A facile strategy is proposed to construct a highly active oxidation catalyst with optimally distributed titanium coordination states containing "TiO4" and "TiO6" species. The "TiO6" species in TS-1(+) shows a superior catalytic oxidation activity, which is 2-3 times that of "TiO4" species in TS-1.

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Titanium silicalite-1 (TS-1) has been successfully synthesized in ultralow molar ratio of TPAOH/SiO2 by two-step and multistep hydrolysis process, where the molar ratio of tetrapropylammonium hydroxide/silica (TPAOH/SiO2) could be reduced to 0.08 and 0.065, respectively. Combined characterization of X-ray diffraction (XRD), N2 adsorption–desorption, scanning electron microcopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–vis spectroscopy, and thermal gravimetric (TG) analysis shows that currently synthesized TS-1 samples have the typical “blackberry” morphology, and the particle size is around 300–400 nm, similar to that of the conventional TS-1 synthesized at a high molar ratio of TPAOH/SiO2 (>0.18). Additionally, currently synthesized TS-1 exhibits excellent catalytic oxidation performance in epoxidation of alkene and ammoximation of ketone, even better than that of conventional TS-1. Obviously, fast hydrolysis of a small part of TEOS at a high concentration of TPA+ in the first step induces more nuclei, which in turn accelerates crystallization in the subsequent step. Therefore, effective utilization of TPAOH to build the TS-1 framework is significantly increased. This strategy can greatly reduce the synthesis cost of TS-1, which is suitable for synthesis of TS-1 on an industrial scale.

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Granule-bound starch synthase I (GBSS I) plays an important role in the synthesis of amylose and in the determination of starch properties in barley grains. Genomic DNAs for the Waxy gene encoding GBSS I protein were sequenced from 34 barley accessions or lines from Qinghai-Tibet plateau in China, to identify Waxy gene nucleotide variations and study the roles of polymorphic sites of the Waxy gene on expression levels of Waxy transcripts and GBSS I proteins and on resulting starch properties. A total of 116 DNA polymorphic sites were identified within the barley Waxy gene, which divided the studied accessions into 11 haplotypes. Among 33 nucleotide polymorphic sites in coding regions, 5 SNPs in three exons were found to play different roles on the expression level of the Waxy transcript and the GBSS I protein and on the amylose content and starch properties. One SNP G(3935)-to-T substitution in the 10th exon in the accession Z999 (HP II-2) caused a high expression level of the Waxy transcript and the GBSS I protein and the amylose free phenotype. The other SNP alteration was a C(2453)-to-T in the fifth exon in the accession Z1191 (HP I-5), which drastically reduced the expression level of the Waxy transcript and the GBSS I protein and, finally, produced the amylose free phenotype. Three SNPs in the seventh exon in the accession Z1337 (HP I-6) did not significantly change the level of Waxy transcript, the GBSS I protein, and starch properties, except obviously reducing the breakdown value of starch viscosity and extending the peak time. A total of 84 DNA polymorphic sites were found in the noncoding regions. A 403 bp deletion at 5'UTR in the accession Z1979 (HP I-3) had low transcript level, low GBSS I protein level, and low amylose content due to the deletion of cis-acting DNA regulatory elements. A 191 bp insertion and a 15 bp insertion in the first intron and second exons, respectively, may be closely related to a higher transcript level of the Waxy gene and significant differences in some starch properties of the Waxy I DNA group as compared to the Waxy II DNA group. This study indicates the specific variations of the Waxy gene have a great effect on amylose synthesis and starch properties of hull-less barley, which could be very useful to produce new barley with variable starch properties.