Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharm.) (Pharmaceutical Chemistry))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

A prominent goal of scientists is to develop products and processes to meet the ever-growing needs of society. Today's needs include products that are economical, specialized, and made through processes with minimal impact on the environment. One such product that serves an important and widespread need is poly(bisphenol A carbonate) for its physical properties and ease of synthesis and processing. However, this polymer does not meet the growing need of being environmentally benign as production involves carcinogenic, chlorinated solvents and toxic monomers that can leach out from the polymer product. An answer to this new demand is the development of a different process for the production of polycarbonate plastics utilizing carbon dioxide and epoxides. Carbon dioxide is an attractive monomer that is cheap and nontoxic, and its utilization signifies an important contribution to counteract global greenhouse emissions. The stability of carbon dioxide has posed a significant and complex challenge towards its utilization. Epoxides are attractive since they are synthesized from a wide variety of olefins, both naturally occurring and those derived from petroleum. The exploration of catalysts to facilitate the coupling of epoxides to carbon dioxide to afford polycarbonates has been under investigation in the Darensbourg lab for fifteen years, and has lead to the development of several successful systems such as zinc bisphenoxides and chromium salens. This dissertation focuses on the development of another successful catalyst system, chromium tetramethyltetraazaannulene, and further elucidation of the mechanism by which polycarbonates are formed. Herein, aspects of the copolymerization process using this system will be discussed in detail, such as cocatalyst and pressure dependence, catalyst derivatization, and kinetic and mechanistic investigations. The end result of these investigations is the development of the most active chromium-based catalyst for the copolymerization of cyclohexene oxide and carbon dioxide and a better understanding of how the copolymer product is produced.

Biocatalysis and enzyme technology represent significant research topics of contemporary biotechnology. The immobilisation of these catalysts on or in static supports serves the purpose of transforming the catalyst into a particle that can be handled through effortless mechanical operations, while the entrapment within a membrane or capsule leads to the restraint of the enzyme to a distinct space. This confinement leads to a catalyst with a superior stability, and cell durability under reaction conditions. Epoxide hydrolase is a widely available co-factor independent enzyme, which is known to have remarkable chemio-, regio- and stereoselectivity for a wide range of substrates. Recently it was found that certain yeasts, including Rhodosporidium toruloides, contain this enzyme and are able to enantioselectively catalyse certain hydrolysis reactions. The objective of this project was four-sided: a) to immobilise Rhodospridium toruloides in an optimised immobilisation matrix (calcium alginate beads), for the kinetic resolution of 1.2- epoxyoctane in order to obtain an optically pure epoxide and its corresponding vicinal diol, b) to determine the effect of immobilisation on activity as well as stability of the enzyme and gain better understanding of the parameters that influence enzyme activity in a support, c) to determine the effect of formulation parameters on some of the bead characteristics and, d) to gain some insight in the distribution of epoxide and diol in the water and bead phases and the formulation parameters that have an effect thereon. Rhodospridium toruloides was immobilised in calcium alginate beads consisting of different combinations of alginate and CaCl2 concentrations. Best results were obtained with a combination of 0,5 % (m/v) alginate and 0,2 M CaC12. The immobilised cells exhibited lower initial activity. but more than 40 times the residual activity of that of the free cells after a 12-hour storage period. Both the immobilised and free cells exhibited an increase in reaction rate (V) with an increase in substrate concentration. An increase in the alginate concentration lead to the formation of smaller beads, but a decrease in enzume activity, while an increase in the CaCl2 solution concentration had no effect on bead diameter or enzyme activity. Epoxide diffused preferentially into the beads (± 96 %), and the diol into the water phase, which leads to the natural separation of the epoxide and the diol. The CaCl2 concentration affected epoxide diffusion with no effect on diol diffusion, which opens up the possibility to regulate the diffusion of epoxide into the beads. Although only a very small fraction of the epoxide inside the beads could be extracted, the alginate proved to be chirally selective for the (R)-epoxide, improving the reaction efficiency by increasing the % ee, of the epoxide extracted from the beads between 26 % and 43 %. The possibility to develop a system where the product is formed, purified and concentrated in a one-step reaction by extracting the product from the bead phase was clearly demonstrated. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharm.) (Pharmaceutical Chemistry))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

