Elucidating the hard/soft acid/base principle: a perspective based on half-reactions

A comprehensive analysis is presented for the acid-base double-exchange reaction as well as the associated acid-displacement and base-displacement "half-reactions" with the goal of elucidating the meaning of the hard/soft acid/base (HSAB) principle and the conditions for its validity. When electron-transfer effects are important and other effects are negligible, the HSAB principle is driven by the surpassing stability of the soft acid/soft base product. When electrostatic effects dominate the reactivity, the HSAB principle is driven by the surpassing stability of the hard acid/hard base product. Because electron-transfer effects favor soft/soft interactions, while electrostatic effects favor hard/hard interactions, acid-base exchange reactions may be used to determine whether a reagent's reactivity is dominated by electron-transfer or by electrostatic effects. Because electron-transfer and electrostatic considerations separately favor the HSAB principle whenever the electronic chemical potentials of the acids and bases involved in the reaction are similar, our analysis provides strong support for the HSAB principle. The electronic chemical potential measures the intrinsic strength of acids and bases.     

Synthetic Photoelectrochemistry

Photoredox catalysis (PRC) and synthetic organic electrochemistry (SOE) are often considered competing technologies in organic synthesis. Their fusion has been largely overlooked. We review state‐of‐the‐art synthetic organic photoelectrochemistry, grouping examples into three categories: 1) electrochemically mediated photoredox catalysis (e‐PRC), 2) decoupled photoelectrochemistry (dPEC), and 3) interfacial photoelectrochemistry (iPEC). Such synergies prove beneficial not only for synthetic “greenness” and chemical selectivity, but also in the accumulation of energy for accessing super‐oxidizing or ‐reducing single electron transfer (SET) agents. Opportunities and challenges in this emerging and exciting field are discussed.     

Synthetic Paper

Synthetic paper can be made either by forming a web from synthetic fibers or by extruding a film from thermoplastic polymers. With suitable starting materials and appropriate treatment it is possible to equal the properties of conventional cellulose paper; in some respects, as in wet strength and dimensional stability, the synthetic papers are clearly superior.     

Synthetic Lectins

Improving on Mother Nature? The carbohydrate recognition demonstrated by supramolecular systems in water can now compete with that of natural systems, both in terms of affinity and selectivity. A synthetic carbohydrate receptor displays similar affinity for N‐acetyl‐D ‐glucosamine derivatives as the lectin wheat germ agglutinin and even greater selectivity (see picture: gray C, white H, blue N, red O).

     

Synthetic foldamers

Foldamers are artificial folded molecular architectures inspired by the structures and functions of biopolymers. This highlight focuses on important developments concerning foldamers produced by chemical synthesis and on the perspectives that these new self-organized molecular scaffolds offer. Progress in the field has led to synthetic objects that resemble small proteins in terms of size and complexity yet that may not contain any α-amino acids. Foldamers have introduced new tools and concepts to develop biologically active substances, synthetic receptors and novel materials.     

合成龙脑与合成樟脑制备新工艺初探

报道了一种制备合成龙脑与合成樟脑的新工艺。常压下异龙脑在一种含锌催化剂作用下 ,可部分脱氢生成樟脑 ,部分异构化生成龙脑。将此产物分离提纯后可同时得到合成樟脑与合成龙脑     

Synthetic catalytic pores

Catalytic activity of a synthetic multifunctional pore is studied in large unilamellar vesicles under conditions where substrate and synthetic catalytic pore (SCP) approach the membrane either from the same side (cis catalysis) or from opposite sides (trans catalysis). A synthetic supramolecular rigid-rod beta-barrel with excellent ion channel characteristics is identified as SCP using 8-acetoxypyrene-1,3,6-trisulfonate (AcPTS) as model substrate. The key finding is that application of supportive membrane potentials increases the initial velocity of AcPTS esterolysis (v0). This results in an increase of Vmax beyond experimental error (+30%), whereas KM increases less significantly. Long-range electrostatic steering by the membrane potential, possibly guiding substrates into the transmembrane catalyst and, more importantly, accelerating product release (foff = 1.3) is discussed as one possible explanation of this global reduction of catalyst saturation. Control experiments show, inter alia, that similarly strong changes do not occur with opposing membrane potentials.     

Synthetic Precious Stones

The first industrially feasible process for the synthesis of rubies was developed by Verneuil around the turn of the century. Progress in growing single crystals led in time to numerous other processes, some of which can be applied to the production of precious stones. In this way it became possible to synthesize the most important precious stones. Even crystals that do not occur in nature, but were originally of interest in other connections, have acquired importance for jewelry in recent years.     

Synthetic epoxy-mycolic acids

We report the synthesis of single enantiomers of epoxy-mycolic acids containing an α-methyl-trans-alkene or a cis-cyclopropane with structures that match those of major isomers of such molecules present in complex mixtures in Mycobacteria such as Mycobacterium fortuitum or Mycobacterium smegmatis     

Synthetic self-propelled nanorotors

Self-powered completely synthetic nanorotors have been prepared from barcoded gold-nickel nanorods having the gold end anchored to the surface of a silicon wafer; constant velocity circular movements are observed when hydrogen peroxide fuel is catalytically decomposed to oxygen at the unattached nickel end of the nanorod.     

合成双分子膜

合成双分子膜是近年来出现的一类重要的超分子化学体系。本文综述了该领域的研究现状和发展趋势, 着重讨论了合成双分子膜与生物膜功能密切相关的方面及引入的新概念。     

Synthetic Ditopic Receptors

A small, but emerging field of topical interest in supramolecularchemistry is ion-pair recognition, in which a host simultaneously binds both cationicand anionic guests. Details of these receptors, which combine, for example, crownethers and calixarenes for cation complexation, with Lewis acid centers, pyrroles, amidesor urea groups for anion recognition, will be discussed. The predicate of this approach,successfully achieved in certain instances, is that the binding of one guest ion caninduce electrostatic and conformational changes in the host, thereby enhancing thecomplexation of the counter ion.