Cerium(Ⅳ) ammonium nitrate(CAN) initiated O-alkylation of oximes with N-vinyl lactams

O-Alkylation of oximes with N-vinylpyrrolidin-2-one or N-methyl-N-vinylacetamide was efficiently initiated by a catalytic amount of cerium（Ⅳ） ammonium nitrate（CAN）,giving the corresponding oxime ether derivatives in good yield.

Cerium(Ⅳ)ammonium nitrate(CAN)-mediated regioselective synthesis and anticancer activity of 6-substituted 5,8-dimethoxy-1,4-naphthoquinone

6-Substituted 5,8-O-dimethyl-1,4-naphthoquinones（6-DMNQ）,the promising anticancer scaffolds,were selectively generated by oxidative demethylation of 2-substituted 1,4,5,8-tetramethoxynaphthalenes with CAN in EtOAc/H2O in comparatively high yields.An interesting finding was that apart from the reported electron-withdrawing effects of substituents on position 2 of naphthalene ring,regioselective synthesis of 6-DMNQ was largely dependent on the steric effects in CAN-mediated oxidation.The selective cytotoxicities of 6-DMNQ from the in vitro cell-based assays were exhibited between the cancer cells and normal cells.Moreover,most of sulfur-containing 6-DMNQ derivatives displayed better anticancer activities than the corresponding oxygen-containing ones,which could provide an available strategy for the design of 6-DMNQ derivatives as potential anticancer agents.

Reliable, environmentally friendly method for the recycling of spent Ag/α-Al2O3 catalysts using (NH4)2Ce(NO3)6

Traditionally,Ag-containing solid wastes are leached by nitric acid in order to recycle the noble metal.However,the huge amounts of emission of toxic nitrogen oxides demand the development of a new method for silver recycling.Recently,considering the Ce(Ⅳ)solution could be regenerated with electrolyzation method,our group invented a novel environmentally friendly process by using Ce(Ⅳ)as the oxidant to dissolve silver from the spent Ag/ɑ-Al_2O_3 catalysts without NO_x emission.To find out the optimal parameters,in this work,the leaching reaction was thoroughly investigated with respect to the temperature,oxidant and HNO_3 concentrations,stirring speed,and time.The optimized leaching reaction gave the leaching silver rate 99.8% in 1 h.The kinetic plots suggested a shrinking core model with the internal diffusion-controlled process and the activation energy of 38.83 k J·mol^(-1).The order in which the experimental conditions influence the reaction was determined through orthogonal analysis:temperature N oxidant concentration N HNO_3 concentration N stirring speed.

An efficient and versatile synthesis of aromatic nitriles from aldehydes

A simple and direct method has been developed for synthesis of nitriles based on one-pot reaction of aromatic aldehydes with three different kind of reagents： CeCl3.7H20/KI/H2O2, CeCl3.7H2O/KI/UHP and （NH4）2Ce（NO3）6/KI/H2O2 in aqueous ammonia.