Enantioenriched Methylene‐Bridged Benzazocanes Synthesis by Organocatalytic and Superacid Activations

Achieving in a straightforward way the synthesis of enantioenriched elaborated three‐dimensional molecules related to bioactive natural products remains a long‐standing quest in organic synthesis. Enantioselective organocatalysis potentially offers a unique opportunity to solve this problem, especially when combined with complementary modes of activation. Here, we report the sequential association of organocatalytic and superacid activations of simple linear achiral readily available precursors to promote the formation of unique highly elaborated chiral methylene‐bridged benzazocanes exhibiting three to five fully‐controlled stereocenters. This peculiar backbone, difficult to assemble by standard synthetic approaches, is closely related to bioactive natural and synthetic morphinans and benzomorphans. The formation of a highly reactive chiral 7‐membered ring N‐acyl iminium superelectrophilic ion, evidenced by low‐temperature in situ NMR experiments, triggers a challenging stereoselective Friedel–Crafts‐type cyclization.     

Lattice Boltzmann Solid Particles in a Lattice Boltzmann Fluid

We define a lattice Boltzmann model of solid, deformable suspensions immersed in a fluid itself described in terms of the lattice Boltzmann method. We discuss the rules governing the internal dynamics of the solid object as well as the rules specifying the interaction between solid and fluid particle. We perform a numerical drag experiment to validate the model. Finally we consider the case of a population of flexible chains in suspension in a shear stress flow and study the influence on the velocity profile.     

Induction heating for surface triggering styrene polymerization on titanium modified with ATRP initiator

Titanium and its alloys present high interests for technological applications due to their high corrosion resistance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. In combination with these remarkable characteristics, some Ti applications require specific surface properties that can be imparted with suitable surface functionalizations of the TiO(2) oxide layer. The present work aims to study the surface-initiated ATR polymerization of styrene on titanium substrates, using grafted 11-(2-bromoisobutyrate)-undecyl-1-phosphonic acid as initiator and to compare the impact of two different heating ways on the efficiency of this polymerization: induction vs. conventional heating. The ability of the initiator to bind titanium substrates and act as an initiator for ATRP of styrene is investigated: both heating conditions led to the polymerization of styrene on modified titanium substrates. However, induction heating appeared to be much more efficient than conventional heating, leading to the formation of a thicker, much denser polystyrene layer than conventional heating after only 1h of polymerization.     

Surface-initiated ATRP of 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl 2-(trimethylammonio)ethyl phosphate on Phynox

Phynox is of high interest for technological applications due to its high corrosion resistance, mechanical properties and biocompatibility. In combination with these remarkable characteristics, some Phynox applications require specific surface properties that can be imparted with suitable surface functionalizations of the oxide layer. The present work aims at studying the surface-initiated atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) of 2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl 2-(trimethylammonio)ethyl phosphate (MPC) on Phynox substrates, using grafted 11-(2-bromoisobutyrate)-undecyl-1-phosphonic acid as initiator. The ability of the initiator to bind Phynox substrates and act as an initiator for ATRP of MPC is investigated. It appears that ATRP polymerization of MPC on modified Phynox substrates already takes place in aqueous media at room temperature, but the yield at 90 °C is superior.     

Probing the intestinal α-glucosidase enzyme specificities of starch-digesting maltase-glucoamylase and sucrase-isomaltase: synthesis and inhibitory properties of 3'- and 5'-maltose-extended de-O-sulfonated ponkoranol

The synthesis and glucosidase inhibitory activities of two C-3'- and C-5'-β-maltose-extended analogues of the naturally occurring sulfonium-ion inhibitor, de-O-sulfonated ponkoranol, are described. The compounds are designed to test the specificity towards four intestinal glycoside hydrolase family 31 (GH31) enzyme activities, responsible for the hydrolysis of terminal starch products and sugars into glucose, in humans. The target sulfonium-ion compounds were synthesized by means of nucleophilic attack of benzyl protected 1,4-anhydro-4-thio-D-arabinitol at the C-6 position of 6-O-trifluoromethanesulfonyl trisaccharides as alkylating agents. The alkylating agents were synthesized from D-glucose by glycosylation at C-4 or C-2 with maltosyl trichloroacetimidate. Deprotection of the coupled products by using a two-step sequence, followed by reduction afforded the final compounds. Evaluation of the target compounds for inhibition of the four glucosidase activities indicated that selective inhibition of one enzyme over the others is possible.     

