Enantioselective Synthesis of Ethyl 4,5,7,8,9‐Penta‐O‐acetyl‐2,6‐anhydro‐ 3‐deoxy‐D‐erythro‐L‐gluca‐nononate: a 2‐Monodeoxygenated Derivative of `2‐Keto‐3‐deoxy‐D‐glycero‐D‐galacto‐nononic Acid'

A study aimed at developing an enantioselective synthesis of the title compound 23 , a 2‐monodeoxy analogue of the naturally occurring (+)‐2‐keto‐3‐deoxy‐D ‐glycero‐D ‐galacto‐2‐nononic acid (KDN), is reported. From D ‐mannose as starting material, the chiral 1,3‐diene 10 , activated by a silyloxy substituent at C(2), was prepared in six steps (Scheme 1). However, the intermediates were often contaminated with varying amounts of by‐products arising from overoxidation during cleavage with periodic acid. An alternative route starting from the inexpensive and readily available D ‐isoascorbic acid ( 12 ), though a little longer than the first, satisfactorily circumvented the purification problem and led to the desired dienes 17 in good yields (scheme 2). The [Co^II(S,S)‐(+)‐salen]‐catalyzed hetero‐Diels‐Alder reactions of the aforementioned dienes with ethyl glyoxylate proceeded smoothly at room temperature, giving the dihydropyrano adducts 18 in moderate yields (Scheme 3). Dihydroxylation of 18a followed by reduction of the keto function gave the desired 4,5‐trans dihydroxy moiety of the KDN framework (Scheme 4, see 21 ). The spectroscopic data of the penta‐O‐acetylated 2‐deoxy‐KDN ethyl ester 23 were consistent with those reported for the corresponding methyl ester derived from natural KDN.     

2D‐ and 3D‐microstructured biodegradable polyester resins

Biodegradable polyester resins were prepared via photo crosslinking of functional polyesters obtained by copolymerization of ε‐caprolactone and the functional cyclic esters γ‐acryloyloxy‐ε‐caprolactone (ACL) and γ‐methacryloyloxy‐ε‐caprolactone (MCL). The cyclic esters were prepared via Baeyer‐Villiger oxidation of the corresponding 4‐acyloyloxy‐cyclohexanone derivatives. Copolymers with different content of either acryloyloxy or methacryloyloxy functional groups were prepared via catalyzed ring‐opening polymerization (ROP) of γ‐acyloyloxy‐ε‐caprolactones and ε‐caprolactone using Al(OiPr)₃ as catalyst and initiator. 2D‐ and 3D‐micropatterning of the copolymers was performed via UV‐crosslinking of polymer films on a suitable substrate and by UV replica molding on both rigid and elastic masters, showing the processability of these novel functional polyesters and their potential as substrates for biomedical devices. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 6789–6800, 2008     

Separation of D‐psicose and D‐fructose using simulated moving bed chromatography

Simulated moving bed (SMB) processes have been widely used in the sugar industries with ion‐exchange resin as a stationary phase. D ‐Psicose, a rare monosaccharide known as a valuable pharmaceutical substrate, was synthesized by the enzymatic conversion from D ‐fructose. The SMB process was adopted to separate D ‐psicose from D ‐fructose. Before the SMB experiment, the reaction mixture including D ‐psicose and D ‐fructose was treated by a deashing process to remove contaminants, such as buffers, proteins, and other organic materials. Four columns packed with Dowex 50WX4‐Ca²⁺ (200–400 mesh) ion‐exchange resins were used in the four‐zone SMB. Single‐step frontal analysis was performed to estimate the isotherm parameters of each monosaccharide. The operating conditions of the SMB process were determined based on the Equilibrium Theory. According to the simulation of the SMB process, the purity and yield of extract product (D ‐psicose) achieved were 99.04 and 97.46%, respectively and those of raffinate product (D ‐fructose) were 99.06 and 99.53%, respectively. Under the optimized operating condition, complete separation (extract purity = 99.36%, raffinate purity = 99.67%) was achieved experimentally.     

3D‐Printed Microfluidics

The advent of soft lithography allowed for an unprecedented expansion in the field of microfluidics. However, the vast majority of PDMS microfluidic devices are still made with extensive manual labor, are tethered to bulky control systems, and have cumbersome user interfaces, which all render commercialization difficult. On the other hand, 3D printing has begun to embrace the range of sizes and materials that appeal to the developers of microfluidic devices. Prior to fabrication, a design is digitally built as a detailed 3D CAD file. The design can be assembled in modules by remotely collaborating teams, and its mechanical and fluidic behavior can be simulated using finite‐element modeling. As structures are created by adding materials without the need for etching or dissolution, processing is environmentally friendly and economically efficient. We predict that in the next few years, 3D printing will replace most PDMS and plastic molding techniques in academia.     

Theoretical studies on triaryamine‐based p‐type D‐D‐π‐A sensitizer

Development of triaryamine‐based nonmetallic dye sensitizers is a hot topic in the solar cell research. A series of triaryamine‐based dyes WS1 – WS7 were designed with W1 as the prototype. Density functional theory (DFT) and time‐dependent‐DFT calculations were used to investigate the effects of the attached donor D on the absorption spectra and electronic properties of the dyes. The light‐harvesting efficiency (LHE), hole injection force (ΔG_inj), dye regeneration force (ΔG_reg), and charge recombination force (ΔG_CR) for all the dyes were predicted. The insertion of D not only results in a red shift in the absorption spectra for all dyes but also achieves a broader absorption for visible light. Compared with that of the prototype, the absorption peak of the dye WS7 has a red shift of 95 nm and an oscillator strength increase of 29%. The absorption peak of WS7 is wider and stronger, and the absorption range extends to 900 nm. The LHE and ΔG_reg values of WS7 are 0.991 and ?1.49 eV, respectively. On overall evaluation, WS7 is a promising candidate of a p‐type dye sensitizer with good light absorption and dye regeneration efficiency.     

