Bringing order : A new class of periodic mesoporous organosilicas (PMOs) with a urea‐bridged organosilica precursor under acid‐catalyzed and inorganic‐salt‐assisted conditions was obtained. The large‐pore hybrid materials have ordered mesostructure with uniform pore size distributions, which can be seen from the TEM images.
W415 is a chiral smectic compound with a remarkably weak temperature dependence of its giant electroclinic effect in the liquid crystalline smectic A* phase. Furthermore it possesses a high spontaneous polarization in the smectic C* phase. The origin of this striking electroclinic effect is the co‐occurrence of a de Vries‐type ordering with a weak first‐order tilting transition (see the synchroton X‐ray scattering profiles).
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.
Work‐alcoholic! The elusive enantioselective catalytic α‐alkylation of aldehydes, a widely sought transformation, was brought to execution by the use of alcohols capable of forming stabilized carbocations (see scheme, TFA=trifluoroacetic acid).
Diaminations are a girl's best friend : New reactions in the field of transition‐metal‐catalyzed diamination of olefins provide a powerful tool for the elaboration of more complex molecules bearing the 1,2‐diamine moiety. An overview of these methods, including asymmetric versions, is given.
A limited number of poly(ethylene oxide)‐substituted perylene bisimides, some of which are equipped with terpyridine ligands for transition‐metal coordination (see structure), combine different types of noncovalent interactions to yield optoelectronically active organic materials with different types of supramolecular morphologies.
Shine a light with cyanates : A novel approach for the synthesis of urea complexes and homoleptic cyanates of alkaline earth metals and europium is described. The compounds have been fully characterized, including their magnetism and temperature‐dependent luminescence properties (see graphic).
Once difficult to obtain , the title compounds can be prepared in virtually enantiomerically pure form with a bis(triorganostannyl) zinc reagent (see scheme). Subsequent diastereoselective thermal (left) and Lewis acid promoted reactions (right) illustrate the synthetic potential of these compounds.
Fullerene flakes : A diacetylene‐functionalized fullerene derivative self‐organizes into flakelike microparticles (see picture). Both the diacetylene and C60 moieties can be effectively cross‐linked, which leads to supramolecular materials with remarkable resistivity to solvent, heat, and mechanical stress. Moreover, the surface of the cross‐linked flakelike objects is highly durable and water‐repellent.
Tin knows its oniums! An unusual nitride tetrastannylene and a stannylenated ammonium ion stabilized by a samarium tetradiazaphospholido counterion are the first examples of a tris(organostannylenyl)amine derivative and a divalent tin coordinate onium ion that incorporates 1,2,4‐diazaphospholide ligand (see figure).
The binding, diffusion, and aggregation mechanism of an engineered binding peptide on Au(111), showing non‐equilibrium surface structures that lead to the formation of a confluent monolayer, is described by M. Sarikaya et al. in their Communication on page 5174 ff. The observed dynamic structural evolution involving the surface diffusion of peptides and multiple stages of molecular thin film topology are explained. Ersin Emre Oren is thanked for the design of the graphic.
Stack them helically : A self‐assembled helically stacked array of up to 11 porphyrin (Po)‐modified uridines (red and blue in the double strand shown) is based on the supramolecular scaffold of duplex DNA and shows promising optical properties. Such architectures could find application as functional molecules for photoactive nanomaterials and photonic nanostructures.
