Domino Michael/aza-Wittig reaction in the diastereoselective construction of spiro[azepane-4,3′-oxindoles]

A convenient synthetic strategy for the diastereoselective assembly of spiro[azepane-4,3′-oxindoles] was developed via a Staudinger/Michael/aza-Wittig/reduction/N-deprotection reaction sequence starting from PMB-protected oxindole-substituted ethylazides. The key step of the method is a domino self-catalytic Michael/aza-Wittig reaction wherein the phosphazene moiety acts first as the catalyst and then as the reactant, resulting in the formation of a seven-membered N-heterocycle.     

Diastereoselective synthesis of 3-tert-butyl-3,4-dihydropyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine-3,4-diyl dicarboxylates

The reactions of 3-tert-butyl-7-R¹-8-R²-pyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazines (R¹ = H, Br; R² = Me, n-Bu) with N-bromosuccinimide in the presence of R³CO₂H (R³ = Me, t-Bu, Ph) afforded novel diastereomerically pure 3-tert-butyl-7-R¹-8-R²-3,4-dihydropyrazolo[5,1-c][1,2,4]triazine-3,4-diyl dicarboxylates. The structures of the isolated products were established on the basis of IR, ¹H, ¹³C, 2D NOESY NMR, high resolution mass spectrometry and X-ray single-crystal analysis. The steric and mechanistic origins of the observed regio- and stereoselectivity were also discussed.     

Cascade reaction of 2,3-naphthalenediol with benzene in the presence of aluminum halides

2,3-Naphthalenediol on superelectrophilic activation with aluminium halides smoothly reacts with benzene to give 4-((3-phenyl-1H-inden-1-yl)methyl)benzene-1,2-diol, which in turn undergoes intramolecular cyclization to form 5,10-methano-5-phenyldibenzo[a,d]cycloheptane-2,3-diol. The mechanistic aspects of these unusual transformations are discussed.     

Highly Proton-Conductive Zinc Metal-Organic Framework Based On Nickel(II) Porphyrinylphosphonate

The design of new solid-state proton-conducting materials is a great challenge for chemistry and materials science. Herein, a new anionic porphyrinylphosphonate-based MOF ( IPCE-1Ni ), which involves dimethylammonium (DMA) cations for charge compensation, is reported. As a result of its unique structure, IPCE-1Ni exhibits one of the highest value of the proton conductivity among reported proton-conducting MOF materials based on porphyrins (1.55×10⁻³ S cm⁻¹ at 75 °C and 80 % relative humidity).     

Benchmarking of Density Functionals for the Description of Optical Properties of Newly Synthesized π-Conjugated TADF Blue Emitters

Computational modeling of the optical characteristics of organic molecules with potential for thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) may assist markedly the development of more efficient emitting materials for organic light-emitting diodes. Recent theoretical studies in this area employ mostly methods from density functional theory (DFT). In order to obtain accurate predictions within this approach, the choice of a proper functional is crucial. In the current study, we focus on testing the performance of a set of DFT functionals for estimation of the excitation and emission energy and the excited singlet-triplet energy gap of three newly synthesized compounds with capacity for TADF. The emitters are designed specifically to enable charge transfer by π-electron conjugation, at the same time possessing high-energy excited triplet states. The functionals chosen for testing are from various groups ranging from gradient-corrected through global hybrids to range-separated ones. The results show that the monitored optical properties are especially sensitive to how the long-range part of the exchange energy is treated within the functional. The accurate functional should also be able to provide well balanced distribution of the π-electrons among the molecular fragments. Global hybrids with moderate (less than 0.4) share of exact exchange (B3LYP, PBE0) and the meta-GGA HSE06 are outlined as the best performing methods for the systems under study. They can predict all important optical parameters correctly, both qualitatively and quantitatively.     

Ultrafast Single-Scan 2D NMR Spectroscopic Detection of a PHIP-Hyperpolarized Protease Inhibitor

Two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy is one of the most important spectroscopic tools for the investigation of biological macromolecules. However, due to the low sensitivity of NMR spectroscopy, it takes usually from several minutes to many hours to record such spectra. Here, the possibility of detecting a bioactive derivative of the sunflower trypsin inhibitor-1 (SFTI-1), a tetradecapeptide, by combining parahydrogen-induced polarization (PHIP) and ultrafast 2D NMR spectroscopy is shown. The PHIP activity of the inhibitor was achieved by labeling with O-propargyl-l -tyrosine. In 1D PHIP experiments a signal enhancement of a factor of approximately 1200 compared to standard NMR was found. This enhancement permits measurement of 2D NMR correlation spectra of low-concentrated SFTI-1 in less than 10 seconds, employing ultrafast single-scan 2D NMR detection. As experimental examples PHIP-assisted ultrafast single-scan TOCSY spectra of SFTI-1 are shown.