Surface Modification of Wood Flour via ARGET ATRP and Its Application as Filler in Thermoplastics.

Wood flour is particularly suitable as a filler in thermoplastics because it is environmentally friendly, readily available, and offers a high strength-to-density ratio. To overcome the insufficient interfacial adhesion between hydrophilic wood and a hydrophobic matrix, a thermoplastic polymer was grafted from wood flour via surface-initiated activators regenerated by electron transfer-atom transfer radical polymerization (SI-ARGET ATRP). Wood particles were modified with an ATRP initiator and subsequently grafted with methyl acrylate for different polymerization times in the absence of a sacrificial initiator.

Selenium-Catalyzed C(sp3)-H Acyloxylation: Application in the Expedient Synthesis of Isobenzofuranones.

Oxidative Se-catalyzed C(sp3)-H bond acyloxylation has been used to construct a diverse array of isobenzofuranones from simple ortho-allyl benzoic acid derivatives. The synthetic procedure employs mild reaction conditions and gives high chemoselectivity enabled by an inexpensive organodiselane catalyst. The presented approach offers a new synthetic pathway toward the core structures of phthalide natural products.