Study on the mechanism of catalytic synthesis of dimethyldichlorosilane by AlCl3/MIL‐53(Al)@γ‐Al2O3

Dimethyldichlorosilane, one of the most consumed organosilicon monomers in the industry, can be prepared in a highly efficient and environmentally friendly synthesis method of disproportionating methylchlorosilanes. However, the internal mechanism of the reaction remains unclear. In this paper, the mechanism catalyzed by AlCl₃/MIL‐53(Al) and AlCl₃/MIL‐53(Al)@γ‐Al₂O₃ catalysts was calculated at B3LYP/6‐311++G(3df, 2pd) level by using the density functional theory (DFT). The results showed that although the two catalysts had similar active structures, the catalytic effects were significantly different. The Lewis acid center on the surface of γ‐Al₂O₃ in the core‐shell catalyst is complementary to the classic Lewis acid AlCl₃ through the spatial superposition effect, which greatly improves the Lewis acid catalytic activity of AlCl₃/MIL‐53(Al)@γ‐Al₂O₃.     

A Bait-and-Switch Method for the Construction of Artificial Esterases for Substrate-Selective Hydrolysis

Outcomes of chemical reactions are generally dominated by the intrinsic reactivities of reaction partners, but enzymes frequently override such constraints to transform less reactive molecules in the presence of more reactive ones. Despite the attractiveness of such catalysis, it is difficult to build synthetic catalysts with these features. Micellar imprinting is a powerful method to create template-complementary binding sites inside protein-sized water-soluble nanoparticles. When a photocleavable functional monomer was used to bind two phosphonate/phosphate templates as transition-state analogues, active sites with predetermined size and shape were formed inside doubly cross-linked micelles through molecular imprinting. Postmodification replaced the binding group with a catalytic pyridyl group, forming highly selective artificial esterases. The catalysts displayed enzyme-like kinetics and turnover numbers that were in the hundreds. The selectivity of the catalysts, derived from the substrate-complementary imprinted active sites, enabled transformation of less reactive esters in the presence of more reactive ones.     

Organocatalytic Asymmetric One‐Step Desymmetrizing Dearomatization Reaction of Indoles: Development and Bioactivity Evaluation

An organocatalytic one‐step desymmetrizing dearomatization reaction of indoles with in situ formed vinylidene ortho‐quinone methides is reported. A set of [6‐6‐5] and/or [5‐6‐5] fused indoline heterocycles were obtained in excellent yields with excellent diastereoselectivities (>20:1 d.r.) and enantioselectivities (up to 99 % ee). Moreover, some of the obtained products were screened against a panel of cancer cell lines, and one was identified to inhibit the proliferation of all the tested cancer cells, but showed marginal effects against non‐cancerous cells. The methodology provides a platform for the synthesis of new leading compounds with antitumor activity.     

A convenient and practical heterogeneous palladium‐catalyzed carbonylative Suzuki coupling of aryl iodides with formic acid as carbon monoxide source

A practical heterogeneous palladium‐catalyzed carbonylative Suzuki coupling of aryl iodides with arylboronic acids under carbon monoxide gas‐free conditions has been developed using a bidentate phosphino‐functionalized magnetic nanoparticle‐immobilized palladium(II) complex as catalyst. Formic acid was utilized as the carbon monoxide source with dicyclohexylcarbodiimide as the activator, and a wide variety of biaryl ketones were generated in moderate to high yields. The new heterogeneous palladium catalyst can be prepared via a simple procedure and can easily be separated from a reaction mixture by simply applying an external magnet and recycled up to 10 times without any loss of activity.     

Two-dimensional coupled vibration and equivalent circuit of longitudinal-longitudinal orthogonal composite vibration direction converter

With the advantages of transmitting energy from multiple directions to one direction and transforming vibration from one source to multiple directions, the two-dimensional vibra?tion direction converter has important applications in power ultrasonic technology. However, for the complexity of using the wave equation to design and analysis the two-dimensional vibration direction converter, a concise equivalent circuit for the converter is investigated. By introducing the two-dimensional mechanical coupling coefficient and the longitudinal force transform coef?ficient, and using the electromechanical analogy principle, the equivalent circuit and resonance frequency equation of the two-dimensional vibration direction converter vibrating in anti-phase and in-phase two-dimensional coupled vibration are deduced. The resonance frequencies of the vibration direction converters of two different materials are calculated by using the proposed frequency equation, which are in agreement with the results from the finite element method and the experimental test. It provides a concise method for the design and applications of such ultrasonic vibration system.