[Exhaustive Syntheses of Deuterium-labelled Compounds].

Deuterium (2H, D) is a stable isotope of hydrogen (1H). Deuterium-incorporated (labelled) compounds are widely utilized in various scientific fields such as mechanistic studies of organic reactions, elucidation of drug metabolism, application as tracers for microanalysis. Recently, development of heavy drugs and molecular imaging using techniques such as neutron scattering and Raman spectroscopy are spotlighted. We have developed various deuterium-incorporated compounds using D2O as an inexpensive deuterium source to construct novel functional materials. The use of platinum group metals on carbon as catalysts could result in the multi-deuteration of compounds in the mixed solvents of 2-propanol and D2O, and site-selectively deuterated compounds can be synthesized by organocatalytic methods. In this review, the latter deuteration methods using organocatalysts and their applications are summarized. Terminal alkynes smoothly underwent deuterium incorporation by using triethylamine as an organic base or a solid resin possessing the tertiary amine moiety in the same molecule to give mono-deuterated alkynes. These compounds were partially reduced over our prepared specific palladium catalyst under atmospheric D2 gas to produce tri-deuterated alkenes. Achiral or chiral di-deuterated ß-nitro alcohols were also prepared by the organic-base-catalyzed deuteration of nitromethane, followed by nitroaldol reactions in a one pot manner. The mono-deuteration of aromatic aldehyde could be effectively catalyzed by N-heterocyclic carbene. Furthermore, the α-deuteration of aliphatic aldehydes using a basic resin catalyst and the subsequent Knoevenagel condensation with malononitrile could provide γ-deuterium-incorporated α,ß-unsaturated nitrile derivatives. The deuterated compounds thus obtained can be important synthetic precursors to construct the deuterium-incorporated target functional materials.

Isolation of a Nitromethane Anion in the Calix-Shaped Inorganic Cage.

A calix-shaped polyoxometalate, [V12O32]4- (V12), stabilizes an anion moiety in its central cavity. This molecule-sized container has the potential to control the reactivity of an anion. The highly-reactive cyanate is smoothly trapped by V12 to form [V12O32(CN)]5-. In the CH3NO2 solution, cyanate abstracts protons from CH3NO2, and the resultant CH2NO2- is stabilized in V12 to form [V12O32(CH2NO2)]5- (V12(CH2NO2)). A crystallographic analysis revealed the double-bond characteristic short bond distance of 1.248 Å between the carbon and nitrogen atoms in the nitromethane anion in V12. 1H and 13C NMR studies showed that the nitromethane anion in V12 must not be exchanged with the nitromethane solvent. Thus, the V12 container restrains the reactivity of anionic species.

P(III)/P(V)-Catalyzed Methylamination of Arylboronic Acids and Esters: Reductive C-N Coupling with Nitromethane as a Methylamine Surrogate.

The direct reductive N-arylation of nitromethane by organophosphorus-catalyzed reductive C-N coupling with arylboronic acid derivatives is reported. This method operates by the action of a small ring organophosphorus-based catalyst (1,2,2,3,4,4-hexamethylphosphetane P-oxide) together with a mild terminal reductant hydrosilane to drive the selective installation of the methylamino group to (hetero)aromatic boronic acids and esters. This method also provides for a unified synthetic approach to isotopically labeled N-methylanilines from various stable isotopologues of nitromethane (i.e., CD3NO2, CH315NO2, and 13CH3NO2), revealing this easy-to-handle compound as a versatile precursor for the direct installation of the methylamino group.

The first enzyme-promoted addition of nitromethane to imines (aza-Henry reaction).

Enzyme catalytic promiscuity is the ability of a single enzyme active site to catalyze several chemical transformations, among them those which are different from natural. We have attempted to use this feature of enzymes in the nucleophilic addition of nitromethane to aldimines (the aza-Henry reaction) whose chemically catalyzed version leads to synthetically useful ß-nitroamines. We succeded in obtaining for the first time the desired products in the yields up to 81%. The most efficient proved lipase TL (from Pseudomonas stutzeri) and oxynitrilase from Arabidopsis thaliana. However, all the reactions investigated were non-stereoselective.

