Platinum functionalized Chiral Polyamides: Efficient Heterogeneous Catalyst for Solvent Free Asymmetric Hydrogenation of Ethyl 2-oxo-4-phenylbutanoate

Preparation and Chiral Applications of Optically Active Polyamides

Chirality is omnipresent in nature and plays vital roles in living organism, and has become a hot research topic across multidisciplinary fields including chemistry, biology, physics, and material science. Meanwhile, polyamides constitute an important class of polymers and have received significant attention owing to their outstanding properties and wide-ranging applications in many areas. Judiciously introducing chirality into polyamides will undoubtedly obtain attractive chiral polymers, namely, optically active polyamides. This review describes the preparation methods of chiral polyamides, including solution polycondensation, interfacial polycondensation, ring-open polymerization, and others; the newly emerging categories of chiral polyamides, i.e., helical polyamides, chiral polyamide-imides, are also presented. The applications of optically active polyamides in chiral research fields including asymmetric catalysis, membrane separation, and enantioselective crystallization are also summarized. In addition, current challenges in chiral polyamides are further presented and future perspectives in the field are proposed.

Highly-active platinum nanoparticle-encapsulated alumina-doped resorcinol–formaldehyde carbon composites for asymmetric hydrogenation

Alumina-doped resorcinol–formaldehyde carbon supported Pt nanoparticles were synthesized and employed in asymmetric hydrogenation with high enantioselectivity, good reusability, and unprecedentedly high TOF.

One-Pot Synthesis of d-Phenylalanine-Functionalized Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes: A Metal-Free Chiral Material for the Asymmetric Electroreduction of Aromatic Ketones

A simple protocol to synthesize d-phenylalanine (d-PHE)-functionalized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) via the one-pot method was established by grafting d-PHE onto MWCNTs to obtain d-PHE-MWCNTs under mild reaction conditions. The resulting d-PHE-MWCNTs were characterized in detail via spectroscopy and surface analysis. The electroreduction of 2,2,2-trifluoroacetophenone at the d-PHE-MWCNTs cathode afforded ( S)-α-(trifluoromethyl) benzyl alcohol whose yield was 65% and the enantiomeric excess was 40%. No extra catalysts were required in this electrochemical reaction solution compared with other reactions requiring homogeneous catalysis. The metal-free chiral material also showed acceptable asymmetric electroreduction performance, considerable stability, and favorable reusability.