The combination of 2-NsNH2/NCS and MeCN as the nitrogen sources for the regio- and stereoselective formation of imidazolines from α,β-unsaturated ketones

A new nitrogen source combination was found for the regio- and stereoselective diamination of α,β-unsaturated ketones. This combination employs the readily available and inexpensive combination of NCS and 2-NsNH₂ as the electrophilic nitrogen source, and acetonitrile as the nucleophilic nitrogen source, respectively. The reaction is easily performed by mixing olefin, 2-NsNH₂, NCS and 4 Å molecular sieves in freshly distilled acetonitrile at room temperature. The reaction is chemoselective without the formation of any haloamine side products. A new aziridinium ion formed from enones and 2-NsNHCl is suggested to exist and to react with nitrile via a [2+3] cycloaddition mechanism, which is responsible for the excellent regio-, stereoselectivity of the resulting diamination products.     

Relationship between bond angle disorder and the optical edge of aGe:H

We report changes in optical absorption and Raman spectra of a-Ge:H when H content is increased from 0 to 16 atomic %. Increasing H content increases the optical gap by 0.4eV, sharpens the absorption tail by a factor of two and decreases bond angle fluctuations by 2⁰. We conclude that H can affect the optical edge by decreasing network disorder.     

Fluorescence sensing based on cation-induced conformational switching: copper-selective modulation of the photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer of a donor-acceptor biphenyl fluorophore

The fluorescence emission energy of donor-acceptor substituted biphenyls is highly sensitive towards conformational changes of the interannular twist angle. By integrating 4-dimethylamino-4′-cyano-biphenyl into the ligand backbone of a thioether-rich metal receptor we designed a fluorescence sensor that exhibits high selectivity towards copper. Upon metal binding the ligand undergoes a significant conformational change, which induces a strong hypsochromic shift of the photoinduced charge-transfer emission. Steady-state absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy revealed a high affinity towards Cu(I) with a well-defined 1:1 metal-ligand complex stoichiometry. The nature of the conformational changes upon Cu(I) coordination were analyzed in detail by ¹H NMR and 2D NOESY experiments. The spectroscopic data provide a coherent picture, which is consistent with a Boltzmann ground-state distribution of several rotamers that are locked into a more flattened geometry upon coordination of Cu(I).