New palladium-catalyzed aerobic oxidative cleavage and cyclization of N-aryl peptide derivatives

Oxidative cleavage and cyclization cascades of N-aryl peptides have been achieved under palladium catalysis with air as the sole stoichiometric oxidant.     

On the Flow and Passive Noise Control of an Open Cavity at Re = 5000

The interaction of turbulent flows with the external structure of ground vehicles generates uncomfortable noise and a lot of attention is devoted to find new mechanisms for its suppression. The present work is concerned with open cavity flows, very often found in the automotive industry. A three-dimensional rectangular very wide open cavity with aspect ratio \(L/D=4\) at Reynolds number \(Re_D=5000\) and Mach number \(M=0.1\) is considered. The passive control technique is based on eight different geometrical modifications: the length of the cavity, the radius of the trailing, leading and bottom edges and the difference in heights between the left and right wall of the cavity. Wall-resolved Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are used to obtain the flow fields and a post-process based on Curle’s analogy is applied to evaluate the acoustic radiation and the effectiveness of the control mechanisms. The results show that the modifications on the trailing edge are the most effective to control the flow. They allow to reduce the pressure fluctuations produced by the recirculation confined inside the cavity and the abrupt ejection of the flow at the trailing edge. As a consequence, the overall sound pressure level can be decreased up to 9 dB.

     

Revealing the Transient Concentration of CO2 in a Mixed‐Matrix Membrane by IR Microimaging and Molecular Modeling

Through IR microimaging the spatially and temporally resolved development of the CO₂ concentration in a ZIF‐8@6FDA‐DAM mixed matrix membrane (MMM) was visualized during transient adsorption. By recording the evolution of the CO₂ concentration, it is observed that the CO₂ molecules propagate from the ZIF‐8 filler, which acts as a transport “highway”, towards the surrounding polymer. A high‐CO₂‐concentration layer is formed at the MOF/polymer interface, which becomes more pronounced at higher CO₂ gas pressures. A microscopic explanation of the origins of this phenomenon is suggested by means of molecular modeling. By applying a computational methodology combining quantum and force‐field based calculations, the formation of microvoids at the MOF/polymer interface is predicted. Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations further demonstrate that CO₂ tends to preferentially reside in these microvoids, which is expected to facilitate CO₂ accumulation at the interface.     

Rearrangement of oxazolidinethiones to thiazolidinediones or thiazinanediones and their application for the synthesis of chiral allylic ureas and α-methyl-β-amino acids

A novel rearrangement has been found between oxazolidinethiones and acyl halides under N-acylation reaction conditions to afford N-substituted 2,4-thiazolidinediones and N-substituted 1,3-thiazinane-2,4-diones. These heterocycles were used for the synthesis of chiral allylic ureas and α-methyl-β-amino acids.     

Alternative method for gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of short-chain fatty acids in faecal samples

Short-chain fatty acids are the major end products of bacterial metabolism in the large bowel. They derive mostly from the bacterial breakdown of carbohydrates and are known to have positive health benefits. Due to the biological relevance of these compounds it is important to develop efficient, cheap, fast, and sensitive analytical methods that enable the identification and quantification of the short-chain fatty acids in a large number of biological samples. In this study, a gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the analysis of short-chain fatty acids in faecal samples. These volatile compounds were extracted with ethyl acetate and 4-methyl valeric acid was used as an internal standard. No further cleanup, concentration, and derivatization steps were needed and the extract was directly injected onto the column. Recoveries ranged between 65 and 105%, and no matrix effects were observed. The proposed method has wide linear ranges, good inter- and intraday variability values (below 2.6 and 5.6%, respectively) and limits of detection between 0.49 μM (0.29 μg/g) and 4.31 μM (3.8 μg/g). The applicability of this analytical method was successfully tested in faecal samples from rats and humans.     

