Microwave-enhanced copper-catalyzed N-arylation of free and protected amino acids in water

A microwave-enhanced copper-catalyzed protocol for N-arylation using water as the solvent is reported. This fast transformation allows the reaction between various amino acids or amino acid esters and a diverse set of substituted aryl bromides in less than 40 min, affording good yields of non-protected N-arylated amino acids with only minor racemization (6% or less). In addition, online ESI-MS and MS/MS analysis were used to "fish-out" an anionic Cu-containing amino acid complex directly from an ongoing N-arylation reaction.     

A novel electrochemical approach to the characterization of oxidoreductase reactions

Electrochemical methods based on enzyme-electrochemical reactions have been developed for studying oxidoreductase reactions. The methods measure a current resulting from an oxidoreductase reaction with an electrode serving as a final electron acceptor (or donor) in the reaction. A theoretical equation for the enzyme-electrochemical reaction, called bioelectrocatalysis, is derived, which enables kinetic analysis of the reaction. In combination with spectrophotometry, the electrochemical method provides a method for determining the redox potentials of proteins and enzymes. An alternative method based on bulk electrolysis in a quartz cell for UV-vis spectroscopy has been developed for the measurements of protein redox potentials on a conventional spectrophotometer. The electrochemical methods are applied to kinetic and thermodynamic analyses for the reactions of a variety of enzymes including a newly discovered enzyme, quinohemoprotein amine dehydrogenase (QH-AmDH), and bilirubin oxidase (BOD) [EC 1.3.3.5, from Myrothecium verrucaria], a copper-containing enzyme useful for bioelectrocatalytic O(2) reduction in biofuel cells. The electrochemical method for kinetic analysis has been successfully applied to the analysis of oxidoreductase reactions in vivo, as demonstrated by the reaction of glucose dehydrogenase in Escherichia coli. The advantages of the electrochemical methods are discussed.     

典型燃料点火延迟时间的一阶和二阶局部和全局敏感度分析

Sensitivity analysis is an important tool in model validation and evaluation that has been employed extensively in the analysis of chemical kinetic models of combustion processes. The input parameters of a chemical kinetic model are always associated with some uncertainties, and the effects of these uncertainties on the predicted combustion properties can be determined through sensitivity analysis. In this work, first- and second-order global and local sensitivity coefficients of ignition delay time with respect to the scaling factor for reaction rate constants in chemical kinetic mechanisms for combustion of H₂, methane, n-butane, and n-heptane are examined. In the sensitivity analysis performed here, the output of the model is taken to be natural logarithm of ignition delay time and the input parameters are the natural logarithms of the factors that scale the reaction rate constants. The output of the model is expressed as a polynomial function of the input parameters, with up to coupling between two input parameters in the present sensitivity analysis. This polynomial function is determined by varying one or two input parameters, and allows the determination of both local and global sensitivity coefficients. The order of the polynomial function in the present work is four, and the factor that scales the reaction rate constant is in the range from 1/e to e, where e is the base of the natural logarithm. A relatively small number of sample runs are required in this approach compared to the global sensitivity analysis based on the highly dimensional model representation method, which utilizes random sampling of input (RS-HDMR). In RS-HDMR, sensitivity coefficients are determined only for the rate constants of a limited number of reactions; the present approach, by contrast, affords sensitivity coefficients for a larger number of reactions. Reactions and reaction pairs with the largest sensitivity coefficients are listed for ignition delay times of four typical fuels. Global sensitivity coefficients are always positive, while local sensitivity coefficients can be either positive or negative. A negative local sensitivity coefficient indicates that the reaction promotes ignition, while a positive local sensitivity coefficient suggests that the reaction actually suppresses ignition. Our results show that important reactions or reaction pairs identified by global sensitivity analysis are usually rather similar to those based on local sensitivity analysis. This finding can probably be attributed to the fact that the values of input parameters are within a rather small range in the sensitivity analysis, and nonlinear effects for such a small range of parameters are negligible. It is possible to determine global sensitivity coefficients by varying the input parameters over a larger range using the present approach. Such analysis shows that correlation effects between an important reaction and a minor reaction can have relatively sizable second-order sensitivity coefficient in some cases. On the other hand, first-order global sensitivity coefficients in the present approach will be affected by coupling between two reactions, and some results of the first-order global sensitivity analysis will be different from those determined by local sensitivity analysis or global sensitivity analysis under conditions where the correlation effects of two reactions are neglected. The present sensitivity analysis approach provides valuable information on important reactions as well as correlated effects of two reactions on the combustion characteristics of a chemical kinetic mechanism. In addition, the analysis can also be employed to aid global sensitivity analysis using RS-HDMR, where global sensitivity coefficients are determined more reliably.     

