Interconvertible Living Radical and Cationic Polymerization through Reversible Activation of Dormant Species with Dual Activity

The polymerization of vinyl monomers generally requires the selection of an appropriate single intermediate, whereas in copolymerization, the selection of the comonomer is limited by the intermediate. Herein, we propose interconvertible dual active species that can connect comonomers through different mechanisms to produce specific comonomer sequences in a single polymer chain. More specifically, two different stimuli, that is, a radical initiator and a Lewis acid, are used to activate the common dormant C? SC(S)Z group into radical and cationic species, thereby inducing interconvertible radical and cationic copolymerization of acrylate and vinyl ether to produce a copolymer chain that consists of radically and cationically polymerized segments. The dual reversible activation provides control over molecular weights and multiblock copolymers with tunable segment lengths.     

Measurement of Sectional Profile of a Cylinder using a Sinusoidally Vibrating Light with Sinusoidal Intensity

A method for accurately measuring a sectional profile of a cylinder is proposed in which a sinusoidally vibrating sinusoidal grating is used to generate a sinusoidally vibrating sinusoidal intensity distribution. A light coming from the top point of the cylinder surface is extracted with an optical system to make an image of this point. A sectional profile of the cylinder is measured by detecting a phase of a time-varying signal contained in the image intensity at a position where the amplitude of the signal is maximum. Detection of the amplitude and the phase is carried out easily and exactly.     

Polymer catalysts from polymerization catalysts: direct encapsulation of metal catalyst into star polymer core during metal-catalyzed living radical polymerization

Star polymers containing ruthenium complex in the core were prepared by ruthenium-catalyzed living radical polymerization, where the metal catalysts were directly encapsulated on linking reactions of living poly(MMA) in the presence of ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a linker and diphenyl-4-styrylphosphine as a ligand incorporated in the core. The products were characterized by SEC/MALLS, UV-vis, NMR, AFM, TEM, and ICP-AES and were employed as polymer catalysts for the oxidation reaction of alcohol.     

Dual‐Functional Small Molecules for Generating an Efficient Cytochrome P450BM3 Peroxygenase

We report a unique strategy for the development of a H₂O₂‐dependent cytochrome P450BM3 system, which catalyzes the monooxygenation of non‐native substrates with the assistance of dual‐functional small molecules (DFSMs), such as N‐(ω‐imidazolyl fatty acyl)‐l ‐amino acids. The acyl amino acid group of DFSM is responsible for bounding to enzyme as an anchoring group, while the imidazolyl group plays the role of general acid–base catalyst in the activation of H₂O₂. This system affords the best peroxygenase activity for the epoxidation of styrene, sulfoxidation of thioanisole, and hydroxylation of ethylbenzene among those P450–H₂O₂ system previously reported. This work provides the first example of the activation of the normally H₂O₂‐inert P450s through the introduction of an exogenous small molecule. This approach improves the potential use of P450s in organic synthesis as it avoids the expensive consumption of the reduced nicotinamide cofactor NAD(P)H and its dependent electron transport system. This introduces a promising approach for exploiting enzyme activity and function based on direct chemical intervention in the catalytic process.     

Nucleation and aggregative growth process of platinum nanoparticles studied by in situ quick XAFS spectroscopy

The early stage in the nucleation and subsequent aggregative particle growth of the colloidal platinum (Pt) dispersions produced by photoreduction in an aqueous ethanol solution of poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP) was quantitatively investigated by means of in situ quick XAFS (QXAFS) measurements. The stages of the reduction-nucleation and the association process (aggregative particle growth and Ostwald ripening) of Pt atoms to produce Pt nanoparticles was successfully discriminated in course of the photoreduction time. The present QXAFS analysis indicated that Pt nuclei (i.e., (Pt(0))(m) nucleates approximately m = 4) were continuously produced in the reduction-nucleation process at the early time, followed by the aggregative particle growth with the autocatalytic reduction of Pt ionic species on the surface of Pt nuclei to produce Pt nanoparticles. Subsequently the particle growth proceeded via Ostwald ripening, resulting in the production of larger Pt nanoparticles at a later time. It was also found that the aggregative particle growth follows a sigmoidal profile well described either by the solid-state kinetic model or by the chemical-mechanism-based kinetic model, specifically the Avrami-Erofe'ev or Finke-Watzky models. The difference in terms of the formation mechanism was observed between the reduction of Pt(IV)Cl(6)(2-) and Pt(II)Cl(4)(2-) as a source material. Also presented is that the addition of the photoactivator such as benzoin, benzophenone, and acetophenone in the system is very effective to enhance the rate for the formation of Pt nanoparticles.     

