Effects of Coke Deposits on the Catalytic Performance of Large Zeolite H‐ZSM‐5 Crystals during Alcohol‐to‐Hydrocarbon Reactions as Investigated by a Combination of Optical Spectroscopy and Microscopy

The catalytic activity of large zeolite H‐ZSM‐5 crystals in methanol (MTO) and ethanol‐to‐olefins (ETO) conversions was investigated and, using operando UV/Vis measurements, the catalytic activity and deactivation was correlated with the formation of coke. These findings were related to in situ single crystal UV/Vis and confocal fluorescence micro‐spectroscopy, allowing the observation of the spatiotemporal formation of intermediates and coke species during the MTO and ETO conversions. It was observed that rapid deactivation at elevated temperatures was due to the fast formation of aromatics at the periphery of the H‐ZSM‐5 crystals, which are transformed into more poly‐aromatic coke species at the external surface, preventing the diffusion of reactants and products into and out of the H‐ZSM‐5 crystal. Furthermore, we were able to correlate the operando UV/Vis spectroscopy results observed during catalytic testing with the single crystal in situ results.     

Cascade cyclization reactions of 3,4,5-triamino-1,2,4-triazole with aromatic aldehydes and cycloalkanones

A three-component condensation of 3,4,5-triamino-1,2,4-triazole (1) with aromatic aldehydes 2a–f and dimedone (3) or cyclohexanone (8) afforded partially hydrogenated 9-aryl-[1,2,4]triazolo[5,1-b]quinazolin-8-ones. The structure of 2-amino-6,6-dimethyl-3-(4-nitrobenzylidene)amino-9-(4-nitrophenyl)-5,6,7,9-tetrahydro[1,2,4]triazolo[5,1-b]quinazolin-8-one (4e) was confirmed by X-ray diffraction data. Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 7, pp. 1178–1182, July, 2006.     

PDB ligand conformational energies calculated quantum-mechanically

We present here a greatly updated version of an earlier study on the conformational energies of protein-ligand complexes in the Protein Data Bank (PDB) [Nicklaus et al. Bioorg. Med. Chem. 1995, 3, 411-428], with the goal of improving on all possible aspects such as number and selection of ligand instances, energy calculations performed, and additional analyses conducted. Starting from about 357,000 ligand instances deposited in the 2008 version of the Ligand Expo database of the experimental 3D coordinates of all small-molecule instances in the PDB, we created a "high-quality" subset of ligand instances by various filtering steps including application of crystallographic quality criteria and structural unambiguousness. Submission of 640 Gaussian 03 jobs yielded a set of about 415 successfully concluded runs. We used a stepwise optimization of internal degrees of freedom at the DFT level of theory with the B3LYP/6-31G(d) basis set and a single-point energy calculation at B3LYP/6-311++G(3df,2p) after each round of (partial) optimization to separate energy changes due to bond length stretches vs bond angle changes vs torsion changes. Even for the most "conservative" choice of all the possible conformational energies-the energy difference between the conformation in which all internal degrees of freedom except torsions have been optimized and the fully optimized conformer-significant energy values were found. The range of 0 to ~25 kcal/mol was populated quite evenly and independently of the crystallographic resolution. A smaller number of "outliers" of yet higher energies were seen only at resolutions above 1.3 ?. The energies showed some correlation with molecular size and flexibility but not with crystallographic quality metrics such as the Cruickshank diffraction-component precision index (DPI) and R(free)-R, or with the ligand instance-specific metrics such as occupancy-weighted B-factor (OWAB), real-space R factor (RSR), and real-space correlation coefficient (RSCC). We repeated these calculations with the solvent model IEFPCM, which yielded energy differences that were generally somewhat lower than the corresponding vacuum results but did not produce a qualitatively different picture. Torsional sampling around the crystal conformation at the molecular mechanics level using the MMFF94s force field typically led to an increase in energy.     

