Asymmetric Michael addition of aldehydes to nitroolefins catalyzed by L-prolinamide derivatives using phenols as co-catalysts

The asymmetric Michael addition of aldehydes to nitroolefins was investigated using L-prolinamide derivatives of 2-(2'-piperidinyl)pyridine as catalyst and a variety of phenols as co-catalyst. Extensive screening toward the effect of prolinamides, phenols, and solvents on this transformation revealed that a combination of (S)-2-(2'-piperidinyl)pyridine-derived trans-4-hydroxy-L-prolinamide 2c, (S)-1,1'-bi-2-naphthol, and dichloromethane was a promising system. This system was shown to be amenable to a rich variety of aldehydes and nitroolefins and afforded the nitroaldehyde products with excellent yield, enantiomeric excess (up to 99%) and diastereoselectivity ratio (up to 99/1), even in the case of 1 mol % catalyst loading and 1.5 equiv of aldehydes.

Synthesis and properties of novel regioirregular polyimides from easily synthesized asymmetrical dichlorophthalimide monomers

New asymmetrical aromatic dichlorophthalimide monomers containing pendant groups (trifluoromethyl or methyl) were conveniently prepared from inexpensive and commercially available compounds. With these monomers, a new class of soluble polyimides with a regioirregular structure within the polymer backbone was obtained by the Ni(0)-catalyzed polymerization method. The structures of the polymers were confirmed by various spectroscopic techniques. The polyimides displayed better solubility and higher thermal stability than the corresponding regular polyimides. In addition, fluorinated polyimides in this study had low dielectric constants ranging from 2.52 to 2.78, low moisture absorptions of less than 0.59%, and low thermal expansion coefficients between 10.6 and 19.7 ppm/degrees C. The oxygen permeability coefficients and permeability selectivity of oxygen to nitrogen of the films were in the ranges of 2.99-4.20 barrer and 5.55-7.50, respectively. We have demonstrated that the synthetic pathway for polyimides provides a successful approach to increasing the solubility and processability of polyimides without sacrificing their thermal stability.

Effect of the addition of YAG(Y3Al5O12) nanopowder on the mechanical properties of lanthanum zirconate

La2Zr2O7 (LZ) is a promising thermal barrier coating material for the high-temperature applications, which could be significantly toughened by the YAG nanopowder incorporated into the matrix. The composites of xYAG/(1-x)LZ (Y=10, 15, 20 vol. %, LZ-x-YAG) were densified by means of high-pressure sintering (HPS) under a pressure of 4.5 GPa at 1650 degrees C for 5 min, by which a high-relative density above 93% could be obtained. The morphologies of the fractured surfaces were investigated by the scanning electron microscope, and the fracture toughness and Vicker's-hardness of the composites were evaluated by the microindentation. The grain size of the LZ matrix drops significantly with the addition of YAG nanoparticles and the fracture type changes from the intergranular to a mixture type of the transgranular and intergranular in the nanocomposites. The LZ-20-YAG nanocomposite has a fracture toughness of 1.93 MPa m(1/2), which is obviously higher than that of the pure LZ (1.57 MPa m(1/2)), and the toughening mechanism is discussed in this paper.

Efficient synthesis of highly substituted pyrrolin-4-ones via PIFA-mediated cyclization reactions of enaminones

A convenient and efficient synthesis of highly substituted pyrrolin-4-ones is developed via the PIFA-mediated cyclization reactions of readily available enaminones, and a mechanism involving sequential cleavage of N-C bond, formation of new N-C bond, intramolecular addition reaction, and benzilic acid type rearrangement is proposed.

Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer mediated radical polymerization of asymmetrical divinyl monomers targeting hyperbranched vinyl polymers

Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) mediated radical polymerizations of allyl methacrylate and undecenyl methacrylate, compounds containing two types of vinyl groups with different reactivities, were investigated to provide hyperbranched polymers. The RAFT agent benzyl dithiobenzoate was demonstrated to be an appropriate chain-transfer agent to inhibit crosslinking and obtain polymers with moderate-to-high conversions. The polymerization of allyl methacrylate led to a polymer without branches but with five- or six-membered rings. However, poly(undecenyl methacrylate) showed an indication of branching rather than intramolecular cycles. The hyperbranched structure of poly(undecenyl methacrylate) was confirmed by a combination of H-1, C-13, H-1-H-1 correlation spectroscopy, and distortionless enhancement by polarization transfer 135 NMR spectra. The branching topology of the polymers was controlled by the variation of the reaction temperature, chain-transfer-agent concentration, and monomer conversion. The significantly lower inherent viscosities of the resulting polymers, compared with those of linear analogues, demonstrated their compact structure,

2-cyanoprop-2-yl dithiobenzoate mediated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of acrylonitrile targeting a polymer with a higher molecular weight

The reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization of acrylonitrile (AN) mediated by 2-cyanoprop-2-yl dithiobenzoate was first applied to synthesize polyacrylonitrile (PAN) with a high molecular weight up to 32,800 and a polydispersity index as low as 1.29. The key to success was ascribed to the optimization of the experimental conditions to increase the fragmentation reaction efficiency of the intermediate radical. In accordance with the atom transfer radical polymerization of AN, ethylene carbonate was also a better solvent candidate for providing higher controlled/living RAFT polymerization behaviors than dimethylformamide and dimethyl sulfoxide. The various experimental parameters, including the temperature, the molar ratio of dithiobenzoate to the initiator, the molar ratio of the monomer to dithiobenzoate, the monomer concentration, and the addition of the comonomer, were varied to improve the control of the molecular weight and polydispersity index. The molecular weights of PANS were validated by gel permeation chromatography along with a universal calibration procedure and intrinsic viscosity measurements. H-1 NMR analysis confirmed the high chain-end functionality of the resultant polymers.

