Microwave fluorination: a novel, rapid approach to fluorination with Selectfluor

Fluorination of electron rich aromatic systems with electrophilic fluorination reagents such as Selectfluor^® and Accufluor^® is a well-established process. Herein we report results from investigations into the use of such procedures to perform rapid, small-scale fluorinations under microwave irradiation. We have investigated the transformation with a range of different substrates and discuss the effects of two key factors, namely reaction time and choice of fluorination reagent. The use of Selectfluor^® in acetonitrile at 150 °C with microwave heating for 10 min affords products in comparable yields to those obtained by prolonged heating in acetonitrile at its reflux temperature.     

Recycling of waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) with castor oil using microwave heating

The chemical recycling of waste poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) using castor oil (CO) as a reagent is reported. CO presents a renewable alternative to petrochemical based reagents, e.g. glycols, and enables also substantial modification of final physico-chemical properties of a received product. Advantageously, microwave irradiation was used to accelerate the depolymerization of PET. A composition of obtained product was strongly influenced by the reaction temperature. When the decomposition of PET was performed at temperature higher than 240 °C, then a significant extent of side products based on PET oligomers and transesterified CO was observed due to dehydration and hydrolysis of CO. Contrary to that, PET decomposition took place at slow rate below 230 °C and the optimal reaction temperature lies in the relatively narrow interval from 230 °C to 240 °C. The product prepared in the optimal temperature range did not contain any high molecular weight PET oligomers. MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry enabled to identify the structures included in the obtained polyol product. The maximum number of six repeating monomeric unit of PET was found in the product, which confirmed practically the complete depolymerization of PET chain and good reactivity of the acylester hydroxyl groups of CO.     

A new glycosylation method part 3: study of microwave effects at low temperatures to control reaction pathways and reduce byproducts

The efficiency of microwave irradiation at low temperature for glycosylations is described. Although oligosaccharide synthesis usually requires reactive donors for glycosylations, which have leaving groups on the anomer positions, i.e., trichloroacetoimidates, halogenates, thioalkyl glycosides, etc., the suitable donors in our microwave supported synthesis of Lewis X oligosaccharide were very stable acetate derivatives. Regarding glycosylation with a fucosyl acetate donor and a glucosamine acceptor, microwave irradiation with simultaneous cooling improved yields. Moreover, further synthesis to Lewis X derivatives was achieved only with microwave irradiation at low temperatures. Without microwave irradiation, we could only obtain byproducts and none of the designed product at any reaction temperature.     

Hot or not—the influence of elevated temperature and microwave irradiation on the solid phase synthesis of an affibody

Despite the advances of solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) the synthesis of long peptides is still challenging. Microwave irradiation and conventional heating are considered to improve the efficiency of SPPS. It has been shown that conventional heating and heating by microwave irradiation improves the efficiency of solid phase synthesis of peptides that are prone to aggregation as compared to the synthesis at room temperature. In this Letter, the influence of elevated temperature and microwave irradiation on the homogeneity of the synthesis product of a 58-mer peptide affibody has been compared. A detailed analysis by high resolution HPLC and LC-MS mass spectrometry using a high-mass resolution Orbitrap Exactive mass spectrometer was performed. This study revealed that neither thermal heating nor microwave heating improves the yield and purity of the crude product as compared to the synthesis at room temperature. In contrast, the formation of undesirable side products rather increased by microwave irradiation. These results indicate that neither heating nor microwave enhancement of solid phase synthesis does allow a significant improvement of peptide sequences with a low aggregation potential.     

Rapid and easy access to indoles via microwave-assisted Hemetsberger-Knittel synthesis

Hemetsberger-Knittel indole synthesis can be carried out under microwave activation. The optimum reaction conditions were found by using different solvents and by varying irradiation times and temperature. After 10 min of microwave irradiation, high conversion into the corresponding indole products was achieved without formation of any side products.     

Fast synthesis of temperature-sensitive PNIPAAm hydrogels by microwave irradiation

A novel method, microwave irradiation synthesis, is proposed for the preparation of thermo-sensitive poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAAm) hydrogels. The PNIPAAm hydrogels were separately synthesized by using microwave irradiation method and water-bath heating method. Chemical groups, lower critical solution temperature (LCST) and surface morphology of these PNIPAAm hydrogels were characterized by FT-IR, DSC and SEM. Swelling ratios of the gels were measured gravimetrically in the temperature range from 10.0 to 60.0 °C. Results showed that (1) the use of microwave irradiation can greatly shorten the reaction time required for PNIPAAm hydrogel synthesis from several hours to several minutes in comparison with water-bath heating method, and obviously improve the yields of the PNIPAAm gels, which were up to 99% after a short reaction time; (2) SEM micrographs and textural measurement revealed that the gels synthesized using microwave irradiation had more porous structure, and their average pore sizes and specific surface areas were larger than those of the gels synthesized using water-bath heating method; and (3) the PNIPAAm hydrogels synthesized using microwave irradiation had much higher swelling ratios at 10.0 °C below the LCST, and had lower swelling ratio at 60.0 °C above the LCST compared to the hydrogels synthesized by water-bath method.     

