Thermal stability and flame retardancy of polyurethanes

Isatins As Privileged Molecules in Design and Synthesis of Spiro-Fused Cyclic Frameworks

Cyclodextrins are extremely attractive components of artificial enzymes and other biomimetic materials. They are readily available, they bind hydrophobic substrates into their cavities in water solution, and they have two rims of hydroxyl groups (Figure 1) that can either react with substrates themselves or be used to attach other catalytic and functional groups. Of course, they have disadvantages. For one, unless they are extensively modified their complexes with substrates can be rather flexible and, perhaps, with unpredictable preferred geometry. They are also unstable to strong acid. Thus for some purposes such synthetic cavity species as calixerenes1 or synthetic macrocycles2-4 may have advantages. However, one of the chief advantages of cyclodextrins is highly attractivesthey are readily available, so it is possible to avoid the synthesis of a binding group and go directly to studies of what can be achieved with their use. Afterward, the lessons learned may be applied to other systems with advantage. This review will cover all the literature on reactions in which cyclodextrins bind substrates and then either catalyze their reactions or mimic a step in an enzymatic catalytic sequence. However, it will not describe work in which cyclodextrins simply change the course of a reaction without playing an obvious catalytic role involving substrate binding. For example, there are systems in which the main function of the cyclodextrin seems to be to complex a metal ion and keep it in solution.5-11 There are other studies in which binding into a cyclodextrin simply alters the selectivity of attack by an external reagent in some way12-24 or causes solubilization to facilitate phase transfer catalysis.12,25,26 Presumably such other areas are described elsewhere in this volume. While much work on artificial enzymes using cyclodextrins has been done in the author’s laboratory, and will be described, every effort is made to describe all the relevant work in the field. Several reviews of this subject already exist and should be consulted for further information.2,27-70 The readily Ronald Breslow, born in 1931 in Rahway, NJ, completed his B.A. in chemistry in1952, his M.A. in medical science in 1953, and his Ph.D. in chemistry in 1955 with R. B. Woodward, all at Harvard University. After a postdoctoral year with Alexander Todd in Cambridge, he came to Columbia University where he is now University Professor and Professor of Chemistry. His work on enzyme models, on novel conjugated aromatic and antiaromatic molecules, on electrochemical and hydrophobic methods in mechanistic chemistry, and on anticancer cytodifferentiating agents has been recognized by a number of awards, including the U.S. National Medal of Science. In 1996, he served as President of the American Chemical Society.

Biomimetic Reactions Catalyzed by Cyclodextrins and Their Derivatives.

Chitin and chitosan, typical marine polysaccharides as well as abundant biomass resources, are attracting a great deal of attention because of their distinctive biological and physicochemical characteristics. To fully explore the high potential of these specialty biopolymers, basic and application researches are being made extensively. This review deals with the fundamental aspects of chitin and chitosan such as the preparation of chitin and chitosan, crystallography, extent of N-acetylation, and some properties. Recent progress of their chemistry is then discussed, focusing on elemental modification reactions including acylation, alkylation, Schiff base formation and reductive alkylation, carboxyalkylation, phthaloylation, silylation, tosylation, quaternary salt formation, and sulfation and thiolation.

Chitin and Chitosan: Functional Biopolymers from Marine Crustaceans

The synthesis of 4-dialkylaminopyridines can be accomplished in two steps starting from pyridine. Compared to pyridine, these derivatives are approximately 104 times more active when used as acylation catalysts. Dialkylaminopyridines are being used with ever-increasing frequency for acylation reactions which proceed either incompletely or not at all in pyridine. This article reviews the various possible applications of 4-dialkylaminopyridines in terpene, steroid, carbohydrate and nucleoside chemistry as well as in the transformation of amino acids into α-acyl aminoketones and polymerization of isocyanates. In addition, N-substituted 4-dialkylaminopyridinium salts can be used for the transfer of sensitive groups to nucleophiles in aqueous medium. The exceptional catalytic effect of these derivatives, even in non-polar solvents, is due, in part, to the formation of high concentrations of N-acylpyridinium salts which are present in solution as loosely-bound, highly reactive ion pairs.

4-Dialkylaminopyridines as Highly Active Acylation Catalysts. [New synthetic method (25)]

Letter: The stereochemically correct catalytic site on cyclodextrin resulting in a better enzyme model.

Trichloromethyl chloroformate. Reaction with amines, amino acids, and amino alcohols

Synthesis of N-[1-(1-substituted 2-oxopropyl)]acrylamides and -methylacrylamides. Isolation and some reactions of intermediates of the Dakin-West reaction

Yoshio Iwakura

Papers

Letter: The stereochemically correct catalytic site on cyclodextrin resulting in a better enzyme model.

Trichloromethyl chloroformate. Reaction with amines, amino acids, and amino alcohols

Synthesis of N-[1-(1-substituted 2-oxopropyl)]acrylamides and -methylacrylamides. Isolation and some reactions of intermediates of the Dakin-West reaction

The Syntheses and Some Reactions of ι-Isocyanatoalkanecarboxylic Acid Chlorides and Isocyanatobenzoyl Chlorides

The Synthesis and Reactions of 2-Isocyanatoacyl Chlorides