Brønsted Acid Catalyzed,Conjugate Addition of β‐Dicarbonyls to In Situ Generated ortho‐Quinone Methides—Enantioselective Synthesis of 4‐Aryl‐4H‐Chromenes

We describe herein a catalytic, enantioselective process for the synthesis of 4H‐chromenes which are important structural elements of many natural products and biologically active compounds. A sequence comprising a conjugate addition of β‐diketones to in situ generated ortho‐quinone methides followed by a cyclodehydration reaction furnished 4‐aryl‐4H‐chromenes in generally excellent yields and high optical purity. A BINOL‐based chiral phosphoric acid was employed as a Brønsted acid catalyst which converted ortho‐hydroxy benzhydryl alcohols into hydrogen‐bonded ortho‐quinone methides and effected the carbon–carbon bond‐forming event with high enantioselectivity.     

Photovoltaics literature survey (No. 115)

In order to help keep readers up‐to‐date in the field, each issue of Progress in Photovoltaics will contain a list of recently published journal articles that most relevant to its aims and scope. This list is drawn from an extremely wide range of journals, including IEEE Journal of Photovoltaics, Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Renewable Energy, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Journal of Applied Physics, and Applied Physics Letters. To assist the reader, the list is separated into broad categories, but please note that these classifications are by no means strict. Also note that inclusion in the list is not an endorsement of a paper's quality. If you have any suggestions please email Ziv Hameiri at ziv.hameiri@unsw.edu.au     

Molecular docking,PKPD, and assessment of toxicity of few chalcone analogues as EGFR inhibitor in search of anticancer agents

In the present work, molecular docking of the chalcone analogues with receptor EGFR carried out using erlotinib as reference drug is reported. About 15 chalcone analogues were analyzed CHL(1–15). Molecules CHL2, CHL3, CHL9, CHL11, and CHL15 found strong affinity for receptor EGFR exhibiting binding energies ??7.7 kcal/mol, ??7.5 kcal/mol, ??7.6 kcal/mol, ??7.9 kcal/mol, and ??8.1 kcal/mol, respectively, when erlotinib a reference drug exhibits binding energy ??7.6 kcal/mol. Toxicity for molecules was assessed against the cytochromes P450 (CYP) and P-gp using Swiss ADMET. Molecule CHL9 could be a suitable lead compound inhibitor to CYP1A2 followed by CHL2 inhibitor of CYP1A2 and CYP2C9 and CHL15 with a most stable binding affinity of ??8.1 kcal/mol, inhibiting CYP1A2, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6. CHL3 has a binding affinity of ??7.5 kcal/mol, inhibiting all the 05 CYP enzymes (CYP1A2, CYP2C19, CYP2C9, CYP2D6, and CYP3A4). CHL11 has a binding affinity of ??7.9 kcal/mol, inhibiting CYP1A2, CYP2C19, and CYP2C9. Considering inhibition of CYP family enzymes by molecules, further here we have perform the enrichment analysis to these CYP family enzymes and reported the metabolic pathways which were probably affected by inhibition of these enzymes using EnrichR online enrichment analysis server. The current predictions over these 15 chalcone derivatives will be needed to further investigate in vivo and in vitro conditions to identify the optimum therapeutic efficacy and least toxicity.

     

The Elusive Ketene (H2CCO) Channel in the Infrared Multiphoton Dissociation of Solid 1,3,5-Trinitro-1,3,5-Triazinane (RDX)

Understanding of the fundamental mechanisms involved in the decomposition of 1,3,5-trinitro-1,3,5-triazinane (RDX) still represents a major challenge for the energetic materials and physical (organic) chemistry communities mainly because multiple competing dissociation channels are likely involved and previous detection methods of the products are not isomer selective. In this study we exploited a microsecond pulsed infrared laser to decompose thin RDX films at 5 K under mild conditions to limit the fragmentation channels. The subliming decomposition products during the temperature programed desorption phase are detected using isomer selective single photoionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (PI-ReTOF-MS). This technique enables us to assign a product signal at m/z=42 to ketene (H₂CCO), but not to diazomethane (H₂CNN; 42 amu) as speculated previously. Electronic structure calculations support our experimental observations and unravel the decomposition mechanisms of RDX leading eventually to the elusive ketene (H₂CCO) via an exotic, four-membered ring intermediate. This study highlights the necessity to exploit isomer-selective detection schemes to probe the true decomposition products of nitramine-based energetic materials.     

Anti-glycating and anti-oxidant compounds from traditionally used anti-diabetic plant Geigeria alata(DC) Oliv. & Hiern.

Abstract

A new sesquiterpene lactone geigerianoloide (1) and four known flavonoids axillarin (2), quercetin (3), 3-methoxy-5,7,3',4'-tetrahydroxy-flavone (4) and hispidulin (5) were isolated from Geigeria alata (DC) Oliv. & Hiern. (Asteraceae). Structures were deduced using ¹H- and ¹³C- NMR spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, while the structure of compound 1 was also deduced using X-ray crystallography technique.

