N—H…X (X = Cl and Br) hydrogen bonds in three isomorphous 3,5‐dichloropyridinium salts

Specific short contacts are important in crystal engineering. Hydrogen bonds have been particularly successful and together with halogen bonds can be useful for assembling small molecules or ions into crystals. The ionic constituents in the isomorphous 3,5‐dichloropyridinium (3,5‐diClPy) tetrahalometallates 3,5‐dichloropyridinium tetrachloridozincate(II), (C₅H₄Cl₂N)₂[ZnCl₄] or (3,5‐diClPy)₂ZnCl₄, 3,5‐dichloropyridinium tetrabromidozincate(II), (C₅H₄Cl₂N)₂[ZnBr₄] or (3,5‐diClPy)₂ZnBr₄, and 3,5‐dichloropyridinium tetrabromidocobaltate(II), (C₅H₄Cl₂N)₂[CoBr₄] or (3,5‐diClPy)₂CoBr₄, arrange according to favourable electrostatic interactions. Cations are preferably surrounded by anions and vice versa ; rare cation–cation contacts are associated with an antiparallel dipole orientation. N—H…X (X = Cl and Br) hydrogen bonds and X …X halogen bonds compete as closest contacts between neighbouring residues. The former dominate in the title compounds; the four symmetrically independent pyridinium N—H groups in each compound act as donors in charge‐assisted hydrogen bonds, with halogen ligands and the tetrahedral metallate anions as acceptors. The M —X coordinative bonds in the latter are significantly longer if the halide ligand is engaged in a classical X …H—N hydrogen bond. In all three solids, triangular halogen‐bond interactions are observed. They might contribute to the stabilization of the structures, but even the shortest interhalogen contacts are only slightly shorter than the sum of the van der Waals radii.     

A computational study of substituent effects on the stability and geometry of carbazole‐pyridine complexes

Hydrogen bonding between carbazole and pyridine is known to quench fluorescence emission of carbazole. Three carbazolopyridinophanes—compounds composed of carbazole and pyridine subunits such that an intramolecular hydrogen bond may exist between them—have been pursued as reversible fluorescent sensors that detect given analytes through fluorescence restoration. However, these sensors exhibit background fluorescence believed to be related to the proportion of non‐hydrogen‐bonded conformers present. In this computational investigation, the potential energy surfaces of various hydrogen‐bonded carbazole:pyridine complexes are investigated using density functional theory with the intent of explaining the observed background fluorescence for the carbazolopyridinophanes. The results indicate carbazolopyridinophane conformers most resembling the geometry of their corresponding free carbazole:pyridine complexes exhibit the least background fluorescence.     

Copper(II) halide salts and complexes of 4-amino-2-fluoropyridine: synthesis,structure and magnetic properties

Reaction of 4-amino-2-fluoropyridine (2-F-4-AP) with copper halides produced the neutral coordination complexes: (2-F-4-AP)₂CuX₂ (X = Cl(1), Br(2)). 1 crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pccn in a distorted square planar geometry. Magnetic susceptibility data were fit to the uniform chain Heisenberg model resulting in C = 0.439(6)emu-K/mole-Oe and J = ?28(1) K. 2 crystallizes in the monoclinic space group C2/m and is closer to distorted tetrahedral. Intermolecular Br?Cu contacts generate a square layer. Magnetic data show very weak ferromagnetic interactions [C = 0.42(1)emu-K/mol-Oe, J = 0.71(2) K]. Similarly, reaction of 2-F-4-AP with copper halides and aqueous HX in alcohol solvents produced the salts (2-F-4-APH)₂CuX₄ (X = Cl(3), Br(4)). 3 crystallizes in the triclinic space group P-1. Crystal packing reveals short Cl?Cl contacts which generate a structural ladder. However, analysis of the magnetic data suggests that only the rails of the ladder produce a viable magnetic superexchange pathway; the uniform Heisenberg chain model provides C = 0.449(1)emu-K/mol-Oe and J = -6.9(1) K. 4 is isostructural and is also best fit by a chain model [J = ?2.7(4) K]. The brominated complex (2-F-3-Br-4-APH)₂CuBr₄·2H₂O, 5, (2-F-3-Br-4-APH = 4-amino-3-bromo-2-fluoropyridinium) was serendipitously produced as a byproduct of the synthesis of 4 and was characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction.     

Large Stabilization Effects by Intramolecular Beryllium Bonds in Ortho-Benzene Derivatives

Intramolecular interactions are shown to be key for favoring a given structure in systems with a variety of conformers. In ortho-substituted benzene derivatives including a beryllium moiety, beryllium bonds provide very large stabilizations with respect to non-bound conformers and enthalpy differences above one hundred kJ·mol⁻¹ are found in the most favorable cases, especially if the newly formed rings are five or six-membered heterocycles. These values are in general significantly larger than hydrogen bonds in 1,2-dihidroxybenzene. Conformers stabilized by a beryllium bond exhibit the typical features of this non-covalent interaction, such as the presence of a bond critical point according to the topology of the electron density, positive Laplacian values, significant geometrical distortions and strong interaction energies between the donor and acceptor quantified by using the Natural Bond Orbital approach. An isodesmic reaction scheme is used as a tool to measure the strength of the beryllium bond in these systems in terms of isodesmic energies (analogous to binding energies), interaction energies and deformation energies. This approach shows that a huge amount of energy is spent on deforming the donor–acceptor pairs to form the new rings.     

