Despite the huge success of enantioselective Brønsted acid catalysis, experimental data about structures and activation modes of substrate/catalyst complexes in solution are very rare. Here, for the first time, detailed insights into the structures of imine/Brønsted acid catalyst complexes are presented on the basis of NMR data and underpinned by theoretical calculations. The chiral Brønsted ac...

The ring-shift isomerization of sym-octahydrophenanthrene (sym-OHP) to sym-octahydroanthracene (sym-OHA) catalyzed by acidic zeolites (Mordenite (MOR) and Faujasite (FAU)) was investigated by the ONIOM(DFT:UFF) and DFT approaches. A "five-membered ring" mechanism through carbocation rearrangement via 1-2 migration was proved to be kinetically favored over a "six-membered ring" mechanism through...

We consider different reaction scenarios of the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO in the presence of ammonia at perfect as well as reduced vanadium oxide surfaces modeled by V2O5(010) without and with oxygen vacancies. Geometric and energetic details as well as reaction paths are evaluated using extended cluster models together with density-functional theory. Based on earlier work of ad...

The effect of surface chemistry (nature and amount of oxygen groups) in the removal of ammonia was studied using a modified resin-based activated carbon. NH(3) breakthrough column experiments show that the modification of the original activated carbon with nitric acid, that is, the incorporation of oxygen surface groups, highly improves the adsorption behavior at room temperature. Apparently, t...

Syn-gled out: The syn diastereo- and enantioselective addition of azlactones to 3-vinylindoles was accomplished by using a chiral, binapthol-derived, Brønsted acid catalyst (see scheme). This method enables facile access to tryptophan derivatives with adjacent quaternary and tertiary stereogenic centers, which are potentially useful for the synthesis of peptidomimetics.

Silver(I) complexes catalyse the intramolecular addition of trichloroacetimidates to alkynes. In the absence of a ligand, the selectivity of the reaction is dependent upon the nature of the counter-anion and solvent. The introduction of non-chelating nitrogeneous ligands suppresses competitive Brønsted acid catalysis, improving the yield and selectivity of the reaction.

Ru nanoparticles loaded on a Keggin-type polyoxometalate (Cs(3)PW(12)O(40)), which did not possess strong intrinsic acidity, efficiently catalysed the conversions of cellobiose and cellulose into sorbitol in water medium in H(2) at ≤433 K. The Brønsted acid sites generated in situ from H(2) have been demonstrated to play a key role in the formation of sorbitol.

The dual template synthesis of zeolite SSZ-13 by use of trimethyl-adamantanammonium hydroxide and a diquaternary-ammonium mesoporogen induces considerable mesoporosity without impeding zeolite microporosity. The strongly improved accessibility of Brønsted sites in mesoporous SSZ-13 increases its stability during application as an acid catalyst in the methanol-to-olefins reaction.