Cyanide-Free One-Pot Synthesis of Methacrylic Esters from Acetone

Methacrylic esters, represented by methyl methacrylate (MMA), are widely used as commodity chemicals. Here, the one-pot synthesis of methacrylic esters from acetone, a haloform and alcohols in the presence of an organic base is described. Using DBU as the organic base for the reaction of acetone, chloroform and methanol in acetonitrile afforded MMA in 66 % yield. When the solvent was replaced by benzonitrile, the product MMA was successfully purified by distillation. Applicability of this process to various alcohols was also investigated to show ethyl, phenyl, CF₃CH₂, and n-C₆F₁₃CH₂CH₂ esters were obtained in moderate yields. The use of bromoform instead of chloroform resulted in the improvement of the yield, for example, methyl and n-C₆F₁₃CH₂CH₂ esters up to 81 and 70 %, respectively. The reaction with deuterated starting materials acetone-d₆ and MeOH-d₄, with DBU in acetonitrile afforded deuterated MMA (MMA-d₈) in 70 % yield.     

Concise Construction of the ACDE Ring System of Calyciphylline A Type Alkaloids by a [5+2] Cycloaddition

A concise route for construction of the ACDE ring skeleton in calyciphylline A type alkaloids was developed using an intramolecular [5+2] cycloaddition reaction of an oxidopyrylium species bearing a tetrasubstituted olefin. Key to the success of this reaction was the combination of acid and base, which accelerated the construction of this skeleton containing a spiro ring and vicinal quaternary carbon centers. The resultant tricyclic ADE ring compound was converted to an ACDE ring model through C−H oxidation and an aza-Wittig reaction.     

Simultaneous determination of erlotinib and its isomeric major metabolites in human plasma using isocratic liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry and its clinical application

This study developed a method for the simultaneous determination of erlotinib and its isomeric major metabolites, OSI‐413 and OSI‐420, in human plasma using an isocratic liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry. Plasma specimens deproteinized with acetonitrile were separated using a 3‐µm particle size octadecylsilyl column. The m/z values of the precursor and product ions for the analytes were as follows: erlotinib, 394.2/278.2; and OSI‐413 and OSI‐420, 380.2/278.2. The total run time was 21 min and no peaks interfering with the analytes and internal standard (d₆‐erlotinib) in human plasma were observed. The calibration curves of erlotinib, OSI‐413 and OSI‐420 were linear over the concentration ranges of 10–3000, 2–500 and 2–100 ng/mL, respectively. The pretreatment recovery ratios were >86.1%. The intra‐ and inter‐assay precisions and accuracies were <12.7 and 89.0–108.9% for all analytes. This validated method was applied to the determination of plasma samples in lung cancer patients receiving 150 mg of oral erlotinib. The plasma concentration ranges of erlotinib, OSI‐413 and OSI‐420 were 373–2354, 15.7–379 and 2.5–43.6 ng/mL, respectively. In conclusion, the present method can be helpful for evaluating the plasma exposures of erlotinib and its major isomeric metabolites in clinical settings. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Activation of α-Fe2O3 for Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting Strongly Enhanced by Low Temperature Annealing in Low Oxygen Containing Ambient

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a promising method for the conversion of solar energy into chemical energy stored in the form of hydrogen. Nanostructured hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) is one of the most attractive materials for a highly efficient charge carrier generation and collection due to its large specific surface area and the short minority carrier diffusion length. In the present work, the PEC water splitting performance of nanostructured α-Fe₂O₃ is investigated which was prepared by anodization followed by annealing in a low oxygen ambient (0.03 % O₂ in Ar). It was found that low oxygen annealing can activate a significant PEC response of α-Fe₂O₃ even at a low temperature of 400 °C and provide an excellent PEC performance compared with classic air annealing. The photocurrent of the α-Fe₂O₃ annealed in the low oxygen at 1.5 V vs. RHE results as 0.5 mA cm⁻², being 20 times higher than that of annealing in air. The obtained results show that the α-Fe₂O₃ annealed in low oxygen contains beneficial defects and promotes the transport of holes; it can be attributed to the improvement of conductivity due to the introduction of suitable oxygen vacancies in the α-Fe₂O₃. Additionally, we demonstrate the photocurrent of α-Fe₂O₃ annealed in low oxygen ambient can be further enhanced by Zn-Co LDH, which is a co-catalyst of oxygen evolution reaction. This indicates low oxygen annealing generates a promising method to obtain an excellent PEC water splitting performance from α-Fe₂O₃ photoanodes.     

