Photoelectroreduction of Building‐Block Chemicals

Conventional photoelectrochemical cells utilize solar energy to drive the chemical conversion of water or CO₂ into useful chemical fuels. Such processes are confronted with general challenges, including the low intrinsic activities and inconvenient storage and transportation of their gaseous products. A photoelectrochemical approach is proposed to drive the reductive production of industrial building‐block chemicals and demonstrate that succinic acid and glyoxylic acid can be readily synthesized on Si nanowire array photocathodes free of any cocatalyst and at room temperature. These photocathodes exhibit a positive onset potential, large saturation photocurrent density, high reaction selectivity, and excellent operation durability. They capitalize on the large photovoltage generated from the semiconductor/electrolyte junction to partially offset the required external bias, and thereby make this photoelectrosynthetic approach significantly more sustainable compared to traditional electrosynthesis.     

Catalytic Enantioselective Aza‐pinacol Rearrangement

The first catalytic enantioselective asymmetric aza‐pinacol rearrangement is reported. The reactions are catalyzed by a chiral phosphoric acid and proceed via a highly organized transition state involving a cyclic aza‐ortho ‐xylylene intermediate to afford the indoline structures with good to excellent enantioselectivity. The synthetic utility of this method is demonstrated by the asymmetric synthesis of a key intermediate to the natural product minfiensine and the identification of a chiral lead compound to repress antibiotic resistance.     

Solvent‐free Synthesis of Water‐Soluble New Pyridinium Amines: Spectroscopic Characterization,Biological Screening,and Interaction Study with DNA

New water‐soluble pyridinium amines ( 2–8 ) were obtained by the solid‐state reactions of 4‐chloro‐1‐methylpyridin‐1‐ium triflate ( 1 ) and various primary aromatic amines. These compounds were characterized by ¹H , ¹³C NMR , FTIR , UV –vis, and fluorescence spectroscopic methods along with single‐crystal X‐ray structure determination. The interaction potentials of all newly synthesized compounds with calf thymus DNA (CT‐DNA ) were investigated by UV –vis and florescence spectroscopy accompanied by docking studies. UV –vis spectroscopy indicated that the binding of compounds with CT‐DNA takes place via the intercalative mode. The compounds were also screened for their potential as antioxidants and enzyme inhibition agents. Some compounds displayed excellent butyrylcholine and acetylcholine esterase inhibition activities and were effective in scavenging the 2,2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl (DPPH ) radical in a dose‐dependent manner comparable to a standard.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Catalytic Behavior of Bamboo Rice Husk Ash

In this paper, we report the use of bamboo rice husk ash as an efficient, greener, reusable, and biodegradable heterogeneous catalyst for the synthesis of tetrahydro‐4H ‐chromene‐3‐carbonitriles via the one‐pot three‐component reaction of malononitrile with aromatic aldehydes and dimedone or 1,3‐cyclohexanedione. The formation of bamboo rice husk ash‐silica has been confirmed by several analytical techniques.