Microwave-assisted silica-supported aluminum chloride-catalyzed Friedel-Crafts alkylation

Microwave irradiation is a popular method in organic synthesis to achieve high yields in shorter reaction times. This decreases total ‘man-hours’ in a synthetic setting. Another technique used in organic chemistry to decrease manual manipulations, is solid support reagents. The benefits of this approach is that upon completion of a reaction, a simple filtration can be performed which expedites the work-up and also produces less organic waste. Friedel-Crafts alkylation has been explored using microwave chemistry as well as with solid-supported reagents. In comparison with traditional heating, as well as with AlCl₃, superior yields were observed with silica-gel bound aluminum chloride (Si-AlCl_x) when microwave irradiated for only 5 min.     

Microwave-assisted rapid decomposition of persulfate

Microwave irradiation has been a promising alternative to conduct several chemical reactions. In this work the microwave effects in potassium persulfate decomposition rate, under controlled conditions of temperature and microwave power, were evaluated. Higher decomposition rate constants were obtained in microwave irradiated reactions in comparison with conventional heated ones. To study the effect of high power microwave irradiation, a pulsed irradiation strategy was developed, in which the samples were repeatedly heated within short intervals of time at high power levels (500 or 1400 W). A great decomposition percentage was achieved in shorter irradiation times, showing the kinetic advantages of microwave-assisted reactions. However, it was found no differences in the reaction yields, even when high power levels were involved, proving that microwave enhancements may arise only from the ability to quickly provide a large amount of energy to the reaction medium.     

Solvent-free Knoevenagel condensations and Michael additions in the solid state and in the melt with quantitative yield

Numerous Knoevenagel condensations of solid or liquid aromatic aldehydes are performed with four barbituric acids, Meldrum's acid, dimedone, cyanoacetamide, malodinitrile and methyl cyanoacetate in stoichiometric mixtures of the solids or of stoichiometric melts. The product yields are quantitative in 23 reported cases and the products do not require purifying workup. Therefore, these reactions are truly solvent-free, atom economic and sustainable and no wastes are produced. They are highly superior to less productive so-called ‘solvent-free’ techniques using solid supports and microwave irradiation that require solvents for removal of the support or reagents or side products. Similarly, the solution reactions generally requiring catalysts suffer from low yields and purifying workup. The new techniques provide numerous common electron-poor alkenes very easily. These are valuable building blocks for example in Michael additions. Also the latter can be quantitatively obtained in stoichiometric melts in the absence of any auxiliaries or microwave irradiation and this is demonstrated with stable and rearranging/cyclizing Michael adducts using dimedone. The quantitative yields are most easily obtained if the products are formed in the solid-state or if they crystallize directly from the melt at the reaction temperature.     

Microwave-assisted lipase-catalyzed synthesis of polyethylene glycol stearate in a solvent-free system

Polyethylene glycol stearate, a condensation esterification product of stearic acid and polyethylene glycol 600, was widely applied in the biomedical and healthcare industries. The current work focuses on the enzymatic synthesis of PEG stearate using CALB_ex10000, a commercial Lipase enzyme in solvent-free conditions using microwave irradiation. The influence of various reaction parameters such as temperature, molar ratio of reactants, and enzyme loading was studied to obtain the highest conversion. Maximum conversion of 85% was attained under molar ratio 1:1 (PEG 600 to stearic acid using 0.7% (w/w) enzyme loading at 60 ​°C of temperature in 70 ​min of reaction time. Further, the thermodynamic parameters were analyzed and compared with the conventional and ultrasound-assisted synthesis of PEG stearate. The enzyme was recycled up to 5^th cycle giving more than 35% of the initial activity.     