Perturbating Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonds through Substituent Effects or Non-Covalent Interactions

An analysis of the effects induced by F, Cl, and Br-substituents at the α-position of both, the hydroxyl or the amino group for a series of amino-alcohols, HOCH₂(CH₂)_nCH₂NH₂ (n = 0–5) on the strength and characteristics of their OH···N or NH···O intramolecular hydrogen bonds (IMHBs) was carried out through the use of high-level G4 ab initio calculations. For the parent unsubstituted amino-alcohols, it is found that the strength of the OH···N IMHB goes through a maximum for n = 2, as revealed by the use of appropriate isodesmic reactions, natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis and atoms in molecules (AIM), and non-covalent interaction (NCI) procedures. The corresponding infrared (IR) spectra also reflect the same trends. When the α-position to the hydroxyl group is substituted by halogen atoms, the OH···N IMHB significantly reinforces following the trend H < F < Cl < Br. Conversely, when the substitution takes place at the α-position with respect to the amino group, the result is a weakening of the OH···N IMHB. A totally different scenario is found when the amino-alcohols HOCH₂(CH₂)_nCH₂NH₂ (n = 0–3) interact with BeF₂. Although the presence of the beryllium derivative dramatically increases the strength of the IMHBs, the possibility for the beryllium atom to interact simultaneously with the O and the N atoms of the amino-alcohol leads to the global minimum of the potential energy surface, with the result that the IMHBs are replaced by two beryllium bonds.     

Understanding the Chloride Affinity of Barbiturates for Anion Receptor Design

Due to their potential binding sites, barbituric acid (BA) and its derivatives have been used in metal coordination chemistry. Yet their abilities to recognize anions remain unexplored. In this work, we were able to identify four structural features of barbiturates that are responsible for a certain anion affinity. The set of coordination interactions can be finely tuned with covalent decorations at the methylene group. DFT-D computations at the BLYP-D3(BJ)/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory show that the C−H bond is as effective as the N−H bond to coordinate chloride. An analysis of the electron charge density at the C−H⋅⋅⋅Cl⁻ and N−H⋅⋅⋅Cl⁻ bond critical points elucidates their similarities in covalent character. Our results reveal that the special acidity of the C−H bond shows up when the methylene group moves out of the ring plane and it is mainly governed by the orbital interaction energy. The amide and carboxyl groups are the best choices to coordinate the ion when they act together with the C−H bond. We finally show how can we use this information to rationally improve the recognition capability of a small cage-like complex that is able to coordinate NaCl.     

Transamidation of Amides and Amidation of Esters by Selective N–C(O)/O–C(O) Cleavage Mediated by Air- and Moisture-Stable Half-Sandwich Nickel(II)–NHC Complexes

The formation of amide bonds represents one of the most fundamental processes in organic synthesis. Transition-metal-catalyzed activation of acyclic twisted amides has emerged as an increasingly powerful platform in synthesis. Herein, we report the transamidation of N-activated twisted amides by selective N–C(O) cleavage mediated by air- and moisture-stable half-sandwich Ni(II)–NHC (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbenes) complexes. We demonstrate that the readily available cyclopentadienyl complex, [CpNi(IPr)Cl] (IPr = 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene), promotes highly selective transamidation of the N–C(O) bond in twisted N-Boc amides with non-nucleophilic anilines. The reaction provides access to secondary anilides via the non-conventional amide bond-forming pathway. Furthermore, the amidation of activated phenolic and unactivated methyl esters mediated by [CpNi(IPr)Cl] is reported. This study sets the stage for the broad utilization of well-defined, air- and moisture-stable Ni(II)–NHC complexes in catalytic amide bond-forming protocols by unconventional C(acyl)–N and C(acyl)–O bond cleavage reactions.     

A Versatile Solid-Phase Approach to the Synthesis of Oligonucleotide Conjugates with Biodegradable Hydrazone Linker

One of the ways to efficiently deliver various drugs, including therapeutic nucleic acids, into the cells is conjugating them with different transport ligands via labile or stable bonds. A convenient solid-phase approach for the synthesis of 5′-conjugates of oligonucleotides with biodegradable pH-sensitive hydrazone covalent bonds is proposed in this article. The approach relies on introducing a hydrazide of the ligand under aqueous/organic media to a fully protected support-bound oligonucleotide containing aldehyde function at the 5′-end. We demonstrated the proof-of-principle of this approach by synthesizing 5′-lipophilic (e.g., cholesterol and α-tocopherol) conjugates of modified siRNA and non-coding RNAs imported into mitochondria (antireplicative RNAs and guide RNAs for Mito-CRISPR/system). The developed method has the potential to be extended for the synthesis of pH-sensitive conjugates of oligonucleotides of different types (ribo-, deoxyribo-, 2′-O-methylribo-, and others) with ligands of different nature.     

A Spectroscopic Overview of Intramolecular Hydrogen Bonds of NH…O,S,N Type

Intramolecular NH…O,S,N interactions in non-tautomeric systems are reviewed in a broad range of compounds covering a variety of NH donors and hydrogen bond acceptors. ¹H chemical shifts of NH donors are good tools to study intramolecular hydrogen bonding. However in some cases they have to be corrected for ring current effects. Deuterium isotope effects on ¹³C and ¹⁵N chemical shifts and primary isotope effects are usually used to judge the strength of hydrogen bonds. Primary isotope effects are investigated in a new range of magnitudes. Isotope ratios of NH stretching frequencies, νNH/ND, are revisited. Hydrogen bond energies are reviewed and two-bond deuterium isotope effects on ¹³C chemical shifts are investigated as a possible means of estimating hydrogen bond energies.