Structure, Importance

Table 2-1. WLN coding of some important structural units.

Alkenes are hydrocarbons that contain a carbon-carbon double bond A carbon-carbon double bond is both an important structural unit and an important func tional group m organic chemistry The shape of an organic molecule is influenced by the presence of this bond and the double bond is the site of most of the chemical reactions that alkenes undergo Some representative alkenes include isobutylene (an industrial chemical) a pmene (a fragrant liquid obtained from pine trees) md fame sene (a naturally occurring alkene with three double bonds)... 

The two most important structural features that stabilize the enol of a (3 dicarbonyl compound are... 

Pynmidme and purine themselves do not occur naturally but many of their deriv atives do Before going too far we need to point out an important structural difference between derivatives that bear —OH groups and those with —NH2 groups The struc ture of a pynmidme or punne that bears an —NH2 group follows directly from the struc ture of the parent ring system... 

Work on EXAFS then progressed very little until the advent of the synchrotron radiation source (storage ring), described in Section 8.1.1.1. This type of source produces X-ray radiation of the order of 10 to 10 times as intense as that of a conventional source and is continuously tunable. These properties led to the establishment of EXAFS as an important structural tool for solid materials. 

Leucine residues 2, 5, 7, 12, 20, and 24 of the motif are invariant in both type A and type B repeats of the ribonuclease inhibitor. An examination of more than 500 tandem repeats from 68 different proteins has shown that residues 20 and 24 can be other hydrophobic residues, whereas the remaining four leucine residues are present in all repeats. On the basis of the crystal structure of the ribonuclease inhibitor and the important structural role of these leucine residues, it has been possible to construct plausible structural models of several other proteins with leucine-rich motifs, such as the extracellular domains of the thyrotropin and gonadotropin receptors. 

Four important structural features are required for the catalytic action of serine proteinases... 

The serine proteinases have four important structural features that facilitate this mechanism of catalysis (Figure 11.6). 

The polarity of covalent bonds between carbon and substituents is the basis of important structure-reactivity relationships in organic chemistry. The effects of polar bonds are generally considered to be transmitted in two ways. Successive polarization through bonds is called the inductive fect. It is expected that such an effect would diminish as the number of intervening bonds increases. 

We will discuss shortly the most important structure-reactivity features of the E2, El, and Elcb mechanisms. The variable transition state theoiy allows discussion of reactions proceeding through transition states of intermediate character in terms of the limiting mechanistic types. The most important structural features to be considered in such a discussion are (1) the nature of the leaving group, (2) the nature of the base, (3) electronic and steric effects of substituents in the reactant molecule, and (4) solvent effects. 

Flexibilized epoxy resins are important structural adhesives [69]. Liquid functionally terminated nitrile rubbers are excellent flexibilizing agents for epoxy resins. This liquid nitrile rubber can be reacted into the epoxy matrix if it contains carboxylated terminated functionalities or by adding an amine terminated rubber. The main effects produced by addition of liquid nitrile rubber in epoxy formulations is the increase in T-peel strength and in low-temperature lap shear strength, without reducing the elevated temperature lap shear. 

One important structural feature on which to focus is whether the nitrogen atom lies in the same plane as the three carbon atoms. Electron diffraction experiments have found the ground state to be slightly non-planar. You can determine the planarity of the structures you compute by examining the sum of the three C-N-C angles (for a planar molecule, the sum will be 360°) and by looking at the values of the C2-N-C4-O and C3-N-C4 Hg dihedral angles (in a planar structure, both will be 0°). 

Numerous tetrahedral halogeno complexes [T1" X4] (X = Cl, Br, I) have been prepared by reaction of quaternary ammonium or arsonium halides on TIX3 in nonaqueous solution, and octahedral complexes TI "X< ] (X = Cl, Br) are also well established. The binuclear complex Cs3[Tl2"Cl<)J is an important structural type which features two TlCls octahedra sharing a common face of 3 bridging Cl atoms (Fig. 7.9) the same binuclear complex structure is retained when Tl " is replaced by Ti ", V ", Cr " and Fe " and also in K3W2CIS and CssBiily, etc. 

This section considers a number of extremely important structure types in which A1 combines with one or more other metals to form a mixed oxide phase. The most significant of these from both a theoretical and an industrial viewpoint are spinel (MgAl204) and related compounds, Na- -alumina (NaAlnOi ) and related phases, and tricalcium aluminate (Ca3Al20g) which is a major constituent of Portland cement. Each of these compounds raises points of fundamental importance in solid-state chemistry and each possesses properties of crucial significance to... 

Compounds with Sc, Y, lanthanoids and actinoids are of three types. Those with composition ME have the (6-coordinated) NaCl structure, whereas M3E4 (and sometimes M4E3) adopt the body-centred thorium phosphide structure (Th3P4) with 8-coordinated M, and ME2 are like ThAsi in which each Th has 9 As neighbours. Most of these compounds are metallic and those of uranium are magnetically ordered. Full details of the structures and properties of the several hundred other transition metal-Group 15 element compounds fall outside the scope of this treatment, but three particularly important structure types should be mentioned because of their widespread occurrence and relation to other structure types, namely C0AS3,... 

A) can react further to give a branched polymer with a tertiary chlorine at the branch point [Eq. (5)]. This is also an important structural feature from the point of... 

Acid-treated clays were the first catalysts used in catalytic cracking processes, but have been replaced by synthetic amorphous silica-alumina, which is more active and stable. Incorporating zeolites (crystalline alumina-silica) with the silica/alumina catalyst improves selectivity towards aromatics. These catalysts have both Fewis and Bronsted acid sites that promote carbonium ion formation. An important structural feature of zeolites is the presence of holes in the crystal lattice, which are formed by the silica-alumina tetrahedra. Each tetrahedron is made of four oxygen anions with either an aluminum or a silicon cation in the center. Each oxygen anion with a -2 oxidation state is shared between either two silicon, two aluminum, or an aluminum and a silicon cation. 

For steels that are most frequently used in the annealed or normalised condition the most important structural parameter that can be influenced by heat treatment is the grain size, although the extensive use of welding as a means of fabricating mild steels means that martensitic and tempered martensitic... 

Magnesium is an important structural metal. It can be prepared through the sequence of steps precipitation of Mg42 from sea water by OH to form Mg(OH)2 conversion of Mg(OH)2 to MgCl2 electrolysis of molten MgCl2. 

The increased speed of structure determination necessary for the structural genomics projects makes an independent validation of the structures (by comparison to expected properties) particularly important. Structure validation helps to correct obvious errors (e.g. in the covalent structure) and leads to a more standardised representation of structural data, e.g. by agreeing on a common atom name nomenclature. The knowledge of the structure quality is a prerequisite for further use of the structure, e.g. in molecular modelling or drug design. 

Structural similarity can sometimes be a very strong indicator of similar function, but does not mean, having similar function necessarily. More important structural similarity can show evolutionary links between proteins whose ancestors may have had similar functions. 

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