New route to gas‐phase OH. : UV photolysis of gaseous o‐nitrobenzaldehyde forms OH radicals via the transformation into the ketene or o‐nitrosobenzoic acid intermediate (see figure). The OH. product is monitored by single‐photon laser‐induced fluorescence (LIF).
Finely tuned optical properties : The optical properties of substituted protected catechol derivatives can be fine‐tuned (see scheme; TBDMS=tert‐butyldimethylsilyloxy). The DFT‐calculated polarisabilities are compared with experimental data.
Click to fill the gap : The in situ modular fabrication of molecular transport junctions in nanogaps generated by on‐wire lithography is achieved by using click chemistry (see picture). The formation of molecular junctions proceeds in high yields and can be used to test different molecules; the triazole group also maintains conjugation in the molecular wires. Raman spectroscopy is used to characterize the molecular assembly processes.
Fluorescent building blocks : Tetracarboxyamides with a central fluorescent diaminoterephthalate unit were prepared from succinyl succinates following a combinatorial‐like strategy. The 2,5‐diaminoterephthalates (see scheme; PG=protecting group) possess four points of diversification and are introduced as new scaffolds for combinatorial chemistry.
The center of it all : An antitumor‐active trinuclear platinum complex forms unprecedented interstrand cross‐linked triadducts with 18‐mer DNA duplexes (see figure; complex in yellow with the platinum centers in red) and behaves differently from its dinuclear analogue.
Well concealed : 1,2‐oxazines such as 1 rearrange under Lewis acidic conditions to bicyclic products of type 2 , which can be incorporated into oligosaccharides as protected amino sugar equivalents. Subsequent reductive steps provide unusual oligosaccharides 3 having C2‐branched 4‐amino sugar units. Most of the reactions proceed with excellent stereocontrol and allow the synthesis of a collection of stereoisomers.
Similar, but different : Possessing almost the same but not identical structures, the recently discovered natural products hopeahainol A ( 1 ) and hopeanol ( 2 ) exhibit important but differing biological properties (see structures). Their first total synthesis has now been achieved through a series of novel cascade reactions and skeletal rearrangements.
Hydrated ion nanocalorimetry is used to measure reduction energies and H atom affinities of gaseous hydrated ions by determining the energy deposited into these nanodrops from the number of water molecules lost upon reduction by thermally generated electrons (see figure).
Leading light : A series of zinc(II) bis‐terpyridine complexes (see picture) is investigated by means of DFT calculations combined with Bader's quantum theory of atoms in molecules. Raman spectroscopy experiments and studies of the electro‐optical properties of the complexes in solution and the solid state are also performed to examine their potential as new emissive materials in light‐emitting devices.
Bright polymers : Fluorescent coordination polymers made up of versatile functionalized bodipy (boron‐dipyrrin) chromophore building blocks, such as that depicted, are described. Polymerization is signaled by changes in fluorescence emission intensity and shifts in peak emission wavelengths.