Synthesis of Benzophenones and in†vitro Evaluation of Their Anticancer Potential in Breast and Prostate Cancer Cells.

Breast and prostate cancers are frequently treated with chemotherapy. Several novel chemicals are being reported for this purpose, particularly synthetic and natural benzophenones. This work reports the synthesis of substituted 2-hydroxybenzophenones through 1,4-conjugate addition/intramolecular cycloaddition/dehydration of nitromethane on key intermediate chromones. Structures were extensively studied by means of 2D NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal XRD. Their cytotoxicity was evaluated in vitro in two breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-231 and T47-D) and one prostate cancer cell line (PC3). The most potent compound exhibited good cytotoxic effects against the three cancer cell lines (IC50 values ranging from 12.09 to 26.49 µm) and induced cell-cycle retardation only on prostate cancer cells, which suggested that it might exert cell-type-specific effects.

Effect of diesel-methanol-nitromethane blends combustion on VCR stationary CI engine performance and exhaust emissions.

The continuous rise in cost of fossil fuels and environmental pollution has attracted research in the area of clean alternative fuels for improving the performance and emission of internal combustion engines. In the present work, methanol and nitromethane were treated as a biofuel and investigations have been made to evaluate the feasibility of replacing diesel with a suitable diesel-methanol-nitromethane blend. For this, experimental investigations were carried out on a VCR diesel engine using diesel-methanol-nitromethane blends to determine the most favorable blending ratio and engine operating parameters for enhancing performance and reduce emissions. The best results of performance and emissions were observed with D-M5-NM2.5 blend (diesel 92.5%, methanol 5%, nitromethane 2.5%) at standard engine parameters. The improvement in engine performance (13% increment in BTE and 19.5% decrement in BSFC) and reduction in emission (smoke 26.47%, NOx 21.66%, and CO 14.28%) was found using D-M5-NM2.5 blend as compared to pure diesel at full load condition; however, HC emission was slightly increased by 10.71%. To find out the best suitable value of CR for D-M5-NM2.5 blend, experiments were further performed on different compression ratios by which higher compression ratio of 19.5 was found better under similar operating conditions. By increasing CR from 18.5 (standard) to 19.5, improvement in engine performance (BTE increased 3.8% and BSFC decreased 3.4%) and reduction in emission (smoke 10%, CO 16.67%, and HC 61.29%) were observed using D-M5-NM2.5 blend; however, NOx was found to be on slightly higher side with tolerable increment of 6.38%.

Crystal structure of hypothetical protein PA4202 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 in complex with nitroethane as a nitroalkane substrate.

Nitroalkane oxidase (NAO) and nitronate monooxygenase (NMO) are two different types of nitroalkane oxidizing flavoenzymes identified in nature. A previous study suggested that the hypothetical protein PA4202 from Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is NMO and utilizes only anionic nitronates. However, the structural similarity between the PA4202 protein and Streptomyces ansochromogenes NAO has motivated investigation for what features of the two enzymes differentiate between the NAO and NMO activities. Herein, we report the crystal structure of PA4202 in a ternary complex with a neutral nitroethane (NE) and flavin mononucleotide (FMN) cofactor to elucidate the substrate recognition mechanism using a site-directed mutagenesis. The ternary complex structure indicates that the NE is bound with an orientation, which is poised for the proton transfer to H183 (which is the essential first catalytic step with nitroalkanes), and subsequent reactions with FMN. Moreover, a kinetic study reveals that the catalytic reactions of the wild type and H183 mutants PA4202s with nitroalkane substrates may yield the products of hydrogen peroxide and nitrite that are specified to NAO, although they show a low catalytic efficiency. Our results provide the first structure-based molecular insight into the substrate binding property of the hypothetical protein PA4202, including the interactions with neutral nitroalkanes as the substrate.

Pre-treatment of anodic inoculum with nitroethane to improve performance of a microbial fuel cell.

