Catalytic Asymmetric γ-Lactam Synthesis from Enolisable Anhydrides and Imines

An anion-binding approach to the problem of preparing enantioenriched γ-lactams from enolisable anhydrides and imines is reported. A simple bisurea catalyst promotes the cycloaddition between α-aryl succinic anhydrides and either PMP- or benzhydryl-protected aldimines to provide γ-lactams with two contiguous stereocentres (one quaternary) with complete diastereocontrol and high to excellent enantioselectivity for the first time. A DFT study has provided insight into the catalyst mode of action and the origins of the observed stereocontrol.     

Phenol-Catalyzed Discharge in the Aprotic Lithium-Oxygen Battery

Discharge in the lithium-O₂ battery is known to occur either by a solution mechanism, which enables high capacity and rates, or a surface mechanism, which passivates the electrode surface and limits performance. The development of strategies to promote solution-phase discharge in stable electrolyte solutions is a central challenge for development of the lithium-O₂ battery. Here we show that the introduction of the protic additive phenol to ethers can promote a solution-phase discharge mechanism. Phenol acts as a phase-transfer catalyst, dissolving the product Li₂O₂, avoiding electrode passivation and forming large particles of Li₂O₂ product—vital requirements for high performance. As a result, we demonstrate capacities of over 9 mAh cm⁻²_areal, which is a 35-fold increase in capacity compared to without phenol. We show that the critical requirement is the strength of the conjugate base such that an equilibrium exists between protonation of the base and protonation of Li₂O₂.     

Derivatization of fatty alcohol ethoxylate non‐ionic surfactants using 2‐sulfobenzoic anhydride for characterization by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry

A derivatization procedure has been developed for the improved characterization of fatty alcohol ethoxylate non‐ionic surfactants by liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry. The end hydroxyl group of each surfactant species was converted into an oxycarbonylbenzene‐2‐sulfonic acid group with 2‐sulfobenzoic anhydride under mild conditions. The produced sulfonic acid group allows all species, including fatty alcohols and those with less than three ethoxylates, to be uniformly ionized by electrospray ionization (ESI) mass spectrometry. Both acid and base can be used as a mobile phase additive for liquid chromatography without affecting M_n and average ethoxylate values, although ion intensities are suppressed during the ESI process. The method was used to analyze seven commercial fatty alcohol ethoxylate non‐ionic surfactants, and the determined M_n and EO values were comparable with the results obtained by NMR. The relative ratio of different fatty alcohol based ethoxylates in a sample can also be determined using the summed mass spectral data. Copyright © 2009 The Dow Chemical Company     

Eisenstein series and Ramanujan-type series for 1/π

Using certain representations for Eisenstein series, we uniformly derive several Ramanujan-type series for 1/π.     

Addition reactions of allyl stannanes to an indolo[2′,3′:3,4]pyrido[1,2‐b]isoquinoline imminium salt

The addition of organometallic reagents to the 13b‐position of the indolo[2′,3′:3,4]pyrido[1,2‐b]isoquinoline imminium salt 4 is described. Reaction of 4 with tetraallyl tin in 2‐methoxyethanol gave the allyl adduct 7 in moderate yield. Further elaboration of 7 yielded the pentacyclic benzylidene alcohols 13 and 14 . Structure elucidation of the compounds prepared was achieved by a combination of ¹H nmr spec troscopy and X‐ray crystallography.     

The effective application of a new approach to the generalized orienteering problem

The Orienteering Problem (OP) is an important problem in network optimization in which each city in a network is assigned a score and a maximum-score path from a designated start city to a designated end city is sought that is shorter than a pre-specified length limit. The Generalized Orienteering Problem (GOP) is a generalized version of the OP in which each city is assigned a number of scores for different attributes and the overall function to optimize is a function of these attribute scores. In this paper, the function used was a non-linear combination of attribute scores, making the problem difficult to solve. The GOP has a number of applications, largely in the field of routing. We designed a two-parameter iterative algorithm for the GOP, and computational experiments suggest that this algorithm performs as well as or better than other heuristics for the GOP in terms of solution quality while running faster. Further computational experiments suggest that our algorithm also outperforms the leading algorithm for solving the OP in terms of solution quality while maintaining a comparable solution speed.     

Stabilization of a Mode-Locked Nd: Glass Laser by Intracavity Second-Harmonic Generation

A method is described for generating stabilized, intensity-limited pulsetrains from a mode-locked Nd:glass laser with internal second-harmonic generation.