Assessment of the impact of multiple mild-steam decontaminations on the protection performance of disposable KN95 filtering facepiece respirators.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous supply bottlenecks of single-use filtering facepiece respirators (FFRs) leading to a growing need for a potential reuse. This study assesses the impact of multiple mild-steam decontaminations with 121 °C/2000 mbar/20 min on the protection performance of disposable FFRs. It focuses on FFRs of type KN95 that is recently dominating the markets, but its decontamination is not covered in the literature.

Total Synthesis of the Schisandraceae Nortriterpenoid Rubriflordilactone A.

Full details of the total synthesis of the Schisandraceae nortriterpenoid natural product rubriflordilactone A are reported. Palladium- and cobalt-catalyzed polycyclizations were employed as key strategies to construct the central pentasubstituted arene from bromoendiyne and triyne precursors. This required the independent assembly of two AB ring aldehydes for combination with a common diyne component.

Total Synthesis of (+)-Rubriflordilactone A.

Two enantioselective total syntheses of the nortriterpenoid natural product rubriflordilactone A are described, which use palladium- or cobalt-catalyzed cyclizations to form the CDE rings, and converge on a late-stage synthetic intermediate. These key processes are set up through the convergent coupling of a common diyne component with appropriate AB-ring aldehydes, a strategy that sets the stage for the synthetic exploration of other members of this family of natural products.

Enantioselective synthesis of the predominant AB ring system of the Schisandra nortriterpenoid natural products.

An enantioselective synthesis of the AB ring system common to the majority of the Schisandra nortriterpenoid natural products is reported. Key steps include a stereospecific ring opening of a trisubstituted epoxide and the use of a β-lactone to enable installation of the gem-dimethyl functionality of the B ring. An acetalization strategy played a key role in a late-stage biomimetic AB ring bicyclization.