取代邻苯二腈的合成

在室温条件下合成了一系列芳氧基邻苯二腈化合物,应用无素分析、1HNMR、IR确定了它们的结构,讨论了不同取代基对反应的影响.结果表明,酚的芳环上有推电子基时反应容易进行;酚的芳环上有拉电子基时反应慢或不反应.     

Geometric description of chemical reactions

We use the formalism of Geometrothermodynamics to describe chemical reactions in the context of equilibrium thermodynamics. Any chemical reaction in a closed system is shown to be described by a geodesic in a 2-dimensional manifold that can be interpreted as the equilibrium space of the reaction. We first show this in the particular cases of a reaction with only two species corresponding to either two ideal gases or two van der Waals gases. We then consider the case of a reaction with an arbitrary number of species. The initial equilibrium state of the geodesic is determined by the initial conditions of the reaction. The final equilibrium state, which follows from a thermodynamic analysis of the reaction, is shown to correspond to a coordinate singularity of the thermodynamic metric which describes the equilibrium manifold.     

Time behaviour of the modifier involved in the general mechanism of Botts and Morales assuming rapid equilibrium in the modifier bindings

To date, the classification as activator or inhibitor of a modifier involved in an enzyme catalysed reaction is established according to its kinetic behaviour at the steady state. Inhibitors and activators are defined as modifiers which decrease or increase, respectively, the steady state rate of an enzyme-catalysed reaction. At this state, in some cases, a modifier always acts as an activator or as an inhibitor for all its possible concentration values. In other cases the action of a modifier as activator or inhibitor depends on its concentration. In this paper we extend the analysis of the kinetic behaviour of a modifier as inhibitor or nonessential activator to the transient phase of the reaction, i.e. to the whole course of the reaction, including both the transient phase and the steady state. Moreover, concerning to the behaviour of a modifier at the transient phase, we suggest its classification as activator or inhibitor based on the concentration and activator or inhibitor based on the rate. We have studied the behaviour of the modifier involved in the general modifier mechanisms of Botts and Morales in which the reversible bindings of the modifier to the enzyme forms are assumed in rapid equilibrium. The result is that depending on the values of the rate constants, equilibrium constants and the initial concentrations of both the involved substrate and modifier, the latter can act during the whole reaction course only as an activator, only as an inhibitor, first as an activator and then, from a determined reaction time, as inhibitor, or vice versa. Therefore, it is possible that a modifier showing an activating behaviour at the steady state behaves as an inhibitor in the transient phase, or vice versa. Novel indices pointing to the conditions under which the modifier can show any of the behaviours indicated above are suggested. The goodness of the analytical results is tested by comparison with the simulated curves obtained by numerical integration. From these results, those corresponding to several reaction mechanisms involving a modifier, and which can be regarded as particular cases of the general case analysed here, can be directly and easily obtained.     

