An Efficient Straightforward Synthesis of Benz[a]azulene

Benz[a]azulene ( 1 ) is synthesized in five steps (cf. Scheme 2) starting from commercially available 2-iodobenzyl alcohol ( 4 ) and tropylium tetrafluoroborate in an overall yield of 44%. The key step (cf. also Scheme 1) is the intramolecular Heck reaction of the 8-phenylsulfonyl-substituted heptafulvene 7 , which leads in nearly quantitative yield directly to 10-(phenylsulfonyl)benz[a]azulene ( 8 ). The desulfonylation of 8 can be accomplished by Julia's method with Na₂S₂O₄/NaHCO₃ in DMF/H₂O at 85–90°, thus leading to pure 1 in 78% yield. The phenylation of 8 with PhLi or PhCul at ?78° in THF occurs regioselectively at C(9). Dehydrogenation of the formed dihydroazulenes with o-chloroanil in toluene at room temperature gives 9-phenyl-10-(phenylsulfonyl)-benz[a]azulene ( 9 ) in 70% yield (cf. Scheme 3), which, again, can be desulfonylated with Na₂S₂O₄/NaHCO₃ in DMF/H₂O in good yields. The addition of PhLi to 1 in THF occurs at temperatures ? ?25°. Ionic dehydrogenation (1. Ph₃C⁺BF/MeCN; 2. Et₃N) of the dihydro forms leads to 3 , as the main product, and its positional isomers.     

Oxydative Kupplung von Indolinen und 1,2,3,4-Tetrahydrochinolinen mit Kaliumpermanganat. 153. Mitteilung über Alkaloide

It is shown that treatment of indolines like 4a-methyl-1,2,3,4,4a,9a-hexahydrocarbazole ( 1 ) and even indoline-alkaloids like 5 or 6 (cf. scheme 1) with KMnO₄ in boiling acetone solution leads to the indolenines 10, 29 and 33 , respectively, and, in relatively high yields, to N,N′- or C,N-coupling products (cf. schemes 2 and 5). The results of the oxidation of 6- or 8-methoxy-indolines are shown in schemes 3 and 4, respectively. Analogous ‘dimeric’ dehydrogenation products are observed when tetrahydroquinolines ( 8 and 9 , resp.) are treated with KMnO₄ (cf. schemes 7 and 8, resp.). The formation of the bis-compounds is almost certainly due to the coupling of two intermediate indolenyl or tetrahydroquinolyl radicals. The cleavage of the hydrazine derivatives 11 or 17 (scheme 9) also leads to ‘dimeric’ C,N-coupling products. By heating the hydrazine derivative 17 with aqueous HCl, a complete cleavage into indoline 2 and the indolenines 16 and 20 is observed. The reaction is rationalized in scheme 10. So far no naturally occurring alkaloids related to the above mentioned C,N-coupling products have been found.     

Pruning of orbits in four-disk and hyperbola billiards

It is shown that for the four-disk system and the hyperbola billiard it is possible to construct a new symbolic plane preserving the orientation existing in the dynamical space. Physical orbits are mapped into the topological well-ordered plane and it is shown that the forbidden and allowed orbits are separated by a monotone pruning front.     

Global optimization of univariate Lipschitz functions: II. New algorithms and computational comparison

We consider the following global optimization problems for a Lipschitz functionf implicitly defined on an interval [a, b]. Problem P: find a globally-optimal value off and a corresponding point; Problem Q: find a set of disjoint subintervals of [a, b] containing only points with a globally-optimal value and the union of which contains all globally optimal points. A two-phase algorithm is proposed for Problem P. In phase I, this algorithm obtains rapidly a solution which is often globally-optimal. Moreover, a sufficient condition onf for this to be the case is given. In phase II, the algorithm proves the-optimality of the solution obtained in phase I or finds a sequence of points of increasing value containing one with a globally-optimal value. The new algorithm is empirically compared (on twenty problems from the literature) with a best possible algorithm (for which the optimal value is assumed to be known), with a passive algorithm and with the algorithms of Evtushenko, Galperin, Shen and Zhu, Piyavskii, Timonov and Schoen. For small, the new algorithm requires only a few percent more function evaluations than the best possible one. An extended version of Piyavskii's algorithm is proposed for problem Q. A sufficient condition onf is given for the globally optimal points to be in one-to-one correspondance with the obtained intervals. This result is achieved for all twenty test problems.The research of the authors has been supported by AFOSR grants 0271 and 0066 to Rutgers University. Research of the second author has been also supported by NSERC grant GP0036426, FCAR grant 89EQ4144 and partially by AFOSR grant 0066. We thank Nicole Paradis for her help in drawing the figures.     

Determination of radiative lifetimes in neutral nitrogen using short laser pulses from a distributed feedback dye laser

Radiative lifetimes were determined for two short-lived states in neutral nitrogen. Following photo-dissociation and two-photon excitation employing the same UV source, excitation to higher states was performed with a distributed feedback dye laser (DFDL). The lifetimes were found to be τ(2p ²4d ⁴ D _7/2)=17(3) ns and τ(2p ²5s ⁴ P _5/2)=22(3) ns.     

Zur Luminiszenz von Cr(3)-Verbindungen

Whereas 2.4 is likely to be an upper limit for theDq/B-value of Cr(3)-complexes which show fluorescence the existence of a lower bound is rather unlikely. Experimental evidence suggests that the energy difference between the minima of the² E _g- and the⁴ T _2g-potential curves is one of the factors determining the relative intensities of phosphorescence and fluorescence.     

Derivatives and reactions of glutacondialdehyde V : The crystal and molecular structure of 5-hydroxy-trans-2, trans-4-pentadienal acetate. The charge distribution in the glutacondialdehyde anion

The structure of 5-hydroxy-trans-2, trans-4-pentadienal acetate has been determined, using three-dimensional diffractometercollected X-ray data. The compound has the all-trans configuration with the atoms C-1 to C-5 in a plane. The charge distribution in the acetate and in the glutacondialdehyde anion have been calculated using the CNDO/2 approximation. In both compounds higher negative charges were found on carbon atoms C-2 and C-4 than on C-1, C-3 and C-5.