Oligomeric, neurotoxic amyloid protein assemblies are thought to be causative agents in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. Development of oligomer-specific therapeutic agents requires a mechanistic understanding of the oligomerization process. This is a daunting task because amyloidogenic protein oligomers often are metastable and comprise structurally heterogeneous populations i...

We review part of our recent ab initio molecular dynamics study on the Ti-based Ziegler-Natta supported heterogeneous catalysis of α-olefins. The results for the insertion of ethylene in the metal-carbon bond are discussed as a fundamental textbook example of polymerization processes. Comparison with the few experimental data available has shown that simulation can reproduce activation barriers...

The carboxylation of olefins beyond ethylene towards α,β-unsaturated carboxylic acid salts and a detailed investigation on the critical steps in the catalysis are reported. The influence of two chelating phosphine ligands and several olefins on the elemental steps of the catalysis is shown. The work focusses on the formation of intermediate olefin complexes, lactone formation and base induced e...

Sterically hindered olefins are efficiently reduced to the corresponding alkanes by the boranemethyl sulfide (BMS) complex at room temperature (or below) in dichloromethane containing a mild one-electron oxidant (such as an aromatic cation radical) or by the passage of an anodic current. In an alternative procedure, the hydrogenation of the same (electron-rich) olefins with the BMS complex (in ...

In recent years, olefin cross metathesis (CM) has emerged as a powerful and convenient synthetic technique in organic chemistry; however, as a general synthetic method, CM has been limited by the lack of predictability in product selectivity and stereoselectivity. Investigations into olefin cross metathesis with several classes of olefins, including substituted and functionalized styrenes, seco...

A polymer-supported Hantzsch 1,4-dihydropyridine ester was observed to be a useful selective reducing agent for the reduction of ketimines and electron-withdrawing conjugated olefins. The rate of the reduction of electron-withdrawing conjugated olefins is dependent on the nature of the conjugated substituents and could be enhanced by microwave irradiation. The reduction of (Z)-a-cyano-bbromomet...

Efficiency in olefin cross-metathesis reactions is affected upon reducing the steric bulk of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands of ruthenium-based catalysts. For the formation of disubstituted olefins containing one or more allylic substituents, the catalyst bearing N-tolyl groups is more efficient than the corresponding N-mesityl catalyst. In contrast, the formation of trisubstituted olefins is mo...

Development of a mild (35 °C, no Brønsted acids) tandem Wacker oxidation-dehydrogenation of terminal olefins was accomplished using palladium(II) and hypervalent iodine co-catalysis. The reaction affords linear aryl and alkyl α,β-unsaturated ketones directly from readily available terminal olefins in good yields (average 75% per step) with excellent functional group tolerance and chemo- and ste...

New experimental techniques of in situ MAS NMR spectroscopy introduced in the past decade made this analytical method to a useful tool for the study of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions. Batch and flow techniques were applied to study reactions catalyzed by basic and acidic solids. The present review introduces into in situ MAS NMR investigations of transition states, e.g., via the H/D exchan...

W1lliam W Nazaro!f and Glen R. Cass• Environmental Engineering Science California Institute of Technology Pasadena, CA 91125 A general mathematical model is presented for predicting the concentrations of chemically-reactive compounds in indoor air. The model accounts for the effects of ventilation, filtration, heterogeneous removal, direct emission, and photolytic and thermal chemical reactions...