Determination of the stereochemistry of anhydroerythromycin A, the principal degradation product of the antibiotic erythromycin A

Anhydroerythromycin A arises from the acid-catalysed degradation of erythromycin A both in vitro and in vivo. It has negligible antibacterial activity, but inhibits drug oxidation in the liver, and is responsible for unwanted drug-drug interactions. Its structure has 18 chiral centres common with erythromycin A, but C-9 (the spiro carbon) is also chiral in anhydroerythromycin and its stereochemistry has not previously been reported; both 9R- and 9S-anhydroerythromycin A are plausible structures. An understanding of the chirality at C-9 was expected to throw light on the mechanism of acid-catalysed degradation of erythromycin A, a subject that has been debated in the literature over several decades.We now report a determination of the three-dimensional structure of anhydroerythromycin A, including the stereochemistry at C-9, by NMR and molecular modelling. In parallel, the relative stereochemistry of anhydroerythromycin A 2'-acetate was determined by X-ray crystallography. Both compounds were shown to have 9R stereochemistry, and anhydroerythromycin A exhibited considerable conformational flexibility in solution.     

Conformational arm-wrestling: battles for stereochemical control in benzamides bearing matched and mismatched chiral 2- and 6-substituents

The orientation of a tertiary amide group adjacent to an aromatic ring may be governed by the stereochemistry of an adjacent chiral substituent. With a chiral substituent in both ortho positions, matched/mismatched pairs of isomers result. Evidence for matched stereochemistry is provided by the clean NMR spectra of single conformers, while mismatching gives poor or unexpected selectivities in the formation of chiral substituents, or mixtures of amide conformers. Attempts to use the match-mismatch effect to select for racemic pairs of enantiomeric substituents, and hence develop a "racemate-sequestering" reagent, are described, along with the use of "matching" to scavenge a single enantiomer of a diamine from material of incomplete enantiomeric purity.     

Microwave-assisted regioselective cycloaddition reactions between 9-substituted anthracenes and levoglucosenone

The cycloaddition reactions of 9-substituted anthracenes and levoglucosenone were investigated under microwave irradiation and conventional heating conditions. Considering time, yields, and regioselectivity, microwave technology has proven to be an ideal tool to achieve this chemical transformation. [reaction: see text].     

A dynamic wind farm aggregate model for the simulation of power fluctuations due to wind turbulence

An important aspect related to wind energy integration into the electrical power system is the fluctuation of the generated power due to the stochastic variations of the wind speed across the area where wind turbines are installed. Simulation models are useful tools to evaluate the impact of the wind power on the power system stability and on the power quality. Aggregate models reduce the simulation time required by detailed dynamic models of multiturbine systems.In this paper, a new behavioral model representing the aggregate contribution of several variable-speed-pitch-controlled wind turbines is introduced. It is particularly suitable for the simulation of short term power fluctuations due to wind turbulence, where steady-state models are not applicable.The model relies on the output rescaling of a single turbine dynamic model. The single turbine output is divided into its steady state and dynamic components, which are then multiplied by different scaling factors. The smoothing effect due to wind incoherence at different locations inside a wind farm is taken into account by filtering the steady state power curve by means of a Gaussian filter as well as applying a proper damping on the dynamic part.The model has been developed to be one of the building-blocks of a model of a large electrical system, therefore a significant reduction of simulation time has been pursued. Comparison against a full model obtained by repeating a detailed single turbine model, shows that a proper trade-off between accuracy and computational speed has been achieved.     

Bacillus licheniformis peptidoglycan characterization by CZE–MS: Assessment with the benchmark RP‐HPLC‐MS method

Peptidoglycan or murein is an essential polymer found in bacterial cell wall. It is a dynamic structure that is continuously remodeled or modified during bacterial cell growth or in presence of cell wall stresses. These modifications are still poorly understood mainly due to the peptidoglycan, which is rather non‐soluble, and the difficulties to separate the hydrophilic glycopeptides (muropeptides) by reversed phase liquid chromatography, generated by the enzymatic digestion using mutanolysin, an N‐acetyl‐muramidase, cleaving the β_1→4 bound between N‐acetylglucosamine and N‐acetylmuramic acid. Here, we report the use of CZE–MS for an easy and fast screening of muropeptides generated by the action of muramidase on the Bacillus licheniformis cell wall. Electron transfer and CID–MS were also used to unambiguously identify and localize the presence or the absence of amidation and acetylation moieties on muropeptide variants. The reference method to analyse muropeptides by reversed phase chromatography was also tested and the advantages and disadvantages of both methods were evaluated.     

