While bromination of γ-tocopherol (2) with elemental bromine affords 5-bromo-γ-tocopherol quantitatively (3), the analogous reaction of its truncated model compound, 2,2,7,8-tetramethylchromanol (2a) is known to be accompanied by side reactions and to produce hitherto unknown byproducts. These compounds originate from pyrano[3,2-f]chromene (6), a byproduct in the synthesis of model compound 2a, which affords bromochromene 7 as the major product. The reaction mechanism was shown to proceed via chromene 8 and its 1,2-dibromo addition compound 9, which eliminates HBr in an E1 process to finally afford 7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAqueous suspensions of poly(ethylene oxide)-grafted nanocrystalline cellulose (PEO-grafted NCC) were prepared in order to achieve steric instead of electrostatic stabilization. A two-step process was employed: in the first step NCC suspensions prepared by sulfuric acid hydrolysis were desulfated with sodium hydroxide, and in the second step the surfaces of the crystals were functionalized with epoxy-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO epoxide) under alkaline conditions. The PEO-grafted samples were analyzed by conductometric titration, ATR-IR, solid-state NMR, MALDI-TOF MS, SEC MALLS, and AFM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFContrary to concepts handed down in the literature from the early days of vitamin E research, one-electron oxidation of vitamin E does not involve 5a-C-centered radicals. A combined approach of analytical techniques, in particular electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR), organic synthesis of special derivatives, isotopic labeling, kinetic studies, and computational chemistry was used to re-evaluate the one-electron and two-electron oxidation chemistry of alpha-tocopherol (alpha-toc). EPR in combination with 5a-13C-labeled compounds provided no indication of the involvement of 5a-C-centered radicals.
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