Weak and robust ? Tetraalkylammonium salts of weakly coordinating fluorinated alkoxyaluminates are easily accessible, chemically robust materials that show interesting physico‐chemical properties like low melting points, high electrochemical stability and electric conductivity in weakly polar solvents such as CH2Cl2, Ph‐F and toluene.
The right fit : Plasmid DNA molecules show chirality‐dependent interaction with gold surfaces modified by L and D N‐isobutyrylcysteine. Relaxed DNA molecules have a stronger interaction and adsorption on the L surface, while their counterparts on the D surface maintain a supercoiled conformation, indicating a weak interaction (see picture).
Extreme makeover of cholesterol : Cholesterol exchange is a major reason for the instability of liposomes in blood. The formation of a covalent hybrid between cholesterol and glycerophosphocholine preserves the bilayer‐stabilizing effect of free cholesterol but prevents its transfer from the bilayer. Thus, disterolphospholipids (e.g. 1 ) are valuable new components for liposome formulation.
Don′t tell azole : The first metal‐catalyzed direct coupling of metal sulfides with aryl halides and subsequent intramolecular condensation provided substituted benzothiazoles (see scheme). A wide range of functional groups are tolerated under the reaction conditions.
Radical assembly : Halogen bonding has been observed for the first time between an isoindoline nitroxide and an iodoperfluorocarbon (see figure), which cocrystallize to form a discrete 2:1 supramolecular compound in which N? O.???I halogen bonding is the dominant intermolecular interaction. This illustrates the potential use of halogen bonding and isoindoline nitroxide tectons for the assembly of organic spin systems.
Positive discrimination : Chemo‐ and regioselective palladium‐catalyzed cycloetherification of allendiols, namely β,γ‐ and γ,δ‐allendiols, may occur by judicious choice of palladium‐catalyzed conditions owing to their potential ability to discriminate between both nucleophilic sites (see scheme).
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).
