Design, synthesis, DFT study and antifungal activity of the derivatives of pyrazolecarboxamide containing thiazole or oxazole ring

Novel aryloxyphenoxypropionate derivates containing benzofuran moiety: Design, synthesis, herbicidal activity, docking study and theoretical calculation

A series of novel aryloxyphenoxypropionate (APP) herbicides containing benzofuran moiety were designed, synthesized and tested for herbicidal activity. The bioassay results indicated that most of target compounds possessed moderate to good herbicidal activity against monocotyledonous weeds. Compounds 5a-5d and 6a-6d showed 100% control efficiency against crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) and barnyard grass (Echinochloa crus-galli) in both pre-emergence and post-emergence treatments at the dosage of 1500 g a.i. ha^-1. Compound 6c was the most promising, with herbicidal activity better than clodinafop-propargyl. Molecular docking for compound 6c and its hydrolysis acid 1c were performed. ACCase activities of some compounds were also tested. Theoretical calculations for corresponding hydrolysis products 1a-1ewere carried out. Based on the results of molecular docking, enzyme activity test and theoretical calculation, the potential mechanism for herbicidal activity of these compounds was evaluated.

Dithiothreitol-assisted polysulfide reduction in the interlayer of lithium-sulfur batteries: a first-principles study

Lithium-sulfur batteries are attracting more and more attention due to the high specific energy density and specific capacity density. The severe "shuttle effect" during the charge/discharge cycle causes significant performance degradation, and has become a great challenge for the practical application of rechargeable lithium-sulfur batteries. The biological reductant dithiothreitol (DTT) in the interlayer of lithium-sulfur batteries could reduce the shuttle effect by chemically cutting the polysulfide. The biocatalysts of molecular scission provide a gentle and innovative way to address the problems in lithium-sulfur batteries. Understanding the specific working principle of DTT would serve to expand the application of reducing agents in lithium-sulfur battery systems. A systematic theoretical study has been performed on the DTT-assisted polysulfide reduction. The steps for DTT to reduce the polysulfide chains, including the intermediate product of each reduction step (i.e. cleavage site of polysulfides) were clarified. The difference between the reduction of long chain and short chain polysulfides and the modification method of DTT to promote the reduction kinetics were also unraveled. It is hoped that our study could provide mechanistic insights into the DTT promoted performance of Li-S batteries and give inspiration for biological reagent expansion.

Design and Discovery of Novel Chiral Antifungal Amides with 2-(2-Oxazolinyl)aniline as a Promising Pharmacophore

Inspired by established succinate dehydrogenase inhibitors (SDHIs), our continuing efforts toward the discovery of chiral antifungal amides turned to the optimization of their polar regions with 2-(2-oxazolinyl)aniline as a known pharmacophore. Scaffold hopping and bioactivity-guided convergent synthesis enabled the identification of promising antifungal categories. Fine tuning of the substituents and chirality furnished seven amides (1s, 1t, 2d, 2h, 2j, 3k, and 2l) as antifungal candidates, with EC₅₀ values lower than 5 mg/L. The first investigation of chiral amides of acyclic acids as SDHIs was conducted, and compound 2d was selected as a promising candidate against Botrytis cinerea, with a preventative efficacy of up to 93.9% at 50 mg/L, which is better than that of boscalid. The different binding models between compounds with different configurations were simulated for compound 2d and its diastereoisomers. The benefits of synthetic accessibility and cost-effectiveness highlight the practical potential for compound 2d as a good alternative to known SDHI fungicides.

Crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of 1-(2,4-di-chloro-benz-yl)-5-methyl-N-(thio-phene-2-sulfon-yl)-1H-pyrazole-3-carboxamide

In the title compound, C16H13Cl2N3O3S2, the thio-phene ring is disordered in a 0.762 (3):0.238 (3) ratio by an approximate 180° rotation of the ring around the S-C bond linking the ring to the sulfonyl unit. The di-chloro-benzene group is also disordered over two sets of sites with the same occupancy ratio. The mol-ecular conformation is stabilized by intra-molecular C-H⋯Cl and C-H⋯N hydrogen bonds, forming rings with graph-set notation S(5). In the crystal, pairs of mol-ecules are linked by N-H⋯O and C-H⋯O hydrogen bonds, forming inversion dimers with graph-set notation R22(8) and R12(11), which are connected by C-H⋯O hydrogen-bonding inter-actions into ribbons parallel to (100). The ribbons are further connected into a three-dimensional network by C-H⋯π inter-actions and π-π stacking inter-actions between benzene and thio-phene rings, with centroid-to-centroid distances of 3.865 (2), 3.867 (7) and 3.853 (2) Å. Hirshfeld surface analysis has been used to confirm and qu-antify the supra-molecular inter-actions.