Chiral Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric Baylis-Hillman reactions

An effective chiral Lewis acid-catalyzed asymmetric Baylis-Hillman reaction is described. Good to high enantioselectivities were obtained using 3 mol % chiral catalyst. Novel camphor-derived dimerized ligands were prepared from the condensation of (+)-ketopinic acid with the corresponding diamines and hydrazine under acidic conditions. When alpha-naphthyl acrylate was used as a Michael acceptor, the reaction is complete within 20 min with high stereoselectivity and in reasonable chemical yields.     

An ab initio study toward understanding the mechanistic photochemistry of acetamide

The potential energy surfaces for CH(3)CONH(2) dissociation into CH(3) + CONH(2), CH(3)CO + NH(2), CH(3)CN + H(2)O, and CH(3)NH(2) + CO in the ground and lowest triplet states have been mapped with DFT, MP2, and CASSCF methods with the cc-pVDZ and cc-pVTZ basis sets, while the S(1) potential energy surfaces for these reactions were determined by the CASSCF/cc-pVDZ optimizations followed by CASSCF/MRSDCI single-point calculations. The reaction pathways leading to different photoproducts are characterized on the basis of the computed potential energy surfaces and surface crossing points. A comparison of the reactivity among HCONH(2), CH(3)CONH(2), and CH(3)CONHCH(3) has been made, which provides some new insights into the mechanism of the ultraviolet photodissociation of small amides.     

The Constituents of Cynanchum Taiwanianum

The isolation and identification of eleven crystalline components from the aerial part of Cynanchum taiwanianum Yamazaki (Asclepiadaceae) are described. Their structures were determined on the basis of spectral evidence and chemical transformation. Besides caffeic acid, β-amyrin, and methyl phaeophorbide a, the isolated flavonoid components are classified into two groups, i.e. kaempferol derivatives (kaempferol, astragalin, afzelin, trifolin) and quercetin derivatives (quercetin, isoquercitrin, quercitrin, hyperin).     

Xylan hydrolysis in zinc chloride solution

Xylan is the major component of hemicellulose, which consists of up to one-third of the lignocellulosic biomass. When the zinc chloride solution was used as a pretreatment agent to facilitate cellulose hydrolysis, hemicellulose was hydrolyzed during the pretreatment stage. In this study, xylan was used as a model to study the hydrolysis of hemicellulose in zinc chloride solution. The degradation of xylose that is released from xylan was reduced by the formation of zinc-xylose complex. The xylose yield was >90% (w/w) at 70°C. The yield and rate of hydrolysis were a function of temperature and the concentration of zinc chloride. The ratio of zinc chloride can be decreased from 9 to 1.3 (w/w). At this ratio, 76% of xylose yield was obtained. When wheat straw was pretreated with a concentrated zinc chloride solution, the hemicellulose hydrolysate contained only xylose and trace amounts of arabinose and oligosaccharides. With this approach, the hemicellulose hydrolysate can be separated from cellulose residue, which would be hydrolyzed subsequently to glucose by acid or enzymes to produce glucose. This production scheme provided a method to produce glucose and xylose in different streams, which can be fermented in separated fermenters.     

LC Determination of 4-Bromoaniline in Green Algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii After Continuous-Flow Microextraction

In this study, the determination of 4-Bromoaniline (4-BA) in green algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtii (C. reinhardtii) was investigated by applying continuous-flow microextraction (CFME) combined with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Continuous-flow microextraction was conducted in a homemade glass chamber, i.e. the sample solution flowed through a constant volume drop of solvent in the chamber at a constant flow rate. The effects of different factors on extraction efficiencies were also investigated and these factors included the kind of extraction solvent, solvent drop volume, sample flow rate, extraction time and addition amount of salt. Under the optimum extraction conditions (extraction solvent, carbon tetrachloride; solvent drop volume, 3.5 μL; sample flow rate, 1.0 mL min⁻¹; extraction time, 10 min; no addition of salt), the calibration plot was set up by plotting peak area against a series of 4-Bromoaniline concentrations (0.01–10 μg mL⁻¹) in aqueous solution. The correlation coefficient (r) was 0.9990. The limit of detection (LOD) was 0.6 ng mL⁻¹. The precision of this method was obtained by successive five time analyses of 100-ng mL⁻¹ standard solution of 4-Bromoaniline, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 3.5%. The concentration factor was calculated by the ratio of peak area of the analyte obtained after and before extraction and found to be 10.6. 4-Bromoaniline residues in Chlamydomonas. reinhardtii cells and tap water samples were satisfactorily analyzed according to the method described above.     

