An environmentally benign and homogeneous basefree route for 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF) aerobic oxidation to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) in water was reported using Mg−Al−CO 3 hydrotalcite-supported Pd nanoparticles (xPd/HT-n) as catalyst. The influences of the Mg/Al molar ratio of hydrotalcite and Pd loading amount on the catalytic performance of these catalysts were originally systematically investigated. These catalysts exhibited excellent catalytic activity and FDCA selectivity in the HMF oxidation, especially for 2%Pd/HT-5 and 2%Pd/HT-6; >99.9% FDCA yields were achieved for 8 h under ambient pressure and homogeneous base-free conditions. The remarkably improved catalytic performance could be attributed to the suitable basicity of the Mg−Al−CO 3 hydrotalcite and the abundant OH − groups on the surface of hydrotalcite. The plausible reaction mechanism was proposed based on the results of a series of controlled experiments. Furthermore, these catalysts were quite stable and could be reused at least five times without obvious loss in reaction activity.

stability in many important reactions, [1] especially in some redox reactions, such as CO oxidation, [2] water-gas shift (WGS) reaction, [3] selective catalytic reduction of NO x , [4] oxidation of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), [5] and soot combustion. [6,7] It is commonly known that the catalytic reaction takes place at defect sites of these oxide catalysts. [8] However, it is not always found a monotonous relation between the catalytic performance and the concentration of a certain kind of defect sites, such as oxygen vacancies, [9,10] lattice distortion [11] and defect generated Lewis acid/base sites, [12,13] as well as metastable valence states of cations. [14] As discussed by McFarland and Metiu, [15] heterogeneous catalytic reactions are run under steady-state conditions instead of at equilibrium. It is difficult to accurately describe the catalytic performance of oxide catalysts using the property parameters of as-prepared catalysts, which are more likely to be in thermodynamic equilibrium during the preparation process. For example, according to many reports, the redox properties of catalysts were believed to relate to the amount of oxygen vacancies (regarded as active sites) in oxide catalysts. However, the steady-state concentration of oxygen vacancies is related to the rate of vacancy formation and that of vacancy vanishing. In other words, a real active oxygen vacancy should have high abilities of adsorbing the reactant molecules and desorbing the product molecules, allowing molecules easy come, easy go. To keep a balance of these two opposite abilities, the local environment of the oxygen vacancy plays an important role.It has been well accepted that doping of low-valence dopants in oxides can create oxygen vacancies due to a charge compensation effect, [16,17] accompanied by improved oxygen activation ability, which is usually considered as the key factor in promoting catalytic activity for redox reactions. However, when the oxides are doped by same-valence or high-valence dopants, the effect of doping on their catalytic performance will become much more complicated. Fortunately, for most oxidation reactions catalyzed by metal oxides, the lattice oxygen atoms at/near the surface of oxides are the active species based on a generally accepted Mars− van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism. [18] Therefore, the bonding situations of these surface oxygen atoms should be the key factors affecting the catalytic performance.In the last few years, researchers have paid more attention to the chemical environment of oxygen vacancies, including To identify the intrinsic active sites in oxides or oxide supported catalysts is a research frontier in the fields of heterogeneous catalysis and material science. In particular, the role of oxygen vacancies on the redox properties of oxide catalysts is still not fully understood. Herein, some relevant research dealing with M 1 -O-M 2 or M 1 -□-M 2 linkages as active sites in mixed oxides, in oxide supported single-atom catalysts, and at metal/oxide interfaces of oxide supporte...

Single-crystalline Pd nanocrystals enclosed by {111} or {100} facets with controllable sizes were synthesized and originally employed as catalysts in the aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural (HMF). The experimental results indicated that the particle size and exposed facet of Pd nanocrystals could obviously influence their catalytic performance. The size-dependent effect of Pd nanocrystals in this reaction could only be derived from the different Pd dispersions. Therefore, the facet effect of Pd nanocrystals was first investigated in this work through experimental and theoretical approaches. It was found that Pd-NOs enclosed by {111} facets were more efficient than Pd-NCs enclosed by {100} facets for the aerobic oxidation of HMF, especially for the oxidation step from 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HMFCA) toward 5-formyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (FFCA). The TOF value of Pd-NOs­(6 nm) was 2.6 times as high as that of Pd-NCs­(7 nm) and 5.2 times higher than that of commercial Pd/C catalyst for HMF oxidation. Through density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the notably enhanced catalytic performance of Pd-NOs could be mainly attributed to the lower energy barrier in the alcohol oxidation step (from HMFCA to FFCA) and higher selectivity for O2 hydrogenation to produce peroxide.

