Palladium mediated direct coupling of silylated arylalkynes with propargylic chlorides: an efficient access to functionalized conjugated allenynes

Pd/Cu-catalyzed one-pot reaction of 1-trimethylsilyl-2-arylalkynes with propargylic chlorides in the presence of TBAF is described. The present new procedure is applicable to a wide range of silylated arylalkynes with both electron-withdrawing and electron-donating substituents. Functionalized allenynes can thus be obtained in good yields without prior deprotection of the alkynes.     

Amphiphilic Fullerene‐Cholesterol Derivatives: Synthesis and Preparation of Langmuir and Langmuir‐Blodgett Films

Amphiphilic fullerene bis‐adducts 11 and 14 containing two and four cholesterol moieties, respectively, were prepared starting from the corresponding bis‐malonate derivatives. In a systematic study, their spreading behavior at the air‐water interface was compared to that of bis‐adduct 6 with no polar head‐group. Compared to 6 , for which some three‐dimensional aggregation occurs, the polar head‐group in 11 and 14 is responsible for an attractive interaction with the aqueous subphase, forcing the molecules towards the water surface into a two‐dimensional arrangement. Even if homogeneous Langmuir films were obtained with both 11 and 14 , only the films of 14 show a reversible compression/expansion behavior. This suggests that, by increasing the number of cholesterol subunits, the encapsulation of the C‐sphere in its addend is more efficient, thus preventing fullerene‐fullerene interactions and aggregation phenomena. The Langmuir films of 11 and 14 were also efficiently transferred onto hydrophilic quartz slides, yielding Langmuir‐Blodgett films.     

Photophysical properties of the ReI and RuII complexes of a new C60-substituted bipyridine ligand

The rhenium(I) and ruthenium(II) complexes of a fullerene-substituted bipyridine ligand have been prepared. Electrochemical studies indicate that some ground state electronic interaction between the fullerene subunit and the metal-complexed moiety are present in the Re(I) but not the Ru(II) complex. The photophysical properties have been investigated by steady-state and time-resolved UV/Vis-NIR luminescence spectroscopy and nanosecond laser flash photolysis in CH2Cl2 solution, and compared to those of the corresponding model compounds. Excitation of the methanofullerene moiety in the dyads does not lead to excited state intercomponent interactions. Instead, excitation of the metal-complexed unit shows that the lowest triplet metal-to-ligand-charge-transfer excited state ((3)MLCT) centered on the Re(I)- or Ru(II)-type unit is quenched with a rate constant of about 2.5 x 10(8) s(-1). The quenching is attributed to an electron-transfer (ElT) process leading to the reduction of the carbon sphere, as determined by luminescence spectroscopy for the Ru(II) dyad. Experimental detection of electron transfer in the Re(I) dyad is prevented due to the unfavorable absorption of the metal-complexed moiety relative to the fullerene unit. However, it can be postulated on the basis of energetic/kinetic arguments and by comparison with the Ru(II)-type array. The primary ElT process is followed by charge-recombination to give the lowest-lying fullerene triplet excited state (3C60) with quantitative yield, as determined by sensitized singlet oxygen luminescence experiments. Direct (3)MLCT-->3C60 triplet-triplet energy-transfer (EnT) does not successfully compete with ElT since it is highly exoergonic and located in the Marcus inverted region. The quantum yield of singlet oxygen sensitization (Phi(delta)) of the Re(I)-based dyad is found to be lower (0.80) than for the corresponding Ru(II) derivative (1.0). This is likely to be the consequence of different conformational structures for the two dyads, rather than a different yield of 3C60 formation.     

Protein factors mediating selenoprotein synthesis

The amino acid selenocysteine represents the major biological form of selenium. Both the synthesis of selenocysteine and its co-translational incorporation into selenoproteins in response to an in-frame UGA codon, require a complex molecular machinery. To decode the UGA Sec codon in eubacteria, this machinery comprises the tRNASec, the specialized elongation factor SelB and the SECIS hairpin in the selenoprotein mRNAs. SelB conveys the Sec-tRNASec to the A site of the ribosome through binding to the SECIS mRNA hairpin adjacent to the UGA Sec codon. SelB is thus a bifunctional factor, carrying functional homology to elongation factor EF-Tu in its N-terminal domain and SECIS RNA binding activity via its C-terminal extension. In archaea and eukaryotes, selenocysteine incorporation exhibits a higher degree of complexity because the SECIS hairpin is localized in the 3' untranslated region of the mRNA. In the last couple of years, remarkable progress has been made toward understanding the underlying mechanism in mammals. Indeed, the discovery of the SECIS RNA binding protein SBP2, which is not a translation factor, paved the way for the subsequent isolation of mSelB/EFSec, the mammalian homolog of SelB. In contrast to the eubacterial SelB, the specialized elongation factor mSelB/EFSec the SECIS RNA binding function. The role is carried out by SBP2 that also forms a protein-protein complex with mSelB/EFSec. As a consequence, an important difference between the eubacterial and eukaryal selenoprotein synthesis machineries is that the functions of SelB are divided into two proteins in eukaryotes. Obviously, selenoprotein synthesis represents a higher degree of complexity than anticipated, and more needs to be discovered in eukaryotes. In this review, we will focus on the structural and functional aspects of the SelB and SBP2 factors in selenoprotein synthesis.     