Influence of the Br?nsted and Lewis Acid Sites in Platinum/Solid Acid Catalysts on the Hydrogenation of Benzene and Toluene

The hydrogenation of benzene and toluene was investigated over US-SSY, -Al₂O₃, and Ha1-MCM-41 supported platinum catalysts. The acidity of catalyst supports was measured by IR spectra of pyridine adsorption. On the Brönsted acid supported catalyst, both the hexacyclic saturation product and the pentacyclic one, the hydroisomerization product, were observed, and these two products were revealed to be primary reaction products. The two products were proposed to be formed competitively on Brönsted acid sites with carbonium ions as the reaction intermediate. By contrast, no hydroisomerization product was found on Lewis acid supported catalysts. It was inferred that the electron-deficient reaction intermediate formed on Lewis acids could not undertake any skeletal isomerization process to give a pentacyclic saturation product.     

HCl-NaCl-C3H8O3-H2O体系溶液热力学性质

在恒定丙三醇质量分数x=0．1的条件下，测定了无液接电池（A）和电池（B）的电动势根据电池（A）电动势确定了丙三醇和水混合溶剂中的Ag－AgCl电极的标准电极电势，讨论了HCl的迁移性质；由电池（B）测得的电动势计算了HCl在该体系中的活度系数γA，计算的结果表明，对于所讨论的体系，在溶液中总离子强度保持恒定，HCl的活度系数服从Harned规则．在溶液组成恒定时，IgγA是温度倒数1／T的线性函数，讨论了混合物中HCl的相对偏摩尔焓及介质效应．     

Particle interactions in electrophoresis: I. Motion of two spheres along their line of centers

The electrophoretic motion of two charged colloidal spheres with very thin electrical double layers in a constant applied electric field along their line of centers is considered. The particles may differ in radius and in zeta potential at the surface. The electrostatic and hydrodynamic governing equations are solved in the quasi-steady situation using bipolar coordinates and the electrophoretic velocities of particles are calculated for various cases. The interaction effect between particles can be very significant when the distance between particle surfaces gets close to zero. The particle with smaller zeta potential is speeded up by the motion of the other, which is retarded at the same time by the motion of the former one, if the two spheres have unequal zeta potentials of the same electrical sign. For two particles of different signs in zeta potential, motions of both are hindered by each other. The influence of the interaction between particles in general is stronger on the smaller one than on the larger one. For the special case of two electrophoretic spheres with identical zeta potentials, there is no particle interaction for all particle sizes and separations.     

Raman and UV-visible absorption spectra of ion-paired aggregates of copper porphyrins

Raman and UV-visible absorption spectra of ion-paired aggregate constructed from two copper porphyrins, copper tetrakis(4-N-methylpyridyl)porphyrin (CuTMPyP) and copper tetrakis(4-sulfonatophenyl)pophyrin (CuTSPP), are reported in this paper. The absorption bands of the aggregate was found exhibiting obvious shift and broadening, which are attributed to the excitonic coupling between the two paired porphyrin rings. The excitonic coupling in the aggregates also induces evident alteration for Raman intensities compared with monomer spectrum. Aggregation results in only small shifts (2-3 cm(-1)) for Raman lines connecting with the vibrations of porphyrin rings, manifesting only slight structural change of porphyrin skeletons. On the other hand, evident downshift (5 cm(-1)) was observed for the Cm-pyridyl stretch mode (1254 cm(-1)) of CuTMPyP, suggesting weakening of the Cm-pyridyl bonds by aggregation. Raman depolarization ratios of the aggregates are different from those of the monomers, implying a lowering of effective symmetry due to the molecular packing in the aggregates.