Lignin and Lignin-Derived Compounds for Wood Applications—A Review

Improving the environmental performance of resins in wood treatment by using renewable chemicals has been a topic of interest for a long time. At the same time, lignin, the second most abundant biomass on earth, is produced in large scale as a side product and mainly used energetically. The use of lignin in wood adhesives or for wood modification has received a lot of scientific attention. Despite this, there are only few lignin-derived wood products commercially available. This review provides a summary of the research on lignin application in wood adhesives, as well as for wood modification. The research on the use of uncleaved lignin and of cleavage products of lignin is reviewed. Finally, the current state of the art of commercialization of lignin-derived wood products is presented.     

Microswimmers – From Single Particle Motion to Collective Behavior

Locomotion of autonomous microswimmers is a fascinating field at the cutting edge of science. It combines the biophysics of self-propulsion via motor proteins, artificial propulsion mechanisms, swimming strategies at low Reynolds numbers, the hydrodynamic interaction of swimmers, and the collective motion and synchronisation of large numbers of agents. The articles of this Special Issue are based on the lecture notes of an international summer school, which was organized by the DFG Priority Programme 1726 “Microswimmers – From Single Particle Motion to Collective Behaviour” in the fall of 2015. The minireviews provide a broad overview of the field, covering both elementary and advanced material, as well as selected areas from current research.     

Comparison of Oxidative Aromatic Coupling and the Scholl Reaction

Does the dehydrogenative coupling of aromatic compounds mediated by AlCl₃ at high temperatures and also by FeCl₃, MoCl₅, PIFA, or K₃[Fe(CN)₆] at room temperature proceed by the same mechanism in all cases? With the growing importance of the synthesis of aromatic compounds by double C? H activation to give various biaryl structures, this question becomes pressing. Since some of these reactions proceed only in the presence of non‐oxidizing Lewis acids and some only in the presence of certain oxidants, the authors venture the hypothesis that, depending on the electronic structure of the substrates and the nature of the “catalyst”, two different mechanisms can operate. One involves the intermediacy of a radical cation and the other the formation of a sigma complex between the acid and the substrate. The goal of this Review is to encourage further mechanistic studies hopefully leading to an in‐depth understanding of this phenomenon.     

Synthesis of Substituted Tricyclo[5.3.1.04,9]undecan‐2,6‐dione from 4,4‐Disubstituted Cyclohexanone Enamines and Methacryloyl Chloride

Morpholine enamines 4‐acetyl‐4‐methyl‐1‐morpholinocyclohexene 4a, 4‐acetyl‐4‐phenyl‐1‐morpholinocyclohexene 4b, and 4‐acetyl‐4‐isopropenyl‐1‐morpholinocyclohexene 4c react with methacryloyl chloride to give 1,7‐dimethyl‐4(N‐morpholino) tricyclo[5.3.1.0^4,9]undecan‐2,6‐dione 9a , 1‐phenyl‐7‐methyl‐4(N‐morpholino) tricyclo[5.3.1.0^4,9]undecan‐2,6‐dione 9b , and 1‐ispropenyl‐7‐methyl‐4(N‐morpholino) tricyclo[5.3.1.0^4,9]undecan‐2,6‐dione 9c respectively, along with the corresponding substituted adamandane‐2,4‐diones.     

FEW: A workflow tool for free energy calculations of ligand binding

In the later stages of drug design projects, accurately predicting relative binding affinities of chemically similar compounds to a biomolecular target is of utmost importance for making decisions based on the ranking of such compounds. So far, the extensive application of binding free energy approaches has been hampered by the complex and time‐consuming setup of such calculations. We introduce the free energy workflow (FEW) tool that facilitates setup and execution of binding free energy calculations with the AMBER suite for multiple ligands. FEW allows performing free energy calculations according to the implicit solvent molecular mechanics (MM‐PB(GB)SA), the linear interaction energy, and the thermodynamic integration approaches. We describe the tool's architecture and functionality and demonstrate in a show case study on Factor Xa inhibitors that the time needed for the preparation and analysis of free energy calculations is considerably reduced with FEW compared to a fully manual procedure. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Synthesis of Heteroanellated Pyranosides Starting from Methyl 4,6‐O‐benzylidene‐2,3‐dideoxy‐α‐d‐erythro‐hexopyranosid‐2‐ylidenemalononitrile

The hexopyranosid‐2‐ylidenemalononitrile 1 reacted with phenyl isothiocyanate in the presence of triethylamine to furnish (2R,4aR,6S,10bS)‐8‐amino‐4a,6,10,10b‐tetrahydro‐6‐methoxy‐2‐phenyl‐10‐phenylimino‐4H‐thiopyrano[3′,4′:4,5]pyrano[3,2‐d][1,3]dioxine‐7‐carbonitrile (2). Starting from 1, cyclization with sulphur and diethylamine yielded (2R,4aR,6S,9bR)‐8‐amino‐4,4a,6,9b‐tetrahydro‐6‐methoxy‐2‐phenylthieno[2′,3′:4,5]pyrano[3,2‐d][1,3]dioxine‐7‐carbonitrile (3), which could be transformed into the corresponding aminomethylenamino derivative 4 by treatment with triethyl orthoformate and ammonia. Intramolecular cyclization of 4 to yield (2R,4aR,6S,11bR)‐4,4a,6,11b‐tetrahydro‐6‐methoxy‐2‐phenyl[1,3]dioxino[4″,5″:5′,6′]pyrano[3′,4′:4,5]thieno [2,3‐d]pyrimidin‐7‐amine (5) was achieved by using NaH as base. (2R,4aR,6S,9bS)‐8‐Amino‐4a,6,9,9b‐tetrahydro‐6‐methoxy‐9‐(4‐methylphenyl‐sulfonyl)‐2‐phenyl‐4H‐[1,3]dioxino[4′,5′:5,6]pyrano[4,3‐b]pyrrole‐7‐carbonitrile (6) was prepared by treatment of compound 1 with tosylazide and triethylamine.