Both levoglucosan kinase activity and transport capacity limit the utilization of levoglucosan in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Manufacturing fuels and chemicals from cellulose materials is a promising strategy to achieve carbon neutralization goals. In addition to the commonly used enzymatic hydrolysis by cellulase, rapid pyrolysis is another way to degrade cellulose. The sugar obtained by fast pyrolysis is not glucose, but rather its isomer, levoglucosan (LG).

Pressure-Induced Transitions in the 1-Dimensional Vanadium Oxyhydrides SrVOH and SrVOH, and Comparison to 2-Dimensional SrVOH.

High-pressure X-ray diffraction measurements on the layered oxyhydrides SrVOH and SrVOH reveal that both compounds undergo a pressure-induced rock-salt to CsCl (1-2) structural transition, similar to those observed in binary compounds (oxides, halides, chalcogenides, etc.). This structural transition, observed at 43 and 45 GPa in SrVOH and SrVOH, respectively, relieves almost all of the accumulated strain on the infinite V-O-V ladders, such that the V-O bond lengths are almost identical at 0 and 50 GPa but are substantially compressed at intermediate pressures.

Hydrofunctionalisation of an Aromatic Triphosphabenzene.

The aromatic heterocycle 2,4,6-tri-tert-butyl-1,3,5-triphosphabenzene reacts with a series of silanes, germanes and stannanes, with weaker E-H bonds reacting in an increasingly facile manner. All react by 1,4-addition to give bicyclic products with diastereomeric ratios varying with the substrate. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations show that activation of the E-H bond occurs across the 1,4-C/P axis of the triphosphabenzene, with the small energetic differences with respect to the stereochemistry of the addition offering insight into the experimentally observed diastereomeric ratios.

SrFeIrO: Square-Planar Ir(II) in an Extended Oxide.

Topochemical reduction of the double-perovskite oxide SrFeIrO under dilute hydrogen leads to the formation of SrFeIrO. This phase consists of ordered infinite sheets of apex-linked FeO and IrO squares stacked with Sr cations and is the first report of Ir in an extended oxide phase. Plane-wave density functional theory calculations indicate high-spin Fe (d, S = 2) and low-spin Ir (d, S = /) configurations for the metals and confirm that both ions have a doubly occupied d orbital, a configuration that is emerging as a consistent feature of all layered oxide phases of this type.

LaSr NiRuO H : A 4d Transition-Metal Oxide-Hydride Containing Metal Hydride Sheets.

The synthesis of the first 4d transition metal oxide-hydride, LaSr NiRuO H , is prepared via topochemical anion exchange. Neutron diffraction data show that the hydride ions occupy the equatorial anion sites in the host lattice and as a result the Ru and Ni cations are located in a plane containing only hydride ligands, a unique structural feature with obvious parallels to the CuO sheets present in the superconducting cuprates. DFT calculations confirm the presence of S=1/2  Ni and S=0, Ru centers, but neutron diffraction and μSR data show no evidence for long-range magnetic order between the Ni centers down to 1.

Extreme Sensitivity of a Topochemical Reaction to Cation Substitution: SrVOH versus SrVTi OH.

The anion-ordered oxide-hydride SrVOH is an antiferromagnetic insulator due to strong correlations between vanadium d electrons. In an attempt to hole-dope SrVOH into a metallic state, a strategy of first preparing SrVTi O phases and then converting them to the corresponding SrVTi OH phases via reaction with CaH was followed. This revealed that the solid solution between SrVO and SrTiO is only stable at high temperature.

The role of π-blocking hydride ligands in a pressure-induced insulator-to-metal phase transition in SrVOH.

Transition-metal oxyhydrides are of considerable current interest due to the unique features of the hydride anion, most notably the absence of valence p orbitals. This feature distinguishes hydrides from all other anions, and gives rise to unprecedented properties in this new class of materials. Here we show via a high-pressure study of anion-ordered strontium vanadium oxyhydride SrVOH that H is extraordinarily compressible, and that pressure drives a transition from a Mott insulator to a metal at ~ 50 GPa.

Coupled Electronic and Magnetic Phase Transition in the Infinite-Layer Phase LaSrNiRuO4.

Topochemical reduction of the ordered double perovskite LaSrNiRuO6 with CaH2 yields LaSrNiRuO4, an extended oxide phase containing infinite sheets of apex-linked, square-planar Ni(1+)O4 and Ru(2+)O4 units ordered in a checkerboard arrangement. At room temperature the localized Ni(1+) (d(9), S = (1)/2) and Ru(2+) (d(6), S = 1) centers behave paramagnetically. However, on cooling below 250 K the system undergoes a cooperative phase transition in which the nickel spins align ferromagnetically, while the ruthenium cations appear to undergo a change in spin configuration to a diamagnetic spin state.

Probing the Structure, Dynamics, and Bonding of Coinage Metal Complexes of White Phosphorus.

A series of cationic white phosphorus complexes of the coinage metals Au and Cu have been synthesised and characterised both in the solid state and in solution. All complexes feature a P4 unit coordinated through an edge P-P vector (η(2)-like), although the degree of activation (as measured by the coordinated P-P bond length) is greater in the gold species. All of the cations are fluxional on the NMR timescale at room temperature, but in the case of the gold systems fluxionality is frozen out at -90 °C.

Controllable explosion: fine-tuning the sensitivity of high-energy complexes.

Tuning the sensitivity of energetic materials has always been a research topic of interest. A lot of attention has been paid on changing the ligands previously used in traditional high energy density materials (HEDMs). Recently, we have stepped further along this path by thinking from another angle, i.