Massively parallel implementation of 3D‐RISM calculation with volumetric 3D‐FFT

A new three‐dimensional reference interaction site model (3D‐RISM) program for massively parallel machines combined with the volumetric 3D fast Fourier transform (3D‐FFT) was developed, and tested on the RIKEN K supercomputer. The ordinary parallel 3D‐RISM program has a limitation on the number of parallelizations because of the limitations of the slab‐type 3D‐FFT. The volumetric 3D‐FFT relieves this limitation drastically. We tested the 3D‐RISM calculation on the large and fine calculation cell (2048³ grid points) on 16,384 nodes, each having eight CPU cores. The new 3D‐RISM program achieved excellent scalability to the parallelization, running on the RIKEN K supercomputer. As a benchmark application, we employed the program, combined with molecular dynamics simulation, to analyze the oligomerization process of chymotrypsin Inhibitor 2 mutant. The results demonstrate that the massive parallel 3D‐RISM program is effective to analyze the hydration properties of the large biomolecular systems. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Assembly‐Disassembly‐Organization‐Reassembly Mechanism for 3D‐2D‐3D Transformation of Germanosilicate IWW Zeolite

Hydrolysis of germanosilicate zeolites with the IWW structure shows two different outcomes depending on the composition of the starting materials. Ge‐rich IWW (Si/Ge=3.1) is disassembled into a layered material (IPC‐5P), which can be reassembled into an almost pure silica IWW on treatment with diethoxydimethylsilane. Ge‐poor IWW (Si/Ge=6.4) is not completely disassembled on hydrolysis, but retains some 3D connectivity. This structure can be reassembled into IWW by incorporation of Al to fill the defects left when the Ge is removed.     

Methyl 4‐O‐β‐D‐mannopyranosyl β‐D‐xylopyranoside

Methyl β‐D‐mannopyranosyl‐(1→4)‐β‐D‐xylopyranoside, C₁₂H₂₂O₁₀, (I), crystallizes as colorless needles from water, with two crystallographically independent molecules, (IA) and (IB), comprising the asymmetric unit. The internal glycosidic linkage conformation in molecule (IA) is characterized by a ϕ′ torsion angle (O5′_Man—C1′_Man—O1′_Man—C4_Xyl; Man is mannose and Xyl is xylose) of −88.38 (17)° and a ψ′ torsion angle (C1′_Man—O1′_Man—C4_Xyl—C5_Xyl) of −149.22 (15)°, whereas the corresponding torsion angles in molecule (IB) are −89.82 (17) and −159.98 (14)°, respectively. Ring atom numbering conforms to the convention in which C1 denotes the anomeric C atom, and C5 and C6 denote the hydroxymethyl (–CH₂OH) C atom in the β‐Xylp and β‐Manp residues, respectively. By comparison, the internal glycosidic linkage in the major disorder component of the structurally related disaccharide, methyl β‐D‐galactopyranosyl‐(1→4)‐β‐D‐xylopyranoside), (II) [Zhang, Oliver & Serriani (2012). Acta Cryst. C 68 , o7–o11], is characterized by ϕ′ = −85.7 (6)° and ψ′ = −141.6 (8)°. Inter‐residue hydrogen bonding is observed between atoms O3_Xyl and O5′_Man in both (IA) and (IB) [O3_Xyl...O5′_Man internuclear distances = 2.7268 (16) and 2.6920 (17) Å, respectively], analogous to the inter‐residue hydrogen bond detected between atoms O3_Xyl and O5′_Gal in (II). Exocyclic hydroxymethyl group conformation in the β‐Manp residue of (IA) is gauche–gauche, whereas that in the β‐Manp residue of (IB) is gauche–trans.     

Combined 1H, 13C and 11B NMR and mass spectral assignments of boronate complexes of D‐(+)‐glucose,D‐(+)‐mannose,methyl‐α‐D‐glucopyranoside,methyl‐β‐D‐galactopyranoside and methyl‐α‐D‐mannopyranoside

Complex formation between N‐butylboronic acid and D ‐(+)‐glucose, D ‐(+)‐mannose, methyl‐α‐D ‐glucopyranoside, methyl‐β‐D ‐galactopyranoside and methyl α‐D ‐mannopyranoside under neutral conditions was investigated by ¹H, ¹³C and ¹¹B NMR spectroscopy and gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) D ‐(+)‐Glucose and D ‐(+)‐mannose formed complexes where the boronates are attached to the 1,2:4,6‐ and 2,3:5,6‐positions of the furanose forms, respectively. On the other hand, the boronic acid binds to the 4,6‐positions of the two methyl derivatives of glucose and galactose. Methyl α‐D ‐mannopyranoside binds two boronates at the 2,3:4,6‐positions. ¹¹B NMR was used to show the ring size of the complexed sugars and the boronate. GC–MS confirmed the assignments. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.