Cycloaddition profile of pentafulvenes with 3-oxidopyrylium betaine: experimental and theoretical investigations

A detailed investigation on the effect of solvent polarity, temperature, and microwave irradiation on periselectivity in cycloaddition reactions of pentafulvenes with 3-oxidopyrylium betaine is described. The base catalyzed generation of 3-oxidopyrylium betaine in CHCl₃ resulted in the exclusive formation of [6+3] adducts. With increase in solvent polarity and temperature, mixtures of [6+3] and [3+2] adducts were formed, where as under microwave irradiation, [3+2] adducts were formed exclusively. The experimental results have been rationalized on the basis of theoretical calculations.     

Analysis of aqueous pyrethroid residuals by one-step microwave-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction and gas chromatography with electron capture detection

A one-step microwave-assisted headspace solid-phase microextraction (MA-HS-SPME) has been applied to be a pretreatment step in the analysis of aqueous pyrethroid residuals by gas chromatography (GC) with electron capture detection (ECD). Microwave heating was applied to accelerate the vaporization of pyrethroids (bioallenthrin, bifenthrin, fenpropathrin, cyhalothrin, permethrin, cyfluthrin, cypermethrin, fluvalinate, fenvalerate and deltamethrin) into the headspace, and then being absorbed directly on a SPME fiber under the controlled conditions. Optimal conditions for the SPME sampling, such as the selection of sampling fiber, sample pH, sampling temperature and time, microwave irradiation power, desorption temperature and time were investigated and then applied to real sample analysis. Experimental results indicated that the extraction of pyrethroids from a 20-mL aquatic sample (pH 4.0) was achieved with the best efficiency through the use of a 100-μm PDMS fiber, microwave irradiation of 157 W and sampling at 30 °C for 10 min. Under optimum conditions, the detections were linear in the range of 0.05-0.5 μg/L with the square of correlation coefficients (R²) of >0.9913 for pyrethroids except bifenthrin being 0.9812. Method detection limits (MDL) were found to be varied from 0.2 to 2.6 ng/L for different pyrethroids based on S/N (signal to noise) = 3. The coefficients of variation (CVs) for repeatability were 7-21%. A field underground water sample was analyzed with recovery between 88.5% to 115.5%. This method was proven to be a very simple, rapid, and solvent-free process to achieve the sample pretreatment before the analysis of trace pyrethroids in aqueous samples by gas chromatography.     

微波场对固态氧离子导体上的甲烷氧化偶朕的影响

研究了微波场下甲烷在具有Bi2O3结构的固态氧离子导体上氧化偶联反应行为．与常规加热条件下的反应结果相比较,微波辐照下的反应有如下特点;（1）在达到相同甲烷转化率时,微波辐照下所需床层温度要远低于常规加热条件下所需床层温度;（2）微波辐照下,甲烷氧化偶联产物中C2烃的选择性普遍较高,在低温区尤为突出．微波场下甲烷偶联产物乙烷、乙烯的再氧化得到一定程度的抑制,致使微波场下的甲烷氧化偶联反应通常有较低的烯／烷比．     

Polystyrene sulfonic acid catalyzed greener synthesis of hydrazones in aqueous medium using microwaves

An environmentally benign aqueous protocol for the synthesis of cyclic, bi-cyclic, and heterocyclic hydrazones using polystyrene sulfonic acid (PSSA) as a catalyst has been developed; the simple reaction proceeds efficiently in water in the absence of any organic solvent under microwave irradiation and involves basic filtration as the product isolation step.     

Synthesis of 7H-indolo[2,3-c]quinolines: study of the Pd-catalyzed intramolecular arylation of 3-(2-bromophenylamino)quinolines under microwave irradiation

D-ring substituted 5-methyl-5H-indolo[2,3-c]quinolines (4) have been synthesized in three steps starting from commercially available 3-bromoquinoline (5) and 2-bromoanilines (6). The methodology consists of two consecutive palladium-catalyzed reactions: a selective Buchwald-Hartwig amination followed by a regioselective intramolecular Heck-type reaction. The latter step has been investigated under microwave irradiation. Heating at 180 °C allows to seriously reduce the catalyst loading and get a full conversion to reaction product in 10 min. In addition, the former simplifies the purification.     

A short and efficient synthesis of honokiol via Claisen rearrangement

A concise and efficient total synthesis of honokiol, a biphenyl-type neolignan is accomplished in six steps using readily available and cost-effective reagents. The synthetic route involves mainly the Grignard reaction, iodine mediated aromatization, and Claisen rearrangement as key steps. A predominant formation of honokiol (1a) was observed in the Claisen rearrangement under microwave irradiation whereas the isohonokiol (1b) was formed as a major product under conventional conditions.     