ReaxFF MD局部区域反应追踪与物理性质可视化分析

Recently, the application of ReaxFF based reactive molecular dynamics simulation (ReaxFF MD) in complex processes of pyrolysis, oxidation and catalysis has attracted considerable attention. The analysis of the simulation results of these processes is challenging owing to the complex chemical reactions involved, coupled with their dynamic physical properties. VARxMD is a leading tool for the chemical reaction analysis and visualization of ReaxFF MD simulations, which allows the automated analysis of reaction sites to get overall reaction lists, evolution trends of reactants and products, and reaction networks of specified reactants and products. The visualization of the reaction details and dynamic evolution profiles are readily available for each reactant and product. Additionally, the detailed reaction sites of bond breaking and formation are available in 2D chemical structure diagrams and 3D structure views; for specified reactions, they are categorized on the basis of the chemical structures of the bonding sites or function groups in the reacting species. However, the current VARxMD code mainly focuses on global chemical reaction information in the simulation system of the ReaxFF MD, and is incapable of locally tracking the chemical reaction and physical properties in a 3D picked zone. This work extends the VARxMD from global analysis to a focused 3D zone picked interactively from the 3D visualization modules of VARxMD, as well as physical property analysis to complement reaction analysis. The analysis of reactions and physical properties can be implemented in three steps: picking and drawing a 3D zone, identifying molecules in the picked zone, and analyzing the reactions and physical properties of the picked molecules. A 3D zone can be picked by specifying the geometric parameters or drawing on a screen using a mouse. The picking of a cuboid or sphere was implemented using the VTK 3D view libraries by specifying geometric parameters. The interactive 3D zone picking was implemented using a combination of observer and command patterns in the VTK visualization paradigm. The chemical reaction tracking and dynamic radial distribution function (RDF) of the 3D picked zone was efficiently implemented by inheriting data obtained from the global analysis of VARxMD. The reaction tracking between coal particles in coal pyrolysis simulation and dynamic structure characterization of carbon rich cluster formation in the thermal decomposition of an energetic material are presented as application examples. The obtained detailed reactions between the coal particles and comparison of the reaction between the locally and globally picked areas in the cuboid are helpful in understanding the role of micro pores in coal particles. The carbon to carbon RDF analysis and comparison of the spherical region picked for the layered molecular clusters in the pyrolysis system of the TNT crystal model with the standard RDF of the 5-layer graphene demonstrate the extended VARxMD as a chemical structure characteristic tool for detecting the dynamic formation profile of carbon rich clusters in the pyrolysis of TNT. The extended capability of VARxMD for a 3D picked zone of a ReaxFF MD simulation system can be useful for interfacial reaction analysis in a catalysis system, hot spot formation analysis in the detonation of energetic material systems, and particularly the pyrolysis or oxidation processes of coal, biomass, polymers, hydrocarbon fuels, and energetic materials.     

Utility of kinetic analysis in the determination of reaction mechanism

Thermal analysis has a long and prominent role in the characterization of materials, including polymeric materials. Kinetic studies in one form or another have often been employed in an attempt to assess stability, predict lifetime, establish degradation pathway, or project suitable processing conditions. The results of such studies have often formed the basis for the proposal of the ‘mechanism’ of reaction. This despite the fact that the reaction being observed is often unknown or is not a single process but rather several parallel or consecutive events. This latter is particularly true for ‘variable temperature kinetics’. The utility/value of such exercises is marginal at best and contributes nothing to an understanding of the mechanism of any of the reactions involved.     

Determination of multiple thermal degradation mechanisms of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate)

The thermal degradation of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate) (PHB) was investigated by kinetic analyses in detail to clarify its complex degradation behavior, resulting in a finding of mixed mechanisms comprising at least a thermal random degradation with subsequent auto-accelerated transesterification, and a kinetically favored chain reaction from crotonate chain ends. The thermal degradation behavior of PHB varied with changes in time and/or temperature. From the kinetic analysis of changes in molecular weight, it was found that a non-auto-catalytic random degradation proceeding in the initial period was followed by an auto-accelerated reaction in the middle period. From the kinetic analysis of weight loss behavior, it is proposed that there are some kinetically favored scissions occurring at the chain ends, where the degradation proceeded by a 0th-order weight loss process in the middle stage. The observed 0th-order weight loss process was assumed to be an unzipping reaction occurring at ester groups neighboring the crotonate end groups.     

