Splitting water: Oxygen‐permeable perovskite hollow‐fiber membranes are used to produce hydrogen and synthesis gas from water and methane (see picture). The process yields valuable compounds, and provides insight into the interplay of catalysis and separation in a membrane reactor.

No abstract

The enantiomers of XYLNAc (2-N-acetylamino-1,2,4-trideoxy-1,4-iminoxylitol) are prepared from the enantiomers of glucuronolactone; the synthesis of the enantiomers of LYXNAc (2-N-acetylamino-1,2,4-trideoxy-1,4-iminolyxitol) from an L-arabinono-δ-lactone and a D-ribono-δ-lactone is reported. A comparison is made of the inhibition of β-N-acetylhexosaminidases (HexNAcases) and α-N-acetylgalactosaminidase (α-GalNAcase) by 8 stereoisomeric 2-N-acetylamino-1,2,4-trideoxy-1,4-iminopentitols; their N-benzyl derivatives are better inhibitors than the parent compounds. Both XYLNAc and LABNAc are potent inhibitors against HexNAcases. None of the compounds show any inhibition of α-GalNAcase.

X-ray crystallography defines the relative configuration at the three-stereogenic centres in the title compound N-benzyl-l-XYLNAc, C14H20N2O3. The five-membered pyrrolidine ring adopts an envelope conformation with the N atom lying out of the plane of the other four atoms. In the crystal structure, inter­molecular O—H⋯O, N—H⋯O and O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into chains along [100]. The carbonyl group O atom acts as an acceptor for a bifurcated hydrogen bond. The absolute configuration is determined by the use of l-glucuronolactone as the starting material for the synthesis.