Lewis Acid Catalyzed Synthesis of 1‐Aryl‐1,2‐dihydro‐naphtho[1,2‐e][1,3]oxazin‐3‐ones under Solvent Free Conditions: A Mechanistic Approach

Lewis acids catalyzed highly efficient one‐pot three component coupling of β‐naphthol, benzaldehydes and urea to produce 1‐aryl‐1,2‐dihydro‐naphtho[1,2‐e][1,3]oxazin‐3‐one derivatives under solvent free conditions is described. Mechanistic studies confirmed that product formation is possible only at very high temperature (140–150°C) and at lower temperature (90–100°C) formation of 14‐aryl‐14H‐dibenzo(a,j)xanthenes was observed. Among the nine Lewis acids screened, iodine, P₂O₅ and Yb(OTf)₃ are found to be most effective catalyst for this multicomponent reaction.     

Lubricants from renewable energy sources – a review

Lubricant oils are known to decrease the friction coefficient between two contacting surfaces. It is essential for the correct function of almost the totality of mechanical machinery working in the entire world. Lubricant oils consist of about 80% of oily base stocks which attributes to their properties of viscosity, stability, and pour point to the lubricant plus additives supplemented to improve these properties. Petroleum lubricants are usually environmentally unacceptable due to their low biodegradability and toxicity. These oils contaminate the air, soil, and drinking water and affect human and plant life to a great extent. Thus, the demand for environmentally acceptable lubricants is increasing along with the public concerns for a pollution-free environment. Plant oils are promising as base fluid for biolubricants because of their excellent lubricity, biodegradability, viscosity–temperature characteristics, and low volatility. The purpose of this paper is to present a survey of the current status of biolubricating oil. This research provides an overview on the synthesis, tribochemical behavior; the effect of structure on friction/wear, load-bearing capacity, resistance to rise in specimen temperature, and varying response of antiwear/extreme-pressure additives in the presence of vegetable oil/derivative structures has also been discussed. Though a significant number of papers have been published in this area, there is still much to explore. A proper selection of base oil and additives is therefore essential for an efficient synthesis of biolubricating oil.     

Assessing the mechanical,phase inversion,and rheological properties of poly-[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate-co-(R)-3-hydroxyvalerate] (PHBV) blended with poly-(l-lactic acid) (PLA)

Poly-(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) and poly-(l-lactic acid) (PLA) have attracted much interest in recent years since they are biodegradable, thus can replace synthetic non-degradable materials. In this study, improvements of PHBV, mechanical, phase inversions, and rheological properties were investigated after blending with PLA in varying ratio’s. Three different blends of commercially available PLAs with 92–98% l-lactide units and one grade of PHB with 5% valerate content were blended using a micro-compounder at 175 °C. The composition of PHBV in blends ranged from 50% to 80%. With the addition of PLA, increases in the flexural strength and elastic modulus were observed for several blends, while minor to no changes were detected in the elongation at break and tensile strength as compared to pure PHBV material. Like many conventional plastics, the complex viscosity decreased with increasing rotational frequency due to decreasing entanglements and molecular weight. The complex viscosity with respect to time was very stable for the blends, but no improvements in the PHBV viscosity were observed with the addition of PLA at 170 °C. Three phase inversion models were used to predict the continuity of the blends, and the results showed both dual- and PLA-continuity phase for the blends. In summary, the mechanical results showed improvements in the tensile and flexural properties, while the rheological observation showed minor improvements in the complex viscosity for numerous concentrations.     

Carbon nanotube-based robust steamphobic surfaces

The wetting behavior of a surface under steam condensation depends on its intrinsic wettability and micrometer or nanoscale surface roughness. A typical superhydrophobic surface may not be suitable as a steamphobic surface because of the nucleation and growth of water inside the valleys and thus the failure to form an air-liquid-solid composite interface. Here, we present the results of steam condensation on chemically modified nanostructured carbon nanotube (CNT) mats. We used a plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process to modify the intrinsic wettability of nanostructured CNT mats. The combination of low surface energy achieved by PECVD and the nanoroughness of the surface provides a mechanism to retain the superhydrophobicity of the CNT mats under steam condensation. The ability to withstand steam temperature and pressure for as long as 10 h implies the remarkably improved stability of the superhydrophobic state of the surface. The thermodynamic calculations carried out using a unit cell model clearly explain the steamphobic wetting behavior of the surface.     

The NLS and FWI approximation make wrong predictions for the water wave problem in case of small surface tension

In has been shown in [5] that the NLS approximation makes wrong predictions for the water wave problem in case of small surface tension. We explain that the ideas used in [5] allow to show a similar result for the FWI approximation, too. (© 2014 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Legendre wavelet – quasilinearization technique for solving q-difference equations

Recently, various fixed point theorems have been used to prove the existence and uniqueness of the solutions for q-difference equations. In this paper, we obtain the existence and uniqueness theorems for a q-initial and a q-boundary value problem using the classical Newton’s method. Making use of the main theorems, a Legendre wavelet technique has been proposed to solve the q-difference equations numerically. The numerical simulation shows that the proposed scheme produces higher accuracy and is very straightforward to apply.     

Photodynamic antifungal activity of a superparamagnetic and fluorescent drug carrier system against antibiotic-resistant fungal strains

Cellulose - Increased antimicrobial resistance demands the development of new antimicrobial agents with high potency. A wide variety of microbial systems are continuously subjected to mutations...     

Synthesis of LuxS inhibitors targeting bacterial cell-cell communication

[reaction: see text] Quorum sensing is a process by which bacteria sense cell density. This cell-cell communication process is mediated by autoinducers. A cross-species messenger, autoinducer-2 (AI-2) is produced from S-ribosyl-L-homocysteine by the LuxS enzyme. A proposed mechanism for LuxS is an aldose-ketose isomerization of S-ribosylhomocysteine followed by a beta-elimination. We report here the synthesis of two substrate analogues, S-anhydroribosyl-L-homocysteine and S-homoribosyl-L-cysteine, which prevent the initial and final step of the mechanism, respectively.