Application of automated matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry for the measurement of enzyme activities

Sample preparation methods and data acquisition protocols were optimized for the application of matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOFMS) to high-throughput quantitative analysis of low molecular mass substrates and products of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction. Using a deuterlum-labeled internal standard, precise standard curves were obtained (r(2) = 0.9998) over two orders of magnitude of concentration of rac-1-phenylethylamine (PEA), which is converted to 2-methoxy-N-[(1R)-1-phenylethyl]acetamide (MET) by a lipase-catalyzed reaction with ethylmethoxyacetate (EMA) as second substrate. Reliable relative standard deviations were achieved (< or =5%) using automated analysis with peak intensity ratios between 0.2 and 5 of analyte to internal standard. This method permitted quantitative analysis of the lipase reaction, producing results comparable to those from gas chromatographic (GC) analysis in the dynamic range of GC. This work shows that MALDI-TOFMS can be applied for the high-throughput screening of enzymes.     

Functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes "on water"

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are exfoliated and functionalized into small bundles and individuals by vigorous stirring "on water" in the presence of a substituted aniline and an oxidizing agent. This is an example of an "on water" reaction that leads to functionalized SWNTs, and it represents a "green", or environmentally friendly, process. A variety of reaction conditions were explored. The products were analyzed with Raman, UV-vis-NIR, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, atomic force and transmission electron microscopies, and thermogravimetric analysis.     

Isoconversional analysis of thermal dissociation kinetics of hematite in air and inert atmospheres

Dissociation of hematite is an undesirable reaction for iron ore pelletizing process leading to severe deterioration in compressive cold strength and reducibility factors. It was shown that raising temperature in an induration machine would cause hematite’s dissociation, which is either present in the primary ore or formed by oxidation of magnetite in the feed. The oxidation reaction of magnetite is exothermic, which complicates temperature control within the non-isothermal area of preheating. Kinetics of the dissociation reaction is the temperature’s primary function, which controls the extent of the reaction. Pure hematite samples were subjected to several runs of thermal analysis carried out under both air and inert atmosphere, in order to achieve a comprehensive knowledge about the temperature dependencies of dissociation kinetics. Due to the observed uniformity, isoconversional methods were chosen in the present work over isothermal and non-isothermal for calculation of kinetic parameters of the reaction. Respectively, activation energy values of hematite dissociation were found to be 324 and 382 kJ mol^?1 in inert and air atmosphere. The high value of activation energy implies strong dependency of the single-step reaction rate on the temperature. It was also observed that the forward reaction had higher activation energy than the backward reaction; hence, an increase in temperature results in an overall acceleration of the dissociation reaction.     

In situ sulfonation of alkyl benzene self-assembled monolayers: product distribution and kinetic analysis

The sulfonation of aromatic rings held at the surface of a covalently anchored self-assembled monolayer has been analyzed in terms of the rates and isomer distribution of the sulfonation process. The observed product distributions are similar to those observed in solution, though the data obtained suggest that the reaction rate and the ortho/para product ratio depend on the length of the tether anchoring the aryl ring to the monolayer interface. It was also found that the interface becomes progressively more disordered and the observed reaction rates decrease as the reaction progresses. There is no evidence for a bias in favor of reaction at the more exposed para-position nor is there evidence for an enhanced reaction rate due to the increased disorder and/or improved wetting as the reaction proceeds. This is the first detailed study of electrophilic aromatic substitution at a monolayer interface. It introduces new approaches to the spectroscopic analysis of reactions on self-assembled monolayers and provides a new general approach to the analysis of isomeric product distribution in such a setting.     

