Doubly functionalized polar norbornenes 3a–3g substituted by both a variety of ester and cyano groups were polymerized by ring‐opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP) with a Ru carbene complex 2 bearing 3‐bromopyridine as a ligand (third generation Grubbs' catalyst) in a living manner. The successive hydrogenation of the main‐chain double bond in the synthesized living ROMP polymers 4a–4g with a hydridoruthenium complex was exploited. The comparison of thermal properties of a series of ring‐opening metathesis polymers 4a–4g with those of their hydrogenated derivatives 5a–5g revealed the decrease of glass transition temperatures (Tg) but little change of the 5% decomposition temperature (Td5). In all cases examined in this study, a decrease of Tg by hydrogenation was around 20–40 °C, regardless of the ester substitutents. In the presence of the additional PCy3, triethylamine, and methanol after complete consumption of monomer 3a under the living ROMP condition, the tandem ROMP‐hydrogenation of the resulting polymer 4a generated in situ was attained under a H2 (9.8 MPa) atmosphere at 80 °C to afford the hydrogenated polymer 5a, retaining the narrow polydispersity of 1.03. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 3314–3325 2008

One kojibiose phoshorylase (KP) homolog gene was cloned from Caldicellulosiruptor saccharolyticus ATCC43494. Recombinant KP from C. saccharolyticus (Cs-KP) expressed in Escherichia coli showed highest activity at pH 6.0 at 85 °C, and was stable from pH 3.5 to 10.0 and up to 85 °C for phosphorolysis. Cs-KP showed higher productivity of kojioligosaccharides of DP ≧ 4 than KP from Thermoanaerobacter brockii ATCC35047.

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Doubly fuctionalized polar norbornenes bearing the cyano and ester groups in 2,3‐positions are synthesized and enantiomers are separated by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a chiral stationary phase. These optically active monomers are polymerized by ruthenium carbene catalysts, and high yields of the polymers were obtained. The chiral monomer bearing ethyl ester gave an optically active polymer of lower, but opposite sign of optical rotation (monomer [α]D = +61.0°, polymer [α]D = −3.1°). The circular dichroism (CD) of the obtained chiral polymers gave a Cotton effect. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 485–491, 2010

Bridged compounds Q 0060 Cyanoesterification of Norbornenes Catalyzed by Palladium: Facile Synthetic Methodology to Introduce Cyano and Ester Functionalities via Direct Carbon--Carbon Bond Cleavage of Cyanoformates. -A diversity of cyanoformates (II) is successfully added towards norbornene, norbornadiene as well as its benzo analogues to afford the corresponding exo,exo-adducts in moderate to good yields. The reaction is strongly influenced by steric factors. -(NISHIHARA*, Y.; INOUE, Y.; IZAWA, S.; MIYASAKA, M.; TANEMURA, K.; NAKAJIMA, K.; TAKAGI, K.; Tetrahedron 62 (2006) 42, 9872-9882; Dep. Chem., Grad. Sch. Nat. Sci. Technol., Okayama Univ., Okayama 700, Japan; Eng.) -Mischke 05-063