Labile substances

By using a beam of fast atoms or ions incident onto a nonvolatile liquid containing a sample substance, good molecular or quasi-molecular positive and/or negative ion peaks can be observed up to about 4000-5000 Da. Ionization is mild, and, since it is normally carried out at 25-35°C, it can be used for thermally labile substances such as peptides and sugars. 

The main difference between field ionization (FI) and field desorption ionization (FD) lies in the manner in which the sample is examined. For FI, the substance under investigation is heated in a vacuum so as to volatilize it onto an ionization surface. In FD, the substance to be examined is placed directly onto the surface before ionization is implemented. FI is quite satisfactory for volatile, thermally stable compounds, but FD is needed for nonvolatile and/or thermally labile substances. Therefore, most FI sources are arranged to function also as FD sources, and the technique is known as FI/FD mass spectrometry. 

For simple FI, the substance to be mass measured is volatilized by heating it close to the emitter so that its vapor can condense onto the surface of the electrode. In this form, an FI source can be used with gas chromatography, the GC effluent being passed over the emitter. However, for nonvolatile and/or thermally labile substances, a different approach must be used. 

For nonvolatile or thermally labile samples, a solution of the substance to be examined is applied to the emitter electrode by means of a microsyringe outside the ion source. After evaporation of the solvent, the emitter is put into the ion source and the ionizing voltage is applied. By this means, thermally labile substances, such as peptides, sugars, nucleosides, and so on, can be examined easily and provide excellent molecular mass information. Although still FI, this last ionization is referred to specifically as field desorption (FD). A comparison of FI and FD spectra of D-glucose is shown in Figure 5.6. 

FI and FD are mild or soft methods of ionization that produce abundant molecular or quasi-molecular positive or negative ions from a very wide range of substances. In the FD mode, it is particularly useful for high-molecular-mass and/or thermally labile substances such as polymers, peptides, and carbohydrates. 

The FAB source operates near room temperature, and ions of the substance of interest are lifted out from the matrix by a momentum-transfer process that deposits little excess of vibrational and rotational energy in the resulting quasi-molecular ion. Thus, a further advantage of FAB/LSIMS over many other methods of ionization lies in its gentle or mild treatment of thermally labile substances such as peptides, proteins, nucleosides, sugars, and so on, which can be ionized without degrading their. structures. 

As a rule of thumb, one can say that the efficiency of separation of mixtures and the simplicity of operating and maintaining apparatus are much greater for GC than for LC. Hence, other things being equal, GC is most often the technique of first choice and can be used with a very wide variety of compound types. However, for nonvolatile or thermally labile substances like peptides, proteins, nucleotides, sugars, carbohydrates, and many organometallics, GC may be ruled out completely... 

The process of field ionization presupposes that the substance under investigation has been volatilized by heat, so some molecules of vapor settle onto the tips held at high potential. In such circumstances, thermally labile substances still cannot be examined, even though the ionization process itself is mild. To get around this difficulty, a solution of the substance under investigation can be placed on the wire and the solvent allowed to evaporate. When an electric potential is applied, positive or negative ions are produced, but no heating is necessary to volatilize the substance. This technique is called field desorption (FD) ionization. 

Both FI and FD provide good molecular mass information, but few if any fragment ions, and allow thermally labile substances such as peptides, nucleosides, and glycerides to be examined, as well as inorganic salts. 

With notable exceptions, the application of HPLC to clinical chemistry has not as yet been extensive. This is somewhat surprising in view of the potential the method has for this area. This potential arises, in part, from the fact that HPLC is well suited to the types of substances that must be analyzed in the biomedical field. Ionic, relatively polar species can be directly chromatographed, without the need to make volatile derivatives as in gas chromatography. Typically, columns are operated at room temperature so that thermally labile substances can be separated. Finally, certain modes of HPLC allow fractionation of high molecular weight species, such as biopolymers. 

Adsorption or catalytic decomposition of labile substances by the syringe needle can be a problem for some compounds using hot vaporizing injectors [25]. For open tubular columns deactivated fused silica syringe needles and cold on-column Injection techniques are used to minimize this problem. Alternatively, syringes fitted with a needle shroud for cold-needle injection can be used [26]. 

Getzin, L.W. and I. Rosenfield. 1968. Qrganophosphorus insecticide degradation by heat-labile substances in soil. Jour. Agric. Food Chem. 16 598-601. 

Hartley4 has shown that chemical oxidation of O.M.P.A. using potassium permanganate leads to the transfer of one oxygen atom per molecule of O.M.P.A. An alkali-labile substance of increased anticholinesterase activity was thereby produced. 

The hydrolysis half-lives at pH 7.4 and 20 and 37.5 °C were 130 and 27 d, respectively. At pH 6.1 and 20 °C, the hydrolysis half-life was 170 d (Freed et al, 1979). When equilibrated with a prereduced pokkali soil (acid sulfate), parathion instantaneously degraded to aminoparathion. The quick rate of reaction was reportedly due to soil enzymes and/or other heat labile substances. Desethyl aminoparathion was also identified as a metabolite in two separate studies (Wahid and Sethunathan, 1979 Wahid et al., 1980). The half-lives for the degradation of parathion in a silty clay (pH 5.5) and sandy clay (pH 6.9) were 23 and 22 d, respectively (Sattar, 1990). 

Most of the highly unsaturated monocyclic eight-membered heterocycles contain one or two nitrogen atoms and have been obtained by bond reorganization processes from strained bicyclic or polycyclic precursors. Although several of the less substituted compounds without stabilizing substituents are highly labile substances, 1,4-dihydro-1,4-diazocines qualify as dihetera[8]annulenes and display distinct aromatic properties. 

Paul Pfeiffer discovered a very interesting stereochemical phenomenon, which now bears his name — the Pfeiffer effect this has received a good deal of attention.30 When an optically active substance which is stable in solution is added to a solution of a labile chiral substance, the optical rotation of the solution changes, reaching a new level in some hours. Several theories have been advanced to explain the phenomenon, the most satisfactory based on the supposition that the optically active ion or molecule forms an association with one isomer of the racemic pair of the labile substance and thus shifts the dextro—levo equilibrium. In general it is not possible to use this as a means of resolution, for when the added optically active substance is removed from the labile material, the latter immediately racemizes. 

In a microencapsulation method, the encapsulate—usually an oil, flavor, enzyme, or medicinal—is emulsified in a dilute aqueous gelatin sol, a polysaccharide is added, and conditions are adjusted to favor coacervation. The encapsulate should not be truly soluble in the solvent or the cosolutes and the cosolutes should be differentially soluble in the liquid solvent. As much as 60-98% of the labile substance may be harvested by microencapsulation to yield microcapsules in the form of a free-flowing powder (Sirine, 1968). 

Three examples are popular here. The first two start with flash photolysis, where an intense flash irradiates the whole cell at t = 0, instantly producing an electrochemically active species that decays chemically in time, either by a first-order reaction, or a second-order reaction. The labile substance is assumed to be formed uniformly in the cell space with a bulk concentration of c. These are cases where the concentration at the outer boundary is not constant, falling with time. The third case, the catalytic or EC7 system (see [73,74]), is of special interest because of the reaction layer it gives rise to. 

---