Atmospheric organic aerosols (OA) represent a significant fraction of airborne particulate matter and can impact climate, visibility, and human health. These mixtures are difficult to characterize experimentally due to their complex and dynamic chemical composition. We introduce a novel Computational Brewing Application (COBRA) and apply it to modeling oligomerization chemistry stemming from co...

The intramolecular aldol condensation of aldohexos-5-ulose derivatives of the D-xylo and L-ribo stereoseries has been studied. Only one of the four possible inososes was isolated from both stereoseries in reasonable yields (30-38%). The results obtained, together with the previous findings for the L-arabino and L-lyxo stereoseries, allowed for the rationalisation of a mechanism of the reaction ...

Recent work on a computationally-designed retroaldolase RA-61 suggested that most of the rate-acceleration brought about by this enzyme was due to non-specific interactions with the aromatic substrate. To provide a benchmark for the role of non-specific interactions in this system, we measured the second-order rate constant for the amine-catalysed retro-aldol reaction of methodol in the presenc...

The hydratase-aldolase-catalyzed conversion of trans-o-hydroxybenzylidenepyruvate to salicylaldehyde and pyruvate is an intermediate reaction in the conversion of naphthalene to salicylate by bacteria. Here, a variety of aromatic aldehydes and some nonaromatic aldehydes together with pyruvate have been shown to be substrates for aldol condensations catalyzed by this enzyme in extracts of the re...

The mechanism of the proline-catalyzed aldol reaction has stimulated considerable debate, and despite limited experimental data, at least five different mechanisms have been proposed. Complementary to recent theoretical studies we have initiated an experimental program with the goal of clarifying some of the basic mechanistic questions concerning the proline-catalyzed aldol reaction. Here we su...

The amino acid-catalysed retroaldol condensation previously described for citral has been extended to other α,β-unsaturated aldehydes. In the presence of glycine and an elevated pH, six other α,β-unsaturated aldehydes also underwent retroaldol condensation. Crotonaldehyde, as well as its proposed intermediate, aldol, were converted into acetaldehyde. Hexenal, decenal, methyl crotonaldehyde, far...

Life-cycle analysis (LCA) allows the scientific community to identify the sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of novel routes to produce renewable fuels. Herein, we integrate LCA into our investigations of a new route to produce drop-in diesel/jet fuel by combining furfural, obtained from the catalytic dehydration of lignocellulosic pentose sugars, with alcohols that can be derived from a...

Aldehyde and ketone electrophiles incorporated into the side chains of 2- and 4-alkylpyridines participate in intramolecular aldol-like condensations with pyridine benzylic carbons in the presence of Brønsted acid catalysts. Pyridines featuring β-ketoamide side chains undergo cyclization in the presence of 10 mol% TfOH to afford pyridyl-substituted hydroxy lactams in good yield. These products ...