There has been a growing demand for specific linear alpha olefins in the polyethylene industry in order to control polymer rheology. This growing demand thereby increases the need for highly active and selective ethylene oligomerization catalysts. Chromium-based catalysts continue to be of high interest for this application due to this metal’s versatility in both selective and non selective ethylene oligomerization. Ligand design is an important consideration in oligomerization chemistry: the ability of the ligand to stabilize low valent chromium and to support a two-electron redox process will allow the catalytic systems to follow the selective ring expansion mechanism for oligomerization. Chelating aminophosphane based ligands, previously studied by our group, have been shown to support both tri- and tetramerization of ethylene. We have explored modifications of one of the NP arms by replacing with a different coordinating group in an attempt to further stabilize the monovalent state of chromium and increase selectivity. Other ligands explored in this work are pyrrole based ligands, which have shown high activity and selectivity towards ethylene oligomerization. One example of this is the commercial Chevron-Phillips system. Recently, the co-polymerization of CO2 with epoxides has been studied as an environmentally friendly route to convert CO2 into biodegradable polymers. The first successful catalytic system to achieve these results consisted of a diethyl-zinc complex. More recently, aluminum, chromium, cadmium and cobalt have been studied as polycarbonate catalysts. To date, the only reported chromium catalysts for CO2-epoxide copolymerization are Cr-salen and Cr-porphyrin complexes, studied by Darrensbourg and Holmes, respectively. We were particularly interested in finding new chromium-based complexes able to catalyze epoxide/CO2 copolymerization by using molecules with the nitrogen donor motif embedded in different functions such as neutral pyridines with anionic pendants, pyrroles with either imine or amine pendants, or a combination of these.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 230-251).

Techn. Hochsch., Diss., 2003--Aachen.

Universiẗat, Diss., 2004--Bremen.

Orientador: Anita Jocelyne Marsaioli / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Quimica / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-10T04:53:28Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Mantovani_SimoneMoraes_M.pdf: 1495773 bytes, checksum: 493a0576675a8aad3c2879147aa7745f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: Nas últimas décadas as reações utilizando biocatalisadores tem sido amplamante aplicadas na síntese orgânica, como componentes chave de muitos processos químicos industriais, levando ao aumento na demanda por novas enzimas. A maneira mais rápida e simples de detectar enzimas é através de metodologias de triagem de alto desempenho (HTS) que permitam identificação rápida da atividade enzimática, como por exemplo, os ensaios utilizando compostos fluorogênicos e cromogênicos. Nesse trabalho nós aplicamos HTS baseado em substratos fluorogênicos para detecção de epóxido-hidrolases e esterases em microrganismos brasileiros. Inicialmente foram selecionados cinco microrganismos com alta atividade epóxido-hidrolase, e 18 pela a presença de esterases. Inspirados nesse principio nós adaptamos a metodolgia conhecida como "Quick E" para a avaliação rápida das enantiosseletividades de epóxido-hidrolases em células íntegras através de medidas das velocidades iniciais de substratos fluorogênicos quirais avaliados separadamente com adição de um competidor. Os ensaios de enantiosseletividade mostraram que os experimentos com competidor apresentaram valores de enatiosseletividade muito próximos dos valores de E determinados via biocatálise convencional. Além disso, alguns microrganismos selecionados por HTS foram testados para reações de biotransformação frente a substratos de interesse sintético, o que permitiu, além da confirmação das atividades enzimáticas e seletividades observadas, detectar a capacidade do microrganismo C. albícans CCT 0776 de desracemizar álcoois secundários por estereoinversão, fornecendo o (S)-1,2-octanodiol com 100 % de rendimento teórico e ee > 99 %, e o (S)-4-fenilmetoxi-1,2-butanodiol com ee 45 % / Abstract: Since the past decades the biocatalysts have been applied in organic chemistry, as key components of many industrial chemical processes, thus increasing the demand for novel enzymes. High-Throughput Screening (HTS), using fluorogenic probes are among the best assays to discovery new enzymes, easily adapted to whole cells format. In this work, have been applied fluorogenic probes to screen epoxide hydrolases and esterases in Brazilian Collection Cultures of microorganisms, which allowed to detect epoxide hydrolases in five microorganisms, and esterases in 18 microrganisms. Additionally, were used chiral probes to implement a Quick E assay, for a fast valuation of epoxide hydrolases enantioselectivity by measuring initial rates of pure enantiomers. Optimization of the methodology revealed that almost true E were obtained by competitive experiments of each enantiomer and a substrate of similar reactivity. The quick E assay was validated by determining conversion and ee using GC/MS and NMR (using mandelic acid derivatives) and is now a new method to determine the enantiomeric ratio for epoxide hidrolases. Finally, the outstanding HTS results were better investigated by conventional catalysis detecting a stereoinversion process performed by C. albicans CCT 0776, which furnished (S)-1 ,2-octanodiol in 100 % theoretical yield and ee of 100%, and (S)-4-fenilmetoxi-1,2-butanodiol in ee of 45% / Mestrado / Quimica Organica / Mestre em Química