Methanogenic substrate loss is reported to be a major bottleneck in microbial fuel cell (MFC), which significantly reduces the power production capacity and coulombic efficiency (CE) of this system. Nitroethane is found to be a potent inhibitor of hydrogenotrophic methanogens in rumen fermentation process. Influence of nitroethane pre-treated sewage sludge inoculum on suppressing the methanogenic activity and enhancing the electrogenesis in MFC was evaluated. MFC inoculated with nitroethane pre-treated anodic inoculum demonstrated a maximum operating voltage of 541 mV, with CE and maximum volumetric power density of 39.85% and 20.5 W/m3, respectively. Linear sweep voltammetry indicated a higher electron discharge on the anode surface due to enhancement of electrogenic activity while suppressing methanogenic activity. A 63% reduction in specific methanogenic activity was observed in anaerobic sludge pre-treated with nitroethane, emphasizing the significance of this pre-treatment for suppressing methanogenesis and its utility for enhancing electricity generation in MFC.

Continuous-flow synthesis using a column reactor packed with heterogeneous catalysts: A convenient production of nitroolefins by using amino-functionalized silicagel.

A continuous-flow synthesis of ß-nitroolefins by using heterogeneous base catalysts has been developed. Although the use of an excess amount of nitro-donor such as nitromethane is required in conventional methods, nearly equimolar amounts of nitro-donors and carbonyl compounds are sufficient for high-yielding production of nitroolefins. Catalysts for this flow protocol are inexpensive and abundant, and high durability and high productivity were also realized by using an appropriate second support.

Chemoselective Henry Condensations Catalyzed by Artificial Carboligases.

The promiscuity of de novo designed enzymes provides a privileged platform for diverse abiological reactions. In this work, we report the first example of a nitroolefin synthase that catalyzes the Henry condensation between aromatic aldehydes and nitromethane. Significant catalytic activity was discovered in the computationally designed and evolved carboligase RA95.5-8, and mutations around the active site were shown to improve the reaction rate, demonstrating the potential to optimize the enzyme by directed evolution. This novel nitroolefin synthase could participate in complex biological cascades, whereby the highly tunable chemoselectivity could afford useful synthetic building blocks.

Short chain nitrocompounds as a treatment of layer hen manure and litter; effects on in vitro survivability of Salmonella, generic E. coli and nitrogen metabolism.

The current study was conducted to assess the bactericidal effectiveness of several nitrocompounds against pathogens in layer hen manure and litter. Evidence from an initial study indicated that treatment of layer hen manure with 12 mM nitroethane decreased populations of generic E. coli and total coliforms by 0.7 and 2.2 log10 colony forming units (CFU) g-1, respectively, after 24 h aerobic incubation at ambient temperature when compared to untreated populations. Salmonella concentrations were unaffected by nitroethane in this study. In a follow-up experiment, treatment of 6-month-old layer hen litter (mixed with 0.4 mL water g-1) with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol or ethyl nitroacetate decreased an inoculated Salmonella typhimurium strain from its initial concentration (3 log10 CFU g-1) by 0.7 to 1.7 log10 CFU g-1 after 6 h incubation at 37°C in covered containers. After 24 h incubation, populations of the inoculated S. Typhmiurium in litter treated with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol, ethyl nitroacetate or nitroethane were decreased more than 3.2 log10 CFU g-1 compared to populations in untreated control litter. Treatment of litter with 44 mM 2-nitroethanol, 2-nitropropanol, ethyl nitroacetate decreased rates of ammonia accumulation more than 70% compared to untreated controls (0.167 µmol mL-1 h-1) and loses of uric acid (< 1 µmol mL-1) were observed only in litter treated with 44 mM 2-nitropropanol, indicating that some of these nitrocompounds may help prevent loss of nitrogen in treated litter. Results warrant further research to determine if these nitrocompounds can be developed into an environmentally sustainable and safe strategy to eliminate pathogens from poultry litter, while preserving its nitrogen content as a nutritionally valuable crude protein source for ruminants.

Impact of persulfate and ultraviolet light activated persulfate pre-oxidation on the formation of trihalomethanes, haloacetonitriles and halonitromethanes from the chlor(am)ination of three antibiotic chloramphenicols.

