Monodisperse Cylindrical Micelles of Controlled Length with a Liquid‐Crystalline Perfluorinated Core by 1D “Self‐Seeding”

Precise control over the morphology and dimensions of block copolymer (BCP) micelles has attracted interest due to the potential of this approach to generate functional nanostructures. Incorporation of liquid crystalline (LC) block can provide additional ways to vary micellar morphologies, but the formation of uniform micelles with controllable dimensions from LC BCPs has not yet been realized. Herein, we report the preparation of monodisperse cylindrical micelles with a LC poly(2‐(perfluorooctyl)ethyl methacrylate (PFMA) core via a fragmentation‐thermal annealing (F‐TA) process, resembling the “self‐seeding” process of crystalline BCP micelles. The average length of the cylinders increases with annealing temperature, with a narrow length distribution (L_w/L_n<1.1). We also demonstrate the potential application of the cylinders with LC cores as a cargo‐carrier by the successful incorporation of a hydrophobic fluorescent dye tagged with a fluorooctyl group.     

Self‐Sufficient Formaldehyde‐to‐Methanol Conversion by Organometallic Formaldehyde Dismutase Mimic

The catalytic networks of methylotrophic organisms, featuring redox enzymes for the activation of one‐carbon moieties, can serve as great inspiration in the development of novel homogeneously catalyzed pathways for the interconversion of C₁ molecules at ambient conditions. An imidazolium‐tagged arene–ruthenium complex was identified as an effective functional mimic of the bacterial formaldehyde dismutase, which provides a new and highly selective route for the conversion of formaldehyde to methanol in absence of any external reducing agents. Moreover, secondary amines are reductively methylated by the organometallic dismutase mimic in a redox self‐sufficient manner with formaldehyde acting both as carbon source and reducing agent.     

Vibrational spectra and fundamental structural assignments from HF and DFT calculations of methyl benzoate

The Fourier transform Raman and Fourier transform infrared spectra of methyl benzoate (MB) were recorded in the liquid phase. The equilibrium geometry, harmonic vibrational frequencies, infrared intensities and Raman scattering activities, depolarization ratios, reduced masses were calculated by Hartree-Fock (HF) and density functional B3LYP method with the 6-311+G(d,p) basis set. The scaled theoretical wavenumbers showed very good agreement with the experimental values. The thermodynamic functions of the title compound were also performed at HF/6-311+G(d,p) and B3LYP/6-311+G(d,p) levels of theory. A detailed interpretations of the infrared and Raman spectra of methyl benzoate is reported. The theoretical spectrograms for FT-IR spectra of the title molecule have been constructed.     

Theoretical investigation of hyperthermal reactions at the gas-liquid interface: O (3P) and squalane

Hyperthermal collisions (5 eV) of ground-state atomic oxygen [O ((3)P)] with a liquid-saturated hydrocarbon, squalane (C(30)H(62)), have been studied using QM/MM hybrid "on-the-fly" direct dynamics. The surface structure of the liquid squalane is obtained from a classical molecular dynamics simulation using the OPLS-AA force field. The MSINDO semiempirical Hamiltonian is combined with OPLS-AA for the QM/MM calculations. In order to achieve a more consistent and efficient simulation of the collisions, we implemented a dynamic partitioning of the QM and MM atoms in which atoms are assigned to QM or MM regions based on their proximity to "seed" (open-shell) atoms that determine where bond making/breaking can occur. In addition, the number of seed atoms is allowed to increase or decrease as time evolves so that multiple reactive events can be described. The results show that H abstraction is the most important process for all incident angles, with H elimination, double H abstraction, and C-C bond cleavage also being important. A number of properties of these reactive channels, as well as inelastic nonreactive scattering, are investigated, including angular and translational energy distributions, the effect of incident collision angle, variation with depth of the reactive event within the liquid, with the reaction site on the hydrocarbon, and the effect of dynamics before and after reaction (direct reaction versus trapping reaction-desorption).     

Significant nonadiabatic effects in the S(1D) + HD reaction

A nonadiabatic quantum dynamics calculation involving four coupled potential energy surfaces (two degenerate 3A' ', one 3A', and one 1A') and the spin-orbit coupling matrix for these states is reported for the title reaction. The results show that the important discrepancy between theoretically calculated and experimentally measured intramolecular isotope effects can at least in part be attributed to significant nonadiabatic effects.     

