Is Enantioselectivity Predictable in Asymmetric Catalysis?

S ee ing into the future : A range of computational methods have been applied to harmonize predicted ee values with experimental values. Novel ways of combining quantum mechanics and molecular mechanics feature prominently.

     

Heteropolyacids Catalysis in Synthesizing Butylacrylate

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Pharmaceutical Industry Oriented Homogeneous Catalysis

Chiral therapeutics already makes up over one-third of pharmaceutical drugs currently sold worldwide. This is a growing industry with global chiral drug sales for 2002 increasing by 12% to $160 billion (Technology Catalysts International) of a total drug market of $410bn. The increasing demand to produce enantiomerically pure pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, flavors, and other fine chemicals has advanced the field of asymmetric catalytic technologies. We aim to become a high value technology p…     

Catalysis of Carbon–Gas Reactions

The characteristic features on the catalysis of carbon–gas reactions has been studied by combining various techniques such as transient kinetics, temperature-programmed desorption and others. Some of recent achievements are presented to comprehend the state of the art. Many industrial processes associated with catalytic carbon–gas reactions are then discussed in relation to the fundamental chemistry of catalysis.     

Molecular Mechanics Study on Asymmetry Catalysis

Theasymmetrycatalysisisanimportantchemicalreactionwidelyusedinbiology,pharmacyalldagriculture.Itispreferredtoenantioselectivehydrogenationofmethylpyruvate(MP)oversuppoFtedplatiniumnanoclusters.Cinchonidine(CD)isamodifier,aco-catalysttothereaction.Withoutthemodifier,therewouldbenoenantioselectivitytothehydrogenationofpyruvate.Inordertoobtainbetterunderstandingofthemechanismofthereaction,especiallytheroleofthemoditler,thepresentstudybymolecularmodelinghasbeenperformedandtheresultsarereportedhe…     

Catalysis of redox reactions by Ag@TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> and Fe<Superscript>3+</Superscript>-doped Ag@TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> core–shell type nanoparticles

Ag nanoparticles encapsulated by TiO₂ shells have the ability to catalyze redox reactions on their surface. By continually monitoring by use of UV–visible spectroscopy it was found that the surface charge of both TiO₂-coated and uncoated colloidal silver particles changed after chemical electron injection. The charging and discharging process of Ag@TiO₂ vary, depending on the different Ag content of the core–shell nanoparticles. In order to enhance the stability of Ag@TiO₂ colloids, Fe³⁺ was doped into the lattice of the TiO₂ shells. The experimental results showed that the Fe³⁺ ions have the capacity to store and transfer electrons. Furthermore, the charging and discharging rate can be controlled by changing the thickness of the TiO₂ shells, because they are limited by the diffusion distance of electrons through the TiO₂ shells.     

Journal of Molecular Catalysis(China)

The Journal of Molecular Catalysis(China)was first publishedin 1987 by the approval of the State Science and Technology Com-mission.It is an academic periodical circulated both domestically andinternationally.     

Combinatorial Chemistry in Heterogeneous Catalysis: A New Scientific Approach or “the King's New Clothes”?

The spectacular success in materials science of the application of combinatorial chemistry has raised the hope that it may eventually lead to a new scientific approach to catalyst development. This method is, within the constraints of heterogeneous catalysis, merely a potentially efficient tool to be used in rational catalyst development and should not be considered an independent novel strategy towards rational catalyst design.     

Is There a “Most Chiral Tetrahedron”?

A degree of chirality is a function that purports to measure the amount of chirality of an object: it is equal for enantiomers, vanishes only for achiral or degenerate objects and is similarity invariant, dimensionless and normalisable to the interval [0,1]. For a tetrahedron of non-zero three-dimensional volume, achirality is synonymous with the presence of a mirror plane containing one edge and bisecting its opposite, and hence it is easy to design degree-of-chirality functions based on edge length that incorporate all constraints. It is shown that such functions can have largest maxima at widely different points in the tetrahedral shape space, and by incorporation of appropriate factors, the maxima can be pushed to any point in the space. Thus the phrase "most chiral tetrahedron" has no general meaning: any chiral tetrahedron is the most chiral for some legitimate choice of degree of chirality.     

