A remarkable aspect of enzyme evolution is the portability of catalytic mechanisms for fundamentally different chemical reactions. For example, aspartyl proteases, which contain two active site carboxylic acid groups, catalyze the hydrolysis of amide bonds, while glycosyltransferases (and glycosyl hydrolases), which often also contain two active site carboxylates, have evolved to form (or break...

Cyclic carbonates are valuable chemicals for the chemical industry and thus, their efficient synthesis is essential. Commonly, cyclic carbonates are synthesised in a two-step process involving the epoxidation of an alkene and a subsequent carboxylation to the cyclic carbonate. To couple both steps into a direct oxidative carboxylation reaction would be desired from an economical view point sinc...

The utilization of 1-alkenes by Micrococcus cerificans was investigated with respect to characteristic fatty acid profiles resulting from growth at the expense of these substrates. Saturated fatty acids containing even numbers of carbon atoms were produced from 1-dodecene and 1-tetradecene. Unsaturated fatty acids related to the parent alkene were not detected. The fatty acid profile from 1-pen...

The chemical industry is considered to be one of the largest consumers energy in manufacturing sector. As cost rising rapidly, coupled with increasingly stringent standards for release harmful chemicals and gases into environment, more attention now focused on developing efficient processes that could significantly reduce both operational costs greenhouse gas emissions. Alkene epoxidation an im...

High chemical yields and good enantiomeric excesses are obtained by using soluble polymer-supported tartrate ester in the epoxidation of trans-hex-2-en-1-ol using Ti(OPri)4/tert-butyl hydroperoxide.

[reaction: see text] Polyfluorinated quaternary ammonium cations, [CF(3)(CF(2))(7)(CH(2))(3)](3)CH(3)N(+) (R(F)N(+)), were synthesized and used as countercations for the [WZnM(2)(H(2)O)(2)(ZnW(9)O(34))(2)](12)(-) (M = Mn(II), Zn(II)) polyoxometalate. The (R(F)N(+))(12)[WZnM(2)(H(2)O)(2)(ZnW(9)O(34))(2)] compounds were fluorous biphasic catalysts for alcohol and alkenol oxidation, and alkene epo...

The catalysis by S, 1 0, IS,20-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl)-21H,23H-porphyrin iron(III) chloride (F20 TPPFeCl) of alkene epoxidation by H20 2 has been investigated. Extensive catalyst decomposition was observed during the reaction. A kinetics and product yield analysis has shown that this decomposition does not occur via either the oxoperferryl intermediate (F 20 TPP·+)F e =0 or the oxoferryl in...

This paper describes a method, discovered and refined by parallel screening, for the epoxidation of alkenes. It uses hydrogen peroxide as the terminal oxidant, is promoted by catalytic amounts (1.0-0.1 mol %) of manganese(2+) salts, and must be performed using at least catalytic amounts of bicarbonate buffer. Peroxymonocarbonate, HCO(4)(-), forms in the reaction, but without manganese, minimal ...

An efficient and diastereoselective (CDC)–Rh-catalyzed hydroalkylation of dienes with 1,3-oxazol-5(4H)ones is reported. Aryl and alkyl substituted dienes are converted to a,a-substituted oxazolones (24 examples) by the formation of N-substituted quaternary carbon stereogenic centers in good yields (up to 96%) and with high diastereoselectivity (>20 : 1 dr). The reaction is tolerant of a range o...

The synthesis of the macrolactone core of (+)-neopeltolide has been achieved. The key synthetic strategy involves the highly diastereoselective synthesis of the 2,6-cis-disubstituted tetrahydropyran ring by a transannular cyclization of δ-hydroxy alkene using mercuric trifluoroacetate. Two of the six stereocenters C-5 and C-11 were realized from L-malic acid, while the remaining stereocenters C...