Preparation and characterization of fluorinated acrylate copolymer latexes by miniemulsion polymerization under microwave irradiation

Fluoroacrylate copolymer miniemulsion was prepared by miniemulsion polymerization under microwave irradiation. The composition of the copolymer was determined by FTIR, DSC, ¹H NMR and ¹⁹F NMR. The morphology, size, and size distribution of the latex particles as well as changes in the size during polymerization were characterized by TEM and photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS). The effects of kinetic parameters on the polymerization were evaluated. The particle size of latex underwent almost no change during microwave irradiation polymerization. The diameters of latex particles prepared by microwave irradiation were smaller and more monodispersed than those prepared by conventional heating and the latex had good centrifugal stability. Polymerization under microwave irradiation had a higher reaction rate and higher conversion than traditional heating. By using 10 wt% fluoromonomer, the surface energy of the latex film could be reduced from 27.24 mJ/m² (latex film of fluorine-free) to 17.59 mJ/m² and the decomposition temperature increased by 25 °C.     

Rapid and Efficient Microwave-Assisted Friedländer Quinoline Synthesis

A microwave-based methodology facilitates reaction of 2-aminophenylketones with cyclic ketones to form a quinoline scaffold. Syntheses of amido- and amino-linked 17β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 3 inhibitors with a benzophenone-linked motif were pursued using 2-aminobenzophenone as building block. Two amido-linked targets were achieved in modest yield, but when using microwave-assisted reductive amination for the amino-linked counterparts an unexpected product was observed. X-ray crystallography revealed it as a quinoline derivative, leading to optimisation of a simple and efficient modification of Friedländer methodology. Using reagents and acetic acid catalyst in organic solvent the unassisted reaction proceeds only over several days and in very poor yield. However, by employing neat acetic acid as both solvent and acid catalyst with microwave irradiation at 160 °C quinoline synthesis is achieved in 5 minutes in excellent yield. This has advantages over the previously reported high temperatures or strong acids required, not least given the green credentials of acetic acid, and examples using diverse ketones illustrate applicability. Additionally, the unassisted reaction proceeds effectively at room temperature, albeit much more slowly.     

Ultrasound/microwave‐assisted solid–liquid–solid dispersive extraction with high‐performance liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry for the determination of neonicotinoid insecticides in Dendrobium officinale

A one‐step ultrasound/microwave‐assisted solid–liquid–solid dispersive extraction procedure was used for the simultaneous determination of eight neonicotinoids (dinotefuran, nitenpyram, thiamethoxam, clothianidin, imidacloprid, acetamiprid, thiacloprid, imidaclothiz) in dried Dendrobium officinale by liquid chromatography combined with electrospray ionization triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry in multiple reaction monitoring mode. The samples were quickly extracted by acetonitrile and cleaned up by the mixed dispersing sorbents including primary secondary amine, C₁₈, and carbon‐GCB. Parameters that could influence the ultrasound/microwave‐assisted extraction efficiency such as microwave irradiation power, ultrasound irradiation power, temperature, and solvent were investigated. Recovery studies were performing well (70.4–113.7%) at three examined spiking levels (10, 50, and 100 μg/kg). Meanwhile, the limits of quantification for the neonicotinoids ranged from 0.87 to 1.92 μg/kg. The method showed good linearity in the concentration range of 1–100 μg/L with correlation coefficients >0.99. This quick and useful analytical method could provide a basis for monitoring neonicotinoid insecticide residues in herbs.     

Application of microwave method to the solid phase synthesis of pseudopeptides containing ester bond

A new procedure was developed for reducing the reaction time and improving the yield of esterification reaction in solid phase synthesis of pseudopeptides containing an ester bond by utilizing microwave irradiation. We selected a pseudodipeptide (Fmoc-LysΨ[COO]Leu-NH₂) and optimized the microwave-assisted esterification reaction in solid phase synthesis using Fmoc chemistry. For this, microwave-assisted esterification reactions with different reaction time, temperature, and solvents were performed using 1,3-diisopropylcarbodiimide (DIC) as the coupling reagent. We synthesized several pseudodipeptides containing an ester bond by using the optimized microwave irradiation method. The purity and yield of the pseudodipeptides synthesized in this way were better than those obtained without microwave irradiation. Furthermore, we applied this methodology for synthesizing pseudopeptides (6- and 12-mer) corresponding to the α helical peptide. The microwave-assisted esterification reaction afforded the target pseudopeptides with high yield (∼80%) and purity within 12 min, whereas the reaction without microwave irradiation afforded the target compound with poor yield (∼45%) and low purity.