Persulfate oxidation processes, with and without activation using ultraviolet light (respectively UV/PS and PS) have the potential to degrade anthropogenic chemicals in water. However, little is known about the impact of PS or UV/PS pre-oxidation on downstream formation of disinfection by-products (DBPs). In this study the three antibiotic chloramphenicols (chloramphenicol and two of its analogues [thiamphenicol and florfenicol], referred to collectively as CAPs), which frequently occur in wastewater-impacted source waters used by drinking water treatment plants, were selected as model antibiotic compounds. The formation of carbonaceous and nitrogenous disinfection by-products, including halomethanes, haloacetonitriles and halonitromethanes, during chlorination and chloramination preceded by PS and UV/PS was investigated. No significant concentrations of haloacetonitriles and halonitromethanes were detected during chlorination. During chloramination chloramphenicol formed a considerable amount of dichloronitromethane (e.g., 3.44 ± 0.33% mol/mol at NH2Cl dose = 1 mM) and trichloronitromethane (e.g., 0.79 ± 0.07% mol/mol at NH2Cl dose = 1 mM), compared with THM and HAN formation. PS pre-oxidation achieved a statistically significant reduction in trichloromethane formation from chlorination, and in HAN and HNM formation from chloramination. Although UV/PS slightly increased dichloroacetonitrile formation during chloramination, it significantly decreased dichloronitromethane and trichloronitromethane formation during chloramination. Overall, the use of PS and UV/PS has the potential to have contrasting impacts on DBP formation in heavily wastewater-impacted waters, depending on the disinfection method. Hence, their application needs to be carefully balanced against the downstream effect on DBP formation.

Ozone Promotes Chloropicrin Formation by Oxidizing Amines to Nitro Compounds.

Chloropicrin formation has been associated with ozonation followed by chlorination, but the reaction pathway and precursors have been poorly characterized. Experiments with methylamine demonstrated that ozonation converts methylamine to nitromethane at ∼100% yield. Subsequent chlorination converts nitromethane to chloropicrin at ∼50% yield under the conditions evaluated. Similarly high yields from other primary amines were limited to those with functional groups on the ß-carbon (e.g., the carboxylic acid in glycine) that facilitate carbon-carbon bond cleavage to release nitromethyl anion. Secondary amines featuring these reactive primary amines as functional groups (e.g., secondary N-methylamines) formed chloropicrin at high yields, likely by facile dealkylation to release the primary nitro compound. Chloropicrin yields from tertiary amines were low. Natural water experiments, including derivatization to transform primary and secondary amines to less reactive carbamate functional groups, indicated that primary and secondary amines were the dominant chloropicrin precursors during ozonation/chlorination. Ozonation followed by chlorination of the primary amine side chain of lysine demonstrated low yields (∼0.2%) of chloropicrin, but high yields (∼17%) of dichloronitrolysine, a halonitroalkane structural analogue to chloropicrin. However, chloropicrin yields increased and dichloronitrolysine yields decreased in the absence of hydroxyl radical scavengers, suggesting that future research should characterize the potential occurrence of such halonitroalkane analogues relative to natural radical scavenger (e.g., carbonate) concentrations.

One-Pot Synthesis of (S)-Baclofen via Aldol Condensation of Acetaldehyde with Diphenylprolinol Silyl Ether Mediated Asymmetric Michael Reaction as a Key Step.

An efficient asymmetric total synthesis of (S)-baclofen was accomplished via a one-pot operation from commercially available materials using sequential reactions, such as aldol condensation of acetaldehyde, diphenylprolinol silyl ether mediated asymmetric Michael reaction of nitromethane, Kraus-Pinnick oxidation, and Raney Ni reduction. Highly enantioenriched baclofen was obtained in one pot with a good yield over four reactions.

Palladium-Catalyzed α-Arylation of Aryl Nitromethanes.

