Molecular iodine catalyzed coupling reactions of indole with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds

The molecular iodine-catalyzed direct coupling of indoles with 1,3-dicarbonyl compounds is described. This new method for C–C bond formation allows high functional group tolerance, regioselectivity, and scope under mild conditions.     

Comparative Analysis of the Properties of Tween‐20, Tween‐60, Tween‐80, Arlacel‐60, and Arlacel‐80

Foamability and foam stability, emulsifying power, surface tension, and interfacial tension were investigated for Tween‐20 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monolaurate), Tween‐60 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monostearate), Tween‐80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate), Arlacel‐60 (Sorbitan stearate), and Arlacel‐80 (Sorbitan oleate). Among all the surfactants tested for their foaming power and foamabilty, Arlacel‐60 and Arlacel‐80 showed the best results; the foaming power and foamability was found to be 100%. The surfactants having foam stability more than 50% can be considered as metastable and those less than 50% are considered as low‐stability foams. In case of surface tension and interfacial tension property measurements, Arlacel‐80 showed the best results. At 1% surfactant concentration, the surface tension and interfacial tension of Arlacel‐80 was found to be 29.9 dynes/cm and 1.1 dynes/cm at 30°C ambient temperature. Also, Arlacel‐60 was found to exhibit the best emulsifying power among all the surfactants tested. At 30°C, the emulsifying property of Arlacel‐60 was 6 hours.     

Horses for courses: risk information and decision making in the regulation of nanomaterials

Despite the widespread commercial use of nanomaterials, regulators currently have a limited ability to characterize and manage risks. There is a paucity of data available on the current production and use of nanomaterials and extreme scientific uncertainty on most aspects of the risk assessment “causal chain.” Regulatory decisions will need to be made in the near-term in the absence formal quantitative risk assessments. The article draws on examples from three different regulatory contexts—baseline data monitoring efforts of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and California Department of Toxic Substances Control, prioritization of risk information in the context of environmental releases, and mitigation of occupational risks—to argue for the use of decision-analytic tools in lieu of formal risk assessment to help regulatory bodies. We advocate a “horses for courses” approach whereby existing analytical tools (such as risk ranking, multi-criteria decision analysis, and “control banding” approaches) might be adapted to regulators’ goals in particular decision contexts. While efforts to build new and modify existing tools are underway, they need greater support from funding and regulatory agencies because innovative approaches are needed for the “extreme” uncertainty problems that nanomaterials pose.     

Direct Allylation of In Situ Generated Aldehyde Acyl Anions by Synergistic NHC and Palladium Catalysis

The direct regioselective allylation of in situ generated aldehyde acyl anions has been achieved by synergistic NHC and Pd catalysis. It provides an efficient access to valuable β,γ‐unsaturated ketones under mild reaction conditions starting from easily accessible allylic carbonates and aldehydes without any preactivation. The synergistic catalysis method demonstrated herein adds a new dimension to the area of metal‐mediated C allylation.     

Intramolecular hydrogen bonding and cooperative interactions in carbohydrates via the molecular tailoring approach

In spite of many theoretical and experimental attempts for understanding intramolecular hydrogen bonding (H-bonding) in carbohydrates, a direct quantification of individual intramolecular H-bond energies and the cooperativity among the H-bonded networks has not been reported in the literature. The present work attempts, for the first time, a direct estimation of individual intramolecular O-H...O interaction energies in sugar molecules using the recently developed molecular tailoring approach (MTA). The estimated H-bond energies are in the range of 1.2-4.1 kcal mol(-1). It is seen that the OH...O equatorial-equatorial interaction energies lie between 1.8 and 2.5 kcal mol(-1), with axial-equatorial ones being stronger (2.0-3.5 kcal mol(-1)). The strongest bonds are nonvicinal axial-axial H-bonds (3.0-4.1 kcal mol(-1)). This trend in H-bond energies is in agreement with the earlier reports based on the water-water H-bond angle, solvent-accessible surface area (SASA), and (1)H NMR analysis. The contribution to the H-bond energy from the cooperativity is also estimated using MTA. This contribution is seen to be typically between 0.1 and 0.6 kcal mol(-1) when H-bonds are a part of a relatively weak equatorial-equatorial H-bond network and is much higher (0.5-1.1 kcal mol(-1)) when H-bonds participate in an axial-axial H-bond network.     

