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.     

Synthesis of Small‐Sized,Porous, and Low‐Toxic Magnetite Nanoparticles by Thin POSS Silica Coating

In this communication, we report the synthesis of small‐sized (<10 nm), water‐soluble, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) coated with polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS), which contain either polyethylene glycol (PEG) or octa(tetramethylammonium) (OctaTMA) as functional groups. The POSS‐coated MNPs exhibit superparamagnetic behavior with saturation magnetic moments (51–53 emu g^?1) comparable to silica‐coated MNPs. They also provide good colloidal stability at different pH and salt concentrations, and low cytotoxicity to MCF‐7 human breast epithelial cells. The relaxivity data and magnetic resonance (MR) phantom images demonstrate the potential application of these MNPs in bioimaging.     

Designing polymer metamaterial for protective armor: a coarse-grained formulation

Meccanica - Designing protective armors is important for varied civil and defense applications. Ceramic-polymer composite armors are particularly interesting for their high strength and light...     

Thermal properties of bisitaconimide and bisbenzoxazine blends

Blends of cardanol-based bisbenzoxazine (BZc) and 4,4′-bisitaconimidodiphenyl ether (BIM) having nine different mass ratios (i.e. 100:0, 90:10, 75:25, 60:40, 50:50, 40:60, 25:75, 10:90 and 0:100) were prepared and their curing behaviour was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. A curing mechanism comprising two-steps: (1) homopolymerization and co-curing reaction of itaconimide with alkyl side chain double bonds of cardanol BZc at lower temperature (~443 K) and (2) ring-opening polymerization of oxazine at higher temperature (~453–483 K) has been proposed. The T _g of the cured resin blends was determined by DSC and the increase in BIM content in the blend resulted in an increase in T _g from 408 K BZc to 474 K BIM. Increase in bisitaconimide content resulted in improvement of char yield at 1,073 K as well as an increase in mass loss temperatures (5 and 10 %). Compared to BZc, the blends showed a higher thermal stability. The lap shear strength of these blends in metal–metal joints was investigated at 323, 523 and 573 K.     

Ionic liquid‐based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction followed by RP‐HPLC determination of saquinavir in rat serum: application to pharmacokinetics

An ionic liquid‐based dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction followed by RP‐HPLC determination of the most commonly prescribed protease inhibitor, saquinavir, in rat plasma was developed and validated. The effects of different ionic liquids, dispersive solvents, extractant/disperser ratio and salt concentration on sample recovery and enrichment were studied. Among the ionic liquids investigated, 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate was found to be most effective for extraction of saquinavir from rat serum. The recovery was found to be 95% at an extractant/disperser ratio of 0.43 using 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate and methanol as extraction and dispersive solvents. The recovery was further enhanced to 99.5% by addition of 5.0% NaCl. A threefold enhancement in detection and quantification limits was achieved, at 0.01 and 0.03 µg/mL, compared with the conventional protein precipitation method. A linear relationship was observed in the range of 0.035–10.0 µg/mL with a correlation coefficient (r²) of 0.9996. The method was validated and applied to study pharmacokinetics of saquinavir in rat serum. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Biodegradation of Phenol by the Yeast Candida tropicalis: An Investigation by NMR Spectroscopy

The process of phenol biodegradation by the yeast Candida tropicalis NCIM 3556 in aqueous medium was studied by ¹H, ¹³C, and DOSY NMR techniques. Samples at regular intervals were centrifuged to separate the cells, and ¹H spectral data were collected at 400 MHz. Though a gradual decrease in the concentration of phenol was observed, after an incubation period of ~8 h, formation of any intermediate products could not be detected. Experiments carried out with uniformly ¹³C-labeled phenol also failed to detect formation of any carboxylic acid intermediates during degradation. The studies indicated that the phenol was completely degraded to carbon dioxide and water in approximately 20 h. Self-diffusion coefficient measurements showed that the lifetime of phenol in the bound form is too small to impart any change in its diffusion behavior and the intermediates formed are converted to carbon dioxide and water at a very fast rate.     

Antibacterial and wound healing activities of silver nanoparticles embedded in cellulose compared to other polysaccharides and protein polymers

Cellulose - The aggregation of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in colloidal solution and the oxidative cytotoxicity towards human cells are two major hindrances for their thriving medicinal...     

The Interaction of Benzyl Alcohol with Trimethoxyboroxine : Amine Adducts of Triarylboroxines as Model Compounds

The interaction of benzyl alcohol with trimethoxyboroxine has been investigated by hydrogen-1 and carbon-13 NMR and IR spectroscopy. These techniques indicate formation of a weak Lewis acid/base adduct, additionally stabilized by a hydrogen-bonding interaction, which undergoes rapid ligand exchange at room temperature. The system has been modelled by the synthesis and characterization of a series of amine-triarylboroxine adducts. These adducts rapidly undergo ligand dissociation-recombination in solution with ΔG⁺ of ca. 40-50 kJ/mol.