Dye-sensitized photooxygenation of sugar furans: novel bis-epoxide and spirocyclic C-nucleosides

Dye-sensitized photooxygenation of 2-methyl 5-(2,3,5-tri-O-acetyl-β-d-ribofuranosyl)furoate leads to (1S,4R)-endo-peroxide, highlighting a high facial diastereoselectivity. This endo-peroxide rearranges into syn-(1R,2R:3S,4R)-diepoxide C-nucleoside, while by Et₂S-reduction followed by NEt₃ catalysis affords a spirocyclic C-nucleoside.     

Homogenization for conductive thin layers of pre-fractal type

The aim of this work is to obtain convergence results for the solutions of transmission problems across highly conductive layers of pre-fractal type from the point of view of homogenization. We prove the M-convergence of the energy functionals to an energy functional which incorporates a singular term, supported within the layer. From the convergence of the energy functionals we deduce the convergence of the approximating solutions to the limit solution in a suitable sense.     

New chiral imino- and amino-sulfoxides as activators of allyl trichlorosilane in the asymmetric allylation of aldehydes

Chiral 2-methylsulfinyl benzaldehyde proved to be a valuable starting material for a convenient approach towards a variety of imino- and amino-sulfoxides. The catalytic properties of these new ligands, as potential activators of allyl trichlorosilane, have been exploited in new catalytic procedures for the synthesis of enantioenriched homoallylic alcohols.     

Spiroketals of monosaccharides by dye-sensitized photooxygenation of furyl ketoses

[4+2] Cycloaddition of singlet oxygen to suitably substituted furans followed by reduction of the corresponding endoperoxides afforded functionalized enediones which quickly cyclized into the titled spiroketals. The reported method represents a green synthetic one-pot procedure for novel [6,6]-, [5,6]-, and [5,5]-spiroketals of sugars.     

ORMOSIL thin films: tuning mechanical properties via a nanochemistry approach

The mechanical properties (hardness and elastic modulus) of organically modified silicate thin films can be finely tuned by varying the degree of alkylation and thus the fraction of six- and four-membered siloxane rings in the organosilica matrix. This opens the way to large tunability of parameters that are of crucial practical importance for films that are finding increasing application in numerous fields ranging from microelectronics to chemical sensing.     

Essential oil composition of Citrus medica L. Cv. Diamante (Diamante citron) determined after using different extraction methods

In this paper, we report the qualitative and quantitative composition of the volatile and the oxygenated heterocyclic fraction of citron (Citrus medica L. cv. Diamante (Diamante citron)). The fruits selected for the extraction were of three types: green citron of little size, green citron of big size, and yellow citron after 1 month from the harvest. The essential oils were extracted using three different methods. The nine samples of oil thus obtained were analyzed by high resolution GC (HRGC)‐flame ionization detection (FID), HRGC‐MS, and RP‐HPLC. They differ only in the quantitative composition, while the qualitative profile was the same. The volatile fraction of every sample of oil is characterized by a high content of limonene, γ‐terpinene, and monoterpene aldehydes and a lower content of α‐ and β‐pinene and myrcene, sesquiterpenes, and aliphatic aldehydes. Enantioselective (Es)‐GC analysis of the extracts allowed the determination of the enantiomeric distribution of five terpenoid compounds; a prevalence of four dextrorotatory isomers was observed. Oxypeucedanin was the main component of the oxygenated heterocyclic fraction in the extracts of green fruits, while citropten was the major oxygenated compound in the oil obtained from yellow citron.     

Fractal snowflake domain diffusion with boundary and interior drifts

We study a parabolic Ventsell problem for a second order differential operator in divergence form and with interior and boundary drift terms on the snowflake domain. We prove that under standard conditions a related Cauchy problem possesses a unique classical solution and explain in which sense it solves a rigorous formulation of the initial Ventsell problem. As a second result we prove that functions that are intrinsically Lipschitz on the snowflake boundary admit Euclidean Lipschitz extensions to the closure of the entire domain. Our methods combine the fractal membrane analysis, the vector analysis for local Dirichlet forms and PDE on fractals, coercive closed forms, and the analysis of Lipschitz functions.     

Moving boundary problem for the detachment in multispecies biofilms

The work presents the qualitative analysis of the free boundary value problem related to the detachment process in multispecies biofilms. In the framework of continuum approach to one-dimensional mathematical modelling of multispecies biofilm growth, we consider the system of nonlinear hyperbolic partial differential equations governing the microbial species growth, the differential equation for the biomass velocity, the differential equation that governs the free boundary evolution and also accounts for detachment, and the elliptic system for substrate dynamics. The characteristics are used to convert the original moving boundary equation into a suitable differential equation useful to solve the mathematical problem. We also provide another form of the same equation that could be used in numerical applications. Several properties of the solutions to the free boundary problem are shown, such as positiveness of the functions that describe the microbial concentrations and estimates on the characteristic functions. Uniqueness and existence of solutions are proved by introducing a suitable system of Volterra integral equations and using the fixed point theorem.

     

Role of polymer network and gelation kinetics on the mechanical properties and adsorption capacity of chitosan hydrogels for dye removal

Chitosan (CS) hydrogels are receiving growing attention as adsorbents for water purification purposes. The conditions of preparation of this class of materials play a crucial in the determination of their performances; however, this aspect is often neglected in the literature. In this study, we deal with this issue, focusing on the structure‐property relationships of CS hydrogels obtained by phase inversion method. We show that the concentration of the starting solution determines the density and strength of intermolecular interactions, and that the gelation kinetics dictates the hydrogel structure at the microscale. Consequently, even subtle changes in the preparation protocol can cause significant differences in the performances of CS hydrogels in terms of mechanical properties and dye adsorption capacity. The observed trends are often neither trivial nor monotonic. Nonetheless, we demonstrate that they can be interpreted looking at the CS network structure, which can be inferred by rheological measurements. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 1843–1849     

Synthesis and Anti‐proliferative Activity of Novel Polysubstitued Indazole Derivatives

A simple and efficient process is developed for the synthesis of new N‐(1‐alkyl‐3‐chloro‐4‐ethoxy‐1H‐indazol‐5‐yl)‐arylsulfonamides 4a – d and N‐(1‐alkyl‐3‐chloro‐1H‐indazol‐5‐yl)‐arylsulfonamides 5a – d through the reduction of 1‐alkyl‐3‐chloro‐5‐nitroindazoles 2a , b with SnCl₂ in ethanol followed by coupling the corresponding amine with arylsulfonyl chlorides in pyridine. All the newly synthesized compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and spectroscopic data. Some compounds were tested for their in vitro antiproliferative activities against two selected human cancer cell lines A2780 and A549. Among all of these derivatives, compound 5d showed the most potent antiproliferative activity against A2780 (IC₅₀ = 5.47 ± 1.45 μM) and A549 (IC₅₀ = 7.73 ± 1.66 μM) cell lines.