Two-step evaluation of binding energy and potential energy surface of van der Waals complexes

Evaluation of intermolecular distance and binding energy (BE) of van der Waals complex/cluster at ab initio level of theory is computationally demanding when many monomers are involved. Starting from MP2 energy, we reached a two-step evaluation method of BE of van der Waals complex/cluster through reasonable approximations; BE = BE(HF) + sum Mi> Mj{BE (Mi- Mj)(MP2 or MP2.5) - BE(Mi-Mj)(HF)} where HF represents the Hartree-Fock calculation, Mi, Mj, etc. are interacting monomers, and MP2.5 represents the arithmetic mean of MP2 and MP3. The first term is the usual BE of the complex/cluster evaluated at the HF level. The second term is the sum of the difference in two-body BE between the correlated and HF levels of theory. This equation was applied to various van der Waals complexes consisting of up-to-four monomers at MP2 and MP2.5 levels of theory. We found that this method is capable of providing precise estimate of the BE and reproducing well the potential energy surface of van der Waals complexes/clusters; the maximum error of the BE is less than 1 kcal/mol and 1% in most cases except for several limited cases. The origins of error in these cases are discussed in detail.     

Cation interdiffusion model for enhanced oxygen kinetics at oxide heterostructure interfaces

An interface between the perovskite La(0.8)Sr(0.2)CoO(3-δ) (LSC-113) and the K(2)NiF(4)-type (La(0.5)Sr(0.5))(2)CoO(4-δ) (LSC-214) heterostructure was recently shown to enhance oxygen surface exchange and the rate of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) by orders of magnitude compared to either the LSC-113 or LSC-214 phase alone. This result is of interest to develop better optimized materials for solid-state electrochemical devices, e.g. solid oxide fuel cells. The effect has been attributed to the interface itself, rather than changes in the bulk LSC-113 or LSC-214 phases. Using density functional theory (DFT)-based simulations, we demonstrate that there is a ～0.9 eV (～1.3 eV) energy gain for exchanging a Sr from LSC-113(25%Sr) (LSC-113(40%Sr)) with a La from LSC-214(50%Sr). These changes in energy create a large driving force for interdiffusion across the heterostructure interface from Sr into LSC-214 and La into LSC-113. We estimate that the Sr concentrations (in the LSC-214 phase) in a typical experimental temperature range of 500-600 °C and in equilibrium with LSC-113(25%Sr) and LSC-113(40%Sr), may be about 75% Sr and 90% Sr, respectively. Based on the bulk behavior of the LSC-214 phase (Vashook et al., Solid State Ionics, 2000, 138, 99-104), an Sr enrichment from x = 0.5 to x = 0.75 in (La(1-x)Sr(x))(2)CoO(4-δ) is expected to enhance the oxygen vacancy concentration by 2-2.5 orders of magnitude under typical experimental conditions. An increased vacancy concentration in LSC-214 near the interface can explain most of the enhanced oxygen kinetics observed up until now in these heterostructures.     

Synthesis of modified peptidoglycan precursor analogues for the inhibition of glycosyltransferase

The peptidoglycan glycosyltransferases (GTs) are essential enzymes that catalyze the polymerization of glycan chains of the bacterial cell wall from lipid II and thus constitute a validated antibacterial target. Their enzymatic cavity is composed of a donor site for the growing glycan chain (where the inhibitor moenomycin binds) and an acceptor site for lipid II substrate. In order to find lead inhibitors able to fill this large active site, we have synthesized a series of substrate analogues of lipid I and lipid II with variations in the lipid, the pyrophosphate, and the peptide moieties and evaluated their biological effect on the GT activity of E. coli PBP1b and their antibacterial potential. We found several compounds able to inhibit the GT activity in vitro and cause growth defect in Bacillus subtilis . The more active was C16-phosphoglycerate-MurNAc-(L-Ala-D-Glu)-GlcNAc, which also showed antibacterial activity. These molecules are promising leads for the design of new antibacterial GT inhibitors.