Carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts: applications in organic transformations

The requirement of green and sustainable materials to prepare heterogeneous catalysts has intensified for practical reasons over the past few decades. Carbohydrates are possibly the most plentiful and renewable organic materials in nature with inimitable physiochemical properties, plausible low-cost and large-scale production, and sustainability features could be exploited in the generation of nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts. This review article outlines the organic transformations catalyzed by diverse carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts in greener and environmentally friendly processes. Selected examples are highlighted for a variety of organic reactions exploiting the proposed catalysts’ reactivity and reusability, and interactions with the intrinsic nature of the applied carbohydrate supports; advantages and speculated challenges of the introduced catalysts are deliberated as well.     

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Preliminary study of the thermally stimulated blue luminescence of ulexite

In this paper, novel results on the blue thermally stimulated luminescence (TSL) emission of ulexite (NaCaB₅O₆(OH)₆·5H₂O) have been studied. The four maxima appearing at 60, 110, 200 and 240°C on the TSL glow curves of this borate could be respectively associated to: (i) the first dehydration (NaCaB₅O₆(OH)₆·5H₂O→NaCaB₅O₆(OH)₆·3H₂O), (ii) the creation-annihilation of the three-hydrated phase, (iii) the Na-coordinated chains dehydroxylation and the starting point of the alkali self-diffusion through the lattice and (iv) the amorphisation of the lattice. These results are fairly well correlated with the differential thermal analyses (DTA), in situ thermal observations under environmental scanning electron microscope (TESEM) and thermal X-ray diffraction (TXRD) techniques.     

Study of the feasibility of focused microwave-assisted soxhlet extraction of N-methylcarbamates from soil

A fast microwave-assisted dansylation procedure has been developed for the derivatization of N-nitrosamines prior to high-performance liquid chromatography determination. N-Nitrosomorpholine, N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosodiethylamine, N-nitrosopyrrolidine and N-nitrosopiperidine are first denitrosated by hydrobromic acid-acetic acid to produce secondary amines, which are then quantitatively dansylated in 5 min using radiation power of 378 W and a maximum pressure of 1.4 bar inside the reactor. The reaction mixture is separated on a C18 column with acetonitrile-water (55:45, v/v) as mobile phase with fluorimetric detection at 531 nm (excitation at 339 nm). The detection limits range from 8 to 75 pg for N-nitrosomorpholine and N-nitrosodiethylamine, respectively. The method was applied to study the recoveries of N-nitrosamines in beer and their determination in cigarette smoke.     

Theoretical study of alkyl-pi and aryl-pi interactions. Reconciling theory and experiment

Quantum mechanical and quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical calculations in conjunction with continuum solvation models have been used to analyze CH-pi interactions in model systems of aryl- and alkyl-aromatic interactions, as well as in a model folding system designed to study those interactions. High level calculations reproduced accurately the interaction of CH-pi interactions in both alkyl- and aryl-based model systems. Dispersion effects dominate the interaction, but the electrostatics term is also relevant for aryl CH-pi interactions. Theoretical calculations were also used to examine the influence of CH-pi interactions in determining the conformational flexibility of folding models. Finally, a critical comparison of the results obtained from high level calculations on model systems and the experimental data derived for folding models in apolar solvents was carried out, which allowed us to reconcile the apparent discrepancy found between both data.     

First‐order correlation‐kinetic contribution to Kohn–Sham exchange charge density function in atoms,using quantal density functional theory approach

Using the static exchange‐correlation charge density concept, the total integrated exchange‐charge density function is calculated within the nonrelativistic spin‐restricted exchange‐only (i) optimized effective potential model, and (ii) nonvariational local potential derived from the exchange‐only work potential within the quantal density functional theory, for the ground‐state isoelectronic series: Ga⁺, Zn, Cu^?; In⁺, Cd, Ag^?; and Tl⁺, Hg, Au^?. The difference between the exchange charge density function derived from these potentials is employed to evaluate the first‐order correlation‐kinetic contribution to the integrated exchange charge density. This contribution is found to be important for both the intra‐ and inter‐shell regions. Screening effects on the contribution due to the nd¹⁰ (n = 3–5) subshells are discussed through comparisons with similar calculations on Ca, Sr, and Ba, wherein nd¹⁰ electrons are absent. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

A Method for Clustering and Screening of Long-dimensional Chemical Data Based on Fingerprints and Similarity Measurements

A method for the treatment of long-dimensional chemical data arrays is presented in this work with the aim of maximising classification models. The method is based on the construction of fingerprints and the subsequent generation of a similarity matrix. The similarity calculation has been modified through a scaling process to take into account different significance shown by the variables. The method was applied to spectral measurements of wines and several aspects were studied, namely: threshold considered in the construction of fingerprints and patterns, weighting factor used for scaling, normalisation method, etc. The application of both Principal Components Analysis and Soft-Independent Modelling of Class Analogies to the similarity matrices gave better classifications of the information than those obtained using original data.     

Tautomeric conjugate acids of 2-aminopyrroles: effect of substituents, solvation and cosolute

The tautomeric preferences of the conjugated acids of 2-aminopyrrole derivatives have been examined both in the gas phase and in aqueous solution by using a combination of quantum mechanical, self-consistent reaction field and Monte Carlo–free-energy perturbation methods. The results show that the nature of substituents, the solvent and the presence of cosolute are relevant factors in modulating the relative stability between the tautomeric conjugate acids protonated at the heterocyclic ring and at the exocyclic amino nitrogen. Thus, attachment of electron-withdrawing groups to the ring, solvation in polar solvents, and the presence of negatively charged cosolutes tend to favor protonation at the exocyclic amino nitrogen. Nevertheless, none of these factors alone suffice to change the tautomeric preference for the ring-protonated forms. The results point out that the concerted occurrence of the three factors is necessary to shift the tautomeric preference towards the conjugated species protonated at the exocyclic nitrogen.Contribution to the Jacopo Tomasi Honorary Issue     

Clustering of chemical databases by means of the projection of maximum overlapping sets similarity measurements onto multidimensional spaces

In this paper, we propose a new method for clustering of chemical databases based on the representation of measurements of structural similarity onto multidimensional spaces. The proposed method permits the tuning of the clustering process through the selection of the dimension of the projection space, the normal vectors and the sensibility of the projection process. The structural similarity of each element regarding to the database elements is projected onto the defined spaces generating clusters that represent the characteristics and diversity of the database and whose size and characteristics can be easily adjusted.