Latrunculin analogues with improved biological profiles by "diverted total synthesis": preparation, evaluation, and computational analysis

Deliberate digression from the blueprint of the total syntheses of latrunculin A (1) and latrunculin B (2) reported in the accompanying paper allowed for the preparation of a focused library of "latrunculin-like" compounds, in which all characteristic structural elements of these macrolides were subject to pertinent molecular editing. Although all previously reported derivatives of 1 and 2 were essentially devoid of any actin-binding capacity, the synthetic compounds presented herein remain fully functional. One of the designer molecules with a relaxed macrocyclic backbone, that is compound 44, even surpasses latrunculin B in its effect on actin while being much easier to prepare. This favorable result highlights the power of "diverted total synthesis" as compared to the much more widely practiced chemical modification of a given lead compound by conventional functional group interconversion. A computational study was carried out to rationalize the observed effects. The analysis of the structure of the binding site occupied by the individual ligands on the G-actin host shows that latrunculin A and 44 both have similar hydrogen-bond network strengths and present similar ligand distortion. In contrast, the H-bond network is weaker for latrunculin B and the distortion of the ligand from its optimum geometry is larger. From this, one may expect that the binding ability follows the order 1 >/= 44 > 2, which is in accord with the experimental data. Furthermore, the biological results provide detailed insights into structure/activity relationships characteristic for the latrunculin family. Thus, it is demonstrated that the highly conserved thiazolidinone ring of the natural products can be replaced by an oxazolidinone moiety, and that inversion of the configuration at C16 (latrunculin B numbering) is also well accommodated. From a purely chemical perspective, this study attests to the maturity of ring-closing alkyne metathesis (RCAM) catalyzed by a molybdenum alkylidyne complex generated in situ, which constitutes a valuable tool for advanced organic synthesis and natural product chemistry.     

Structural, solid-state NMR and theoretical studies of the inverse-coordination of lithium chloride using group 13 phosphide hosts

The reaction of MeAlCl2 with 'PhPLi2' in THF gives [{MeAl(PPh)3Li(4).3 THF}4(mu4-Cl)]-Li+ (1). The GaIII and InIII analogues, [{MeE(PPh)3Li(4).3 THF}4(mu4-Cl)]-Li+(THF)3 (E=Ga (2), In (3)), are obtained by the in situ reactions of MeECl2 with PhPLi2 in THF. For all of the complexes, the cage anions have an unusual cubic arrangement that is similar to a zeolite, and contain large voids (ca. 17 A). The location of the Li+ counterions in 1-3 and their coordination environment appears to subtly reflect variations in packing and lattice energy. Whereas in 1 highly mobile, loosely coordinated Li+ counterions are present, 2 and 3 contain less mobile THF-solvated counterions within the cavities. X-ray crystallographic and solid-state NMR studies are reported on 1-3, together with model DFT calculations on the selectivity of halide coordination.     

Detection, characterization, and quantification of resveratrol glycosides in transgenic arabidopsis over-expressing a sorghum stilbene synthase gene by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry

Transgenic Arabidopsis plants were analyzed by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) to investigate the glycosylation patterns of resveratrol derived from expression of a sorghum stilbene synthase gene. In negative ionization mode, the different resveratrol derivatives fragmented to yield the diagnostic deprotonated resveratrol ion at m/z 227.2. The use of precursor ion scanning led to the identification of precursor ions for different resveratrol glycosides through rapid differentiation from other phytochemical constituents. Structural information was generated simultaneously from the low-collision-energy product ion spectra using hybrid linear ion-trap mass spectrometry. Three additional resveratrol-related metabolites - a resveratrol diglucoside (M1) and trans- and cis-resveratrol acetylhexosides (M2 and M3) - were detected in the crude plant extracts. The identities of M1, M2, and M3 were confirmed by accurate mass analysis on a quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer as well as beta-glucosidase digestion or UV-induced isomerization. Quantitative analyses by LC/MS in multiple reaction monitoring mode revealed that resveratrol diglucoside and cis-resveratrol acetyhexoside accumulated up to 2.79 and 10.38 microg/g, respectively, while trans-resveratrol acetylhexoside was barely detectable. This study demonstrated the power of the hybrid linear ion-trap technology for simultaneous profiling and structural characterization of stilbene-related metabolites, which would be useful to understand how resveratrol is modified in sorghum and other plants.