Selectivity in the addition reactions of organometallic reagents to aziridine-2-carboxaldehydes: the effects of protecting groups and substitution patterns

Good to excellent stereoselectivity has been found in the addition reactions of Grignard and organozinc reagents to N-protected aziridine-2-carboxaldehydes. Specifically, high syn selectivity was obtained with benzyl-protected cis, tert-butyloxycarbonyl-protected trans, and tosyl-protected 2,3-disubstituted aziridine-2-carboxaldehydes. Furthermore, rate and selectivity effects of ring substituents, temperature, solvent, and Lewis acid and base modifiers were studied. The diastereomeric preference of addition is dominated by the substrate aziridines' substitution pattern and especially the electronic character and conformational preferences of the nitrogen protecting groups. To help rationalize the observed stereochemical outcomes, conformational and electronic structural analyses of a series of model systems representing the various substitution patterns have been explored by density functional calculations at the B3LYP/6-31G* level of theory with the SM8 solvation model to account for solvent effects.     

Theoretical Study of 13C Chemical Shifts Structures of Some ortho-Substituted 3-Anilino-2-nitrobenzo[b]thiophenes and 2-Anilino-3-nitrobenzo[b]thiophenes and Comparison with Experimental

¹³C NMR chemical shifts have been calculated for structures of some substituted 3‐anilino‐2‐nitrobenzo‐[b]thiophenes ( 2 o) and 2‐anilino‐3‐nitrobenzo[b]thiophenes ( 3 o) derivatives containing OH, NH₂, OMe, Me, Et, H, F, Cl and Br. The molecular structures were fully optimized using B3LYP/6‐31G(d,p). The calculation of the ¹³C shielding tensors employed the GAUSSIAN 03 implementation of the gauge‐including atomic orbital (GIAO) and continuous set of gauge transformations (CSGT) by using 6‐311++G(d,p) basis set at density functional levels of theories (DFT). The isotropic and the anisotropy parameters of chemical shielding for all compounds are calculated. The predicted ¹³C chemical shifts are derived from equation δ=δ₀+δ where δ is the chemical shift, δ is the absolute shielding, and δ₀ is the absolute shielding of the standard TMS. Excellent linear relationships have been observed between experimental and calculated ¹³C NMR chemical shifts for all derivatives     

SBA-15-functionalized TEMPO confined ionic liquid: an efficient catalyst system for transition-metal-free aerobic oxidation of alcohols with improved selectivity

A novel SBA-15-functionalized TEMPO confined ionic liquid [BMIm]Br was found to be a highly efficient and recyclable catalyst system for the transition-metal-free aerobic oxidation of a wide range of structurally diverse alcohols. Thanks to the strong physical confinement of the ionic liquid inside the mesochannels of SBA-15-supported TEMPO, the resulting solid catalyst showed improved selectivity in the aerobic oxidation of allylic alcohols. The catalyst can be recovered and re-used for at least 11 reaction runs without significant loss of either activity or confined IL.     

Catalytic oxidative cleavage of olefins promoted by osmium tetroxide and hydrogen peroxide

Hydrogen peroxide was employed as the terminal oxidant in the osmium tetroxide mediated oxidative cleavage of olefins, producing the corresponding aldehyde and ketone products. Aryl olefins are cleaved in good to excellent yield regardless of arene electronics. Alkyl olefins cleave in moderate to good yield for di- and tri-substituted alkenes.     

Direct summands of direct sums of modules whose endomorphism rings have two maximal right ideals

Let M₁,…,M_n be right modules over a ring R. Suppose that the endomorphism ring of each module M_i has at most two maximal right ideals. Is it true that every direct summand of M₁⊕?⊕M_n is a direct sum of modules whose endomorphism rings also have at most two maximal right ideals? We show that the answer is negative in general, but affirmative under further hypotheses. The endomorphism ring of uniserial modules, that is, the modules whose lattice of submodules is linearly ordered under inclusion, always has at most two maximal right ideals, and Pavel P?íhoda showed in 2004 that the answer to our question is affirmative for direct sums of finitely many uniserial modules.     

The Reaction of (N‐Isocyanimino)triphenylphosphorane with Biacetyl in the Presence of Aromatic Carboxylic Acids: Efficient One‐Pot Three‐Component Reaction for the Synthesis of 3‐(5‐Aryl‐1,3,4‐oxadiazol‐2‐yl)‐3‐hydroxybutan‐2‐one Derivatives

Reactions of biacetyl (=butane‐2,3‐dione) with (N‐isocyanimino)triphenylphosphorane in the presence of aromatic carboxylic acids proceed smoothly at room temperature and under neutral conditions to afford 3‐(5‐aryl‐1,3,4‐oxadiazol‐2‐yl)‐3‐hydroxybutan‐2‐one derivatives in high yields.     