Synthesis and tautomerism of 5,7-diaryl-3-cyano-and 5,7-diaryl-3-ethoxycarbonyl-4,7(6,7)-dihydropyrazolo[1,5-<Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>]pyrimidines

The cyclocondensation of 3-amino-4-cyanopyrazole and 3-amino-4-ethoxycarbonylpyrazole with 1,3-diaryl-2,3-propen-1-ones gives the corresponding 3-substituted 5,7-diaryl-4,7(6,7)-dihydropyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidines. Their tautomeric composition in solution has been investigated by ¹H NMR. __________ Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 12, pp. 1824–1832, December, 2007.     

The mechanism of phenol methylation on acid and basic zeolite catalysts

The alkylation of phenol with methanol on HY and CsY/CsOH catalysts was studied in situ under static conditions by ¹³C NMR spectroscopy. Attention was largely given to the identification of intermediate compounds and mechanisms of anisole, cresol, and xylenol formation. The mechanisms of phenol methylation were found to be different on acid and basic catalysts. The primary process on acid catalysts was the dehydration of methanol to dimethyl ether and methoxy groups. This resulted in the formation of anisole and dimethyl ether, the ratio between which depended on the reagent ratio, which was evidence of similar mechanisms of their formation. Subsequent reactions with phenol gave cresols and anisoles. Cresols formed at higher temperatures both in the direct alkylation of phenol and in the rearrangement of anisole. The main alkylation product on basic catalysts was anisole formed in the interaction of phenolate anions with methanol; no cresol formation was observed. The deactivation of acid catalysts was caused by the formation of condensed aromatic hydrocarbons that blocked zeolite pores. The deactivation of basic catalysts resulted from the condensation of phenol and formaldehyde with the formation of phenol-formaldehyde resins.     

Synthesis of Partially Hydrogenated 1,2,4-Triazoloquinazolines by Condensation of 3,5-Diamino-1,2,4-triazole with Aromatic Aldehydes and Dimedone

Three-component condensation of 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole with aromatic aldehydes and dimedone in dimethylformamide gives 2-amino-5-aryl-8,8-dimethyl-5,6,7,8,9,10-hexahydro[1,2,4]triazolo[3,2-b]quinazolin-6-ones. The reaction of 3,5-diamino-1,2,4-triazole with dimedone in the absence of aldehyde involves dimethylformamide as one of the carbonyl components to afford 2-amino-8,8-dimethyl-6,7,8,9-tetrahydro[1,2,4]triazolo[2,3-a]quinazolin-6-one.__________Translated from Zhurnal Organicheskoi Khimii, Vol. 41, No. 1, 2005, pp. 115–120.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Lipson, Desenko, Borodina, Shirobokova, Musatov.     

Effect of the sediment layer on the diffraction focusing of an acoustic field in a shallow sea

Features characterizing the formation of the spatial (in depth and horizontal distance) interference structure of an acoustic field generated by a point tone source or a vertically distributed tone source in a shallow-water oceanic waveguide are considered. The waveguide is modeled by a three-layered fluid medium. The main object of the study is the effect of the acoustic parameters of the sediment layer on the formation and structure of the spatial regions within which the diffraction focusing of the acoustic field takes place.     

Determination of electron affinity of carbonyl radicals by means of negative ion mass spectrometry

Appearance energies of [M-H](-) ions from carbonyl compounds R-CO-R' (R,R' = H, CH(3), NH(2), OH) have been measured by means of negative ion mass spectrometry in resonant electron capture mode. Values of electron affinity of the corresponding radicals, CH(2)&dbond;C(X)O, NH&dbond;C(X)O and O&dbond;C(X)O, have been determined. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chemical Reactions of 2-Methyl-5,7-diphenyl-6,7-dihydropyrazolo[1,5-<Emphasis Type="Italic">a</Emphasis>]pyrimidine

The hydrolysis, oxidation, reduction, alkylation, formylation, and nitrosation reactions of 2-methyl-5,7-diphenyl-6,7-dihydropyrazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine have been studied.__________Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 4, pp. 577–581, April, 2005.