Synthesis of new porphyrins with peripheral conjugated chelates and their use for the preparation of porphyrin dimers linked by metal ions

This article describes the preparation of several new porphyrins bearing chelating peripheral groups fully conjugated with the macrocyclic pi-system. Treatment of a 2-nitro-meso-tetraarylporphyrin with phosphite gave a cyclic enamine, whose formylation gave an enaminoaldehyde. The thio analogue was obtained on treatment with Lawesson's reagent. The same reagent was also used to obtain the isomeric thioenaminoketone chelates. A enaminoketone ligand was prepared from a porphyrinic pyrrolone. All these ligands, as internal nickel complexes, could be metalated with palladium to yield porphyrinic dimers. The dimers obtained from enaminoketones and thioketones show a trans geometry, while in the enaminoaldehyde and -thioaldehyde series the cis isomer is thermodynamically favored. The bathochromic shifts of the electronic spectra of the aldehyde-derived dimers illustrate the strong electronic effect of peripheral metalation and dimerization. However, in the case of the pyrrolone-derived ligand, opposite effects were observed, due to partial reconstitution of the porphyrin chromophore on complexation. As with the dimers derived from enaminoketones, the dimers derived from the new ligands show typical splitting (up to 190 mV) of the electrochemical waves confirming large porphyrin-porphyrin interactions.     

Higher order speciation effects on plutonium L(3) X-ray absorption near edge spectra

Pu L(3) X-ray near edge absorption spectra for Pu(0-VII) are reported for more than 60 chalcogenides, chlorides, hydrates, hydroxides, nitrates, carbonates, oxy-hydroxides, and other compounds both as solids and in solution, and substituted in zirconolite, perovskite, and borosilicate glass. This large database extends the known correlations between the energy and shape of these spectra from the usual association of the XANES with valence and site symmetry to higher order chemical effects. Because of the large number of compounds of these different types, a number of novel and unexpected behaviors are observed, such as effects resulting from the medium and disorder that can be as large as those from valence.     

Large cyclic peptides as cores of multivalent ligands: application to inhibitors of receptor binding by cholera toxin

Large cyclic decapeptides (up to 50-atom ring) were synthesized efficiently on the solid phase with allyl-ester protection of the carboxyl terminus during elongation. Pentavalent ligands, in a "core-linker-finger" modular setup, were assembled by using these cyclic peptide cores to demonstrate large affinity gains for inhibition of surface receptor binding by the cholera toxin B pentamer. The results suggest that the peptide cores retain expanded conformation in solution so that shorter flexible linkers are needed for larger peptide cores to achieve the best inhibitory results.     

A direct meta-lithiation route to 1,3-disubstituted ferrocenes

Ferrocenyl sulfides afford meta-lithiation products with up to 94% regioselectivity on reaction with s-BuLi; the resulting 1,3-disubstituted ferrocenes can then be reacted with a variety of electrophiles.     

Synthesis of 4,4-difluoroglycosides using ring-closing metathesis

4-Deoxy-4,4-difluoro-glycosides have been synthesised for the first time via a direct sequence involving ring-closing metathesis and indium-mediated difluoroallylation with 1-bromo-1,1-difluoropropene in water. Two protecting group strategies were explored, one to allow protection of the primary C-6 hydroxyl group throughout the sequence, while the second was intended to allow deprotection after RCM and before dihydroxylation. The benzyl ether could be used in the first role, and pivaloyl is effective in the second. Dihydroxylations were highly stereoselective and controlled by the orientation of the glycosidic C-O bond.     

Stereoselective synthesis of the lituarine tricyclic spiroacetal

[reaction: see text] Oxidative cyclizations of 2-(4-hydroxybutyl)furan derivatives provide spirobutenolide acetals directly; on the basis of this methodology, we describe an asymmetric synthesis of a tricyclic spirobutenolide precursor to the C(7-18) fragment common to lituarines A-C.     

Buttressing effects on haloarene deprotonation: a merely kinetic or also thermodynamic phenomenon?

(2,6-Dichlorophenyl)- and (2,6-dibromophenyl)trialkylsilanes undergo hydrogen/metal interconversion preferentially at the 4- rather than 3-position. However, the organometallic species generated by such a "meta metalation" are thermodynamically less stable (i.e., more basic) than those that would result from an ordinary "ortho metalation". This was demonstrated by equilibration experiments based on permutational halogen/metal interconversion. A new buttressing effect can explain the unprecedented regioselectivity. It is supported by X-ray structures that reveal marked deformations of the benzene ring in halophenylsilanes. [structure: see text]     

A potentially divergent and rapid route to analogues of deoxycyclitols, pentopyranoses, 6-deoxyhexoses, and hexoses

Direct precursors to analogues of pentopyranoses, 6-deoxyhexoses, and hexoses, in which a CF(2) center replaces the pyranose oxygen, have been synthesized rapidly from trifluoroethanol. A simple scaleable allylation reaction delivers ethers which undergo dehydrofluorination/metalation, followed by addition to either acrolein or cinnamaldehyde, to afford allylic alcohols. Fluorine-assisted [3,3]-rearrangement followed by reduction with sodium borohydride delivers diols, which undergo RCM smoothly to afford cyclohexene diols.     

Laplace Operators on Fractal Lattices with Random Blow-Ups

Starting from a finitely ramified self-similar set X we can construct an unbounded set X by blowing-up the initial set X. We consider random blow-ups and prove elementary properties of the spectrum of the natural Laplace operator on X (and on the associated lattice). We prove that the spectral type of the operator is almost surely deterministic with the blow-up and that the spectrum coincides with the support of the density of states almost surely (actually, our result is more precise). We also prove that if the density of states is completely created by the so-called Neuman–Dirichlet eigenvalues, then almost surely the spectrum is pure point with compactly supported eigenfunctions.