Traffic control : By exploiting the interplay of kinetic and thermodynamic effects, the direction of threading/dethreading in a nonsymmetric calixarene wheel can be selected by an appropriate choice of the head group incorporated in the molecular axle (see figure).
Two members of a family of pyrrole–imidazole marine alkaloids, (+)‐dibromophakellin and the nonnatural congener (+)‐phakellin, were synthesized enantioselectively from 4‐hydroxy‐L ‐proline. The chiral aminal at C10 was constructed efficiently by means of an Overman‐type [3,3] sigmatropic rearrangement of an enamide (see scheme).
Doing the hula twist? A photochemically stimulated inversion of an sp2‐hybridized oxygen atom upon simultaneous rotation of two adjacent bonds may be possible in a pure singlet excited potential energy surface in uninhibited fluid media (see scheme).
Secondary, but second to none : The use of secondary alkyl halides in transition‐metal‐catalyzed cross‐coupling reactions (see scheme) has advanced significantly over the last five years. Selected examples of these transformations are examined, including mechanistic and stereochemical aspects.
Buckle up! The dimerization of small fluorescent guests is strongly enhanced in presence of a cyclodextrin host. The host cavity acts like a belt to assist the self‐assembly of guests (see picture). Small variations in the guest structure have significant influence on the stability and geometry of the aggregates.
2009: A boraanthracene odyssey : General routes to boraanthracene derivatives—long proposed, but never observed—are disclosed, along with the structural and photophysical properties of these compounds and their remarkable reactivity towards oxygen.
No flame, no gain : A hypergolic mixture is composed of stable species that readily react/ignite on molecular contact. Both the anion and the cation in an ionic liquid play prominent roles in determining hypergolic properties as well as ignition delay times. With the 2,2‐dialkyltriazanium cation, salts with nitrate, chloride, nitrocyanamide, and dicyanamide anions are hypergolic.
The new approach of kinetically controlled ozone removal suppresses particle formation in laboratory ozonolysis experiments for methylcyclohexene and methylenecyclohexane (MCHa) at excess alkene concentrations (see graph). The results support the hypothesis that peroxy radicals are involved in organic nucleation and particle‐growth mechanisms.
Little hollow! Monodisperse ZnS hollow nanospheres (see figure) of about 200 nm in size have been fabricated on a large scale by a hydrothermal method and they show good photocatalytic activity in the decolorization of an aqueous solution of rhodamine B under UV irradiation.