Computational study of iminium ion formation: effects of amine structure

Density functional calculations are used to explore the formation of iminium ions from secondary amines and acrolein and the subsequent reactivity of the resulting iminium ions. After establishing a feasible profile for this reaction in simulated experimental conditions, we focus on the effect of variation in amine structure on calculated barriers. This analysis shows that incorporation of a heteroatom (N or O) in the alpha-position to the reactive amine results in significantly reduced energy barriers, as does an electron-withdrawing group (carbonyl or thiocarbonyl) in the beta-position. Electron density analysis is used to monitor reactions at a detailed level, and to identify important intermolecular interactions at both minima and transition states. Barriers to reaction are linked to calculated proton affinities of secondary amines, suggesting that the relative ease of protonation-deprotonation of the amine is a key property of effective catalysts. Moreover, barriers for subsequent Diels-Alder reaction of iminium ions with cyclopentadiene are lower than for their formation, suggesting that formation may be the rate determining step in the catalytic cycle.     

基于钯催化C-H键活化的多米诺反应

近年来,多米诺反应作为一种合成复杂分子的高效手段已得到有机合成化学家的广泛关注。该反应过程中,不需改变反应条件和添加试剂,中间体也无需分离和提纯,实现了原子经济和环境友好。通过C-H键活化直接构建碳-碳键和碳-杂原子键,大大拓展了传统偶联反应的底物范围,同样具有高原子经济性,已经广泛地作为多米诺反应中的一个高效步骤。此外,钯催化剂运用广泛,能够与多种官能团兼容,是多米诺反应的理想金属催化剂。本文综述了基于钯催化C-H键活化的多米诺反应的最新研究进展,以反应中钯的价态变化进行分类,介绍有关反应的特点、优势及其在天然产物合成中的应用。     

High-throughput polymerase chain reaction analysis of clinical samples by capillary electrophoresis with UV detection

Routine genetic analysis of large numbers of individuals by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using capillary electrophoresis is often restricted by the low throughput of standard protocols and the tedious sample preparation process. Here, we demonstrate that capillary electrophoresis with UV detection can be used in PCR-based DNA analysis starting from clinical samples without purification or complicated sample manipulation. After PCR reaction using cheek cells, blood, or HIV-1 gag DNA, the reaction mixtures were injected into a capillary array either on-line or off-line by base stacking. The use of multiplexed absorption detection and the elimination of any purification steps both before and after PCR reaction can potentially provide significant benefits compared to current methods for DNA analysis with regard to time, cost, and labor.     

GMA熔融接枝EPDM的研究

以甲基丙烯酸缩水甘油酯（ＧＭＡ）为接枝单体，过氧化二异丙苯（ＤＣＰ）为引发剂，对三元乙丙胶（ＥＰＤＭ）进行了熔融接枝，在烃链上引入极性基团，以改善ＥＰＤＭ与极性聚合物的相容性。用差示扫描量热计（ＤＳＣ）研究了ＧＭＡ的聚合温度，用富里叶红外（ＦＴ－ＩＲ）、凝胶渗透色谱（ＧＰＣ）对接枝产物进行了表征。实验结果表明，产物的接枝率和凝胶量可以通过反应条件（温度、时间、反应物组成及加料方式）来控制。     

Analysis of lipid peroxidation kinetics. 1. Role of recombination of alkyl and peroxyl radicals

The kinetics of the lipid peroxidation reaction is only partly understood. Although the set of reactions constituting the overall reaction are believed to be known, it has not been possible to predict how the reaction will respond to a change of one or more of the parameters, e.g., initial concentrations of reactants or different ways of initiating the reaction, nor has it been possible to predict the time dependence of the products. The reason for these problems is the complicated structure of the kinetic scheme, which includes a chain reaction. In this work we perform an in-depth analysis of the importance of the individual reaction steps, and we introduce a new quasi-stationary concentration method based on the assumption that one or more concentrations vary much slower than the others. We show that it is justified to use a quasi-stationary concentration approximation for the alkyl radical L (*), but not for the peroxyl radicals LO 2 (*) as assumed in previous works. The method allows us to derive manageable analytical expressions. On the basis of literature values of the rate constants, we are able to introduce specific simplifications that allow us to obtain simple analytical expressions for the time dependence of all concentrations involved in the process.     

硼酸钠/甲阶酚醛树脂配合物的热固化过程和耐热性

硼酸钠/甲阶酚醛树脂配合物的热固化过程和耐热性