Favorable Coulombic Interactions Research Articles

Structure‐property behavior of elastomeric segmented PTMO–ionene polymers. II

AbstractA series of segmented ionene polymers based on the reaction of α,ω‐bis(dimethyl amino)polytetramethylene oxide with various dihalide compounds were investigated with respect to their structure–property behavior. The placement of quaternary ammonium ions and halide counterions along the polymer chains was varied by changing the molecular weight of the PTMO soft segment and the structure of the dihalide linking agent. The techniques of dynamic mechanical spectroscopy, thermal analysis, small angle X‐ray scattering, and stress–strain behavior analysis were applied. For the case when the PTMO soft segment was amorphous, the ambient temperature properties of these materials displayed low modulus, high strength, and high elongation elastomeric behavior with tensile strength enhanced by the strain‐induced crystallization of the PTMO. A high level of phase separation existed between the dihalide component relative to the PTMO soft segment. Due to the Coulombic association of the ionene species, these materials displayed many similarities to the segmented urethane ionomers. In particular, distinct domain structure was noted by SAXS, whose dimensional scale was similar to the segmented urethanes. It was also shown, however, that the driving forces for the microphase separation was caused by favorable electrostatic or Coulombic interactions in contrast to segment–segment incompatibility features as in the segmented urethanes.

Electrostatic interactions in wild-type and mutant recombinant human myoglobins.

Residue Val68 in human myoglobin has been replaced by Asn, Asp, and Glu with site-directed mutagenesis. Purified proteins were characterized by isoelectric focusing and by absorption, CD, and NMR spectroscopy. These studies demonstrated that Mb is able to tolerate substitution of the buried hydrophobic residue Val68 by Asn, Asp, and Glu. In the metaquo derivatives of the Glu and Asp mutants, the negative charge at residue 68 is stabilized by a favorable Coulombic interaction with the heme iron. In the absence of this interaction, as in the metcyano and ferrous deoxy derivatives, the relatively nonpolar protein interior cannot stabilize an isolated buried negative charge, and the carboxylate is either protonated or stabilized via a salt bridge with the nearby distal histidine. Hence in the Asp and Glu mutant proteins, both reduction and cyanide binding are accompanied by proton uptake by the protein. The apoproteins were prepared and reconstituted with the chlorophyll derivative zinc pyrochlorophyllide a. Absorption and fluorescence spectra were quite similar for wild-type and all mutant proteins reconstituted with this derivative. These results do not support the point charge model for the red shifts observed in the spectra of chlorophylls associated with photosynthetic proteins. From the pH dependence of the absorption spectrum of zinc pyrochlorophyllide a in the Glu mutant, the apparent pKa of the buried glutamate residue was estimated to be 8.9. This increase of 4.4 pH units, over the value for Glu in aqueous solution, provides a measure of the polarity of the protein interior.