Utility of N‐[4‐(N‐Substituted Sulfamoyl)Phenyl] Cyanothioformamides in the Synthesis of Heterocyclic Compounds

The novel cyanothioformamides 2a‐d were prepared by treatment of isothiocyanatosulfonamides 1a‐d with potassium cyanide at room temperature. Cyclocondensation of compounds 2b,c with phenyl isocyanate as electrophile furnished the corresponding imidazolidines 3a,b . The reactivity of compound 3a towards some nitrogen nucleophiles was investigated. Thus, the thiosemicarbazone 4 and imidazo[4,5‐b]quinoxaline 6 were synthesized by condensation of compound 3a with thiosemicarbazide and o‐phenylenediamine, respectively. Treatment of 3a with hydrochloric acid afforded compound 7 . Our investigation was extended to include the reactivity of cyanothioformamide 2 towards o‐aminophenol, anthranilic acid, and o‐phenylenediamine and yielded the corresponding heterocycles 9 , 11 and 13 derivatives, respectively. Structures of the synthesized compounds were established by their elemental analysis and spectral data.     

N-substituted phenothiazines as redox indicators in bromatometry

Diethazine hydrochloride, butaperazine dimaleate, trifluoperazine hydrochloride, promethazine hydrochloride, prochlorperazine maleate and chlorpromazine hydrochloride have been studied as indicators in bromate titration of quinol, metol and ascorbic acid. They give a very sharp reversible colour change at the equivalence point. Their formal potentials have been determined. A simple but accurate method for the estimation of quinol and metol is reported.     

Mimicking transition metals in borrowing hydrogen from alcohols

Borrowing hydrogen from alcohols, storing it on a catalyst and subsequent transfer of the hydrogen from the catalyst to an in situ generated imine is the hallmark of a transition metal mediated catalytic N-alkylation of amines. However, such a borrowing hydrogen mechanism with a transition metal free catalytic system which stores hydrogen molecules in the catalyst backbone is yet to be established. Herein, we demonstrate that a phenalenyl ligand can imitate the role of transition metals in storing and transferring hydrogen molecules leading to borrowing hydrogen mediated alkylation of anilines by alcohols including a wide range of substrate scope. A close inspection of the mechanistic pathway by characterizing several intermediates through various spectroscopic techniques, deuterium labelling experiments, and DFT study concluded that the phenalenyl radical based backbone sequentially adds H⁺, H˙ and an electron through a dearomatization process which are subsequently used as reducing equivalents to the C–N double bond in a catalytic fashion.

An efficient method is developed for harvesting hydrogen, its storage and catalytic transfer by an odd alternant hydrocarbon. The strategy is reminiscent of transition metals in borrowing hydrogen mediated processes.     

In situ assembled ZIF superstructures via an emulsion-free soft-templating approach

Assembling well-defined MOF superstructures remains challenging as it requires easily removable hard templates or readily available immiscible solutions for an emulsion-based soft-template approach. In this work, a single-step emulsion-free soft templating approach is reported to spontaneously prepare hollow ZIF-8 and ZIF-67 colloidosomes with no further purification. These superstructures can load different enzymes regardless of the size and charge with a high encapsulation efficiency of 99%. We envisage that this work will expand the repertoires of MOF superstructures by the judicious selection of precursors and the reaction medium.

An emulsion-free approach for the preparation of hollow ZIF-8 superstructures in a single step is established based on metal sulfate hydrates in methanol.     

Some spectroscopic aspects of electron transfer in ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complexes

The metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) absorption and emission properties of several ruthenium(II)-bipyridine am(m)ine complexes are compared. The Gaussian deconvolution of the spectra indicates that: (a) the emission MLCT bandwidths are smaller than the absorption bandwidths for the first components of the apparent vibronic progressions; (b) the emission bands decrease in energy and width when a polypyridyl is replaced by an am(m)ine. The observations can be interpreted in terms of a two state model and the perturbation theory-based treatment of the attenuation of the effective reorganizational energy, λ_r =^~ λ_r ^o(1- 4α² _DA), where λ_r ^o is the reorganizational energy corresponding to no mixing between the two electron transfer states and α_DA = (H_DA/E_DA) is the mixing coefficient. Both the solvent and molecular contributions to λ_r are attenuated. The MLCT excited state lifetimes also decrease with am(m)ine substitution, and the non-radiative decay rate constant at 77 K is roughly proportional to the number of am(m)ine moieties coordinated to the ruthenium center.     

