My favorite subject at school was Chemistry. I chose chemistry as a career because I love the fact we can “Just Do It” without over‐thinking. This and more about Wenbin Lin can be found on page 4472.
Fullerene flakes : A diacetylene‐functionalized fullerene derivative self‐organizes into flakelike microparticles (see picture). Both the diacetylene and C60 moieties can be effectively cross‐linked, which leads to supramolecular materials with remarkable resistivity to solvent, heat, and mechanical stress. Moreover, the surface of the cross‐linked flakelike objects is highly durable and water‐repellent.
A few‐state model predicts that spectral properties of some quadrupolar chromophores are affected by the application of static electric fields. These dyes can monitor neuronal activity (action potential), as a sensitive and versatile alternative to classical dipolar dyes and can also be used in organic LEDs: color‐tunable and/or white‐light emission is obtained by varying the working voltage (see chromaticity diagram).
Let's make 'meri' : Metal‐free direct alkenylation of indoles was realized by acid‐mediated substitution reactions of α‐oxo ketene dithioacetals with indoles in trifluoroacetic acid/dichloromethane, selectively affording β‐indolyl mono‐ and disubstituted α,β‐unsaturated carbonyl compounds (see scheme). Condensation of the indolyl/ketene monothioacetals and guanidine nitrate efficiently produced meridianin derivatives.
Molecular organization : Chiral benzene tricarboxamides with methyl substituents at defined positions self‐assemble into supramolecular polymers of preferred helicity by three‐fold α‐helical‐type hydrogen bonding. The odd–even effect is operative and all derivatives are liquid crystalline showing a Colho phase (see figure).
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).
Bisalen—very cooperative : A novel styryl‐substituted, unsymmetrical bisalen is shown to be a versatile precursor to both soluble and insoluble cooperative catalysts for the hydrolytic kinetic resolution of epoxides. The unique bisalen motif ensures all catalysts derived from it have the necessary molecular‐level ligand pairing needed for cooperative bimetallic catalytic reactions (see scheme).
Borenes and boranes : Silylaminoiminoborenes, such as depicted, were isolated after treatment of halogen triels with silylaminofluoroboranes. In addition, novel aryl‐ and silyl‐substituted diaminofluoroboranes were also prepared in order to substantiate this reaction route.
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.
