Oil and water : A new energy‐efficient and atom‐economical catalytic route for the production of alkanes and methanol by upgrading the phenolic fraction of bio‐oil has been developed. The one‐pot aqueous‐phase hydrodeoxygenation process is based on two catalysts facilitating consecutive hydrogenation, hydrolysis, and dehydration reactions.
No hurdle is too high : The regioselectivity and stereoselectivity of the halohydroxylation of non‐activated allenes are controlled by a remote sulfinyl group through anchimeric assistance (see scheme). The resulting halohydrines are excellent chiral targets for the preparation of optically pure propargylic alcohols and Baylis–Hillman‐type products.
The center of it all : An antitumor‐active trinuclear platinum complex forms unprecedented interstrand cross‐linked triadducts with 18‐mer DNA duplexes (see figure; complex in yellow with the platinum centers in red) and behaves differently from its dinuclear analogue.
Growing in line: The surface chemistry of self‐assembled nanostructured block copolymers is used to control the sites at which semiconducting metal sulfide nanocrystals nucleate and grow on a surface directly from aqueous solutions. This process is a new and general strategy for the bottom‐up assembly of functional nanocrystalline materials for a variety of applications.
One stereocenter makes all the difference : The synthesis and biological evaluation of 17‐epi‐cortistatin A is reported from a common intermediate used to procure natural cortistatin A. The synthesis features a unique stereocontrolled Raney‐Ni reduction process that can be employed to reliably produce both α‐ and β‐configured D‐ring aryl steroids. Biological evaluations of these “cortalogs” are reported for the first time.
The fibril structure formed by the amyloidogenic fragment SNNFGAILSS of the human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) is determined with 0.52 Å resolution. Symmetry information contained in the easily obtainable resonance assignments from solid‐state NMR spectra (see picture), along with long‐range constraints, can be applied to uniquely identify the supramolecular organization of fibrils.
A facile, self‐seeded , solution–liquid–solid growth of soluble InP and GaP nanowires with a very low amount of native point defects with respect to the carrier concentrations have been synthesized (see scheme) and characterized. They are potentially promising building blocks in optoelectronic applications.
The nucleation process of iron‐exchanged zeolite Fe‐ZSM‐5, from the assembly of distorted tetrahedrally coordinated iron species and silicate rings in the precursor to the final Fe‐ZSM‐5 crystals, as well as variations in the coordination environment of iron, were studied by UV resonance Raman spectroscopy and complementary techniques.
A general solution : In situ synchrotron X‐ray scattering in a high‐pressure pulsed injection reactor (see picture) shows that magnetite nucleation and growth are temporally separated. Gram‐scale crystalline, pure phase, superparamagnetic magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized without surfactants in supercritical water in less than one hour using a laboratory‐scale continuous‐flow reactor.
Confined in a molecular corral : A supramolecular network changes the mechanism by which underpotential deposition (UPD) of copper proceeds on a gold electrode modified by a self‐assembled monolayer (SAM). Lateral diffusion of Cu adatoms is suppressed between adjacent cells of a network/SAM hybrid structure. Instead, UPD occurs by direct deposition into the SAM filled pores of the network, where the Cu adatoms are confined.
Supramolecular chirality and liquid crystalline OFET : Achiral end‐capped oligothiophenes can be tuned to exhibit supramolecular chirality with unique striped textures showing distinct circular dichroism signals as well as a highly ordered SmE phase that leads to high hole carrier mobility.
An old dream comes true : A direct and environmentally benign synthetic strategy was developed for the aerosol‐based mass production of large‐pore mesostructured aluminosilicate powders (see TEM image). Although amorphous, some powders exhibit higher activity towards m‐xylene isomerization and lower coke formation than a Y‐zeolite based industrial reference catalyst.
Incredible Bulk : A series of N‐heterocyclic carbene catalysts (see picture) were prepared and evaluated in the Suzuki–Miyaura reaction. A variety of sterically encumbered tetra‐ortho‐substituted biaryl products were formed from unreactive aryl chlorides using the isopentyl‐substituted catalyst at temperatures ranging from 65 °C to room temperature. The cyclopentyl‐substituted catalyst was virtually inactive, demonstrating that “flexible bulk” is essential to promote these transformations.
Hot‐wired electrodes : Thin metallic wires (d=25 μm) are covered with a 3 μm layer of single‐walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs; see image) by electrophoresis from a suspension containing excess ionic surfactant. A pure SWCNT surface is achieved by heating the electrode in air. Strong differences between covered and bare metallic electrodes occur with in situ heating during electrochemical experiments.
Don't cry! The attachment of ferrocene moieties on the surface of carbon nano‐onions influences the electrochemical properties of these moieties and the photophysical properties of the carbon nano‐onions (see figure). Quantum chemical calculations confirm that the spectral properties of carbon nano‐onions depend on their size and the degree of functionalisation.
Versatility of titanium : Titanocene(III) complexes catalyze Barbier‐type allylations, intramolecular crotylations (cyclizations), and prenylations of a wide range of aldehydes and ketones. These reactions take place at RT under mild conditions compatible with many functional groups; provide good yields of open‐chain and cyclic homoallylic alcohols, including heterocyclic derivatives; and can be conducted enantioselectively by using enantiomerically pure titanium catalysts.
