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tBuONa-catalyzed direct aerobic oxidative cyclocondensation reactions of readily available alcohols and o-thio/hydroxy/aminoanilines under air have been developed and provide an efficient, practical, and green method for the synthesis of benzazoles. Mechanistic studies revealed that o-substituted anilines promote the initial aerobic alcohol-oxidation step, which explains the high reactivity and success of this unexpectedly simple and practical cyclocondensation method.

A high-performance ion-exchange chromatography coupled with hydride generation-atomic fluorescence spectrometry (HPIEC-HG-AFS) method was developed for simultaneous speciation of selenium in seafood. Three selenium species including of selenocystine (Se-Cys), selenome-thionine (Se-Met), and selenite Se(IV) were separated on an anion-exchange column (PRP-X100) with eluent of 30 mM NH4H2PO4 and methanol (39:1, v/v) in 10 min at the flow rate of 1.0 mL min−1. Variables affecting the HG-AFS detection of selenium species were optimized. The optimum conditions found were the following: reducing agent, 2.0 % of KBH4, and 5.0 % of HCl; lamp current, 90 mA; photomultiplier tube voltage, 280 V; flow rate of carrier gas, 300 mL min−1; and shielding gas, 800 mL min−1. Under the optimized conditions, the good linearity of calibration curves (R 2 > 0.999) between signal of fluorescence and concentration of selenium species was obtained in the range of detection limits (DLs), 80 μg L−1, and the DLs of Se-Cys, Se-Met, Se(IV) were 1.66, 0.990, 1.10 μg L−1, respectively. The repeatability of the method, expressed as relative standard deviation, was less than 5.0 % (n = 10), and the average recoveries for spiked test were from 87.3 to 103 % for three analytes in real seafood samples. The developed HPIEC-HG-AFS method was successfully applied for the speciation of selenium in seafood samples.

Unexpected dimethylsulfinyl anions (I), generated in situ from the superbase system CsOH–DMSO, was found to be a highly active catalyst for controllable nitrile hydration reactions in water, which selectively afforded the versatile amides via interesting Cs-activated I-catalyzed direct and indirect hydration mechanisms involving an O-transfer process from DMSO onto the nitriles.

A series of chiral salen C 2 - symmetric aminophenols 1–4 , which were derived from (1 R ,2 R )- or (1 S ,2 S )-1,2-diphenylethane-1,2-diamine with the corresponding salicylic aldehyde through a [2+2] condensation reaction, have been prepared. The NMR studies demonstrated that they can function as chiral solvating agents for the determination of the enantiomeric purity of chiral carboxylic acids.

Centella asiatica (L.) Urban is a traditional herbal medicine used in Asiatic countries, and is commonly used to treat various wounds, leprosy, tuberculosis and lupus diseases. In this work, a new method based on microwave assisted extraction followed by liquid chromatography–diode array detection–electrospray ionization multistage tandem mass spectrometry analysis has been developed for the identification and quantification of biologically active constituents in C. asiatica, including asiatic acid, asiaticoside and madecassoside. The separation was performed on an Agilent Eclipse C18 column (150 mm × 4.6 mm i.d., 5 μm) with gradient elution of acetonitrile and 0.1% aqueous acetic acid within 50 min. Detection was performed at 205 nm. The calibration curves showed good linearity (r2 > 0.9992). The limits of detection ranged from 1.2 to 1.6 μg mL−1. The intra- and inter-day precision was less than 3% and the recovery of the assay was in the range of 95.4–106.8%. The method was successfully applied to the quantification of the three constituents in different samples of C. asiatica. The results indicated that the developed method could be considered to be a simple, rapid and reliable method for the quality evaluation of C. asiatica. The samples were also analyzed on a liquid chromatography–electrospray ionization–time-of-flight mass spectrometry system to confirm the identification results.

tBuONa-catalyzed direct aerobic oxidative cyclocondensation reactions of readily available alcohols and o-thio/hydroxy/aminoanilines under air have been developed and provide an efficient, practical, and green method for the synthesis of benzazoles. Mechanistic studies revealed that o-substituted anilines promote the initial aerobic alcohol-oxidation step, which explains the high reactivity and success of this unexpectedly simple and practical cyclocondensation method.

An ionic liquid (IL) based dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction combined with HPLC hydride generation atomic fluorescence spectrometry method for the preconcentration and determination of mercury species in environmental water samples is described. Four mercury species (MeHg(+), EtHg(+), PhHg(+), and Hg(2+)) were complexed with dithionate and the neutral chelates were extracted into IL drops using dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction. Variables affecting the formation and extraction of mercury dithizonates were optimized. The optimum conditions found were as follows: IL-type and amount, 0.05 g of 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate; dispersive solvents type and amount, 500 μL of acetone; pH, 6; extraction time, 2 min; centrifugation time, 12 min; and no sodium chloride addition. Under the optimized conditions, the detection limits of the analytes were 0.031 μg/L for Hg(2+), 0.016 μg/L for MeHg(+), 0.024 μg/L for EtHg(+), and 0.092 μg/L for PhHg(+), respectively. The repeatability of the method, expressed as RSD, was between 1.4 and 5.2% (n = 10), and the average recoveries for spiked test were 96.9% for Hg(2+), 90.9% for MeHg(+), 90.5% for EtHg(+), 92.3% for PhHg(+), respectively. The developed method was successfully applied for the speciation of mercury in environmental water samples.