Catalytic conditions for the α-arylation of aryl nitromethanes have been discovered using parallel microscale experimentation, despite two prior reports of the lack of reactivity of these aryl nitromethane precursors. The method efficiently provides a variety of substituted, isolable diaryl nitromethanes. In addition, it is possible to sequentially append two different aryl groups to nitromethane. Mild oxidation conditions were identified to afford the corresponding benzophenones via the Nef reaction, and reduction conditions were optimized to afford several diaryl methylamines.

Catalytic asymmetric construction of spiro[pyrrolidine-2,3'-oxindole] scaffolds through chiral phosphoric acid-catalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition involving 3-amino oxindoles.

The catalytic asymmetric three-component 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of 3-amino oxindoles with aldehydes and nitroolefins under the catalysis of a chiral phosphoric acid is reported. The reaction provides a facile approach to synthesize a diverse array of spiro[pyrrolidine-2,3'-oxindoles] in high yields with excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities under mild conditions.

Development of a standard gas generating vial comprised of a silicon oil-polystyrene/divinylbenzene composite sorbent.

In this work, a highly reproducible standard gas generating vial is proposed. The vial is comprised of a silicon diffusion pump oil spiked with an appropriate calibration compound, such as modified McReynolds probes (benzene, 2-pentanone, pyridine, 1-nitropropane, 1-pentanol, and n-octane), and then mixed with polystyrene/divinylbenzene (PS/DVB) particles. The concentrations of these compounds in gaseous headspace were found to substantially decrease in comparison to previously developed hydrocarbon pump oil based vials; hence, the amount of standard loaded onto SPME fibers was at most, half that of the previous vial design. Depletion for all compounds after 208 successive extractions was shown to be less than 3.5%. Smaller quantities of standards being used resulted in a vial that depleted slower while remaining statistically repeatable over a wider number of runs. Indeed, it was found that depletion could be largely predicted by using a mass balance theoretical model. This behavior allowed a further increase in the number of loadings that could be performed repeatedly. At a 95% level of confidence, the ANOVA test demonstrated that the prepared vials were statistically identical, with no significant intra- or inter-batch differences. In addition, it was found that vials stored under different conditions (e.g. under light exposure, room temperature, and within a refrigerator) were stable over 10 weeks. Silicon based vials proved to be ideal for performing instrument quality control and loading of internal standards onto fibers, both of which are of great importance when performing on-site analysis using portable GC-MS instrumentation and high throughput determinations in laboratory.

Electrosynthesis of enaminones directly from methyl ketones and amines with nitromethane as a carbon source.

An efficient and mechanistically different method for the electrosynthesis of enaminone directly from methyl ketones, amines and nitromethane was developed. This transition-metal-free method proceeded at room temperature to give a wide array of enaminones in one step, utilizing nitromethane as the carbon source.

Copper(II)-catalyzed oxidative N-nitrosation of secondary and tertiary amines with nitromethane under an oxygen atmosphere.

The combination of a catalytic amount of Cu(OTf)2 and less than a stoichiometric amount of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) under an O2 atmosphere effectively promoted the N-nitrosation of both secondary aromatic/aliphatic amines and tertiary aromatic amines with nitromethane (CH3NO2) leading to the preparation of N-nitrosamine derivatives.

Diastereoselective Synthesis of Cyclic Five-Membered trans,trans-Configured Nitrodiols by Double Henry Reaction of 1,4-Dialdehydes.

Conformationally constrained perhydroquinoxalines 4 show high κ receptor affinity, selectivity over related receptors and full agonistic activity. Since the κ affinity can be correlated with the dihedral angle of the ethylenediamine pharmacophore (4a: 55°/71°), the dihedral angles of the postulated cyclopentane derivative 5a (73°/84°) and indane derivative 6a (77°/81°) were calculated. The first step of the synthesis represents a double Henry reaction of 1,4-dialdehydes 8 and 10 with nitromethane, leading predominantly to the trans,trans-configured nitrodiols 9 and 11. X-ray crystal structure analyses of 9 and 11 led to dihedral angles O2 N−C−C−OH of 73.4 and 88.3°, respectively, which reflect the calculated dihedral angles of the hypothesized final products 5a and 6a.