Spectral and magnetic properties of phenylazo-6-aminouracil complexes

Complexes of Co(II), Ni(II) and Cu(II) with substituted phenylazo-6-aminouracils containing (-H, p-OH, p-CH(3), p-OCH(3) p-COOH) have been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic measurements and spectral measurements (IR, UV-Vis, ESR). Infrared spectra assigned the fundamental bands of the major groups, O-H, N-H, C-H, C=O, C=N, N=N, C-N and C-O (nu, delta and gamma modes of vibrations). The absence of nu(OH) and the appearance of nu(C=O) in the infrared spectra of the free ligands of 5-(p-tolyl and p-anisylazo)-6-aminouracil, assigned the keto structure, whereas in cases of 5-(phenyl, p-hydroxyphenyl and p-carboxyphenylazo)-6-aminouracil ligands, the data showed strong nu(OH) and nu(C=O) bands to assign keto-enol tautomerisms. The modes of interactions between the ligands and the metals were discussed, where oxygen and nitrogen atoms (of amino-amide groups) are involved in chelation. The azo group was not involved in chelation for all the prepared complexes except those of copper complexes derived from 5-(phenyl, p-tolyl, p-hydroxyphenyl and p-carboxyphenylazo)-6-aminouracils. The room temperature effective magnetic moment values, the Nujol mull spectra and ESR proved that all the prepared complexes were of octahedral geometry, except the nickel complex derived from 5-(phenylazo)-6-aminouracil and cobalt complex derived from 5-(p-carboxy-phenylazo)-6-aminouracil were square planar.     

Stabilization of oxygen evolution and primary electron transport reactions in photosystem II against heat stress with glycinebetaine and sucrose

The protective action of co-solutes, such as sucrose and glycinebetaine, against the thermal inactivation of photosystem II function was studied in untreated and Mn-depleted photosystem II preparations. It was shown that, in addition to the reactions that depend on the oxygen evolving activity of the photosystem, those that implicate more intimately the reaction center itself are protected by high concentrations of osmolytes. However, the temperature required to inhibit oxygen evolution totally in the presence of osmolytes is lower than that required to eliminate reactions, such as P680 (primary electron donor in photosystem II) photo-oxidation and pheophytin photo reduetion, which only involve charge separation and primary electron transport processes. The energy storage measured from the thermal dissipation yield during photoacoustic experiments and the yield of variable fluorescence are also protected to a significant degree (up to 30%) at temperatures at which oxygen evolution is totally inhibited. It is suggested that a cyclic electron transport reaction around photosystem II may be preserved under these conditions and may be responsible for the energy storage measured at relatively high temperatures. This interpretation is also supported by thermoluminescence data involving the recombination between reduced electron acceptors and oxidized electron donors at - 30 and - 55 °C. The data also imply that a high concentration of osmolyte allows the stabilization of the photosystem core complex together with the oxygen-evolving complex. The stabilization effect is understood in terms of the minimization of protein-water interactions as proposed by the theory of Arakawa and Timasheff (Biophys. J., 47 (1985) 411--414).     

Covering pairs by quintuples with index λ  0 (mod 4)

A (v, k. λ) covering design of order v, block size k, and index λ is a collection of k-element subsets, called blocks, of a set V such that every 2-subset of V occurs in at least λ blocks. The covering problem is to determine the minimum number of blocks, α(v, k, λ), in a covering design. It is well known that $ \alpha \left({\nu,\kappa,\lambda } \right) \ge \left\lceil {\frac{\nu}{\kappa}\left\lceil {\frac{{\nu - 1}}{{\kappa - 1}}\lambda} \right\rceil} \right\rceil = \phi \left({\nu,\kappa,\lambda} \right) $, where [χ] is the smallest integer satisfying χ ≤ χ. It is shown here that α (v, 5, λ) = ?(v, 5, λ) + ? where λ ≡ 0 (mod 4) and e= 1 if λ (v?1)≡ 0(mod 4) and λv (v?1)/4 ≡ ?1 (mod 5) and e= 0 otherwise With the possible exception of (v,λ) = (28, 4). © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ab Initio and MNDO Calculations Comparison with the VSEPR Model

Ab initio and MNDO calculations of VSEPR model were carried out on CH₂, CH₂⁺, CH₂^?, SiH₂, SiH₂⁺ and SiH₂^?. Comparisons between the second row carbon and its third row silicon analogue as unshared electron pair contributors are considered. The repulsion effects as well as the volume requirement of the unshared electron pair on several structural and energetic properties arc investigated.