Synthesis and degradation of nucleic acid components by formamide and iron sulfur minerals

We describe the one-pot synthesis of a large panel of nucleic bases and related compounds from formamide in the presence of iron sulfur and iron-copper sulfur minerals as catalysts. The major products observed are purine, 1H-pyrimidinone, isocytosine, adenine, 2-aminopurine, carbodiimide, urea, and oxalic acid. Isocytosine and 2-aminopurine may recognize natural nucleobases by Watson-Crick and reverse Watson-Crick interactions, thus suggesting novel scenarios for the origin of primordial nucleic acids. Since the major problem in the origin of informational polymers is the instability of their precursors, we also investigate the effects of iron sulfur and iron-copper sulfur minerals on the stability of ribooligonucleotides in formamide and in water. All of the iron sulfur and iron-copper sulfur minerals stimulated degradation of RNA. The relevance of these findings with respect to the origin of informational polymers is discussed.     

A New Efficient and Mild Synthesis of 2-Sxindoles by One-Pot Wolff-Kishner Like Reduction of Isatin Derivatives

Indole-2-one derivatives were prepared from the corrisponding isatines via one pot reduction in hydrazine hydrate.     

Electrochemical stability of steel,Ti, and Cu current collectors in water-in-salt electrolyte for green batteries and supercapacitors

Journal of Solid State Electrochemistry - The electrochemical behaviour of steel, copper, and titanium current collectors was studied in aqueous solutions of lithium...     

A novel and efficient catalytic epoxidation of olefins and monoterpenes with microencapsulated Lewis base adducts of methyltrioxorhenium

The reactivity of methyltrioxorhenium in the epoxidation of olefins can be tuned by the presence of Lewis bases as ligands of the metal center. Unfortunately, a large excess of ligand is usually required to obtain high yields and selectivities mainly because of the fluxional behaviour that these compounds show in solution. We describe here the microencapsulation technique that can resolve this problem. Microencapsulated Lewis base adducts of methyltrioxorhenium with nitrogen containing ligands are highly efficient and selective catalysts for the epoxidation of several olefins and monoterpenes with hydrogen peroxide even in the case of the most sensitive substrates. These systems show the advantages of the ligand accelerated catalysis and the benefits of heterogeneous compounds. They can be easily recovered from the reaction mixture and used for more transformations.     

Elucidation of lignin structure by quantitative 2D NMR

Quick quantitative HSQC (QQ‐HSQC) was applied to quantitative evaluation of different inter‐unit linkages in an array of milled softwood and hardwood and technical lignins by using the guaiacyl C2 and syringyl C2–C6 signals as internal standards. The results were found to be highly reproducible and comparable with earlier literature reports. The advantage of QQ‐HSQC NMR analysis of lignin is contemporary detection and quantification of lignin inter‐unit linkages with a direct, non‐destructive method requiring short acquisition times.     

Ozonation of Thioamide Containing Heterocycles. A New General and Selective Procedure for the Synthesis of C-2 Substituted Heteroazole Derivatives

2-Mercaptoheterazoles readily react with ozone in the presence of nucleophiles and under mild experimental conditions to form several C-2 substituted heterazoles.     

Efficient and selective oxidation of methyl substituted cycloalkanes by heterogeneous methyltrioxorhenium–hydrogen peroxide systems

Polymer-supported methyltrioxorhenium (MTO) systems are efficient catalysts for the oxidative functionalisation of cyclohexane and cyclopentane derivatives with H₂O₂ as oxygen donor. Using poly(4-vinyl)pyridine and poly(4-vinyl)pyridine-N-oxide as MTO supports, cycloalkanol, cycloalkanediol, cycloalkanone and ω-hydroxy methyl ketone derivatives were obtained in different yields depending on the experimental conditions. Interestingly, cycloalkane dimers were selectively recovered in acceptable to good yields when the oxidation was performed with polystyrene-microencapsulated MTO catalyst. The EPR investigation suggests that the homolytic cleavage of the CH₃–Re bond with formation of CH₃ radicals occurs inside the polystyrene capsule, indicating a possible role of methyl radical in the cycloalkane dimerisation pathway.