Aqueous Ti(IV)-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction.

The aqueous Diels-Alder reaction of 1,3-cyclohexadiene with 1,4-benzoquinone was compared and contrasted to the same reaction catalyzed with Flextyl P, a novel Ti(IV) performance catalyst. The catalyst improved conversion by 22% versus the uncatalyzed reaction and represents a rare example of a Ti(IV) catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction in water.

Direct formation of Ge-C bonds from GeO(2).

Germanium dioxide in the presence of 5% KOH reacted with dimethyl carbonate (DMC) at 250 degrees C to give (MeO)(4)Ge. The reaction of GeO(2) and DMC is similar to that reported for SiO(2); however, the rate of reaction for germanium is much higher than that of the corresponding silicon reaction. In a side-by-side experiment using SiO(2) and GeO(2) where the surface area of the silicon dioxide was 2 orders of magnitude higher than that of the GeO(2), the base-catalyzed reaction with DMC was about an order of magnitude higher for the germanium dioxide.