Conformational landscape of l-threonine in neutral,acid and basic solutions from vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations

The biological relevance of amino acids is well known. They can be used as zwitterionic, cationic or anionic forms according to the pH of the medium where they are. Thus, our aim herein was to study the conformational preference of the polar amino acid l-threonine [C₄H₉NO₃, (2S,3R)-2-amino-3-hydroxybutyric acid] under different pH conditions. A conformational study in an aqueous solution of the dissociation equilibrium of the amino acid l-threonine was carried out for this purpose. We recorded, at room temperature, the Mid-IR, Far-IR, Raman and VCD spectra of l-threonine from the aqueous solutions at pH values 5.70 (zwitterionic species), 1.00 (protonated species) and 13.00 (deprotonated species). The number of conformers found with the conformational search was 9 zwitterions, 27 anions and 52 cations. Both the study of the conformational landscape and the theoretical analysis of the vibrational features were accomplished by using DFT and ab initio calculations, that is, B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory for all the conformers obtained from the conformational search, M062X/6-311++G(d,p) and MP2/6-311++G(d,p) levels of theory for the most stable conformers. The presence of water was included with the IEF-PCM implicit hydration model. With regard to the zwitterion, the importance of the analysis of the low frequency region (700–30 cm^–1) in the Far-IR spectra should be noted, because it provides relevant information that can be used to determine the presence of the most stable structures.     

Highly Selective Zeolite Topologies for Flue Gas Separation

The separation of carbon dioxide from flue gas is essential for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. In adsorptive methods, the challenge lies in the choice of suitable porous materials. Among all zeolite topologies, a number of adsorbents with pore dimensions in the range of the guest molecules were identified to allow an excellent separation by diffusion, and MRE and AFO zeolite topologies appear to be the best candidates based on equilibrium adsorption. Also, it was found that the behavior of this gas mixture in DFT and APD zeolites differed from the normal behavior.     

Photochemistry in Real Space: Batho- and Hypsochromism in the Water Dimer

The development of chemical intuition in photochemistry faces several difficulties that result from the inadequacy of the one-particle picture, the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, and other basic ideas used to build models. It is shown herein how real-space approaches can be efficiently used to gain valuable insights in photochemistry through a simple example of red and blue shift effects: the double hypso- and bathochromic shifts in the low-lying valence excited states of (H₂O)₂. It is demonstrated that 1) the use of these techniques allows the perturbative language used in the theory of intermolecular interactions, even in the strongly interacting short-range regime, to be maintained; 2) one and only one molecule is photoexcited in each of the addressed excited states and 3) the electrostatic interaction between the in-the-cluster molecular dipoles provides a fairly intuitive rationalisation of the observed batho- and hypsochromism. The methods exploited and illustrated herein are able to maintain the individuality and properties of the interacting entities in a molecular aggregate, and thereby they allow chemical intuition in general states, at any geometry and using a broad variety of electronic structure methods to be kept and built.     

A Germylene Supported by Two 2-Pyrrolylphosphane Groups as Precursor to PGeP Pincer Square-Planar Group 10 Metal(II) and T-Shaped Gold(I) Complexes

An efficient synthesis of 2-di-tert-butylphosphanylmethylpyrrole (HpyrmPtBu₂), by treating 2-dimethylaminomethylpyrrole (HpyrmNMe₂) with tBu₂PH at 135 °C in the absence of any solvent, has allowed the preparation of the new PGeP germylene Ge(pyrmPtBu₂)₂ ( 1 ), by treating [GeCl₂(dioxane)] with LipyrmPtBu₂, in which the Ge atom is stabilized by intramolecular interactions with one (solid state) or both (solution) of its phosphane groups. Reactions of germylene 1 with Group 10 metal dichlorido complexes containing easily displaceable ligands have led to [MCl{κ³P,Ge,P-GeCl(pyrmPtBu₂)₂}] [M=Ni ( 2 ), Pd ( 3 ), Pt ( 4 )], which have an unflawed square-planar metal environment. Treatment of germylene 1 with [AuCl(tht)] (tht=tetrahydrothiophene) rendered [Au{κ³P,Ge,P-GeCl(pyrmPtBu₂)₂}] ( 5 ), which is a rare case of a T-shaped gold(I) complex. The hydrolysis of 5 gave the linear gold(I) derivative [Au(κP-HpyrmPtBu₂)₂]Cl ( 6 ). Complexes 2 – 5 contain a PGeP pincer chloridogermyl ligand that arises from the insertion of the Ge atom of germylene 1 into a M−Cl bond of the corresponding metal reagent. The bonding in these molecules has been studied by DFT/NBO/QTAIM calculations. These results demonstrate that the great flexibility of germylene 1 makes it a better precursor to PGeP pincer complexes than the previously known germylenes of this type.     

