Pd2(dba)3/P(i-BuNCH2CH2)3N-catalyzed Stille cross-coupling of aryl chlorides

[reaction: see text] The Pd(2)(dba)(3)/P(i-BuNCH(2)CH(2))(3)N (1d) catalyst system is highly effective for the Stille cross-coupling of aryl chlorides with organotin compounds. This method represents only the second general method for the coupling of aryl chlorides. Other proazaphosphatranes possessing benzyl substituents also generate very active catalysts for Stille reactions. Noteworthy features of the method are: (a) commercial availability of ligand 1d, (b) the wide array of aryl chlorides that can be coupled, and (c) applicability to aryl, vinyl, and allyl tin reagents.     

Structural transitions in ion coordination driven by changes in competition for ligand binding

Transferring Na(+) and K(+) ions from their preferred coordination states in water to states having different coordination numbers incurs a free energy cost. In several examples in nature, however, these ions readily partition from aqueous-phase coordination states into spatial regions having much higher coordination numbers. Here we utilize statistical theory of solutions, quantum chemical simulations, classical mechanics simulations, and structural informatics to understand this aspect of ion partitioning. Our studies lead to the identification of a specific role of the solvation environment in driving transitions in ion coordination structures. Although ion solvation in liquid media is an exergonic reaction overall, we find it is also associated with considerable free energy penalties for extracting ligands from their solvation environments to form coordinated ion complexes. Reducing these penalties increases the stabilities of higher-order coordinations and brings down the energetic cost to partition ions from water into overcoordinated binding sites in biomolecules. These penalties can be lowered via a reduction in direct favorable interactions of the coordinating ligands with all atoms other than the ions themselves. A significant reduction in these penalties can, in fact, also drive up ion coordination preferences. Similarly, an increase in these penalties can lower ion coordination preferences, akin to a Hofmeister effect. Since such structural transitions are effected by the properties of the solvation phase, we anticipate that they will also occur for other ions. The influence of other factors, including ligand density, ligand chemistry, and temperature, on the stabilities of ion coordination structures are also explored.     

Efficient parallel resolution of pentafluorophenyl active esters using quasi-enantiomeric combinations of oxazolidin-2-ones

The parallel resolution of racemic pentafluorophenyl 2-aryl/phenylpropanoates and butanoates using an equimolar combination of quasi-enantiomeric Evans oxazolidin-2-ones is discussed. The levels of diastereoselectivity were excellent (>90% de) leading to separable quasi-enantiomeric oxazolidin-2-ones in good yield. This methodology was used to resolve a series of structurally related 2-aryl/phenylpropanoic and butanoic acids.     

Polymerization of methyl acrylate and as comonomer with ethylene using a bis(imino)pyridine iron(II) chloride/methylaluminoxane catalyst

This article describes the homopolymerization of methyl acrylate (MA) and its attempted copolymerization with ethylene using three single‐site catalysts. The primary catalyst under investigation is formed from a bis(imino)pyridine iron(II) chloride with methylaluminoxane ( 1 ), which is compared with bis(4,5,6,7‐tetrahydro‐1‐indenyl)zirconium dimethyl/tris(pentafluorenyl)borane) ( 2 ), and a P,O‐chelated nickel(II) enolate catalyst ( 3 ). Catalyst ( 1 ) leads to the highest activities exceeding those of catalyst ( 2 ) by a magnitude, whereas catalyst ( 3 ) results in formation of no polymer. The kinetics of the polymerizations and the effect of the Al/Fe‐ratio and temperature on the activity and molecular weight of the polymers have been determined. In the ethylene/MA copolymerization trials, catalyst ( 1 ) produces a blend of the two homopolymers, polymethyl acrylate (PMA) and polyethylene. Remarkably, using catalyst ( 1 ) it is possible to produce polymer blends with up to 52% PMA at relatively high activities. The polymerization kinetics has been determined based on the directly measured uptake of ethylene during the runs. NMR spectroscopy, DSC and GPC measurements have been used as efficient methods to prove that polymer blends instead of true copolymers were formed. Finally, some conclusions about the polymerization mechanism will be drawn. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 46: 5542–5558, 2008     

Virtual fragment screening: an exploration of various docking and scoring protocols for fragments using Glide

Fragment-based drug discovery approaches allow for a greater coverage of chemical space and generally produce high efficiency ligands. As such, virtual and experimental fragment screening are increasingly being coupled in an effort to identify new leads for specific therapeutic targets. Fragment docking is employed to create target-focussed subset of compounds for testing along side generic fragment libraries. The utility of the program Glide with various scoring schemes for fragment docking is discussed. Fragment docking results for two test cases, prostaglandin D2 synthase and DNA ligase, are presented and compared to experimental screening data. Self-docking, cross-docking, and enrichment studies are performed. For the enrichment runs, experimental data exists indicating that the docking decoys in fact do not inhibit the corresponding enzyme being examined. Results indicate that even for difficult test cases fragment docking can yield enrichments significantly better than random. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Rigidity Theorems for Spherical Hyperexpansions

The class of spherical hyperexpansions is a multi-variable analog of the class of hyperexpansive operators with spherical isometries and spherical 2-isometries being special subclasses. It is known that in dimension one, an invertible $2$ -hyperexpansion is unitary. This rigidity theorem allows one to prove a variant of the Berger–Shaw Theorem which states that a finitely multi-cyclic $2$ -hyperexpansion is essentially normal. In the present paper, we seek for multi-variable manifestations of this rigidity theorem. In particular, we provide several conditions on a spherical hyperexpansion which ensure it to be a spherical isometry. We further carry out the analysis of the rigidity theorems at the Calkin algebra level and obtain some conditions for essential normality of a spherical hyperexpansion. In the process, we construct several interesting examples of spherical hyperexpansions which are structurally different from the Drury-Arveson $m$ -shift.     