Manifestation of stereoelectronic effects on the calculated carbon-nucleophile bond lengths in nucleophilic addition to sterically unbiased ketones

Calculations at the B3LYP/6-311G(d,p) level of the structures of diastereoisomeric pairs of alcohols 1E-12E and 1Z-12Z, resulting from either reduction or methylation of sterically unbiased ketones show that the newly formed C-Nu bond lengths of the major isomers are larger than those of the minor isomers.     

Preparation of allyltin reagents grafted on solid support: clean and easily recyclable reagents for allylation of aldehydes

The preparation of polymer-supported allyltin reagents was shown to be possible for both unfunctionalized and functionalized allyl units. These reagents were treated with aldehydes in the presence of cerium(III) or indium(III) salts to afford high yields of homoallylic alcohols, practically uncontaminated with organotin residues (less than 5 ppm). Some mechanism aspects are briefly discussed and the potential for regeneration and reuse of these supported reagents is pointed out.     

High-precision measurement of mercury isotope ratios in sediments using cold-vapor generation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

An on-line Hg reduction technique using stannous chloride as the reductant was applied for accurate and precise mercury isotope ratio determinations by multi-collector (MC)-ICP/MS. Special attention has been paid to ensure optimal conditions (such as acquisition time and mercury concentration) allowing precision measurements good enough to be able to significantly detect the anticipated small differences in Hg isotope ratios in nature. Typically, internal precision was better than 0.002% (1 RSE) on all Hg ratios investigated as long as approximately 20 ng of Hg was measured with a 10-min acquisition time. Introducing higher amounts of mercury (50 ng Hg) improved the internal precision to <0.001%. Instrumental mass bias was corrected using ²⁰⁵Tl/²⁰³Tl correction coupled to a standard-sample bracketing approach. The large number of data acquired allowed us to validate the consistency of our measurements over a one-year period. On average, the short-term uncertainty determined by repeated runs of NIST SRM 1641d Hg standard during a single day was <0.006% (1 RSD) for all isotope pairs investigated (²⁰²Hg/¹⁹⁸Hg, ²⁰²Hg/¹⁹⁹Hg, ²⁰²Hg/²⁰⁰Hg, and ²⁰²Hg/²⁰¹Hg). The precision fell to <0.01% if the long-term reproducibility, taken over 11 months (over 100 measurements), was considered. The extent of fractionation has been investigated in a series of sediments subject to various Hg sources from different locations worldwide. The ratio ²⁰²Hg/¹⁹⁸Hg expressed as δ values (per mil deviations relative to NIST SRM 1641d Hg standard solution) displayed differences from +0.74 to −4.00‰. The magnitude of the Hg fractionation per amu was constant within one type of sample and did not exceed 1.00‰. Considering all results (the reproducibility of Hg standard solutions, reference sediment samples, and the examination of natural samples), the analytical error of our δ values for the overall method was within ±0.28‰ (1 SD), which was an order of magnitude lower than the extent of fractionation (4.74‰) observed in sediments. This study confirmed that analytical techniques have reached a level of long-term precision and accuracy that is sufficiently sensitive to detect even small differences in Hg isotope ratios that occur within one type of samples (e.g., between different sediments) and so far have unequivocally shown that Hg isotope ratios in sediments vary within approximately 5‰.     

Phebaclavin I, a novel 3-prenylated coumarin, and trichoclin acetate, a new natural furocoumarin, from the aerial parts of Phebalium aff. tuberculosum (Rutaceae)

Phebaclavin I, a novel 3-prenylated coumarin, was isolated from the aerial parts of Phebalium aff. tuberculosum (Rutaceae) together with five known related compounds, Phebaclavin A, B, D, G, H. The structure of phebaclavin I was established by spectroscopic methods. Several other known coumarins were obtained, including trichoclin acetate, a furocoumarin isolated for the first time from a natural source, but previously described from acetylation of trichoclin.