Glycoside hydrolases of families 32 (GH32) and 68 (GH68) belong to clan GH-J, containing hydrolytic enzymes (sucrose/fructans as donor substrates) and fructosyltransferases (sucrose/fructans as donor and acceptor substrates). In GH32 members, some of the sugar substrates can also function as inhibitors, this regulatory aspect further adding to the complexity in enzyme functionalities within thi...

The ability of triazolium salts to serve as a precatalyst for both an acid and a powerful base/nucleophile (controlled by additives) has been exploited in a process characterised by a unique in situ catalyst modification strategy.

The mechanism of ketonization of acetic acid over SiO2 was investigated by semiempirical quantum chemical AM1 method using the cluster approach. It has been found that the adjacent acid-base pair of the catalytic sites provokes dissociative adsorption of the acetic acid molecules resulting in the formation of surface carboxylate species. The adsorption process proceeds spontaneously. After bloc...

A general protocol for removing Boc groups from various types of nitrogen is reported and a preliminary investigation of the reaction mechanism indicates that water acts as a dual acid/base catalyst at elevated temperature.

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A three component catalyst system entailing an amino acid (O(t)Bu-L-threonine), a hydrogen bond donor (sulfamide), and an amine base (DMAP) allows α-branched aldehyde addition to nitroalkenes in good to high yield and excellent ee. Importantly, the lowest reported catalyst loading (5.0 mol%) and aldehyde stoichiometry (1.2-2.0 equiv) is demonstrated and in most instances the best current produc...

Due to the high price of virgin vegetable oils and the drawbacks of the homogeneous catalytic transesterification, in this work an economically profitable alternative process was proposed for biodiesel synthesis in which transesterification of the low-cost waste cooking oil (WCO) with methanol in a heterogeneous system was done. Alumina impregnated with sodium hydroxide was utilized as a solid ...

Heterogeneous bifuctional catalysts are multifunctional synthetic catalysts enabling efficient organic transformations by exploiting two opposite functionalities without mutual destruction. In this paper we report the first Er(III)-based metallorganic heterogeneous catalyst, synthesized by post-calcination MW-assisted grafting and modification of the natural aminoacid L-cysteine. The natural ac...

The potency of 2-deoxy-2-fluoroglycosides in activity-based profiling of human acid β-glucosidase is drastically improved by introducing an N-phenyl trifluoroacetimidate leaving group at the anomeric center. Protonation by the general acid-base catalyst in the active site turned out to be a prerequisite, making the imidate probe a genuine mechanism-based glycosidase inactivator.