Selective Photooxidation of Valencene and Thymol with Nano-TiO2 and O2 as Oxidant

The selective photocatalytic oxidation with O₂ as oxidant of valencene and thymol was evaluated using nanostructured TiO₂ under UV-Vis radiation at atmospheric conditions. The effect of the morphology and optical properties of TiO₂ nanotubes and aminate nanoparticles was studied. Different scavengers were used to detect the presence of positive holes (h⁺), electrons (e^-), hydroxyl radicals (•OH), and the superoxide radical anion (O₂^-) during the photooxidation reaction. Superoxide anion radical is the main oxidizing specie formed, which is responsible for the selective formation of nootkatone and thymoquinone using aminated TiO₂ nanoparticles under 400 nm radiation.

The polymerization of carvacrol catalyzed by Mn-porphyrins: obtaining the desired product guided by the choice of solvent, oxidant, and catalyst

Less polar solvents could modulate the catalytic activity of Mn(iii)-porphyrins in carvacrol's oxidation leading to polymer/oligomer formation instead of thymoquinone formation.

Water-Soluble Non-Ionic PEGylated Porphyrins: A Versatile Category of Dyes for Basic Science and Applications

This review arises from the need to rationalize the huge amount of information on the structural and spectroscopic properties of a peculiar class of porphyrin derivatives-the non-ionic PEGylated porphyrins-collected during almost two decades of research. The lack of charged groups in the molecular architecture of these porphyrin derivatives is the leitmotif of the work and plays an outstanding role in highlighting those interactions between porphyrins, or between porphyrins and target molecules (e.g., hydrophobic-, hydrogen bond related-, and coordination-interactions, to name just a few) that are often masked by stronger electrostatic contributions. In addition, it is exactly these weaker interactions between porphyrins that make the aggregated forms more prone to couple efficiently with external perturbative fields like weak hydrodynamic vortexes or temperature gradients. In the absence of charge, solubility in water is very often achieved by covalent functionalization of the porphyrin ring with polyethylene glycol chains. Various modifications, including of chain length or the number of chains, the presence of a metal atom in the porphyrin core, or having two or more porphyrin rings in the molecular architecture, result in a wide range of properties. These encompass self-assembly with different aggregate morphology, molecular recognition of biomolecules, and different photophysical responses, which can be translated into numerous promising applications in the sensing and biomedical field, based on turn-on/turn-off fluorescence and on photogeneration of radical species.

Biomimetic Oxidation of Benzofurans with Hydrogen Peroxide Catalyzed by Mn(III) Porphyrins

The modelling of metabolic activation of the benzofuran nucleus is important to obtain eco-sustainable degradation methods and to understand the related mechanisms. The present work reports the catalytic oxidation of benzofuran, 2-methylbenzofuran, and 3-methylbenzofuran by hydrogen peroxide, at room temperature, in the presence of different Mn(III) porphyrins as models of cytochrome P450 enzymes. Conversions above 95% were attained for all the substrates. The key step is the formation of epoxides, which undergo different reaction pathways depending on factors, such as the position of the methyl group and the reaction and work-up conditions used.