Facile synthesis and characterization of hyperbranched poly(ether amide)s generated from Michael addition polymerization of in situ created AB(2) monomers

A new straightforward strategy for synthesis of novel hyperbranched poly (ether amide)s from readily available monomers has been developed. By optimizing the reaction conditions, the AB(2)-type monomers were formed dominantly during the initial reaction stage. Without any purification, the AB(2) intermediate was subjected to further polymerization in the presence (or absence) of an initiator, to prepare the hyperbranched polymer-bearing multihydroxyl end-groups. The influence of monomer, initiator, and solvent on polymerization and the molecular weight (MW) of the resultant polymers was studied thoroughly. The MALDI-TOF MS of the polymers indicated that the polymerization proceeded in the proposed way. Analyses of H-1 NMR and C-13 NMR spectra revealed the branched structures of the polymers obtained. These polymers exhibit high-moderate MWs and broad MW distributions determined by gel permeation chromatography (GPC) in combination with triple detectors, including refractive index, light scattering, and viscosity detectors. In addition, the examination of the solution behavior of these polymers showed that the values of intrinsic viscosity [eta] and the Mark-Houwink exponent a were remarkably lower compared with their linear analogs, because of their branched nature.

Thia-michael addition reactions in water using 3-[Bis(alkylthio) methylene]pentane-2,4-diones as odorless and efficient thiol equivalents

3-[Bis(ethylthio)methylene]pentane-2,4-dione (1a) and 3-[bis(benzylthio)methylene]pentane-2,4-dione (1b) have been investigated as non-thiolic and odorless thiol equivalents in thia-Michael addition reactions. In the presence of aqueous p-dodecyl benzenesulfonic acid (DBSA), compound (1) was cleaved and the generated thiols underwent facile conjugate addition to alpha,beta-unsaturated ketones 2 in-situ, affording the corresponding beta-keto sulfides (3) in good yields.

Synthesis, molecular structures, and norbornene addition polymerization activity of the neutral nickel catalysts supported by beta-diketiminato [N, N], ketiminato [N, O], and Schiff-Base [N, O] ligands

A series of neutral nickel complexes [Ni(Ph)(PPh3)(N, O)] with Schiff-base ligands (N, O) [N, O = 5-Me-3-tert-Bu-(Ar-N=CH)C6H2O (1, Ar = 2,6-Me2C6H3; 2, Ar = 2,6-i-Pr2C6H3)], [Ni(Ph)(PPh3)(N,O)1, with beta-ketiminato ligands (N, O) [N, O = CH3COCHC=(CH3)N-Ar (3, Ar = 2,6-Me2C6H3; 4, Ar = 2,6-i-Pr2C6H3)] and [Ni(N, N)(PPh3)], and with beta-diketiminato ligands (N, N) [5, N, N = [2,6-i-Pr-2(C6H3)N=C(CH3)](2)CH] have been synthesized and characterized. The molecular structures of complexes 1, 4, and 5 have been confirmed by X-ray single-crystal analyses. Although their ligands have similar structures, complex 4 possesses a structure similar to that of four-coordination nickel with complex 1, while complex 5 reveals a rare three-coordination nickel geometry. These compounds show high catalytic activities of up to 3.16 x 10(7) g PNB mol(-1) Ni h(-1) for the addition polymerization of norbornene in the presence of modified methylaluminoxane (MMAO) as cocatalyst. Catalytic activities, polymer yield, molecular weights, and molecular weight distributions of polyborbornene have been investigated under various reaction conditions.

Dibenzyl trithiocarbonate mediated reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization of acrylonitrile

Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer polymerization has been successfully applied to polymerize acrylonitrile with dibenzyl trithiocarbonate as the chain-transfer agent. The key to success is ascribed to the improvement of the interchange frequency between dormant and active species through the reduction of the activation energy for the fragmentation of the intermediate. The influence of several experimental parameters, such as the molar ratio of the chain-transfer agent to the initiator [azobis(isobutyronitrile)], the molar ratio of the monomer to the chain-transfer agent, and the monomer concentration, on the polymerization kinetics and the molecular weight as well as the polydispersity has been investigated in detail. Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry and H-1 NMR analyses have confirmed the chain-end functionality of the resultant polymer.

Substitution effect of nitrogen atoms with carbon atoms in porphyrin on the electronic structure and excited states properties

Density functional theory (DFT) electronic structure calculations were carried out to predict the structures and the absorption and emission spectra for porphyrin and a series of carbaporphyrins-carbaporphyrin, adj-dicarbaporphyrin, opp-dicarbaporphyrin, tricarbaporphyrin and tetracarbaporphyrin. The ground- and excited-state geometries were optimized at the B3LYP/6-31g(d) and CIS/6-31g(d) level, respectively. The optimized ground-state geometry and absorption spectra of porphyrin, calculated by DFT and time-dependent DFT (TDDFT), are comparable with the available experimental values. Based on the optimized excited-state geometries obtained by CIS/6-31g(d) method, the emission properties are calculated using TDDFT method at the B3LYP/6-31g(d) level. The effects of the substitution of nitrogen atoms with carbon atoms at the center positions of porphyrin are discussed. The results indicate that the two-pyrrole nitrogens are important to the chemical and physical properties for porphyrin.