Humidity-responsive thermal conduction properties of bacterial cellulose films

Cellulose - High hygroscopicity is an unavoidable feature of cellulose materials, and it is important for clarifying the humidity dependence of the target function toward precise utilization....     

Probing the Rotational Dynamics of meso‐(2‐Substituted)aryl Substituents in A2B‐Type Subporphyrins

A₂B‐type B‐methoxy subporphyrins 3 a – g and B‐phenyl subporphyrins 7 a – c , e , g bearing meso‐(2‐substituted)aryl substituents are synthesized, and their rotational dynamics are examined through variable‐temperature (VT) ¹H NMR spectroscopy. In these subporphyrins, the rotation of meso‐aryl substituents is hindered by a rationally installed 2‐substituent. The rotational barriers determined are considerably smaller than those reported previously for porphyrins. Comparison of the rotation activation parameters reveals a variable contribution of ΔH^≠ and ΔS^≠ in ΔG^≠. 2‐Methyl and 2‐ethyl groups of the meso‐aryl substituents in subporphyrins 3 e , 3 f , and 7 e induce larger rotational barriers than 2‐alkoxyl substituents. The rotational barriers of 3 g and 7 g are reduced by the presence of the 4‐dibenzylamino group owing to its ability to stabilize the coplanar rotation transition state electronically. The smaller rotational barriers found for B‐phenyl subporphyrins than for B‐methoxy subporphyrins indicate a negligible contribution of S_N1‐type heterolysis in the rotation of meso‐aryl substituents.     

Highly Chemoselective Aerobic Oxidation of Amino Alcohols into Amino Carbonyl Compounds

The direct oxidation of unprotected amino alcohols to their corresponding amino carbonyl compounds has often posed serious challenges in organic synthesis and has constrained chemists to adopting an indirect route, such as a protection/deprotection strategy, to attain their goal. Described herein is a highly chemoselective aerobic oxidation of unprotected amino alcohols to their amino carbonyl compounds in which 2‐azaadamantane N‐oxyl (AZADO)/copper catalysis is used. The catalytic system developed leads to the alcohol‐selective oxidation of various unprotected amino alcohols, carrying a primary, secondary, or tertiary amino group, in good to high yield at ambient temperature with exposure to air, thus offering flexibility in the synthesis of nitrogen‐containing compounds.     

Novel thermal reaction of Fischer carbene complexes with imines: synthesis of beta-methoxy allylic amine derivatives

[formula: see text] Alkyl-substituted chromium Fischer carbene complexes were found to react with various N-tosylimines to give beta-methoxy allylic amine derivatives under thermal conditions. This result is essentially distinct from the photochemical outcome in which beta-lactam derivatives are obtained.     

Functional organic gels. Enantioselective elution using chiral gels from amino acid-derived lipids

The L-glutamic acid-derived lipids form organic gels in benzene, which show enantioselective elution of N-dansyl L-phenylalanine from organic gels to aqueous phases. Differential scanning calorimetry and circular dichroism measurements demonstrate that this enantioselectivity occurred through highly-oriented structures of aggregated lipids like those of aqueous lipid membrane systems.     

Interference, fluctuation, and alternation of electron tunneling in protein media. 2. Non-condon theory for the energy gap dependence of electron transfer rate

Developing the quantum transition rate theory of Prezhdo and Rossky (J. Chem. Phys. 1997, 107, 5863), we produced a new non-Condon theory of the rate of electron transfer (ET) which happens through a protein medium with conformational fluctuation. The new theory is expressed by a convolution form of the power spectrum for the autocorrelation function of the electronic tunneling matrix element T(DA)(t) with quantum correction and the ordinary Franck-Condon factor. The new theory satisfies the detailed balance condition for the forward and backward ET rates. The ET rate formula is divided into two terms of elastic and inelastic tunneling mechanisms on the mathematical basis. The present theory is applied to the ET from Bph(-) to Q(A) in the reaction center of Rhodobacter sphaeroides. Numerical calculations of T(DA)(t) were made by a combined method of molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemistry calculations. We showed that the normalized autocorrelation function of T(DA)(t) is almost expressed by exponential forms. The calculated energy gap law of the ET rate is nearly Marcus' parabola in most of the normal region and around the maximum region, but it does not decay substantially in the inverted region, which is called the anomalous inverted region. We also showed that the energy gap law at the high uphill energy gap in the normal region is elevated considerably from the Marcus' parabola, which is called the anomalous normal region. Those anomalous energy gap laws are due to the inelastic tunneling mechanism which works actively at the energy gap far from zero. We presented an empirical formula for easily calculating the non-Condon ET rate, which is usable by many researchers. We provided experimental evidence for the anomalous inverted region which was basically reproduced by the present theory. The present theory was extensively compared with the previous non-Condon theories.