Geigeria alata is traditionally used for diabetes, therefore compounds were tested for anti-glycation activity, in which compounds 2 and 3 showed potent activities (IC₅₀ values of 246.97?±?0.83 and 262.37?±?0.22 µM, respectively) compared to IC₅₀ value 294.50?±?1.5 µM of rutin. Moreover, compound 4 exhibited a comparable activity to rutin (IC₅₀?=?293.28?±?1.34 µM). Compound 5 showed a weak activity.

Compounds 2, 3, and 4 exhibited potent DPPH radical scavenging activity (IC₅₀?=?0.1?±?0.00, 0.13?±?0.00 and 0.15?±?0.01 µM, respectively). Compounds 2, 3, and 4 demonstrated significant superoxide anion scavenging activity with IC₅₀ values of 0.14?±?0.001, 0.17?±?0.00, and 0.11?±?0.006 µM, respectively.     

Probabilistic Teleportation of a Single Qubit: Unearthing New W-Class of States

Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics - In this work, we propose a probabilistic teleportation protocol to teleport a single qubit via three-qubit W-states using two-qubit measurement...     

Resonant Tunneling through Monolayer Si Colloidal Quantum Dots and Ge Nanocrystals

Resonant tunneling through a 4 nm nanocrystal Ge (nc‐Ge) layer and a 2.4 nm monolayer of Si colloidal quantum dots (QD) is achieved with 0.7 nm amorphous Al₂O₃ (a‐Al₂O₃) barriers. The nc‐Ge resonant tunneling diode (RTD) demonstrates a peak‐to‐valley current ratio (PVCR) of 8 and a full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 30 mV at 300 K, the best performance among RTDs based on annealed nanocrystals. The Si QD RTD is first achieved with PVCRs up to 47 and FWHMs as small as 10 mV at room temperature, confirming theoretically expected excellences of 3D carrier confinements. The high performances are partially due to the smooth profile of nc‐Ge layer and the uniform distribution of Si QDs, which reduce the adverse influences of many‐body effects. More importantly, carrier decoherence is avoided in the 0.7 nm a‐Al₂O₃ barriers thinner than the phase coherence length (≈1.5 nm). Ultrathin a‐Al₂O₃ also passivates well materials and suppresses leakage currents. Additionally, the interfacial bandgap of ultrathin a‐Al₂O₃ is found to be similar to the bulk, forming deep potential wells to sharpen transmission curves. This work can be easily extended to other materials, which may enable resonant tunneling in various nanosystems for diverse purposes.     

Computation of pressure drop for dilute gas-solid suspension across thin and thick orifices

The present work deals with the computation of the gas-solid two-phase flow pressure drop across thin and thick orifices for a vertically downward flow configuration at the higher limits of a dilute phase flow situation(0.01≤αs,in≤0.10).The Eulerian-Eulerian(two-fluid)model has been used in conjunction with the kinetic theory of granular flow with a four-way coupling approach.The validation of the solution process has been performed by comparing the computational result with the existing experimental data.It is observed that the two-phase flow pressure drop across the orifice increases with an increase in the thickness of the orifice,and the effect is more prominent at higher solid loading.The pressure drop is found to increase with an increase in the solid volume fraction.An increase in the Reynolds number or the area ratio increases the pressure drop.An increase in the size of the particles reduces the pressure drop across the orifice at both small and relatively large solid volume fractions.Finally,a two-phase multiplier has been proposed in terms of the relevant parameters,which can be useful to evaluate the gas-solid two-phase flow pressure drop across the orifice and can subsequently help to improve the system performance.     

Modeling of reinitiation ability of polymer brushes grown by surface‐initiated photoiniferter‐mediated photopolymerization

A kinetic model developed to investigate surface‐initiated photoiniferter‐mediated photopolymerization (SI‐PMP) and parameterized using experimental thickness data from SI‐PMP of methyl methacrylate is used to examine chain extension by reinitiation. Specifically, the effects of light intensity, concentration of an added deactivator, tetraethylthiuram disulfide (TED), and initial photoiniferter (PI) concentration on the reinitiation ability of surface‐tethered PMMA layers is examined in detail. The simulations show that while increases in [TED] and decreases in light intensity affect overall rates of PMMA layer growth in a similar fashion, their effect on reinitiation ability of PMMA layers is significantly different: reinitiation ability increases with increasing [TED] but it is not improved by decreases in light intensity. Simulations also suggest that polymer layers synthesized in the presence of TED have a greater tendency to form surface‐tethered block copolymers upon reinitiation compared with polymer layers synthesized without TED and at lower light intensity. While both [PI] and [TED] affect the reinitiation ability, the effect of [TED] on reinitiation ability is identical at a given [TED]/[PI] ratio for all PI and TED concentrations tested. These findings obtained from the rate‐based model are instrumental in delineating strategies for creating tethered block copolymer layers or mixed brushes by SI‐PMP. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1586–1593, 2010