Is the Excited‐State H‐atom Transfer in Hypericin Concerted?¶

The excited-state intramolecular H-atom transfer of hypericin (Hyp) was investigated as a function of pH in monodispersed reverse micelles formed by sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate/heptane/water and in complexes with Tb3+ under conditions in which one of the two carbonyl groups of Hyp is incapable of accepting a hydrogen atom. The results of pump-probe transient absorption experiments provide no evidence for a concerted H-atom transfer mechanism.     

Will Zeolite‐Based Catalysis be as Relevant in Future Biorefineries as in Crude Oil Refineries?

Transition from petroleum‐ to biomass‐based fuel economy will require new conversion strategies. In a petroleum refinery, particular hydrocarbon fractions from crude oil are catalytically converted into high‐grade fuels. Certain zeolite catalysts are performing exceptionally well. Unlike petroleum fractions, biomass‐derived compounds have a high oxygen content requiring low‐temperature catalytic aqueous phase processes for selective conversion and stability of zeolite catalysts in hot liquid water. It will be shown that recent developments in zeolite synthesis and modification allow adapting zeolite properties to achieve selective conversion of biomass compounds/fractions as well.     

Is Cyanide Really a Strong‐Field Ligand?

Iron man or weakling? Ligand‐field strengths are conveniently expressed by the empirical spectrochemical series. Although cyanide has been deeply entrenched as a strong‐field ligand, a couple of recent examples cast doubt toward the position of this ligand, namely the high‐spin (S=2) states of [Cr^II(CN)₅]^3? and [Fe^II(tpp)(CN)]^?. tpp=meso‐tetraphenylporphinate.

     

Catalysis by Using TiO_2 Nanoparticles and Nanotubes

TiO2 has attracted considerable attention due to its stability, non-toxicity, low cost, and great potential for use as a photocatalyst in environmental applications. Since strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) of titania-supported noble metals was first reported in 1978, titania supported catalyst has been intensively studied in heterogeneous catalysis. However, the effective catalytic activity was restricted due to the low surface area of TiO2. Recently, TiO2-based nanotubes were extens…     

Aluminosilicate Catalysis of Chalcone Diels–Alder Reactions

Previously unreported Diels–Alder adducts of substituted chalcones with isoprene and myrcene have been formed at more than 0°C by employing a nanoporous aluminosilicate catalyst. This catalyst eliminates problems with diene polymerization that are encountered with many other Lewis acids. The chalcone component has some size restrictions.     

Is Cyclopropane Really the σ‐Aromatic Paradigm?

Dewar proposed the σ‐aromaticity concept to explain the seemingly anomalous energetic and magnetic behavior of cyclopropane in 1979. While a detailed, but indirect energetic evaluation in 1986 raised doubts—“There is no need to involve ‘σ‐aromaticity’,”—other analyses, also indirect, resulted in wide‐ranging estimates of the σ‐aromatic stabilization energy. Moreover, the aromatic character of “in‐plane”, “double”, and cyclically delocalized σ‐electron systems now seems well established in many types of molecules. Nevertheless, the most recent analysis of the magnetic properties of cyclopropane (S. Pelloni, P. Lazzeretti, R. Zanasi, J. Phys. Chem. A 2007 , 111, 8163–8169) challenged the existence of an induced σ‐ring current, and provided alternative explanations for the abnormal magnetic behavior. Likewise, the present study, which evaluates the σ‐aromatic stabilization of cyclopropane directly for the first time, fails to find evidence for a significant energetic effect. According to ab initio valence bond (VB) computations at the VBSCF/cc‐PVTZ level, the σ‐aromatic stabilization energy of cyclopropane is, at most, 3.5 kcal mol^?1 relative to propane, and is close to zero when n‐butane is used as reference. Trisilacyclopropane also has very little σ‐aromatic stabilization, compared to Si₃H₈ (6.3 kcal mol^?1) and Si₄H₁₀ (4.2 kcal mol^?1). Alternative interpretations of the energetic behavior of cyclopropane (and of cyclobutane, as well as their silicon counterparts) are supported.