Chemical-Synthesis-Based Approach to Glycoprotein Functions in the Endoplasmic Reticulum

The introduction of Asn-linked glycans to nascent polypeptides occurs in the lumen of the endoplasmic reticulum of eukaryotic cells. After the removal of specific sugar residues, glycoproteins acquire signals in the glycoprotein quality control (GPQC) system and enter the folding cycle composed of lectin-chaperones calnexin (CNX) and calreticulin (CRT), glucosidase II (G-II), and UDP-Glc:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase (UGGT). G-II initiates glycoproteins’ entry and exit from the cycle, and UGGT serves as the “folding sensor”. This account summarizes our effort to analyze the properties of enzymes and lectins that play important roles in GPQC, especially those involved in the CNX/CRT cycle. To commence our study, general methods for the synthesis of high-mannose-type glycans and glycoproteins were established. Based on these, various substrates to analyze components of the GPQC were created, and properties of CRT, G-II, and UGGT have been clarified.     

Rattling in the Quadruple Perovskite CuCu3V4O12

Of particular interest is a peculiar motion of guest atoms or ions confined to nanospace in cage compounds, called rattling. While rattling provides unexplored physical properties through the guest–host interactions, it has only been observed in a very limited class of materials. Herein, we introduce an A‐site‐ordered quadruple perovskite, CuCu₃V₄O₁₂, as a new family of cage compounds. This novel AA′₃B₄O₁₂‐type perovskite has been obtained by a high‐pressure synthesis technique and structurally characterized to have cubic Im$\bar 3$ symmetry with an ionic model of Cu²⁺Cu²⁺₃V⁴⁺₄O₁₂. The thermal displacement parameter of the A‐site Cu²⁺ ion is as large as U_iso≈0.045 Ų at 300 K, indicating its large‐amplitude thermal oscillations in the oversized icosahedral cages. Remarkably, the presence of localized phonon modes associated with rattling of the A‐site Cu²⁺ ion manifests itself in the low‐temperature specific heat data. This work sheds new light on the structure–property relations in perovskites.     

A Strategy to Control the Reactivation of Frustrated Lewis Pairs from Shelf‐Stable Carbene Borane Complexes

N‐Phosphine oxide substituted imidazolylidenes (PoxIms) have been synthesized and fully characterized. These species can undergo significant changes to the spatial environment surrounding their carbene center through rotation of the phosphine oxide moiety. Either classical Lewis adducts (CLAs) or frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) are thus formed with B(C₆F₅)₃ depending on the orientation of the phosphine oxide group. A strategy to reactivate FLPs from CLAs by exploiting molecular motions that are responsive to external stimuli has therefore been developed. The reactivation conditions were successfully controlled by tuning the strain in the PoxIm–B(C₆F₅)₃ complexes so that reactivation only occurred above ambient temperature.     

Calibration transfer employing univariate correction and robust regression

This paper proposes a new method for calibration transfer, which was specifically designed to work with isolated variables, rather than the full spectrum or spectral windows. For this purpose, a univariate procedure is initially employed to correct the spectral measurements of the secondary instrument, given a set of transfer samples. A robust regression technique is then used to obtain a model with low sensitivity with respect to the univariate correction residuals. The proposed method is employed in two case studies involving near infrared spectrometric determination of specific mass, research octane number and naphthenes in gasoline, and moisture and oil in corn. In both cases, better calibration transfer results were obtained in comparison with piecewise direct standardization (PDS). The proposed method should be of a particular value for use with application-targeted instruments that monitor only a small set of spectral variables.     

On the Conservativeness of Some Markov Processes

We give a unified method to obtain the conservativeness of a class of Markov processes associated with lower bounded semi-Dirichlet forms on L ²(X;m), including symmetric diffusion processes, some non-symmetric diffusion processes and jump type Markov processes on X, where X is a locally compact separable metric space and m is a positive Radon measure on X with full topological support. Using the method, we give an example in each section, providing the conservativeness of the processes, that are given by the “increasingness of the volume of some sets(balls)” and “that of the coefficients on the sets” of the Markov processes.     

Unprecedented alkylation of silicon enolates with alcohols via carbenium ion formations catalyzed by tin hydroxide-embedded montmorillonite

The solid acid, tin hydroxide-embedded montmorillonite, catalyzes the unprecedented alkylation of various silicon enolates with primary, secondary and tertiary benzylic alcohols as well as secondary allylic alcohols. The acid catalysis of Sn-Mont was not only higher than that of the other ion-exchanged montmorillonites (M-Mont; M = H, Ti, Fe and Al), but also higher than that of the typical homogeneous acid catalysts such as BF₃·OEt₂, TMSOTf and TfOH.