Regioselective oxidation of internal olefins bearing neighboring oxygen functions by means of palladium catalysts. Preparation of β-alkoxy or acetoxy ketones from allyl and homoallyl ethers or esters

A new preparative method of β- and γ-alkoxy (acetoxy) ketones, which are important precursors of vinyl ketones and 1,4-diketones, respectively, is presented. With PdCl₂/CuCl/O₂ or PdCl₂/p-benzoquinone catalyst system, internal olefins bearing allylic alkoxy or acetoxy group underwent regioselective oxidation to form the corresponding β-alkoxy or β-acetoxy ketones. Similarly, γ-acetoxy ketones were obtained from homoallyl acetates having internal olefins with high regioselectivity.     

Di(triptycyl)carbene: a fairly persistent triplet dialkylcarbene

The title carbene was generated and characterized by matrix spectroscopy (ESR and UV/vis) and laser flash photolysis along with theoretical calculations, which revealed interesting effects of triptycyl groups on structure and reactivities of carbenes.     

Characterization of molecular transport in poly(dimethylsiloxane) microchannels for electrophoresis fabricated with synchrotron radiation-lithography and UV-photolithography

In the present paper, a study was undertaken of molecular transport in ploy(dimethylsiloxane) microchannels that were fabricated by ultraviolet (UV)-photolithography and synchrotron radiation (SR)-lithography characterized and compared for microchip capillary electrophoresis by evaluating in-channel molecular dispersion. A fluorescent tag, sulforhodamine B was used as the probing molecule. It was found that microchannels made by SR-lithography fabrication were superior to those made by UV-photolithography fabrication in terms of molecular transport performance. A deep insight into surface conditions characterized by scanning electron microscopy suggested it was related to the difference in surface roughness. Chromatographic retention in electropherograms further supported such a conclusion, which depended on the phase ratio of the channel surface. The results revealed for PDMS microchannels in this work were in good agreement with the phenomenon found for glass microchannels in the literature.     

Synthesis and properties of novel fluoroalkyl end‐capped oligomers having adamantane units in the main chains via a radical process

Fluoroalkanoyl peroxides were reacted with adamantane in the presence of radical polymerizable monomers such as acrylic acid, acryloylmorpholine, and N,N‐dimethylacrylamide to afford fluoroalkyl end‐capped oligomers having adamantane units in the main chains via a radical process under very mild conditions. Thermal stability of these new fluorinated adamantane co‐oligomers thus obtained became higher than that of the corresponding fluorinated homo‐oligomers having no adamantane units. Interestingly, these fluorinated adamantane co‐oligomers exhibited good solubility in traditional organic solvents such as methanol, ethanol, tetrahydrofuran, chloroform, benzene, dimethylsulfoxide and N,N‐dimethylformamide including water, although the parent adamantane exhibited no solubility in water, methanol and dimethylsulfoxide. Furthermore, these adamantane co‐oligomers were able to reduce the surface tension effectively to form the nanometer size‐controlled self‐assembled fluorinated molecular aggregates. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Engineered biosynthesis of plant polyketides: chain length control in an octaketide-producing plant type III polyketide synthase

The chalcone synthase (CHS) superfamily of type III polyketide synthases (PKSs) produces a variety of plant secondary metabolites with remarkable structural diversity and biological activities (e.g., chalcones, stilbenes, benzophenones, acrydones, phloroglucinols, resorcinols, pyrones, and chromones). Here we describe an octaketide-producing novel plant-specific type III PKS from aloe (Aloe arborescens) sharing 50-60% amino acid sequence identity with other plant CHS-superfamily enzymes. A recombinant enzyme expressed in Escherichia coli catalyzed seven successive decarboxylative condensations of malonyl-CoA to yield aromatic octaketides SEK4 and SEK4b, the longest polyketides known to be synthesized by the structurally simple type III PKS. Surprisingly, site-directed mutagenesis revealed that a single residue Gly207 (corresponding to the CHS's active site Thr197) determines the polyketide chain length and product specificity. Small-to-large substitutions (G207A, G207T, G207M, G207L, G207F, and G207W) resulted in loss of the octaketide-forming activity and concomitant formation of shorter chain length polyketides (from triketide to heptaketide) including a pentaketide chromone, 2,7-dihydroxy-5-methylchromone, and a hexaketide pyrone, 6-(2,4-dihydroxy-6-methylphenyl)-4-hydroxy-2-pyrone, depending on the size of the side chain. Notably, the functional diversity of the type III PKS was shown to evolve from simple steric modulation of the chemically inert single residue lining the active-site cavity accompanied by conservation of the Cys-His-Asn catalytic triad. This provided novel strategies for the engineered biosynthesis of pharmaceutically important plant polyketides.     

Ionic-conductivity switching of vinyl malachite green leuconitrile copolymers based on photoinduced carrier generation

Copolymers of bis[4-(N,N-dimethylamino)phenyl]-4-vinylphenylmethanenitrile (vinyl Malachite Green leuconitrile) with methyl methacrylate or ω-methoxyoligo(oxyethylene) methacrylate have been synthesized, aiming at designing one-component-type organic polymers for photoswitchable ion-conducting films. The triphenylmethanenitrile copolymers with ω-methoxyoligo(oxyethylene) methacrylate were found to undergo ionic-conductivity switching by turning on and off UV light at ambient temperature, owing to their low glass transition temperature. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Biosorption of chromium(VI) and arsenic(V) onto methylated yeast biomass

Yeast biomass was methylated in a 0.1 M HCl methyl alcohol solution at room temperature and the methylated yeast (MeYE) was applied to the adsorptive separation of Cr(VI) and As(V) anions from aqueous solutions. At near-neutral pH, while Cr(VI) and As(V) anions were scarcely adsorbed onto unmethylated yeast biomass, the amounts adsorbed increased with increasing methylation degree. The amount of Cr(VI) adsorbed onto MeYE was almost constant at pH 4-6 and decreased with increasing pH above pH 6. The amount of As(V) adsorbed onto MeYE was rather lower than that of Cr(VI) and it had a peak at about pH 7. A metal-binding model was used to describe the adsorption characteristics of Cr(VI) and As(V) on MeYE. The results showed that MeYE has two different types of adsorption sites. The saturated amount of Cr(VI) and As(V) adsorbed onto MeYE having methylation degree 0.94 was 0.55 mmol g(-1).     

Comparison of MBPT and coupled-cluster methods with full CI. Importance of triplet excitation and infinite summations

Results from full fourth-order perturbation theory [SDTQ MBPT(4)], and the coupled-cluster single- and double-excitation model (CCSD). are compared with recent full CI results for BH, HF, NH₃, and H₂O. For H₂O, studies include large symmetric displacements of the OH bonds, which offer a severe test for any single-reference MBPT/CC method. In every case. CCSD plus fourth-order triple-excitation terms provide agreement with the full CI to < 2 kcal/mole. SDTQ MBPT(4) has an error 10 kcal/mole for displaced H₂O.     

Method to determine quadruple points of a two-component system containing a simple hydrate phase and behavior of the system near these points

A method for determining quadruple points of a two-component system containing a simple hydrate phase is proposed. This method utilizes the quasi-static change of the system along three-phase equilibrium lines and was proved to be able to determine the quadruple points as accurately as the conventional method. By using this method, even though some preparation is necessary, a quadruple point can be determined in just a single experimental run. The behavior of the system near the quadruple points was also examined experimentally, for both the quasi-static and the irreversible change cases. At the quadruple points, the temperature and pressure of the system were kept constant for a while, as at the triple point of water. In both cases, the representative point of the state of the system passed through the quadruple point on a p–T diagram.