Tandem phospha-Friedel-Crafts reaction toward curved π-conjugated frameworks with a phosphorus ring junction

The tandem phospha-Friedel-Crafts reaction transforms dichloro(m-teraryl)phosphine to the corresponding triarylphosphine derivatives containing curved π-conjugated frameworks with a phosphorus ring junction. The rigid molecular frameworks enable these unprecedented phosphine compounds to hold an extended π-conjugation spread over the whole molecule.     

Ab initio quantum chemical study on the mechanism of exceptional behavior of lysine for ion yields in MALDI--role of vibrational entropic contribution in thermally averaged proton affinities

To elucidate the mechanism of the exceptional behavior of lysine for the ionization (protonation) yields in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) observed by Nishikaze and Takayama [Rapid Commun. Mass Spectrom. 2006, 20, 376], the temperature dependences of proton affinity (PA) and gas phase basicity for 20 amino acids are theoretically analyzed with correlated ab initio molecular orbital method under ideal gas condition. We have found that two different conformations, the linear structure with elongation of the side chain and the folded one having intramolecular hydrogen bonding, play important roles for the exceptional behavior of lysine. At low temperatures of around 298 K, the most stable conformation of the protonated lysine is the folded structure due to the formation of intramolecular hydrogen bonding. Meanwhile, at high temperatures, the Gibbs free energy of linear structure of protonated lysine becomes lower than that of the folded one because of the increment of vibrational entropic contribution. To explicitly take account of the contribution of the free energies, we have proposed the effective PA values thermally averaged using the ratio of Boltzmann distributions for two conformations. Since the effective PA value for lysine drastically decreases as the temperature increases above 1000 K, the linear correlation is clearly obtained between our effective PA values at high temperature and the ion yields in MALDI.     

Electrically moving single-stranded DNA into and out of double-walled carbon nanotubes

Our study indicates that it is possible to move single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) molecules into and out of double-walled carbon nanotubes by utilizing DC electric fields with different polarities.     

Glass transition and thermal degradation of rigid polyurethane foams derived from castor oil–molasses polyols

Rigid polyurethane (PU) foams having saccharide and castor oil structures in the molecular chain were prepared by reaction between reactive alcoholic hydroxyl group and isocyanate. The apparent density of PU foams was in a range from 0.05 to 0.15 g cm^?3. Thermal properties of the above polyurethane foams were studied by differential scanning calorimetry, thermogravimetry and thermal conductivity measurement. Glass transitions were observed in two steps. The low-temperature side glass transition was observed at around 220 K, regardless of castor oil content. This transition is attributed to the molecular motion of alkyl chain groups of castor oil. The high-temperature side glass transition observed in the temperature range from 350 to 390 K depends on the amount of molasses polyol content. The high-temperature side glass transition is attributed to the molecular motion of saccharides, such as sucrose, glucose, fructose as well as isocyanate phenyl rings, which act as rigid components. Thermal decomposition was observed in two steps at 570 and 620–670 K. Thermal conductivity was observed at around 0.032 J sec^?1 m^?1 K^?1. Compression strength and modulus of PU foams were obtained by mechanical test. It was confirmed that the thermal and mechanical properties of PU foams could be controlled by changing the mixing ratio of castor oil and molasses for suitable practical applications.     

Exciton energy transfer-assisted photoluminescence brightening from freestanding single-walled carbon nanotube bundles

Photoluminescence (PL) brightening is clearly observed through the direct morphology transition from isolated to thin bundled vertically- and individually freestanding single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs). On the basis of the precise spectra analysis and equation-based estimation of the PL time trace, the origin of the PL brightening is consistently explained in terms of the exciton energy transfer through the tube bundles. The PL brightening is also revealed to obviously depend on SWNT diameters. Only the small-diameter rich sample can realize the PL brightening, which can be explained by the different concentrations of metallic SWNTs causing a PL quenching. Since it can be possible to fabricate brightly illuminating nanotubes on various kinds of substrates, the bundle engineering with freestanding nanotubes is expected to be a potential candidate for realizing the nanotube-based PL device fabrication.     

Spiroborate-Based Host Materials with High Triplet Energies and Ambipolar Charge-Transport Properties

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) receive considerable attention because of their commercial use in flat panel displays. Herein, highly efficient spiroborate-based host materials are reported for use in blue OLEDs. Our designed spiroborates ( SBOX ) were simple to synthesize and exhibited high triplet excitation energies, narrow S-T gaps, and balanced charge carrier mobilities. A blue OLED containing one of the designed spiroborates, SBON , as a host exhibited a high external quantum efficiency (27.6 %) and low turn-on voltage (3.7 V) compared to those observed using 3,3′-di(9H-carbazol-9-yl)-1,1′-biphenyl (17.6 % and 4.5 V, respectively), indicating their potential as host materials in OLEDs.     

Development of novel magnetic nano-carriers for high-performance affinity purification

We developed novel magnetic nano-carriers around 180 nm in diameter for affinity purification. Prepared magnetic nano-carriers possessed uniform core/shell/shell nano-structure composed of 40 nm magnetite particles/poly(styrene-co-glycidyl methacrylate (GMA))/polyGMA, which was constructed by admicellar polymerization. By utilizing relatively large 40 nm magnetite particles with large magnetization, the magnetic nano-carriers could show good response to permanent magnet. Thanks to uniform polymer shell with high physical/chemical stability, the magnetic nano-carriers could disperse in a wide range of organic solvent without disruption of core/shell structure and could immobilize various kinds of drugs. We examined affinity purification using our prepared magnetic nano-carriers with anti-cancer agent methotrexate (MTX) as ligand. Our magnetic nano-carriers showed higher performance compared to commercially available magnetic beads in terms of purification efficiency of target including extent of non-specific binding protein.     

Iron-catalyzed alkyl-alkyl suzuki-miyaura coupling

Chemoselective Suzuki-Miyaura coupling of primary and secondary alkyl halides is realized by using an iron/Xantphos catalyst. Primary and secondary alkyl bromides undergo the reaction to give the coupling products in good yields. Application to the synthesis of long-chain fatty acid derivatives is also described.     

Cross-coupling of non-activated chloroalkanes with aryl Grignard reagents in the presence of iron/N-heterocyclic carbene catalysts

An efficient and high-yielding cross-coupling reaction of various primary, secondary, and tertiary alkyl chlorides with aryl Grignard reagents was achieved by using catalytic amounts of N-heterocyclic carbene ligands and iron salts. This reaction is a simple and efficient arylation method having applicability to a wide range of industrially abundant chloroalkanes, including polychloroalkanes, which are challenging substrates under conventional cross-coupling conditions.     

Photochromism of a diarylethene having an azulene ring

Diarylethene derivatives incorporating an azulene ring at the ethene moiety were synthesized. One derivative having thiazole rings showed the expected coloration reaction by excitation at 313 nm (to a higher singlet state) but not when excited at 635 nm (S(0) to S(1) excitation). The system demonstrates that the cyclization reaction can be controlled by selective excitation at different wavelengths of the absorption spectrum. On the other hand, another derivative having thiophene rings did not show any photochromism. The results clearly show the importance of the coplanarity of the system for the photoisomerization.