The effect of the double bond pyramidalization on the mode of the bromination reaction: bromination of benzobicyclononadiene

The bromination of 6,7,8,9-tetrahydro-5H-5,9-ethenobenzo[a][7]annulene yielded regio- and stereospecifically formed dibromides arising from the alkyl shift where the bromine exclusively attacks the double bond from the endo face of the double bond. DFT calculations on model compounds showed that the pyramidalization of the double bond and steric repulsion caused by the methylene protons are responsible for the stereo- and regioselective addition of bromine.     

Why does Kevlar decompose, while Nomex does not, when treated with aqueous chlorine solutions?

Kevlar and Nomex are high-performance polymers which have wide varieties of applications in daily life. Recently, they have been proposed to be biocidal materials when reacted with household bleach (sodium hypochlorite solution) because they contain amide moieties which can be chlorinated to generate biocidal N-halamine functional groups. Although Nomex can be chlorinated without any significant decomposition, Kevlar decomposes under the same chlorination conditions. In this study, two mimics for each of the polymers were synthesized to simulate the carboxylate and diaminophenylene components of the materials. It was found that the p-diaminophenylene component of the Kevlar mimic is oxidized to a quinone-type structure upon treatment with hypochlorous acid, which then decomposes. However, such a mechanism for the Nomex mimic is not possible. In this paper, based upon these observations, a plausible answer will be provided to the title question.     

Grass lignocellulose

Grass lignocelluloses are limited in bioconversion by aromatic constituents, which include both lignins and phenolic acids esters. Histochemistry, ultraviolet absorption microspectrophotometry, and response to microorganisms and specific enzymes have been used to determine the significance of aromatics toward recalcitrance. Coniferyl lignin appears to be the most effective limitation to biodegradation, existing in xylem cells of vascular tissues; cell walls with syringyl lignin, for example, leaf sclerenchyma, are less recalcitrant. Esterified phenolic acids, i.e., ferulic and p-coumaric acids, often constitute a major chemical limitation in nonlignified cell walls to biodegradation in grasses, especially warm-season species. Methods to improve biodegradation in grasses, especially warm-season species. Methods to improve biodegradability through modification of aromatics include: plant breeding, use of lignin-degrading white-rot fungi, and addition of esterases. Plant breeding for new cultivars has been especially effective for nutritionally improved forages, for example, bermudagrasses. In laboratory studies, selective white-rot fungi that lack cellulases delignified the lignocellulosic materials and improved fermentation of residual carbohydrates. Phenolic acid esterases released p-coumaric and ferulic acids for potential coproducts, improved the available sugars for fermentation, and improved biodegradation. The separation and removal of the aromatic components for coproducts, while enhancing the availability of sugars for bioconversion, could improve the economics of bioconversion.     

Adsorption and reaction studies on cobalt/alumina catalysts prepared by changing pH coprecipitation

Co/Al₂O₃ catalysts prepared by changing pH coprecipitation with Co loadings in the 8.7–36 wt.% range were analyzed by TSA, TPV, pore structure, XRD as well as CO, H₂, O₂ adsorption and CO hydrogenation. High O₂ uptake and reducibility coupled with low dispersion and constant MSA above 17 wt.% Co indicate large crystallites that are less exposed to H₂. CO hydrogenation per Co site decreases with increasing dispersion or decreasing metal loading.     

Design of a new biosensor platform for creatinine determination

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - In this study, a new amperometric biosensor for creatinine determination was developed. For this purpose, a polypyrrole-polyvinylsulfonate film was...     

A Characterization of Boundedness of Fractional Maximal Operator with Variable Kernel on Herz-Morrey Spaces

A significant number of studies have been carried out on the generalized Lebesgue spaces L~(p(x)), Sobolev spaces W~(1,p(x)) and Herz spaces. In this paper, we demonstrated a characterization of boundedness of the fractional maximal operator with variable kernel on Herz-Morrey spaces.     