Orientadores: Anete Pereira de Souza, Valéria Maia Merzel / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-24T03:05:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Beloti_LilianLuzia_D.pdf: 11283696 bytes, checksum: dfedaea17b072c7d899caa1ccd4e9032 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: O resumo poderá ser visualizado no texto completo da tese digital / Abstract: The complete abstract is available with the full electronic document / Doutorado / Genetica de Microorganismos / Doutora em Genética e Biologia Molecular

Polyether compounds are a subgroup of natural products with regular occurrence of multiple C-O-C motifs. The biosynthetic origin of polycylic polethers has been studied and the majority of them are derived from polyketide or terpene pathways. Normally, the polycyclic polyethers can be divided into two groups based on their structural features: the first group features multiple rings that are interconnected by carbon-carbon single bond, which are produced by a biosynthetic cascade of exo epoxide-opening reactions; the other group has multiple fused cyclic ethers and are formed by an cascade of endo epoxide-opening reactions. Karenia brevis (K. brevis) is known as principle harmful bloom (HAB) organism of the Gulf of Mexico which can cause red tides. Brevetoxins (PbTx) are a suit of cyclic polyether ladder compounds produced by K. brevis. Brevetoxins are neurotoxins that can bind to voltage-gated sodium channels in nerve and muscle cells, resulting in disruption of normal neurological processes causing the human illness which is clinically described as neurotoxic shellfish poisoning (NSP). Inspired by Cane-Celmer-Wesley’s proposal regarding monensin biosynthesis, Nakanishi and Shimizu proposed a biosynthetic pathway for brevetoxin which suggests that PKS-mediated synthesis of the polyene is followed by epoxidation to afford a polyepoxide which then undergoes an epoxide-opening cascade, catalyzed by an epoxide hydrolase (EH). To find evidence to support the hypothesis that an epoxide hydrolase from polyether ladder producing dinoflagellates will catalyze the construction of the polyether ladder framework from polyepoxide substrates, and to study the role of epoxide hydrolase in the biosynthesis of polyether ladder compounds, it is necessary to identify and produce one or more epoxide hydrolase from dinoflagellates. The methods to detect epoxide hydrolase activity in K. brevis and different techniques to obtain epoxide hydrolases from K. brevis are discussed. A microsomal EH identified from a K. brevis EST library was cloned and expressed. The characterization of this EH, including substrate selectivity and enantioselectivity as well as its potential to catalyze the critical ento-tet cyclization epoxy alcohol, is discussed.