Oligomeric phthalonitriles and tetrakis(phenylethynyl)benzene blends with improved processing and thermal properties

Blended resins were prepared from the resorcinol-based PEEK-like oligomeric phthalonitrile resin (RES) and tetrakis(phenylethynyl)benzene (TPEB), a high char yield arylacetylene resin. Initial probing of curing properties using differential scanning calorimetry, indicated that TPEB and RES co-cure when heated. Characterization of thermal properties using thermogravimetric analysis indicated that a 1:1 TPEB-RES blend (by weight) exhibited a char yield of 80% which was 6% larger compared to pure RES (74%). According to FTIR characterization, the enhanced thermal properties of TPEB-RES were the result of increased crosslinking density. Rheological studies of TPEB, RES, and TPEB-RES blends indicated that blended systems exhibit similar processing characteristics as RES resin. For example, resins display ideal viscosities and relatively large processing windows when cured at 175 °C. Alternatively, pure TPEB resin exhibits low viscosities when melted, which are not suitable for preparing composite materials. This study indicates that preparing TPEB-RES blends is an effect strategy for improving thermal performance of potential RES composites while still maintaining the required processability for fabrication of dense polymer composites. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2018 , 56, 2630–2640     

Two polymorphs of 20‐desmethyl‐β‐carotene

Two polymorphs of 20‐desmethyl‐β‐carotene (systematic name: 20‐nor‐β,β‐carotene), C₃₉H₅₄, in monoclinic and triclinic space groups, were formed in the same vial by recrystallization from pyridine and water. Each polymorph crystallizes with the complete molecule as the asymmetric unit, and the two polymorphs show differing patterns of disorder. The β end rings of both polymorphs have the 6‐s‐cis conformation, and are twisted out of the plane of the polyene chain by angles of −53.2 (8) and 47.3 (8)° for the monoclinic polymorph, and −43.6 (3) and 56.1 (3)° for the triclinic polymorph. The cyclohexene end groups are in the half‐chair conformation, but the triclinic polymorph shows disorder of one ring. Overlay of the molecules shows that they differ in the degree of nonplanarity of the polyene chains and the angles of twist of the end rings. The packing arrangements of the two polymorphs are quite different, with the monoclinic polymorph showing short intermolecular contacts of the disordered methyl groups with adjacent polyene chain atoms, and the triclinic polymorph showing π–π stacking interactions of the almost parallel polyene chains. The determination of the crystal structures of the two title polymorphs of 20‐desmethyl‐β‐carotene allows information to be gained regarding the structural effects on the polyene chain, as well as on the end groups, versus that of the parent compound β‐carotene. The absence of the methyl group is known to have an impact on various functions of the title compound.     

Conformational switching between diastereoisomeric atropisomers of arenedicarboxamides induced by complexation with Lewis acids

Tertiary diamides of xanthene-1,8-dicarboxylic acid and biphenyl-2,2'-dicarboxylic acid exhibit a thermodynamic preference for anti stereochemistry which is inverted in the presence of Ti- or Sn-based Lewis acids, allowing interconversion between kinetically stable syn and anti diastereoisomeric atropisomers.     

Mechanisms of micellization and rheology of PEO-PPO-PEO triblock copolymers with various architectures

Micelle formation was followed by micro-DSC and rheology for aqueous solutions of two copolymers of PEO-PPO-PEO, the Pluronic F127 (from BASF) and the EG56 (from PolymerExpert), a branched copolymer built with three chains of F127 type. It is shown that micellization is endothermic and that, for both polymers, the enthalpy of formation/melting is proportional to total concentration. The rheology of the solutions was carefully analyzed, before gelation for F127, and it reveals firstly the progressive changes of solubility of the unimers (decease of relative solution viscosity), followed by micelle formation over a 10 degrees C range. In this range, the micelle concentration dependence on temperature was deduced from enthalpy measurements and the corresponding volume fractions were derived. Viscosity was interpreted within the framework of well-known theories for hard sphere suspensions (Krieger-Dougherty or Quemada) based on an analogy between micelles and nanosized hairy grain suspensions. The gel state is achieved due to formation of the colloidal crystal. For EG56, the rheology is quite different; as the aggregation increases with temperature, a progression is observed from Newtonian to visco-elastic liquid. The characteristic frequency, defined by the relation G(') = G('), for EG56 varies with temperature and the corresponding times increase by two orders of magnitude according to an Arrhenius law. The frequency dependence of G(') and G(') at different temperatures can be superposed with a horizontal shift factor and a small amplitude adjustment. There is no elastic solid formation in this case. The "gelation" of these two copolymers is compared to the physical gelation of cold-set gels (gelatin).     

N,N'-diarylureas: a new family of atropisomers exhibiting highly diastereoselective reactivity

2,6-disubstituted N-aryl ureas rotate slowly about their Ar-N bonds and can exist as separable atropisomers. They also react remarkably diastereoselectively, with the urea axis controlling new stereogenic centers with high fidelity in a variety of nucleophilic and electrophilic addition reactions. The sense of diastereoselectivity in lateral lithiation-electrophilic quench reactions is electrophile-dependent and appears to be the result of stereospecific reaction with one of two interconvertible diastereoisomeric organolithiums.