Solvent effects on the free‐radical copolymerization of styrene with butyl acrylate. I. Monomer reactivity ratios

The free‐radical copolymerization of styrene with butyl acrylate was carried out in benzene and benzonitrile at 50°C. Differences between the apparent reactivity ratios determined in this work and those previously reported in bulk indicated noticeable solvent effects. This is explained by a qualitative bootstrap effect. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 38: 60–67, 2000     

Determination of Trace Levels of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters in Aviation Fuel by GC × GC–FID and Comparison with the Reference GC–MS Method

Due to the negative impact of the presence of fatty acid methyl esters in kerosene for the aviation industry, in this work a comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography method with flame ionization detector for the determination of trace levels of fatty acid methyl esters in kerosene was developed. It is based on the use of a first dimension polar column and a second dimension non-polar column. Identification of fatty acid methyl esters is based on retention times and the external standard calibration is used for quantitation. Results were compared with those obtained from the GC–MS reference method; good recoveries, close to 100 %, and limit of detection in a range from 3 to 6 μg kg⁻¹ were found without requiring a specific detector.

     

Antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects of Mexican medicinal plants

The antimicrobial effects of the Mexican medicinal plants Guazuma ulmifolia, Justicia spicigera, Opuntia joconostle, O. leucotricha, Parkinsonia aculeata, Phoradendron longifolium, P. serotinum, Psittacanthus calyculatus, Tecoma stans and Teucrium cubense were tested against several human multi-drug resistant pathogens, including three Gram (+) and five Gram (-) bacterial species and three fungal species using the disk-diffusion assay. The cytotoxicity of plant extracts on human cancer cell lines and human normal non-cancerous cells was also evaluated using the MTT assay. Phoradendron longifolium, Teucrium cubense, Opuntia joconostle, Tecoma stans and Guazuma ulmifolia showed potent antimicrobial effects against at least one multidrug-resistant microorganism (inhibition zone > 15 mm). Only Justicia spicigera and Phoradendron serotinum extracts exerted active cytotoxic effects on human breast cancer cells (IC50 < or = 30 microg/mL). The results showed that Guazuma ulmifolia produced potent antimicrobial effects against Candida albicans and Acinetobacter lwoffii, whereas Justicia spicigera and Phoradendron serotinum exerted the highest toxic effects on MCF-7 and HeLa, respectively, which are human cancer cell lines. These three plant species may be important sources of antimicrobial and cytotoxic agents.     

Thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione-based polymer semiconductors: toward high-performance, air-stable organic thin-film transistors

We report a new p-type semiconducting polymer family based on the thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) building block, which exhibits good processability as well as good mobility and lifetime stability in thin-film transistors (TFTs). TPD homopolymer P1 was synthesized via Yamamoto coupling, whereas copolymers P2-P8 were synthesized via Stille coupling. All of these polymers were characterized by chemical analysis as well as thermal analysis, optical spectroscopy, and cyclic voltammetry. P2-P7 have lower-lying HOMOs than does P3HT by 0.24-0.57 eV, depending on the donor counits, and exhibit large oscillator strengths in the visible region with similar optical band gaps throughout the series (～1.80 eV). The electron-rich character of the dialkoxybithiophene counits in P8 greatly compresses the band gap, resulting in the lowest E(g)(opt) in the series (1.66 eV), but also raising the HOMO energy to -5.11 eV. Organic thin-film transistor (OTFT) electrical characterization indicates that device performance is very sensitive to the oligothiophene conjugation length, but also to the solubilizing side chain substituents (length, positional pattern). The corresponding thin-film microstructures and morphologies were investigated by XRD and AFM to correlate with the OTFT performance. By strategically varying the oligothiophene donor conjugation length and optimizing the solubilizing side chains, a maximum OTFT hole mobility of ～0.6 cm(2) V(-1) s(-1) is achieved for P4-based devices. OTFT environmental (storage) and operational (bias) stability in ambient was investigated, and enhanced performance is observed due to the low-lying HOMOs. These results indicate that the TPD is an excellent building block for constructing high-performance polymers for p-type transistor applications due to the excellent processability, substantial hole mobility, and good device stability.     

Interrupted Wet-Spinning Process for Chitosan Hollow Fiber Elaboration

Summary: Chitosan hollow fiber formation with a variable internal diameter was performed from a new wet-spinning method in interrupted coagulation conditions by means of water washings. The main objective of the present study is to provide a better understanding of the physicochemical events involved during the chitosan fiber formation by this new wet-spinning method.