First cross-coupling reaction of potassium aryltrifluoroborates with organic chlorides in aqueous media catalyzed by an oxime-derived palladacycle

Potassium aryltrifluoroborates are cross-coupled with aryl and heteroaryl chlorides using a 4-hydroxyacetophenone oxime-derived palladacycle as precatalyst, K2CO3 as base, and TBAB as additive in refluxing water under conventional and microwave heating affording the corresponding biphenyls under phosphine-free conditions. For the arylation of allyl and benzyl chlorides, KOH is used as base in acetone-water (3:2) at rt or 50 degrees C using 0.1 mol % Pd loading providing allylbenzenes and diarylmethanes, respectively.     

Assigning the configuration of amino alcohols by NMR: a single derivatization method

The chirality of sec/prim- and prim/sec-1,2-amino alcohols can be determined by (1)H NMR of just one MPA derivative--either (R) or (S)--by comparison of two spectra at different temperatures and analysis of the evolution of the easily observable singles of the CalphaH signals.     

Interfacial electron transfer on cytochrome-c sensitised conformally coated mesoporous TiO2 films

Hybrid protein films incorporating Cyt-c immobilized on TiO(2) films were prepared and characterised optically with UV-visible spectroscopy and electrochemically with cyclic voltammetry, and their conductivity properties were studied in detail. In addition the effects of a thin overlayer coating of a second metal oxide such as SiO(2), Al(2)O(3), ZrO(2) and MgO(2) were studied and the effects over the electrochemical properties of the hybrid working electrodes were discussed.     

Simultaneous Grafting Polymerization of Acrylic Acid and Silver Aggregates Formation by Direct Reduction Using γ Radiation onto Silicone Surface and Their Antimicrobial Activity and Biocompatibility

The modification of medical devices is an area that has attracted a lot of attention in recent years; particularly, those developments which search to modify existing devices to render them antimicrobial. Most of these modifications involve at least two stages (modification of the base material with a polymer graft and immobilization of an antimicrobial agent) which are both time-consuming and complicate synthetic procedures; therefore, as an improvement, this project sought to produce antimicrobial silicone (PDMS) in a single step. Using gamma radiation as both an energy source for polymerization initiation and as a source of reducing agents in solution, PDMS was simultaneously grafted with acrylic acid and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (AAc:EGDMA) while producing antimicrobial silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) onto the surface of the material. To obtain reproducible materials, experimental variables such as the effect of the dose, the intensity of radiation, and the concentration of the silver salt were evaluated, finding the optimal reaction conditions to obtain materials with valuable properties. The characterization of the material was performed using electronic microscopy and spectroscopic techniques such as ¹³C-CPMAS-SS-NMR and FTIR. Finally, these materials demonstrated good antimicrobial activity against S. aureus while retaining good cell viabilities (above 90%) for fibroblasts BALB/3T3.     

QSAR Models for Human Carcinogenicity: An Assessment Based on Oral and Inhalation Slope Factors

Carcinogenicity is a crucial endpoint for the safety assessment of chemicals and products. During the last few decades, the development of quantitative structure–activity relationship ((Q)SAR) models has gained importance for regulatory use, in combination with in vitro testing or expert-based reasoning. Several classification models can now predict both human and rat carcinogenicity, but there are few models to quantitatively assess carcinogenicity in humans. To our knowledge, slope factor (SF), a parameter describing carcinogenicity potential used especially for human risk assessment of contaminated sites, has never been modeled for both inhalation and oral exposures. In this study, we developed classification and regression models for inhalation and oral SFs using data from the Risk Assessment Information System (RAIS) and different machine learning approaches. The models performed well in classification, with accuracies for the external set of 0.76 and 0.74 for oral and inhalation exposure, respectively, and r² values of 0.57 and 0.65 in the regression models for oral and inhalation SFs in external validation. These models might therefore support regulators in (de)prioritizing substances for regulatory action and in weighing evidence in the context of chemical safety assessments. Moreover, these models are implemented on the VEGA platform and are now freely downloadable online.     

Electronic stopping power in LiF from first principles

Using time-dependent density-functional theory we calculate from first principles the rate of energy transfer from a moving proton or antiproton to the electrons of an insulating material, LiF. The behavior of the electronic stopping power versus projectile velocity displays an effective threshold velocity of approximately 0.2 a.u. for the proton, consistent with recent experimental observations, and also for the antiproton. The calculated proton/antiproton stopping-power ratio is approximately 2.4 at velocities slightly above the threshold (v approximately 0.4 a.u.), as compared to the experimental value of 2.1. The projectile energy loss mechanism is observed to be extremely local.     

Ferrodistortive instability at the (001) surface of half-metallic manganites

We present the structure of the fully relaxed (001) surface of the half-metallic manganite La0.7Sr0.3MnO3, calculated using density functional theory. Two relevant ferroelastic order parameters are identified and characterized. The known tilting of the oxygen octahedra, which is present in the bulk phase, decreases towards the surface. A ferrodistortive Mn off-centering, triggered by the surface and not reported before, decays monotonically into the bulk. This distortion affects neither the half-metallicity nor the zero-temperature magnetization, but does change the effective spin-spin interactions, and thus the temperature dependence of the magnetic properties.     

Enhanced Sieving of C2-Hydrocarbon from Methane by Fluoro-Functionalization of In-MOF with Robust Stability

Developing efficient adsorbent materials is crucial for adsorption and separation to realize the purification of energy source and raw chemicals. Here, we report a novel and robust 3D In-based MOF built up with fluorine-functionalized ligands, QMOF-2F , with improved separation properties of C2-light hydrocarbons over methane at room temperature respect isoreticular non-fluorinated MOF. QMOF-2F shows a remarkable chemical stability in different solvents, including water, and pH (2–12). DFT calculations support the key role of fluorine-functionalization on the improved performance of QMOF-2F .     

SMILES as an alternative to the graph in QSAR modelling of bee toxicity

Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System (SMILES) nomenclature has been used as elucidating the molecular structure in construction of the quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) for predicting bee toxicity. On the basis of the symbols used in the SMILES notation numerical parameters have been obtained, which are simple and fast to calculate. The method has been used to develop a QSAR model to predict toxicity of pesticides on bees. Results on a heterogeneous set of pesticides are good. Statistical characteristics of this model are: n=85, R2=0.68, s=0.82, F=180 (training set); n=20, R2=0.72, s=0.68, F=46 (test set).     

Palladium-catalyzed alpha-vinylation of carbonyl compounds

A mild, general, catalytic system for the alpha-vinylation of carbonyl compounds has been developed. By employing [Pd(P(t)Bu(3))Br](2) as catalyst and LHMDS as base, vinyl bromides, vinyl triflates, and vinyl tosylates couple with 3-methyloxindole in satisfactory yields. The same catalytic system is extended to the alpha-vinylation of ketones and esters.