Asymmetric Carboxycyanation of Aldehydes by Cooperative AlF/Onium Salt Catalysts: from Cyanoformate to KCN as Cyanide Source

Asymmetric 1,2-additions of cyanide yield enantioenriched cyanohydrins as versatile chiral building blocks. Next to HCN, volatile organic cyanide sources are usually used. Among them, cyanoformates are more attractive on technical scale than TMSCN for cost reasons, but catalytic productivity is usually lower. Here, the development of a new strategy for cyanations is described, in which this activity disadvantage is overcome. A Lewis acidic Al center cooperates with an aprotic onium moiety within a remarkably robust bifunctional Al–F–salen complex. This allowed for unprecedented turnover numbers of up to 10⁴. DFT studies suggest an unexpected unique trimolecular pathway in which the ammonium bound cyanide attacks the aldehyde, which itself is activated by the carbonyl group of the cyanoformate binding to the Al center. In addition, a novel practical carboxycyanation method was developed that makes use of KCN as the sole cyanide source. The use of a pyrocarbonate as carboxylating reagent provided the best results.     

Uncertainty Inequality for the Entanglement of Both Two-rebits and Two-qubits States

We assume that both the concurrence C_r of a two-rebits state and the concurrence C_q of the usual two-qubits states are represented by hermitian operators (observables). We calculate the respective uncertainty ΔC_r and the uncertainty ΔC_q measured both as the standard deviation . We make the strictly mathematical assumption that there exists a canonical conjugate variable (called ξ) to the concurrence (C) such that both quantities satisfy a Robertson’s [1] uncertainty inequality of the form \( {\left(\Delta A\right)}^2{\left(\Delta B\right)}^2>{\left|\frac{1}{2}\left\langle \right[A,B\left]\right\rangle \right|}^2 \). From such inequality we impose bounds for both uncertainties Δξ_r and Δξ_q.

     

Two Types of σ-Allenyl Complexes from Reactions of Silylenes and Germylenes with Chromium Fischer Alkynyl(alkoxy)carbenes

The reactivity of amidinatotetrylenes of the type E(tBu₂bzm)R¹ (E=Si, Ge; tBu₂bzm=N,N′-bis(tertbutyl)benzamidinate; R¹=alkyl or aryl) with the chromium Fischer alkynylcarbene complexes [Cr{C(OEt)C₂R²}(CO)₅] (R²=Ph; ferrocenyl, Fc) has been studied. At room temperature, two different reaction pathways have been identified: (a) attack of the amidinatotetrylene to the alkynyl C² atom (γ-attack), which leads to σ-allenyl complexes in which the original C_carbene atom maintains its attachment to the Cr(CO)₅ and OEt groups (compounds 3 ), and (b) attack of the amidinatotetrylene to the C_carbene atom (α-attack), which ends in σ-allenyl complexes in which the original C_carbene atom is not attached to the metal atom and has been inserted into an E−N bond of the amidinatotetrylene forming an E-C-N-C-N five-membered ring (compounds 4 ). It has been found that compounds 3 are thermodynamically less stable than their corresponding 4 isomers and that some of the former (E=Ge; R¹=CH₂SiMe₃) can be transformed into the latter upon heating. At high temperatures (>70 °C) the reactions involving bulky amidinatotetrylenes (R¹=Mes, tBu) end in the carbene-substitution products [Cr{E(tBu₂bzm)R¹}(CO)₅].     

Synthesis of Polysubstituted Symmetrical BODIPYs via Fischer Carbene Complexes: Theoretical,Photophysical and Electrochemical Evaluation

A series of new symmetrical highly substituted BODIPYs 6 a – l was synthesized through a prefunctionalization approach in 35 %–89 % yields from the pyrrole core. This strategy allowed modulation of the substituents at the different positions based on the choice of Fischer's alkynyl carbenes, oxazolones and aldehydes used as precursors. The substituent variation at positions 2, 6, 3 and 5 had the greatest effect on the modulation of their photophysical properties such as absorption (λ_abs) and emission (λ_em) wavelengths, extinction coefficient (ϵ), quantum yields (ϕ), Stokes shifts (Δν), fluorescence decay, radiative (k_rad) and non-radiative (k_nr) constants and the CIE 1931 coordinates. Theoretical calculations allowed to corroborate the effect of the substituents of meso-position on the modification of the dihedral angles. Cyclic voltammetry studies revealed that the BODIPY series presents similar redox potential behavior, being electrochemically active even in successive cycles, which suggests that transport by diffusion is the dominant process.     

Rapid Discrimination of Crystal Handedness by X-ray Natural Circular Dichroism (XNCD) Mapping

An original method for determining the handedness of individual non-centrosymmetric crystals in a mixture using a tightly-focused, circularly polarized X-ray beam is presented. The X-ray natural circular dichroism (XNCD) spectra recorded at the metal K-edge on selected crystals of [Δ-M(en)₃](NO₃)₂ and [Λ-M(en)₃](NO₃)₂ (M=Co^II, Ni^II) show extrema at the metal pre-edge (7712 eV for Co, 8335 eV for Ni). A mapping of a collection of some 220 crystals was performed at the respective energies by using left and right circular polarizations. The difference in absorption for the two polarizations, being either negative or positive, directly yielded the handedness of the crystal volume probed by the beam. By using this technique, it was found that the addition of l -ascorbic acid during the synthesis of [Co(en)₃](NO₃)₂ resulted in an enantiomeric enrichment of the Λ-isomer of 67±13 %, whereas the Ni analogue was similarly, but conversely, enriched in the Δ-isomer (65±22 %).