Unraveling internal structures of highly luminescent PbSe nanocrystallites using variable-energy synchrotron radiation photoelectron spectroscopy

The internal structure of PbSe nanocrystals was deduced using synchrotron X-ray photoemission spectroscopy for three different sizes of nanocrystals. The photoemission data revealed the layered structure of PbSe nanocrystals with the crystalline PbSe core surrounded by a nonstoichiometric Pb(1-x)Se shell, finally passivated by a capping agent in the outermost layer. A detailed analysis of the experimental data yielded quantitative information on the thickness of three different layers, which is unavailable through any other technique; moreover, the overall sizes of the nanocrystals probed by transmission electron microscopy were in agreement with the corresponding quantity obtained in the present experiment. The present results provide a plausible explanation for the strong variation in the photoluminescence intensity with size observed for these nanocrystals.     

Practical approach for the stereoselective introduction of beta-arabinofuranosides

A practical approach for the stereoselective introduction of beta-arabinofuranosides has been developed on the basis of locking an arabinosyl donor in a conformation in which nucleophilic attack from the beta face is favored. The new glycosyl donor was designed by analyzing optimized geometries of low-energy conformers of the arabinofuranosyl oxacarbenium ion. The Newman projection of the E(3) conformer indicated that nucleophilic attack from the alpha face is disfavored because an eclipsed H-2 will be encountered. On the other hand, an approach from the beta face was expected to be more favorable, because it will experience only staggered substituents. The arabinofuranosyl oxacarbenium ion could be locked in the E(3) conformation by employing a 3,5-O-di-tert-butylsilane protecting group, which places C-5 and O-3 in a pseudoequatorial orientation, resulting in a perfect chair conformation of the protecting group. The new glycosyl donor gave excellent beta selectivities in a range of glycosylations with glycosyl acceptors having primary and secondary alcohols. The attractiveness of the new methodology was demonstrated by the chemical synthesis of a fragment of arabinogalactan, which is an important constituent of the primary plant cell wall.     

Microwave-assisted synthesis of water-soluble styrylpyridine dye-capped zinc oxide nanoparticles for antibacterial applications

ZnO nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using a microwave method, whose surface was modified with {4-[(E)-2-(furan-2-yl)ethenyl]pyridin-1-ium-1-yl}acetate as a capping agent (1 and 3%). Their structural properties were investigated using FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDS, and UV–visible spectroscopy. XRD confirmed the Wurtzite structure for all compounds, a size of 30.6 nm for uncapped and 22.9 nm for 3% dye-capped nanoparticles were calculated from Scherer's equation. Hexagonal wurtzite shape of nanoparticles can be clearly seen in the SEM images. The DFT calculations were carried out using quantum espresso. These dye-capped ZnO nanoparticles were proved to be potential antibacterial agents, the minimum concentrations of dye-capped ZnO nanoparticles that inhibit the growth of bacteria are 1.5 mg/mL for Escherichia coli and 0.78 mg/mL for Bacillus subtilis, which are much lower than those of uncapped ZnO. The bioactivity data suggest these organic–inorganic hybrid nanoparticles emerged as a new class of antibacterial agents.     

ToF-SIMS analysis of poly(l-lysine)-graft-poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) ultrathin adlayers

Understanding of the interfacial chemistry of ultrathin polymeric adlayers is fundamentally important in the context of establishing quantitative design rules for the fabrication of nonfouling surfaces in various applications such as biomaterials and medical devices. In this study, seven poly(l-lysine)-graft-poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (PLL–PMOXA) copolymers with grafting density (number of PMOXA chains per lysine residue) 0.09, 0.14, 0.19, 0.33, 0.43, 0.56, and 0.77, respectively, were synthesized and characterized by means of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR). The copolymers were then adsorbed on Nb₂O₅ surfaces. Optical waveguide lightmode spectroscopy method was used to monitor the surface adsorption in situ of these copolymers and provide information on adlayer masses that were then converted into PLL and PMOXA surface densities. To investigate the relationship between copolymer bulk architecture (as shown by NMR data) and surface coverage as well as surface architecture, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) analysis was performed. Furthermore, ToF-SIMS method combined with principal component analysis (PCA) was used to verify the protein resistant properties of PLL–PMOXA adlayers, by thorough characterization before and after adlayer exposure to human serum. ToF-SIMS analysis revealed that the chemical composition as well as the architecture of the different PLL–PMOXA adlayers indeed reflects the copolymer bulk composition. ToF-SIMS results also indicated a heterogeneous surface coverage of PLL–PMOXA adlayers with high grafting densities higher than 0.33. In the case of protein resistant surface, PCA results showed clear differences between protein resistant and nonprotein-resistant surfaces. Therefore, ToF-SIMS results combined with PCA confirmed that the PLL–PMOXA adlayer with brush architecture resists protein adsorption. However, low increases of some amino acid signals in ToF-SIMS spectra were detected after the adlayer has been exposed to human serum.