A high-yielding supramolecular reaction

The X-ray crystal structure determinations of twelve cocrystals involving iso-nicotinamide and a variety of carboxylic acids have revealed a very consistent pattern of hydrogen-bond preferences. The combination of a monocarboxylic acid, an amide, and a pyridine moiety leads, in every case, to discrete "supermolecules" (consisting of two molecules of iso-nicotinamide and two molecules of the relevant carboxylic acid) with well-defined and robust connectivity. The two dominant (regularly occurring) supramolecular synthons in these crystal structures are (1) the heteromeric carboxylic acid.pyridine hydrogen bond and (2) a self-complementary amide.amide hydrogen-bond interaction, both of which prevail in the presence of widely differing chemical functionalities. In four of these cocrystals, a dicarboxylic acid is employed, which alters the structural outcome from discrete entities to infinite assemblies (or to a hexameric complex in a "U-shaped" dicarboxylic acid), which is fully expected since the two primary supramolecular synthons remain intact. This structural study shows that iso-nicotinamide is a supramolecular reagent that can produce well-defined supermolecules (containing carboxylic acids) in very high yields.     

Allenes and acetylens—XXIII1: Synthesis of α-allenic amines via allenic imines obtained from organocopper reactions

N-2,3-alkadienyldiphenylmethanimines 5a-h are formed in moderate yields in 1,3-substitution reactions (S_N2′) of propargylic sulfonates with an organocopper reagent derived from metalated N-methyldiphenylmethanimine 1 and Me₂S·CuBr. The imines can be readily hydrolyzed to primary α-allenic amines. Alkylation of the imines with methyl fluorosulfonate followed by hydrolysis gives N-methyl-subsituted secondary α-allenic amines.     

Solubility of gold nanoparticles as a function of ligand shell and alkane solvent

The solubility of ca. 5.0 nm gold nanoparticles was studied systematically as a function of ligand shell and solvent. The ligands were octane-, decane-, dodecane- and hexadecanethiols; the solvents were the n-alkanes from hexane to hexadecane and toluene. Supernatant concentrations in equilibrium with precipitated superclusters of nanoparticles were measured at room temperature (23 °C) with UV-Vis spectrophotometry. The solubility of nanoparticles ligated with decane- and dodecanethiol was greatest in n-decane and n-dodecane, respectively. In contrast, the solubility of nanoparticles ligated with octane- and hexadecanethiol showed decreasing solubility with increasing solvent chain length. In addition the solubility of the octanethiol ligated system showed a nonmonotonic solvent carbon number functionality with even numbered solvents being better solvents than neighboring odd numbered solvents.     

Speciation in Vanadium Bioinorganic Systems. 2. An NMR, ESR, and Potentiometric Study of the Aqueous H(+)-Vanadate-Maltol System

A systematic study of the physiologically interesting vanadium-maltol (V-MaH) system has been performed in 0.150 M Na(Cl) at 25 degrees C, using NMR, ESR, and potentiometric techniques. Complexation occurs within a wide pH range, from around 1 up to 10.5. However, a pH-, concentration-, and time-dependent spontaneous reduction of vanadium(V) to vanadium(IV) occurs. From ESR spectra the conditions for this reduction are evaluated and discussed. From potentiometric (glass electrode) and quantitative (51)V NMR measurements, the full speciation in the H(+)-H(2)VO(4)(-)-MaH system was determined in the pH range 5-10.5. Data were evaluated with the computer program LAKE, which is able to treat combined emf and NMR data. The pK(a) value for MaH was determined to be 8.437 +/- 0.005. In the ternary system, three complexes are formed: VMa(2)(-), VMa(-), and VMa(2)(-), having log beta(0,1,2) = 7.02 +/- 0.03, log beta(0,1,1) = 2.66 +/- 0.05, and log beta(-)(1,1,1) = -7.37 +/- 0.21. The errors given are 3sigma. The VMa(2)(-) complex appears as the main species in a pH range from 4.5 to 8.5, whereas both mononuclear monoligand species are minor. Equilibrium conditions are illustrated in distribution diagrams, and the structures of the complexes formed are proposed.     

Spin coupling in shake-up processes

The treatment of spin coupling in calculations of shake-up states in core photoelectron processes is reviewed and the problems arising when the equivalent core approximation is used to model the core hole are discussed. A method for approximating the intensity of the triplet-coupled doublet state in semiempirical calculations is proposed. The intensities of the triplet-coupled doublet states in N₂, formaldehyde, and aniline core ionization spectra are calculated. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 63: 189–196, 1997     

Facile synthesis and supramolecular chemistry of hydrogen bond/halogen bond-driven multi-tasking tectons

Hydrogen bonds and halogen bonds can be used as synthetic vectors without structural interference as long as the primary molecular recognition events are designed around a careful combination of geometric and electrostatic complementarity. In addition, a one-step procedure for the synthesis of tectons equipped with powerful hydrogen- and halogen-bond donors is presented.     

An Aminated GDP-Fucose Analog Useful in the Fucosyltransferase Catalyzed Addition of Biological Probes onto Oligosaccharide Chains1

Abstract

An analog (1) of GDP-fucose, where C-6 is derivatized with an eight-atom spacer terminating in a primary amino group, was chemically synthesized. This amino group in sugar nucleotide 1 can be acylated using an N-hydroxysuccinimide ester of biotin and it can be coupled to another molecule that also contains an amino group using squaric acid diethyl ester as the coupling reagent. In this way, biotin and a blood group A-active trisaccharide were linked to C-6 of fucose in GDP-fucose. Both complex sugar nucleotides thus prepared were active as donors for a human milk fucosyltransferase, which transferred the derivatized α-linked fucose residue to a glycoside of N-acetyllactosamine, thus labeling this sequence with either biotin or the blood-group A trisaccharide. Compound 1 is proposed as a general and versatile reagent which should permit the addition of biological probes to the sugar chains of cell surface glycoproteins or glycolipids.     

Analysis of tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines in snuff by ethyl acetate extraction and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

A rapid, selective and sensitive method for routine analysis of the four tobacco-specific N-nitrosamines, N'-nitrosonornicotine, N'-nitrosoanatabine, N'-nitrosoanabasine and 4-(methyl-nitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone in snuff has been developed. The nitrosamines were isolated by ethyl acetate extraction and analysed by LC-MS-MS. Except for evaporation and filtration, no additional clean-up steps are needed in the proposed method. The detection limits for standard in solvent are between 0.0005 and 0.001 microg/ml (0.005 and 0.01 microg/g).