Palladium(II)‐Catalyzed meta‐CH Olefination: Constructing Multisubstituted Arenes through Homo‐Diolefination and Sequential Hetero‐Diolefination

Divinylbenzene derivatives represent an important class of molecular building blocks in organic chemistry and materials science. Reported herein is the palladium‐catalyzed synthesis of divinylbenzenes by meta‐C? H olefination of sulfone‐based arenes. Successful sequential olefinations in a position‐selective manner provided a novel route for the synthesis of hetero‐dialkenylated products, which are difficult to access using conventional methods. Additionally, 1,3,5‐trialkenylated compounds can be generated upon successful removal of the directing group.     

Thiol–Ene “Click” Reaction Triggered by Neutral Ionic Liquid: The “Ambiphilic” Character of [hmim]Br in the Regioselective Nucleophilic Hydrothiolation

Thiol–ene “click” chemistry has emerged as a powerful strategy to construct carbon–heteroatom (C? S) bonds, which generally results in the formation of two regioisomers. To this end, the neutral ionic liquid [hmim]Br has been explored as a solvent cum catalyst for the synthesis of linear thioethers from activated and inactivated styrene derivatives or secondary benzyl alcohols and thiols without the requirement of using a metal complex, base, or free radical initiator. Furthermore, detailed mechanistic investigations using ¹H NMR spectroscopy and quadrupole time‐of‐flight electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (Q‐TOF ESI‐MS) revealed that the “ambiphilic” character of the ionic liquid promotes the nucleophilic addition of thiol to styrene through an anti‐Markovnikov pathway. The catalyst recyclability and the extension of the methodology for thiol–yne click chemistry are additional benefits. A competitive study among thiophenol, styrene, and phenyl acetylene revealed that the rate of reaction is in the order of thiol–yne>thiol–ene>dimerization of thiol in [hmim]Br.     

A new prenylated biflavonoid from the leaves of Garcinia dulcis

A new prenylated biflavonoid, named dulcisbiflavonoid A, together with five biflavonoids were isolated from the leaves of Garcinia dulcis. Their structures were elucidated by analysing their spectroscopic data, especially 1D and 2D NMR.     

Maintenance of residual activity of Bt toxin by using natural and synthetic dyes: a novel approach for sustainable mosquito vector control

Mosquito control protein from Bacillus thuringiensis gets inactivated with exposure to sunlight. To address this issue, the potential of synthetic and natural dye was investigated as sunlight protectants. Bt SV2 in absence of dyes when exposed to sunlight showed reduced effectiveness against the fourth instars of mosquito larvae. Whereas acriflavin, congo red and violacein were able to maintain 86.4%, 91.6% and 82.2% mosquito larvicidal efficacy of Bt SV2 against IVth instars larvae of Anopheles stephensi Meigen after exposure to sunlight. Similarly, beetroot dye, acriflavin, congo red and violacein maintained 98.4%, 97.1%, 90.8% and 70.7% larvicidal activities against Aedes aegypti Linnaeus after sunlight exposure. Prodigiosin was found to be the best photo-protectant by simultaneously protecting and enhancing Bt activity by 6.16% and 22.16% against A. stephensi and A. aegypti, respectively. Combination of dyes with Bt formulations can be a good strategy for mosquito control programmes in tropical and sub-tropical regions.     

Bacilli as Biological Nano-factories Intended for Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles and Its Application in Human Welfare

The search of eco-friendly technologies for nano-synthesis is significant to expand their applications in human welfare. Nowadays, various inorganic nanoparticles with beneficial features have been synthesized via physical, chemical, and biological means. Significant biological applications of silver nanoparticles include on-infectious microbes, target drug delivery, cancer and vector-borne disease control. Their syntheses have been tested from plant fungi, bacteria, and viruses. The bacterial mediated synthesis of silver, gold, zinc and other metal leads to a milestone in nano-medicines. Thus, in this review, we focus on the contribution of Bacilli in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles, the mechanism of action and their potential application in the welfare of human beings.     

Calibration transfer between electronic nose systems for rapid In situ measurement of pulp and paper industry emissions

Electronic nose systems when deployed in network mesh can effectively provide a low budget and onsite solution for the industrial obnoxious gaseous measurement. For accurate and identical prediction capability by all the electronic nose systems, a reliable calibration transfer model needs to be implemented in order to overcome the inherent sensor array variability. In this work, robust regression (RR) is used for calibration transfer between two electronic nose systems using a Box–Behnken (BB) design. Out of the two electronic nose systems, one was trained using industrial gas samples by four artificial neural network models, for the measurement of obnoxious odours emitted from pulp and paper industries. The emissions constitute mainly of hydrogen sulphide (H₂S), methyl mercaptan (MM), dimethyl sulphide (DMS) and dimethyl disulphide (DMDS) in different proportions. A Box–Behnken design consisting of 27 experiment sets based on synthetic gas combinations of H₂S, MM, DMS and DMDS, were conducted for calibration transfer between two identical electronic nose systems. Identical sensors on both the systems were mapped and the prediction models developed using ANN were then transferred to the second system using BB–RR methodology. The results showed successful transmission of prediction models developed for one system to other system, with the mean absolute error between the actual and predicted concentration of analytes in mg L⁻¹ after calibration transfer (on second system) being 0.076, 0.1801, 0.0329, 0.427 for DMS, DMDS, MM, H₂S respectively.     

o-Iodoxy Benzoic Acid–Mediated Synthesis of 3,5-Diarylisoxazoles and Isoxazole-3-carboxylic Acids

A new, convenient, ecofriendly synthesis of 3,5-diarylisoxazoles is reported from α,β-unsaturated ketoximes. Similarly, a novel synthesis of isoxazole carboxylic acids is also reported. Both the methods use efficient, environmentally friendly, and nontoxic iodoxybenzoic acid (IBX) as an oxidative cyclizing reagent. Easy procedure, environmentally benign reaction conditions, and nontoxicity are advantages to the methodology.     

Unusual mechanistic pathway for the synthesis of novel spiro-oxindoles via 3-phenyl-5-isoxazolone ring cleavage by secondary amino acids

A new approach to synthesize a series of spiro-oxindole derivatives via a multicomponent reaction of isatin, 3-phenyl-5-isoxazolone, and sarcosine or l-proline which play a dual role of base and nucleophile in methanol under reflux condition is reported. Also spiroindan-1,3-diones were synthesized from ninhydrin and 3-phenyl-5-isoxazolone. The methodology affords high yields of products in a short reaction time.     

Synthetic studies on C14 cembranoids: synthesis of C4-12 fragment of sarcophytonolides E-G and L and C5-11 fragment of sarcophytonolide L

An efficient stereoselective synthesis of C4-12 fragment of the cembranoids, sarcophytonolides E-G and L and C5-11 fragment of sarcophytonolide L is described. The C4-12 building block is efficiently assembled starting from chiral pool material (R)-carvone employing the Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, modified Knoevenagel condensation and asymmetric dihydroxylation as the key steps. The synthesis of C5-11 fragment is based on orthoester Johnson-Claisen rearrangement as the key step.