Synthesis and characterization of the novel diamine‐functionalized Fe3O4@SiO2 nanocatalyst and its application for one‐pot three‐component synthesis of chromenes

Fe₃O₄@SiO₂@propyltriethoxysilane@o‐phenylendiamine as an environmentally‐benign functionalized silica‐coated magnetic organometallic nanomaterial has been synthesized and characterized by Fourier transforms infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images and energy dispersive X‐ray (EDX) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analyses. Then, its catalytic activity was investigated for the one‐pot three‐component condensation reaction between dimedone, malononitrile and various substituted aromatic aldehydes to afford the corresponding 2‐amino‐4H‐chromene derivatives under mild reaction conditions. This nanocatalyst can be easily recovered from the reaction mixture by using a magnet and reused for at least five times without significant decrease in catalytic activity.     

Micellar-catalyzed reactions for flow-injection systems : Determination of pyridoxal

The advantages of applying the solubilization and catalytic properties of aqueous micelle solutions to reactions taking place in flow-injection systems are demonstrated. The reaction of pyridoxal (a B₆ vitamin) with cyanide was investigated in both aqueous and micellar cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) solution. Higher sensitivities and lower limits of detection were obtained for the micellar carrier, with the pseudo-first-order reaction rate increasing by a factor of two in 0.05 M CTAB relative to water carrier. Because the micellar aggregates also increase fluorescence quantum yields, use of fluorescence detection gave further signal enhancement, with the limit of detection lowered by a factor of three. Measurement of dispersion in the two systems was also investigated and compared. A new method of characterizing dispersion in flow-injection systems, based on moment analysis of exponentially modified Gaussian peak shapes, is described.     

Preparation and Characterization of DGEBA/EPN Epoxy Blends with Improved Fracture Toughness

The physical and mechanical properties of blends composed of two kinds of epoxy resins of different numbers of functional groups and chemical structure were studied.One of the resins was a bifunctional epoxy resin based on diglycidyl ether ofbisphenol A and the other resin was a multifunctional epoxy novolac resin.Attempt was made to establish a correlation between the structure and the final properties of cured epoxy samples.The blend samples containing high fraction of multifunctional epoxy resin showed higher solvent resistance and lower flexural modulus compared with the blends containing high fraction of bifunctional epoxy resin.The epoxy blends showed significantly higher ductility under bending test than the neat epoxy samples.The compressive modulus and strength increased with increasing of multifunctional epoxy in the samples,probably due to enhanced cross-link density and molecular weight.Morphological analysis revealed the presence of inhomogeneous sub-micrometer structures in all samples.The epoxy blends exhibited significantly higher fracture toughness (by 23％ at most) compared with the neat samples.The improvement of the fracture toughness was attributed to the stick-slip mechanism for crack growth and activation of shear yielding and plastic deformation around the crack growth trajectories for samples with higher content of bifunctional epoxy resin as evidenced by fractography study.     

Synthesis of Dialkyl 2‐(Alkylamino)‐4,9‐dihydro‐9‐oxocyclohepta[b]pyran‐3,4‐dicarboxylates

Dialkyl 2‐(alkylamino)‐4,9‐dihydro‐9‐oxocyclohepta[b]pyran‐3,4‐dicarboxylates are prepared in a one‐pot three‐component reaction of alkyl isocyanide, dialkyl acetylenedicarboxylate, and α‐tropolone (=2‐hydroxycyclohepta‐2,4,6‐trienone). The reaction proceeds smoothly at room temperature and under neutral conditions to afford tropolone derivatives in high yield.     

The Importance of Polarity/Polarizability Interaction on the Acidity Behavior of 9,10-Anthraquinone and 9-Anthrone Derivatives in Methanol-Water Mixed Solvents Using Target Factor Analysis and QSPR Approaches

The influence of solvent properties on acidity constants of some newly synthesized 9,10-anthraquinone and 9-anthrone derivatives was studied in methanol-water mixtures in a composition range of 0.57 to 1.0 methanol mole fraction. The model was established by using both multiple linear regression and target factor analysis. Both methods revealed that the solvent polarity/polarizability parameter ^* is a major factor in controlling the acidity behavior of the anthraquinones and anthrones studied in binary methanol-water mixed solvents. A QSPR study was conducted to drive the relationships between the ^* coefficient s and the polarity/polarizability of molecules. Both dipole moment and polarizability were found to have a linear relationship with s. The results confirm that, in the dipolar protic solvents used, the dipole-dipole interaction (for neutral molecules) and the ion-dipole interaction (for ionized molecules) are the major factors controlling the acidity behavior of these compounds.     

Optimization of synthesis procedure and structure characterization of manganese tungstate nanoplates

A simple and fast chemical method was used for synthesis of manganese tungstate nanoplates in flower-like clusters; while Taguchi robust design was employed as statistical method for optimization of the experimental parameters for the procedure. Ultrafine manganese tungstate plates in flower-like clusters were synthesized via a direct precipitation method involving addition of manganese ion solution to the aqueous tungstate reagent. Effects of various reaction conditions such as manganese and tungstate concentrations, flow rate of reagent addition and reactor temperature on the thickness of the synthesized manganese tungstate plates were investigated experimentally. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that manganese tungstate nanoplates could be effectively synthesized by tuning significant parameters of precipitation procedure. Meanwhile, optimum conditions for synthesis of MnWO4 nanoplates via this simple, fast, and cost effective method were proposed. The structure and composition of the prepared nanoplates under optimum conditions were characterized by EDX, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), FT-IR spectroscopy, and photoluminescence techniques.      

Synthesis and activity measurement of some water-gas shift reaction catalysts

The effect of calcination temperature on the activity and some properties of low temperature water gas shift reaction catalysts has been investigated. The activities of catalysts have been determined using a fixed bed catalytic reactor. The following results may be deduced from the present study. 1. The catalysts' total surface area decreased with increasing calcination temperature, presumably due to the partial sintering of the catalysts particles. 2. The presence of an amorphous CuO phase within the structure of some catalysts may be related to the desirable conditions prevailing during synthesis of the latter. 3. Observation of a similar trend between the increase in copper crystallite particle size and enhancement of catalyst activities with increasing calcination temperature demonstrates the important contribution made by the copper crystallite phase to the overall activities of water gas shift reaction catalysts. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Continuous separation of maslinic and oleanolic acids from olive pulp by high‐speed countercurrent chromatography with elution‐extrusion mode

In this work, a continuous high‐speed countercurrent chromatography method has been developed on the basis of elution‐extrusion mode and this method was successfully applied to the separation of maslinic and oleanolic acid from the extract of olive pulp. In the process of ‘elution’, the sample solution was continuously loaded into the column and the maslinic acid was steadily eluted out in this step while highly retained oleanlic acid always stayed in the column. In the process of ‘extrusion’, the oleanlic acid was pushed out of the column with the stationary phase. In this way, we achieved a large sample loading. A total of 120 mL sample solution (about 89.55% of the column volume) which contains 600 mg olive pulp extract was pumped in the apparatus by a constant‐flow pump and the maslinic and oleanolic acids were largely separated within 120 min. Both of these two compounds presented high yields and high purities (271.6 mg for maslinic acid with 86.7% and 83.9 mg oleanolic acids with 83.4%).