Mechanism of formation of biocidal imidazolidin-4-one derivatives: an Ab initio density-functional theory study

N-halamine chemistry has been a research topic of considerable importance in these laboratories for over 2 decades because N-halamine compounds are very useful in preparing biocidal materials. To understand the utility of these compounds, the stabilities and mechanism of halogenation of cyclic N-halamine compounds should be resolved. The important precursor biocidal compound, 2,2,5,5-tetramethylimidazolidin-4-one (TMIO) was considered as a model in this theoretical study. The thermodynamic and kinetic products of monohalogenation were investigated along with tautomerization of TMIO and succinimide theoretically at the level of B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p). Solvation effects (water and chloroform) were included using the CPCM solvation model with UAKS cavities. Several mechanisms have been proposed for the chlorine migration from the 3-position (kinetic product) to the 1-position (thermodynamic product) of the TMIO ring. The results are in agreement with experimental NMR data.     

Surface structure and photoluminescence properties of AZO thin films on polymer substrates

Al‐doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films were deposited on indium tin oxide (ITO) coated polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering method at room temperature. The effects of film thickness on the surface structure and the photoluminescence properties of the films were investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) and room temperature photoluminescence (PL). AFM analysis showed that the surface of all films was extremely flat and uniform at nanoscale. Root mean square (RMS) value of the surface roughness which scanned the surface area of 3 µm by 3 µm and grain size increased with increasing the film thickness. Thus, the surface morphology of the films became rough because of the coarse grains. The depth profile of AZO layers was analyzed by SIMS. It was found that the thickness of the AZO layer is almost same with the desired film thickness. The PL intensity of the dominant peak decreased and shifted slightly towards the shorter wavelengths with increasing the film thickness. According to the relationships between luminescence intensity and crystalline characteristics, it was observed that the intensity of the peak decreased by the increased surface area of the grains. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The quest for the best nonpolarizable water model from the adaptive force matching method

The recently introduced adaptive force matching (AFM) method is used to develop a significantly improved pair‐wise nonpolarizable potential for water. A rigid version of the potential is also presented to enable larger time steps for biological simulations. In this work, it is demonstrated that the AFM method can be used to systematically assess the importance of each functional term during the construction of a force field. For a water potential, it is established that a single off‐atom charge center (M) in the plane of water outperforms two out‐of‐plane charge sites for reproducing intermolecular forces. The four‐site pair‐wise nonpolarizable force field developed in this work rivals some of the most sophisticated polarizable models in terms of reproducing accurate ab initio forces. The force fields are parameterized to perform best in the temperature range from 0 to 40°C. Equilibrium and dynamical properties calculated with the flexible and rigid force fields are in good agreement with experimental results. For the flexible model, the agreement improves when path integral simulation is performed. These force fields provide high‐quality results at a very low computational cost and are thus well suited to atomistic scale biological simulations. The AFM method provides a mechanism for selecting important terms in force field expressions and is a very promising tool for producing accurate force fields in condensed phases. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2011     

Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone derivatives with novel chiral phosphinite based η-p-cymene/ruthenium(II) catalysts

Enantioselective reduction of prochiral ketones to optically active secondary alcohols is an important subject in synthetic organic chemistry because the resulting chiral alcohols are extremely useful, biologically active compounds. The new chiral ligands (2R)-2-[benzyl{(2-((diphenylphosphanyl)oxy)ethyl)}amino]butyldiphenylphosphinite, 1 and (2R)-2-[benzyl{(2-((dicyclohexylphosphanyl)oxy)ethyl)}amino]butyldicyclohexylphosphinite, 2 and the corresponding ruthenium(II) complexes 3 and 4 have been prepared. The structures of these complexes have been elucidated by a combination of multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy and elemental analysis. ³¹P-{¹H} NMR, DEPT, ¹H-¹³C HETCOR or ¹H-¹H COSY correlation experiments were used to confirm the spectral assignments. These ruthenium(II)-phosphinite complexes have been used as catalysts for the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone derivatives. Under optimized conditions, aromatic ketones were reduced in good conversions and in moderate to good enantioselectivities (up to 85% ee).