Carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts: applications in organic transformations

The requirement of green and sustainable materials to prepare heterogeneous catalysts has intensified for practical reasons over the past few decades. Carbohydrates are possibly the most plentiful and renewable organic materials in nature with inimitable physiochemical properties, plausible low-cost and large-scale production, and sustainability features could be exploited in the generation of nanostructured heterogeneous catalysts. This review article outlines the organic transformations catalyzed by diverse carbohydrate-based nanostructured catalysts in greener and environmentally friendly processes. Selected examples are highlighted for a variety of organic reactions exploiting the proposed catalysts’ reactivity and reusability, and interactions with the intrinsic nature of the applied carbohydrate supports; advantages and speculated challenges of the introduced catalysts are deliberated as well.     

An admissible minimax estimator of a bounded scale-parameter in a subclass of the exponential family under scale-invariant squared-error loss

A subclass of the scale-parameter exponential family is considered and for the rth power of the scale parameter, which is lower bounded, an admissible minimax estimator under scale-invariant squared-error loss is presented. Also, an admissible minimax estimator of a lower-bounded parameter in the family of transformed chi-square distributions is given. These estimators are the pointwise limits of a sequence of Bayes estimators. Some examples are given.     

Single crystal X-ray structure determinations of the reaction products of cis- and trans-cyclohexanedicarboxylic anhydrides and methylhydrazine

The structures of two of the three isomeric products of the reactions between cis- and trans-cyclohexanedicarboxylic anhydrides and methylhydrazine were determined by single-crystal X-ray methods to ascertain their tautomeric forms and stereochemistries. One product was found to be cis-N-methylamino-1,2-cyclohexanedicarboximide and the other trans-hexahydro-2-methylcyclohexa[d]pyridazine-1,2-dione.     

Application of headspace solvent microextraction to the analysis of mononitrotoluenes in waste water samples

The possibility of applying headspace solvent microextraction (HSME) for determination of mononitrotoluenes (MNTs) in waste water samples is demonstrated. A drop of n-amyl alcohol containing naphthalene as an internal standard was suspended from the tip of a microsyringe needle over the headspace of stirred sample solutions for a predescribed extraction period. The drop was then injected directly into a gas chromatograph. Optimization of experimental parameters such as the nature of extracting solvent, microdrop and sample volumes, sampling temperature, stirring rate, ionic strength of the solution, pH and extraction time on HSME efficiency were investigated. Then enrichment factor, dynamic linear range (DLR), limit of detection (LOD) and precision of the method were evaluated by water samples spiked with MNTs. Finally, the method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of the mononitrotoluenes in waste waters of both P.C.I. Company and Research Center of Azad University.     

Electroorganic synthesis of catecholthioethers

[reaction: see text] It is demonstrated that o-quinones, generated by the electrochemically driven oxidation of the catechols (1a-d) at physiological pH, are rapidly scavenged by 2-mercaptobenzoxazole (3) to give related catecholthioethers (4a-d) via an EC electrochemical mechanism pathway. The electrochemical syntheses of 4a-d have been successfully performed in one-pot in ambient conditions and in an undivided cell using an environmentally friendly method with high atom economy.     

Synthesis of Unsymmetrically Substituted Hexahydroimidazo [4,5-d] Imidazole-2,5-diones and Elucidation of Reaction Pathways

We have reported the synthesis and structural elucidation of a series of hexahydroimidazo [4,5-d] imidazole-2,5-diones and hydantoins from glyoxal and substituted ureas.^1,2 The general equation of this condensation reaction and a few representative compounds: those reported, current and hypothetical, are depicted in Scheme 1.     

Investigation and comparison of biological effects of regioselectively synthesized thiazole derivatives

In this study, anticancer, antibacterial (against hospital-isolated antibiotic-resistant Escherichia coli strains), antifungal, and antioxidant effects of synthesized heterocyclic compounds 5 and 7 containing thiazole core were examined. Cytotoxicity testing was utilized against MCF-7 breast cancer cells via MTT cell viability assay. Antibacterial and antifungal activities were checked out according to Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines, and antioxidant properties were evaluated through scavenging 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radicals. Results showed the viability of breast cancer cell lines was reliant on concentration of heterocycles and time of incubation. Synthetic compounds exhibited excellent antibacterial and antifungal properties base on their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC), and minimum fungicidal concentration (MFC) values as well as high antioxidant activities according to their IC₅₀ values. Higher anticancer and antibacterial properties were observed with compound 7; on the contrary, thiazole 5 had better antioxidant effects. They can be introduced as potent antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer agents.     

On the asymptotic distribution of the periodograms for the discrete time harmonizable simple processes

Statistical Inference for Stochastic Processes - Simple harmonizable processes, introduced by Soltani and Parvardeh (Theory Probab Appl 50(3):448–462, 2006), form a fairly large class of...     

Design and fabrication of a Fourier transform spectrometer by means of thermally actuated tunable grating

In this article, the design and fabrication of a Fourier transform spectrometer, based on a thermally actuated tunable grating, are presented. Grooves of a binary grating are filled with nitrobenzene, the refractive index of which highly depends on temperature. Through the application of heat, the temperature of the nitrobenzene is changed, which in turn changes the efficiency of the grating. To measure the spectrum of a light beam, the light under inspection is first passed through the grating and the intensity of the zero order of diffraction is recorded as a function of temperature. Next, the Fourier transform of the measured data is calculated. The resolution of the spectrometer is also discussed. Finally, a micro-spectrometer that is based on a thermally actuated grating is proposed.     

Electrochemically induced oxidative cyclization of 2,3‐dihydroxypyridine. Synthesis of a novel highly oxygenated heterocyclic compound

Electrochemical oxidation of 2,3‐dihydroxypyridine in aqueous phosphate buffer solution at a glassy carbon electrode has been studied using cyclic voltammetry and controlled potential coulometry. The results indicate that oxidation of 2,3‐dihydroxypyridine on glassy carbon electrode shows an irreversible feature in aqueous solution. This data indicates that the electrochemically generated pyridindione is unstable and via an oxidative conversion pathway converts to a novel highly oxygenated heterocyclic compound. By means of the obtained electrochemical data, an efficient, one‐pot method for the synthesis of this heterocyclic compound based on the oxidative cyclization of 2,3‐dihydroxypyridine under green conditions, and in a good yield and purity is described. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.