conditions. Groups of 16-17 (half female) normosmic (i.e., having a normal olfaction) non-smokers (ages 18-38) were tested intensively. The method involved a three-alternative forced-choice procedure against carbon-filtered air, with an ascending concentration approach. Delivered concentrations were confirmed by gas chromatography before and during actual testing. A sigmoid (logistic) model provided an excellent fit to the odor detection functions both at the group and individual levels. Odor detection thresholds (ODTs) (defined as the half-way point between chance and perfect detection) decreased from ethyl (245 ppb by volume), to butyl (4.3 ppb), to hexyl acetate (2.9 ppb), and increased for octyl acetate (20 ppb). Interindividual threshold variability was near one and always below two orders of magnitude. The steepness of the functions increased slightly but significantly with carbon chain length. The outcome showed that the present thresholds lie at the very low end of those previously reported, but share with them a similar relative trend across n-acetates. On this basis, we suggest that a recent quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) for ODTs can be applied to these and additional optimized data, and used to describe and predict not just ODTs but the complete underlying psychometric odor functions.

Solvation parameters for mercury and mercury(II) compounds: calculation of properties of environmental interest.

Descriptors have been determined for four inorganic mercury(II) species and for seventeen organic mercury(II) species, using experimental literature data. These descriptors can then be used in equations that we have already set out in order to estimate a large number of physicochemical properties. These include the water to octanol partition coefficient and the gas to water partition coefficient. For the organic mercury(II) species, including dimethylmercury and the methylmercury(II) halides, the latter has been estimated over the temperature range 273-373 K.

The synthesis and characterisation of 4,1,2-MC2B10 metallacarboranes.

Reduction of the tethered carborane 1,2-(CH2)3-1,2-closo-C2B10H10 followed by treatment with CoCl2/NaCp, [(p-cymene)RuCl2]2(p-cymene=C6H4MeiPr-1,4), (PMe2Ph)2PtCl2 or (dppe)NiCl2(dppe=Ph2PCH2CH2PPh2) affords reasonable yields of the new 13-vertex metallacarboranes 1,2-(CH2)3-4-Cp-4,1,2-closo-CoC2B10H10 (1), 1,2-(CH2)3-4-(p-cymene)-4,1,2-closo-RuC2B10H10 (2), 1,2-(CH2)3-4,4-(PMe2Ph)2-4,1,2-closo-PtC2B10H10 (3) and 1,2-(CH2)3-4,4-(dppe)-4,1,2-closo-NiC2B10H10 (4), respectively. All compounds were characterised spectroscopically and crystallographically. The cobalt and ruthenium species 1 and 2 have Cs symmetry in both solution and the solid state, having henicosahedral cage structures featuring a trapezoidal C1C2B9B5 face. The platinum and nickel compounds 3 and 4 have asymmetric docosahedral cage structures in the crystal (the more so for 4 than for 3) although both appear, by 11B and 31P NMR spectroscopy, to have Cs symmetry in solution. Low-temperature experiments on the more soluble platinacarborane could not freeze out the diamond-trapezium-diamond fluctional process that we assume is operating in solution, and we therefore conclude that this process has a relatively low activation barrier, probably <35 kJ mol-1.