A helix-forming αβγ-chimeric peptide with catalytic activity: a hybrid peptide ligase

We describe the catalytic activity of the first chimeric ligase containing a foldameric sequence of β- and γ-amino acids. The chimeric backbone provides for the spatial arrangement of all functional groups involved in the formation of the catalytic site to allow efficient catalysis to take place. Our finding indicates significant progress in the field of functionally active artificial motifs.     

Infrared spectrum of the CS2 trimer: observation of a structure with D3 symmetry

Infrared spectra of a carbon disulfide trimer formed in a pulsed supersonic slit-jet expansion are obtained via direct absorption of a tuneable diode laser in the region of the CS(2)ν(3) fundamental (～1535 cm(-1)). This is the first high-resolution spectroscopic observation of (CS(2))(3). Two bands sharing the same lower state are assigned to ((12)C(32)S(2))(3). These correspond to the two infrared active trimer vibrations (a parallel and a perpendicular band) of the constituent CS(2) monomer asymmetric stretches. The weaker perpendicular band is centered at 1524.613 cm(-1), shifted by -10.74 cm(-1) with respect to the free CS(2) monomer. The parallel band is centered at 1545.669 cm(-1), a vibrational shift of +10.31 cm(-1). Transitions with K≠ 3n and those with K = 0, J = odd in the ground state are absent, establishing that this trimer has D(3) symmetry. The two parameters required to define this structure are determined to be 3.811 ? for the C-C bond distance and 61.8° for the angle between a monomer axis and the plane containing the C atoms. In addition, a parallel band arising from trimers with a single (34)S substitution is observed around 1544.46 cm(-1). Together with the recently observed cross-shaped CS(2) dimer, these results indicate a tendency for CS(2) to form highly symmetric clusters.     

Streamline bifurcations and scaling theory for a multiple-wake model

We investigate the interaction between multiple arrays of (reverse) von Kármán streets as a model for the mid-wake regions produced by schooling fish. There exist configurations where an infinite array of vortex streets is in relative equilibrium, that is, the streets move together with the same translational velocity. We examine the topology of the streamline patterns in a frame moving with the same translational velocity as the streets. Fluid is advected along different paths depending on the distance separating two adjacent streets. When the distance between the streets is large enough, each street behaves as a single von Kármán street and fluid moves globally between two adjacent streets. When the streets get closer to each other, the number of streets that enter into partnership in transporting fluid among themselves increases. This observation motivates a bifurcation analysis which links the distance between streets to the maximum number of streets transporting fluid among themselves. We describe a scaling law relating the number of streets that enter into partnership as a function of the three main parameters associated with the system, two associated with each individual street (determining the aspect ratio of the street), and a third associated with the distance between neighboring streets. In the final section we speculate on the timescale associated with the lifetime of the coherence of this mid-wake scaling regime.     

The Effect of Reservoir Wettability on the Production Characteristics of the VAPEX Process: An Experimental Study

The impact of fractional wettability on the production characteristics of a VAPEX process at the macroscale was investigated. Conventional VAPEX experiments were conducted in a 220 Darcy random packing of glass beads in a rectangular physical model and n-pentane was used to recover the Cold Lake bitumen from the oil-saturated model in the absence of connate water. The composition of oil-wet beads in the packed bed was altered from completely water-wet beads to completely oil-wet beads at different proportions of oil-wet beads mixed with water-wet beads. A substantial increase (about 40%) in the production rate of live oil was observed during the VAPEX process when the wettability of the porous packing was entirely oil-wet beads. A critical oil-wet fraction of 0.66 was found for the heterogeneous packing of water-wet and oil-wet beads of similar size distribution. Above this critical composition, the live oil production rate was not affected by further increase in the proportion of the oil-wet beads. It is believed that above this critical composition of the oil-wet beads, the crevice flow process is dominated by the continuity of higher conductivity live oil films between particles through the oil-wet regions. Below this critical composition, the live oil production rate increased linearly with the fraction of the oil-wet beads in the packing. The oil-wet regions favor the live oil drainage compared to that of the water-wet regions as they enhance the rate of imbibition of the live oil from the oil-filled pores to the vacated pores near the nominal VAPEX interface. These two factors enhance the live oil production rate during the VAPEX process. The solvent content of the live oil, the solvent-to-oil ratio (SOR), and the residual oil saturation did not correlate strongly with the proportion of the oil-wet beads in the packing. The average solvent content of the live oil and the residual oil saturation were measured to be 48% by weight and 7% by volume respectively.