The polyphenol quercetin (Q) that has a high antioxidant capacity is a lead compound in the design of antioxidants. We investigated the possibility of modifying quercetin while retaining its antioxidant capacity as much as possible. To this end, the antioxidant capacities of Q, rutin, monohydroxyethyl rutinoside (monoHER) and a series of synthesized methylated Q derivatives were determined. The results confirm that the electron donating effect of the hydroxyl groups is essential. It was also found that the relatively planar structure of Q needs to be conserved. This planar conformation enables the distribution of the electron donating effect through the large conjugated π-system over the entire molecule. This is essential for the cooperation between the electron donating groups. Based on the activity of the compounds tested, it was concluded that structural modification at the 5 or 7 position is the most optimal to retain most of the antioxidant capacity of Q. This was confirmed by synthesizing and testing Q5OMe (Q6) and Q7OMe (Q7) that indeed displayed antioxidant capacities closest to Q.

There is an environmental concern regarding the use of petroleum-based lubricants, which are generally toxic and nonbiodegradable. Biobased lubricants, such as vegetable oils, are the alternative: they show excellent lubricity, are readily biodegradable and nontoxic. However, a major disadvantage of using vegetable oils in lubricant applications is their lack of thermo-oxidative stability, which can be improved by antioxidant additives. Here, we propose the use of lignin-based additives in biolubricant formulations to improve this feature, based on lignin’s known antioxidant properties. To ensure a stable dispersion in vegetable oil, lignin was partially esterified. Antioxidant properties of lignin before and after palmitoylation were demonstrated in a 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. Four different lignin-based fractions, commercial Protobind P1000 soda lignin from straw, solvolytically fractionated Protobind P1000 lignin and two lignin fractions from reductively catalyzed fractionation (RCF) of native birch wood, were tested in biolubricant formulations with castor oil as base oil. Those lignin fractions exhibited excellent performance compared to butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), a commonly used petroleum-based antioxidant. Formulations of modified lignin in castor oil possess improved thermo-oxidative stability, as illustrated by their increased oxidation induction time. Additionally, rheological and tribological tests demonstrate similar, or in some cases improved, lubricating properties compared to castor oil. This study showcases the successful incorporation of lignin-based antioxidants in biolubricant formulations, tackling the major disadvantage of vegetable oils as environment-friendly lubricants.

The cooperative binding effects of viologens and pyridines to a synthetic bivalent porphyrin receptor are used as a model system to study how the magnitudes of these effects relate to the experimentally obtained values. The full thermodynamic and kinetic circles concerning both activation and inhibition of the cage of the receptor for the binding of viologens were measured and evaluated. The results strongly emphasize the apparent character of measured binding and rate constants, in which the fractional saturation of receptors with other guests is linearly expressed in these constants. The presented method can be used as a simple tool to better analyze and comprehend the experimentally observed kinetics and thermodynamics of natural and artificial cooperative systems.kinetics ͉ slippage ͉ supramolecular chemistry ͉ thermodynamics C ooperative binding plays an important role in nature, where it is used to construct well-defined assemblies and is used as a tool to transfer information at the cellular level (1). The formation of the tobacco mosaic virus (2) and the binding of oxygen to hemoglobin (3) are 2 well-known examples of cooperative processes. Cooperative binding interactions can be homotropic or heterotropic, when the combined binding to a multivalent receptor involves the same or different types of guests. In additions, these interactions can be positive or negative, when the binding of a guest promotes or obstructs the binding of a second guest (4).One of the challenges in the field of supramolecular chemistry is to design artificial systems that display cooperative binding effects, not only to better understand the mechanisms involved in the natural processes but also to prepare functional materials and catalysts that benefit from such binding interactions. Over the years, a large number of artificial receptors displaying positive (5-8) and negative (9-11) homotropic and positive (12-20) and negative (21-23) heterotropic cooperative binding phenomena have been developed. Although in many cases the origins of the cooperative effects could be identified, few studies have dealt in detail with the kinetics and thermodynamics of such complicated multicomponent receptor-guest systems. This is surprising, because unlike the complex biological systems, the artificial receptor-guest systems can be easily studied, and the fine details of cooperative behavior can be uncovered. It is generally known that measured association constants are context dependent in the sense that apparent values that depend on, e.g., the solvent system, salt concentrations, pH, and in the worst case impurities, are obtained (4). As a consequence, the observed cooperative binding effects might often deviate from the intrinsic ones.To investigate how the measured cooperative binding effects as derived from the observed experimental binding constants are related to the intrinsic ones, we present a detailed study of the combined binding of viologens and pyridines to the bivalent zinc porphyrin receptor Zn1 (24, 25) (Scheme 1). Pyridine ligan...