The phytochemical study of Pedilanthus tithymaloides led to the isolation of 13 jatrophane diterpenoids (1-13), of which eight (1-8) are new. Subsequent structural modification of the major components by esterification, hydrolysis, hydrogenation, or epoxidation yielded 22 new derivatives (14-35). Thus, a jatrophane library containing two series of compounds was established to screen for P-glycoprotein (Pgp)-dependent MDR modulators. The activity was evaluated through a combination of Rho123 efflux and chemoreversal assays on adriamycin resistant human hepatocellular carcinoma cell line HepG2 (HepG2/ADR) and adriamycin resistant human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7 (MCF-7/ADR). Compounds 19, 25, and 26 were identified as potent MDR modulators with greater chemoreversal ability and less cytotoxicity than the third-generation drug tariquidar. The structure-activity relationship (SAR) was discussed, which showed that modifications beyond just increasing the lipophilicity of this class of Pgp inhibitors are beneficial to the activity. Compound 26, which exhibited a remarkable metabolic stability in vitro and a favorable antitumor effect in vivo, would serve as a promising lead for the development of new MDR reversal agents.

The aerobic oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over noble metal catalysts is a critical reaction for the catalytic conversion of carbohydrates into value-added chemicals from biomass. However, to fully understand the reaction mechanism, in particular the role of O2 and the generated active oxygen species in these reactions is still a challenging target. In the present work, the sub-10 nm Pt nanocrystals with cubic (Pt-NCs), octahedral (Pt-NOs) and spherical (Pt-NSs) morphologies were synthesized and used as catalysts in aerobic oxidation of HMF. Through experimental and computational investigations, the facet-dependent O2 conversion pathway and catalytic oxidation performance were discussed. The molecular O2 tends to be dissociated to generate •OH on Pt(100) surface, but prefers to be reduced to •O2on Pt(111) surface. Moreover, Pt-NCs enclosed by the {100} facets exhibited significantly enhanced catalytic activity than Pt-NOs enclosed by the {111} facets and Pt-NSs, in particular for alcohol oxidation step. Based on the experimental data and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, an active oxygen species promoted dehydrogenation mechanism for aerobic oxidation of HMF was proposed. The dehydrogenation of alcohol group is more favourable on the Pt(100) surface with an assistance of •OH, which are the dominant active oxygen species on the Pt(100) surface. We anticipate that this work would provide a new insight into the role of active oxygen species in aerobic oxidation of alcohols and aldehydes over noble metal catalysts.

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Two series of structurally related organoselenium compounds designed by fusing the anticancer agent methyl(phenyl)selane into the tubulin polymerization inhibitors isocombretastatins or phenstatins were synthesized and evaluated for antiproliferative activity. Most of these selenium containing hybrids exhibited potent cytotoxicity against a panel of cancel cell lines, with IC values in the submicromolar concentration range. Among them, 11a, the 3-methylseleno derivative of isocombretastatin A-4 (isoCA-4) represented the most active compound with IC values of 2-34 nM against 12 cancer cell lines, including two drug-resistant cell lines. Importantly, its phosphate salt, 11ab, inhibited tumor growth in xenograft mice models with inhibitory rate of 72.9% without apparent toxicity, which was better than the reference compounds isoCA-4P (inhibitory rate 52.2%) and CA-4P (inhibitory rate 47.6%). Mechanistic studies revealed that 11a is a potent tubulin polymerization inhibitor, which could arrest cell cycle at G/M phase and induce apoptosis along with the decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential. In summary, 11a could serve as a promising lead for the development of highly efficient anticancer agents.

Investigation of Bi-doping effect on catalytic performance of Pt/3DOM-Ce1-xBixO2-δ in the aerobic oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural allows us to reveal the promoted catalytically active sites: the asymmetrical oxygen vacancies coordinated with one Bi and up to three Ce cations, e.g. Bi-(-Ce)3, which can easily gain oxygen atoms in favor of the CeO2 structure, and, when filled by oxygen, easily release oxygen anions in favor of six coordination for Bi 3+ . The loss of electrons in the reduction of oxygen atoms at these sites would be replenished by electron transfer from Pt nanoparticles, eventually promoting the oxidation potential of the Pt nanoparticles. The present work points out that the promoted catalytic properties in Bi-doped CeO2 is mainly due to the asymmetric structures of the oxygen vacancies, rather than simply to the number of the oxygen vacancies. The newly proposed model of asymmetrical active sites and electron transfer mechanism may shed light on the future investigation of the physico-chemical properties of other solid solution substrate supported metal nanoparticle catalysts.