Aqueous Manganese‐Mediated Reductive Coupling of Nitroarenes to Azoxybenzenes

Azoxy compounds have been prepared in good yields by reductive coupling of aromatic nitro compounds with manganese and a catalytic amount of acetic acid in aqueous conditions.     

A facile microwave assisted synthesis of spiro-1,3-oxazines from N-(2-(cyclohex-1-en-1-yl)ethyl)amides

A mild and efficient methodology has been developed for the synthesis of spiro-1,3-oxazine derivatives by the microwave assisted cyclization of N-2-(1′-cyclohexenyl)ethyl-acetamides/benzamides. The reaction was catalyzed by in situ generated trimethylsilyl iodide and featured by its very short reaction time. The starting materials were easily obtained by the condensation of substituted acetic/benzoic acids with 2-(1′-cyclohexenyl)ethyl amine.     

Nelumbo nucifera leaves as source of water-repellent wax: Extraction through polar and non-polar organic solvents

Nelumbo nucifera leaves are rich source of natural wax possessing super-hydrophobic properties. It provides protection to them from ecological turbulences and climatic wear and tear. In this study, various experiments have been conducted to observe the yield of extraction and the determination of various functional groups, which are present in natural wax, derived from Nelumbo nucifera leaves. The natural wax has been extracted from lotus leaves through non-polar (hexane) and polar (ethanol) solvent via different extraction methods. The superhydrophobic wax has been successfully extracted with hexane. Whereas, ethanol did not extract the water-repellent wax of lotus leaf. Considering the cumulative amount, i.e. (desired + undesired), the maceration shows the extraction of 2.9% (%w/w, through hexane) and 10.2% (%w/w, through ethanol), while it was found 2.5% (%w/w, cycle period 15 min) and 9.0% (%w/w, cycle period 26 min) respectively, in case of Soxhlet extraction technique. For this specific case of natural wax recovery from biomass (lotus leaf), the maceration (traditional method) resulted a little bit superior extraction yield in comparison to the Soxhlet extraction method for extraction of crude wax. In the case of non-polar solvent (hexane), an extraction yield of 1.97% (%w/w) through maceration method was observed while in the case of non-polar solvent (ethanol), an extraction yield of 1.62% (%w/w) through Soxhlet extraction was observed. The TLC analysis on both types of extracts was performed. For the detection of various hydrocarbon chains in the crude wax extracts, FTIR was also performed. Topography of wax surface and wax-coated waterproof fabric was compared through SEM.     

Actuating Shape Memory Polymer for Thermoresponsive Soft Robotic Gripper and Programmable Materials

For soft robotics and programmable metamaterials, novel approaches are required enabling the design of highly integrated thermoresponsive actuating systems. In the concept presented here, the necessary functional component was obtained by polymer syntheses. First, poly(1,10-decylene adipate) diol (PDA) with a number average molecular weight M_n of 3290 g·mol⁻¹ was synthesized from 1,10-decanediol and adipic acid. Afterward, the PDA was brought to reaction with 4,4′-diphenylmethane diisocyanate and 1,4-butanediol. The resulting polyester urethane (PEU) was processed to the filament, and samples were additively manufactured by fused-filament fabrication. After thermomechanical treatment, the PEU reliably actuated under stress-free conditions by expanding on cooling and shrinking on heating with a maximum thermoreversible strain of 16.1%. Actuation stabilized at 12.2%, as verified in a measurement comprising 100 heating-cooling cycles. By adding an actuator element to a gripper system, a hen’s egg could be picked up, safely transported and deposited. Finally, one actuator element each was built into two types of unit cells for programmable materials, thus enabling the design of temperature-dependent behavior. The approaches are expected to open up new opportunities, e.g., in the fields of soft robotics and shape morphing.     

Efficient and Green Method for the Synthesis of 1,5‐Benzodiazepine and Quinoxaline Derivatives in Water

Various 1,5‐benzodiazepine and quinoxaline derivatives have been synthesized in water with excellent yields using a catalytic amount of indium chloride at room temperature. This synthetic protocol is nontoxic, safe, and environmentally benign.     

Terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer based tree-net architecture for all-optical conversion scheme from binary to its other 2n radix based form

To exploit the parallelism of optics in data processing,a suitable number system and an efficient encoding/decoding scheme for handling the data are very essential.In the field of optical computing and parallel information processing,several number systems like binary,quaternary,octal,hexadecimal,etc.have been used for different arithmetic and algebraic operations.Here,we have proposed an all-optical conversion scheme from its binary to its other 2n radix based form with the help of terahertz optical asymmetric demultiplexer (TOAD) based tree-net architecture.     

Aziridine carboxylate from D-glucose: synthesis of polyhydroxylated piperidine, pyrrolidine alkaloids and study of their glycosidase inhibition

The D-glucose derived aziridine carboxylate 5 was obtained from (E)-ethyl-6-bromo-1,2-O-isopropylidene-3-O-benzyl-5-deoxy-alpha-D-xylo-5-eno-heptofuranuronate 4 through conjugate addition of benzylamine and in situ intramolecular nucleophilic expulsion of bromine. The regioselective aziridine ring-opening, using water as a nucleophile, resulted in the alpha-hydroxy-beta-aminoester 6, which was exploited in the synthesis of six and five membered azasugars 1b/1c and 2b/2c, respectively. The glycosidase inhibitory activity of the title compounds was evaluated.