Convenient synthesis of cyclic carbonates from CO2 and epoxides by simple secondary and primary ammonium iodides as metal‐free catalysts under mild conditions and its application to synthesis of polymer bearing cyclic carbonate moiety

Hydroiodides of secondary and primary amines effectively catalyzed the reaction of carbon dioxide and epoxides under mild conditions such as ordinary pressure and ambient temperature, to obtain the corresponding five‐membered cyclic carbonates in moderate to high yields. Detailed investigation showed that the catalytic activity was highly affected by the counter anions of the ammonium salts; the iodides catalyzed efficiently the carbonate‐forming reactions, whereas the bromide and chloride counterparts exhibited almost no catalysis. We also revealed that two important factors on the amine moieties that affected the catalytic reactions. First, the catalytic activity increased with increasing bulkiness of the substituents on the ammonium nitrogen atoms. Second, the catalysis became more efficient as the parent amines become more basic. Dicyclohexylammonium iodide was the best catalyst among the ammonium salts investigated in this study. As an application of this reaction system, we synthesized homo‐ and copolymers bearing epoxide pendant groups as substrates, which were converted with high efficiency into the corresponding homo‐ and copolymers bearing cyclic carbonate pendant groups under 1 atm at 45 °C. All polymers were easily purified simply by precipitation in water, and were isolated in high yields (>95%). © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2013     

Application of Pesticide Quantification in Unpolished Rice by LC-Dopant-Assisted Atmospheric Pressure Photoionization-MS

We applied liquid chromatography-dopant-assisted atmospheric pressure photoionization-mass spectrometry to quantify four distinct pesticides (isoprothiolane, fenitrothion, fthalide, and ethophenprox) in unpolished rice flour. Although the effect of acetone as a dopant on enhancement of ionization differed among the pesticides, the analytical results by LC-DA-APPI-MS with a dopant flow rate of 50 μL min^?1 were not only repeatable (relative SD < 9%, n = 3) but also comparable to those by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry.     

A validated HPLC‐fluorescence method with a semi‐micro column for routine determination of homocysteine,cysteine and cysteamine,and the relation between the thiol derivatives in normal human plasma

A semi‐micro column HPLC‐fluorescence method for routine determination of thiol derivatives such as homocysteine (Hcy), cysteine (Cys) and cysteamine (CA) is described. The thiol derivatives labeled with ammonium‐7‐fluorobenzo‐2‐oxa‐1,3‐diazole‐4‐sulfonate (SBD‐F) were isocratically separated within 12 min on a semi‐micro ODS column (Daisopak‐SP‐120‐5‐ODS‐BP) with a mixture of 25 mm acetate buffer (pH 2.00) and CH₃CN as a mobile phase. The purity and similarity of SBD‐thiols by a multi‐wavelength fluorescence detector were more than 92.3 and 96.7%. The detection limits of Hcy, Cys and CA at a signal‐to‐noise ratio of 3 were 0.16, 0.47 and 0.03 µm , respectively. Furthermore validation parameters such as accuracy, precision and robustness of the proposed method showed satisfactory results. Almost 850 plasma sample injections (range 572–1076, n = 3) for a column could be performed without differences in retention time and peak heights of labels. As an application of the proposed method, the determination of thiol derivatives in normal human plasma (n = 103) was demonstrated. The correlation coefficients between Hcy vs Cys and Hcy vs CA were 0.38 and −0.35, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The study of the applicability of content uniformity and weight variation test--the state of commercial tablets and capsules in Japan.

This study intends to determine the rational criteria (e.g., threshold value) for applying the weight variation test and to investigate the adequacy of the acceptance value for existing commercial products in Japan. The studied products were 489 lots (3 lots x 163 products) of compressed tablets (plain, film-coated, sugar-coated) and 42 lots (3 lots x 14 products) of hard capsules marketed in Japan. The individual drug content and the weight of 10 units in a lot were determined for each product and the acceptance values were calculated according to the Japanese Pharmacopoeia thirteenth edition (JP13) Content Uniformity Test (M=100.0, k=2.2). Product-specific intra-lot relative standard deviation of content (RSDD), weight (RSDW) and concentration (RSDC) were calculated by analysis of variance (ANOVA) using three lots of data per product. The RSDD and RSDC tended to increase with the decrease of the label strength for plain tablets, but not for film-coated and sugar-coated tablets, and hard capsules. A good correlation was found between RSDD and RSDC but not between RSDD and RSDW. These findings indicate that 1) it is difficult to rationally set the threshold level for weight variation, especially regarding the dosage forms except for plain tablets, 2) the application of weight variation tests should, in principle, be decided on the mixing homogeneity that is RSDC. 3) Most (99.6%) of the tablets and all the capsules investigated met the requirement of content uniformity test of JP13. Therefore the criteria of the JP13 content uniformity test are considered acceptable from the viewpoint of manufacturing capability.     

Facile Multiple Alkylations of C60 Fullerene

The reduction of fullerene (C₆₀) with sodium dispersion in the presence of an excess amount of dipropyl sulfate was found to yield highly propylated fullerene, C₆₀(nC₃H₇)_n (max. n = 24), and C₆₀(nC₃H₇)₂₀ was predominantly generated as determined by mass spectroscopy.     

Palladium-catalyzed oxidative alkynylation of alkenes via C-C bond bleavage under oxygen atmosphere

Palladium-catalyzed oxidative alkynylation of alkenes using tert-propargylic alcohols as alkynylation reagents via C-C bond cleavage under an oxygen atmosphere affords the corresponding ene-yne compounds.