Round and round : Covalently bound spokes induce an efficient template‐directed cyclization towards a rigid molecular wheel (see figure) and afford dramatically increased shape‐persistence properties compared with non‐strutted macrocycles.
Towards cooler solid oxide fuel cells: Disorder and dimensionality (see picture) play an important role in determining ion mobility of bulk and artificially nanolayered materials and should be considered in the design of new electrolytes with enhanced conductivity.
Clicking iron : Cheap and environmentally friendly [Fe(OAc)2] is used for the catalysis of cycloadditions between aryl nitriles and trimethylsilyl azide to prepare substituted 1H‐tetrazoles in good yield (see scheme).
To bend about : The conformations of three phenyl‐C‐galactosides in solution were evaluated by using theoretical calculations and NMR spectroscopic studies. The α‐CF2 derivative (see scheme) showed significant flexibility of the pyranose ring and around the pseudoanomeric center, whereas the other two analogues more closely resemble the natural galactosides. Regardless, all three compounds bind to a plant lectin.
Functionalized spiroacetals have been easily prepared in a one‐pot three‐component coupling process that involves the reaction of pentynol derivatives, salicylaldehydes, and amines in the presence of catalytic amounts of a palladium(II) complex (see scheme). Alternatively, oxygen‐substituted spiroacetals can be obtained by using orthoesters as the third component.
Aryl–alkyl cross‐coupling products are obtained by the iron‐catalyzed oxidative heterocoupling of organozinc reagents under mild conditions. This novel reaction pathway is versatile, allowing for the use of primary and secondary aliphatic diorganozinc reagents as coupling partners as well as tolerating functionalized aryl‐ and alkylzinc reagents.
Direct visualization of photoinduced tunneling charge transfer (TCT) in an Au5/para‐aminothiophenol (PATP)/Ag6 junction in which Au and Ag clusters form the first and second layer, respectively, is provided by the charge difference density (see picture; green and red stand for holes and electrons, respectively).