Reaction kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid

The kinetics and pathway of hydrothermal decomposition of aspartic acid were studied using a continuous‐flow tubular reactor. The reaction was carried out in the temperature range of 200–260°C and at a pressure of 20 MPa. Deamination was the primary reaction, indicated by the presence of significant amount of ammonia, fumaric acid, or maleic acid in the products. Other reaction products were pyruvic acid, malic acid, and traces of succinic and lactic acid. Traces of alanine were also detected, showing the possibility of decomposing high‐molecular weight amino acids to obtain simple amino acids such as glycine or alanine. Results on the effect of reaction parameters demonstrated that decomposition of aspartic acid is highly temperature dependent under hydrothermal conditions. For a slight temperature difference of 60°C (from 200 to 260°C), the first‐order reaction rate constants of 0.003 significantly increased to 0.231 s^?1. The activation energy was 144 kJ/mol, as calculated by the Arrhenius equation. No significant effect was exhibited by other reaction parameters such as pH and pressure. The results are useful in controlling the hydrolysis of proteinaceous materials toward high yield of aspartic acid under hydrothermal conditions. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 39: 175–180, 2007     

Novel organic catalysts for the direct enantioselective α-oxidation of carbonyl compounds

The proline-derived N-sulfonylcarboxamide-catalyzed direct enantioselective α-oxidation of ketones and aldehydes with nitrosobenzene is presented. The reactions proceed smoothly furnishing the corresponding α-aminoxylated compounds in good yields with up to >99% ee. The proline-derived N-sulfonylcarboxamides were also found to be excellent catalysts for the direct enantioselective nitroso Diels-Alder-type reaction between nitrosobenzene and α,β-unsaturated cyclic ketones yielding the corresponding bicyclic Diels-Alder adduct products with up to >99% ee. The proline-derived N-sulfonylcarboxamides represent a readily available and highly modular novel type of organic catalyst.     

The elimination kinetics and mechanisms of ethyl piperidine‐3‐carboxylate,ethyl 1‐methylpiperidine‐3‐carboxylate,and ethyl 3‐(piperidin‐1‐yl)propionate in the gas phase

The gas‐phase elimination kinetics of the above‐mentioned compounds were determined in a static reaction system over the temperature range of 369–450.3°C and pressure range of 29–103.5 Torr. The reactions are homogeneous, unimolecular, and obey a first‐order rate law. The rate coefficients are given by the following Arrhenius expressions: ethyl 3‐(piperidin‐1‐yl) propionate, log k₁(s^?1) = (12.79 ± 0.16) ? (199.7 ± 2.0) kJ mol^?1 (2.303 RT)^?1; ethyl 1‐methylpiperidine‐3‐carboxylate, log k₁(s^?1) = (13.07 ± 0.12)–(212.8 ± 1.6) kJ mol^?1 (2.303 RT)^?1; ethyl piperidine‐3‐carboxylate, log k₁(s^?1) = (13.12 ± 0.13) ? (210.4 ± 1.7) kJ mol^?1 (2.303 RT)^?1; and 3‐piperidine carboxylic acid, log k₁(s^?1) = (14.24 ± 0.17) ? (234.4 ± 2.2) kJ mol^?1 (2.303 RT)^?1. The first step of decomposition of these esters is the formation of the corresponding carboxylic acids and ethylene through a concerted six‐membered cyclic transition state type of mechanism. The intermediate β‐amino acids decarboxylate as the α‐amino acids but in terms of a semipolar six‐membered cyclic transition state mechanism. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Chem Kinet 38: 106–114, 2006     

Perturbative treatment of quasi-resonant proton neutralization at alkali-halide surfaces

A theoretical investigation of proton neutralization by proton scattering from several alkali-halide surfaces is presented. These systems are suitable for a perturbative treatment since no hydrogenic atomic shell is embedded in the valence band of the solid where the neutralizing electron originates, which is a necessary condition for fast convergence of the perturbative expansion for the neutralization probability. The perturbative interaction is modeled by a Fano-Anderson effective potential, and the dependence of the results on the properties of the systems (namely, the width of the valence band of the solid and its position relative to the discrete atomic level) and on the dynamics of the process (determined here by a single parameter which controls the duration of the interaction, i.e., the collision energy) are critically discussed.