Partial Oxidation of Methane to Nitrogen Free Synthesis Gas Using Air as Oxidant

In order to generate synthesis gas or hydrogen free from nitrogen by partial oxidation of methane using air as an oxidant, gas?Csolid reactions of methane and a metal oxide and/or mixed metal oxides were carried out. The background of the gas?Csolid reaction was briefly reviewed and then a series of the present author??s studies was described. As metal oxides Fe₂O₃ and NiO were active, but the reaction with methane and these oxides afforded complete oxidation to give H₂O and CO₂. To both oxides, addition of Cr- and Mg- oxides promoted the following reaction to give synthesis gas. $$ {\text{CH}}_{ 4} + {\text{ MM}}'{\text{O}}_{\text{x}} \to {\text{CO }} + {\text{ 2H}}_{ 2} + {\text{ MM}}^{\prime}{\text{O}}_{{{\text{x}} - 1}} $$ After the reaction with methane, mixed oxides were reduced to lower valence state oxides and they were regenerated by the oxidation with air. $$ {\text{MM}}^{\prime}{\text{O}}_{{{\text{x}} - 1}} + {\text{ Air}} \to {\text{MM}}'{\text{O}}_{\text{x}} + {\text{ N}}_{ 2} $$ Up to 10 repeated reaction and regeneration cycles did not or only slightly decreased the activity of the mixed oxides. By switching two or more reactors, the reaction and the regeneration were carried out to give synthesis gas continuously.     

A bicyclic conjugated diene monomer,tetrahydroindene, for cationic polymerization and a novel alicyclic hydrocarbon polymer with heat resistance

This study was directed toward the cationic polymerization of tetrahydroindene (i.e., bicyclo[4.3.0]‐2,9‐nonadiene), a bicyclic conjugated diene monomer, with a series of Lewis acids, especially focusing on the synthesis of high‐molecular‐weight polymers and subsequent hydrogenation for novel cycloolefin polymers with high service temperatures. EtAlCl₂ or SnCl₄ induced an efficient and quantitative cationic polymerization of tetrahydroindene to afford polymers with relatively high molecular weights (number‐average molecular weight > 20,000) and 1,4‐enchainment bicyclic main‐chain structures. The subsequent hydrogenation of the obtained poly(tetrahydroindene) with p‐toluenesulfonyl hydrazide resulted in a saturated alicyclic hydrocarbon polymer with a relatively high glass transition (glass‐transition temperature = 220 °C) and improved pyrolysis temperature (10% weight loss at 480 °C). The new diene monomer was randomly copolymerized with cyclopentadiene at various feed ratios in the presence of EtAlCl₂ to give novel cycloolefin copolymers, which were subsequently hydrogenated into alicyclic copolymers with variable glass‐transition temperatures (70–220 °C). © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 6214–6225, 2006     

Helix‐sense‐selective copolymerization of triphenylmethyl methacrylate with chiral 2‐isopropenyl‐4‐phenyl‐2‐oxazoline

The asymmetric induction leading to a one‐handed helix was investigated in the anionic and radical copolymerization of triphenylmethyl methacrylate (TrMA) and (S)‐2‐isopropenyl‐4‐phenyl‐2‐oxazoline ((S)‐IPO), and highly isotactic copolymers with a reasonable optical activity were obtained. In the anionic copolymerization, the optical activity of the obtained copolymers depended on the polarity of solvents, and a highly optically active copolymer was produced in the copolymerization in toluene. The chiral oxazoline monomer functioned not only as a comonomer but also as a chiral ligand to endow the polymer with large negative optical rotation in the copolymerization with TrMA. The copolymers with small positive optical rotation were obtained in THF, indicating that IPO unit may work only as the chiral monomer that dictates the helical sense via copolymerization with TrMA. The isotacticity of the obtained copolymers depended on the contents of TrMA units in the copolymers, but was almost independent of the solvent for copolymerization. In the radical copolymerization, the obtained copolymers exhibited small optical activities. It seemed that the chiral monomer cannot induce one‐handed helical structure of TrMA sequences even if the sequences probably have a high isotacticity. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2019 , 57, 441–447