Some intramolecular rearrangements when pentofuranoses are treated with diethylaminosulphur trifluoride (DAST)

Treatment of methyl 2,3-O-isopropylidene-β- -ribofuranoside with DAST gave a goodyield of 2,3-O-isopropylidene-5-O-methyl-β- -ribofuranosyl fluoride in which the methoxygroup had migrated from C-1 → C-5 and been replaced with retention of configurationby fluorine. The corresponding aldehyde when treated under similar conditions underwenta similar migration to give 5-deoxy-5-fluoro-2,3-O-isopropylidene-5-O-methyl-β- -ribofuranosylfluoride. A similar migration occurred with methyl 2′,3′-di-O-acetyl-β- -ribofuranosideand with acetyl 2,3-O-isopropylidene - -ribofuranose but not with 1,2,3-tri-O-acetyl- -ribofuranose. Thus the migration depends upon the migratory aptitude of thesubstituent at C-1 and the conformation of the furanose ring. Two ribofuranosyl fluorideswere used as starting materials from which to make nucleosides by the method of Noyoriand Hayoshi.     

Structural and rate studies of the formation of substituted benzynes

The key elimination step for the formation of 3-substituted and 3,6-disubstituted benzynes from 2-haloaryllithiums displays a pronounced solvent-dependent regioselectivity. All 2-haloaryllithiums with electron withdrawing groups in the 6 position are shown by 6Li and 13C NMR spectroscopic studies to be monomers in THF. DFT computational studies implicate trisolvates. Rate studies reveal that LiF eliminates via monomer-based pathways requiring THF dissociation whereas LiCl eliminates via nondissociative pathways. Elimination to form 3-chloro- and 3-fluorobenzyne from 2-chloro-6-fluorophenyllithium displays a pronounced solvent-dependent regioselectivity that is traced to competing solvent-dissociative and nondissociative dissociative pathways for the elimination of LiCl and LiF, respectively.     

Molecular salts with diquat-based electron acceptors for nonlinear optics

We have used several techniques, including Stark spectroscopy and MO calculations, to investigate the optical and electronic properties of two new dipolar chromophoric cations containing diquat-based electron acceptor groups. Both the Stark data and the calculated parameters show that the strong electron-accepting properties of a diquat unit lead to static first hyperpolarizabilities beta0 which are considerably larger than those of a related stilbazolium chromophore. In addition, one compound has a strongly 2D quadratic NLO response, providing a very rare example of a charged molecule displaying such behavior.     

Meson production in p + d reactions

Total and differential cross sections for the reactions p + d → ³He + m ⁰ with m=π, η and p + d → ³H+π⁺ were measured with the GEM detector at COSY for beam momenta between threshold and the maximum of the corresponding baryon resonance. For both reactions a strong forward-backward asymmetry was found. The data were compared with model calculations. The aspect of isospin symmetry breaking is studied. Representing the GEM Collaboration