Positive Cooperative Effect in Ion-Pair Recognition by a Tris-urea Hemicryptophane Cage

The synthesis of a hemicryptophane cage combining a CTV unit with a C₃ symmetrical moiety bearing three urea functions is reported. This host was found to bind anions with higher binding constants than other previously reported hemicryptophanes. Due to its heteroditopic character this cage proved to be an efficient ion-pair receptor. The best cooperativity effect was observed for the tetramethylammonium bromide (TMABr) salt, which was confirmed and rationalized by DFT calculations.     

Magnesium promoted autocatalytic dehydrogenation of amine borane complexes: A reliable,non-cryogenic,scalable access to boronic acids

Owing to the unusual reactivity of dialkylamine-borane complexes, a methodology was developed to simply access boronic acids. The intrinsic instability of magnesium aminoborohydride was tweaked into a tandem dehydrogenation borylation sequence. Proceeding via an autocatalytic cycle, amineborane dehydrogenation was induced by a variety of Grignard reagents. Overall, addition of the organomagnesium species onto specially designed dialkylamine-borane complexes led to a variety of boronic acids in high yields. In addition, the reaction can be performed under Barbier conditions, on a large scale.     

On the trajectory of an individual chosen according to supercritical Gibbs measure in the branching random walk

Consider a branching random walk on the real line. Madaule (2016) showed the renormalized trajectory of an individual selected according to the critical Gibbs measure converges in law to a Brownian meander. Besides, Chen (2015) proved that the renormalized trajectory leading to the leftmost individual at time $n$ converges in law to a standard Brownian excursion. In this article, we prove that the renormalized trajectory of an individual selected according to a supercritical Gibbs measure also converges in law toward the Brownian excursion. Moreover, refinements of this results enables to express the probability for the trajectories of two individuals selected according to the Gibbs measure to have split before time $t$, partially answering a question of Derrida and Spohn (1988).     

Palladated cyclodextrin and halloysite containing polymer and its carbonized form as efficient hydrogenation catalysts

β‐Cyclodextrin (β‐CD) and glycidyl methacrylate monomer were polymerized in the presence of functionalized halloysite nanoclay (Hal) to afford a polymeric network (Hal‐P‐CD) containing Hal and CD. Hal‐P‐CD was then applied as a catalyst support for the immobilization of Pd nanoparticles. The resulting nanocomposite, Pd@Hal‐P‐CD, could serve as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of nitrobenzene. The precise study by the preparation of control samples confirmed the contribution of CD as both phase transfer and capping agent, P (polymer) and Hal to the catalysis. Moreover, the results confirmed the importance of CD: glycidyl methacrylate monomer ratio. Pd@Hal‐P‐CD was also carbonized to prepare Pd@Hal‐C. Notably, the characterization of Pd@Hal‐C showed that carbonization led to the growth of mean diameter of Pd nanoparticles, increase of Pd content and partial destruction of Hal. However, the catalytic activity of Pd@Hal‐C was superior to Pd@Hal‐P‐CD. Pd@Hal‐C was also highly recyclable and could be recovered and recycled for several reaction runs. The study of the carbonization temperature showed that this factor affected the nature of the resulting carbon and the catalyst prepared at elevated temperature showed higher catalytic activity.     

Intermolecular potential parameters and combining rules determined from viscosity data

The law of corresponding states has been demonstrated for a number of pure substances and binary mixtures and provides evidence that the transport properties viscosity and diffusion can be determined from a molecular shape function, often taken to be a Lennard–Jones 12‐6 potential, that requires two scaling parameters: a well depth ε_ij and a collision diameter σ_ij, both of which depend on the interacting species i and j. We obtain estimates for ε_ij and σ_ij of interacting species by finding the values that provide the best fit to viscosity data for binary mixtures and compare these to calculated parameters using several “combining rules” that have been suggested for determining parameter values for binary collisions from parameter values that describe collisions of like molecules. Different combining rules give different values for σ_ij and ε_ij, and for some mixtures the differences between these values and the best‐fit parameter values are rather large. There is a curve in (ε_ij, σ_ij) space such that parameter values on the curve generate a calculated viscosity in good agreement with measurements for a pure gas or a binary mixture. The various combining rules produce couples of parameters ε_ij, σ_ij that lie close to the curve and, therefore, generate predicted mixture viscosities in satisfactory agreement with experiment. Although the combining rules were found to underpredict the viscosity in most of the cases, Kong's rule was found to work better than the others, but none of the combining rules consistently yields parameter values near the best‐fit values, suggesting that improved rules could be developed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. *

1 This article is a U.S. Government work and, as such, is in the public domain of the United States of America.

Int J Chem Kinet 42: 713–723, 2010