In an attempt to provide a user's guide to the galaxy of benzylidene, alkoxybenzylidene, and indenylidene ruthenium olefin metathesis catalysts

The data reported in this paper demonstrate that great care must be taken when choosing an appropriate catalyst for a given metathesis reaction. First-generation catalysts were found to be useful in the metathesis of sterically unhindered substrates. Second-generation catalysts (under optimised conditions) showed good to excellent activities toward sterically hindered and electron-withdrawing group (EWG)-substituted alkenes that do not react using the first-generation complexes. A strong temperature effect was noted on all of the reactions tested. Interestingly, attempts to force a reaction by increasing the catalyst loading were much less effective. Therefore, when possible, it is suggested that metathesis transformations should be carried out with a second-generation catalyst at 70 degrees C in toluene. However, different second-generation catalysts proved to be optimal for different applications and no single catalyst outperformed all others in all cases. Nevertheless, some empirical rules can be deduced from the model experiments, providing preliminary hints for the selection of the optimal catalysts.     

SERS-activating effect of chlorides on borate-stabilized silver nanoparticles: formation of new reduced adsorption sites and induced nanoparticle fusion

Changes in morphology, surface reactivity and surface-enhancement of Raman scattering induced by modification of borate-stabilized Ag nanoparticles by adsorbed chlorides have been explored using TEM, EDX analysis and SERS spectra of probing adsorbate 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) excited at 514.5 nm and evaluated by factor analysis. At fractional coverages of the parent Ag nanoparticles by adsorbed chlorides <0.6, the Ag colloid/Cl(-)/bpy systems were found to be constituted by fractal aggregates of Ag nanoparticles fairly uniform in size (10 +/- 2 nm) and SERS spectra of Ag(+)-bpy surface species were detected. The latter result was interpreted in terms of the presence of oxidized Ag(+) and/or Ag(n)(+) adsorption sites, which have been encountered also in systems with the chemically untreated Ag nanoparticles. At chloride coverages >0.6, a fusion of fractal aggregates into the compact aggregates of touching and/or interpenetrating Ag nanoparticles has been observed and found to be accompanied by the formation of another surface species, Ag-bpy, as well as by the increase of the overall SERS enhancement of bpy by factor of 40. The same Ag-bpy surface species has been detected under the strongly reducing conditions of reduction of silver nitrate by sodium borohydride in the presence of bpy. The formation of Ag-bpy is thus interpreted in terms of the stabilization of reduced Ag(0) adsorption sites by adsorbed bpy. The formation of reduced adsorption sites on Ag nanoparticle surfaces at chloride coverages >0.6 is discussed in terms of local changes in the work function of Ag. Finally, the SERS spectral detection of Ag-bpy species is proposed as a tool for probing the presence of reduced Ag(0) adsorption sites in systems with chemically modified Ag nanoparticles.     

On the electronically excited states of uracil

Vertical excitation energies in uracil in the gas phase and in water solution are investigated by the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster and multireference configuration interaction methods. Basis set effects are found to be important for converged results. The analysis of electronic wave functions reveals that the lowest singlet states are predominantly of a singly excited character and are therefore well described by single-reference equation-of-motion methods augmented by a perturbative triples correction to account for dynamical correlation.Our best estimates for the vertical excitation energies for the lowest singlet n --> pi* and pi --> pi* are 5.0 +/- 0.1 eV and 5.3 +/- 0.1 eV, respectively. The solvent effects for these states are estimated to be +0.5 eV and +/- 0.1 eV, respectively. We attribute the difference between the computed vertical excitations and the maximum of the experimental absorption to strong vibronic interaction between the lowest A" and A' states leading to intensity borrowing by the forbidden transition.     

Comonomer effects with high-activity titanium- and vanadium-based catalysts for ethylene polymerization

High-activity titanium- and vanadium-based catalysts for ethylene polymerization frequently show an increase in reaction rate in the presence of an α-olefin. The magnitude of this increase depends on the specific α-olefin. The results show propylene > 1-butene > 1-hexene in increasing initial reaction rates. Addition of certain electron-donor compounds to these catalysts can lower the magnitude of the comonomer effect and, in some cases, totally eliminate such an effect. Among the classes of electron-donor compounds examined were ether-alcohols, ether-esters, amino-alcohols, alkoxysilanes, siloxanes, and phosphine oxides. Reaction kinetics show that the presence of a comonomer can influence the kinetic order of the reaction. These results can be interpreted using a mechanistic model involving two vacant coordination positions at the active sites. In this model electron donors and comonomers are viewed as Lewis-base ligands which influence features of chain propagation and chain termination. As Lewis-base ligands, the comonomers can also increase the number of active sites available for polymerization. Catalyst deactivation following the initial comonomer rate increase is believed to be caused by reaction with the Lewis bases (α-olefin included) in the system and by possible reduction in the oxidation state of the metal centers. The most acidic metal centers activated by the comonomer are most reactive to Lewis bases and deactivate most rapidly. Veratrole (1,2-dimethoxybenzene) can be employed as a probe for estimating the number of bis-vacant coordination sites in vanadium-based catalysts. Addition of low levels of veratrole led to significant deactivation of the vanadium-based catalyst. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Ortho- and para-substituted Hoveyda-Grubbs carbenes. An improved synthesis of highly efficient metathesis initiators

A novel highly efficient and general route to various 3- and 5-substituted 2-alkoxystyrenes, required for the preparation of Hoveyda-Grubbs catalysts, is described.     

2‐Methylphenyl 2‐methoxyacridine‐9‐carboxylate

The title compound, C₂₂H₁₇NO₃, crystallizes in the monoclinic space group P2₁/c with four molecules per unit cell. The mol­ecules are arranged in centrosymmetric pairs, joined via the C and attached H atoms in the meta position relative to the methoxy group. These pairs are bonded in the crystalline phase as a result of non‐specific dispersive interactions, and through a network of C—H?O interactions involving the non‐bonded O atom of the carboxy group and, to some extent, the O atom of the methoxy group. The methoxy substituent lies in the plane of the almost planar acridine moiety and is directed towards the phenyl ester group. The phenyl ester group itself is twisted by 35.9 (5)° relative to the mean plane of the acridine moiety.     

A facile route to electronically conductive polyelectrolyte brushes as platforms of molecular wires

A facile strategy for the synthesis of conjugated polyelectrolyte brushes grafted from a conductive surface is presented. Such brushes form a platform of molecular wires oriented perpendicularly to the surface, enabling efficient directional transport of charge carriers. As the synthesis of conjugated polymer brushes using chain-growth polymerization via a direct “grafting from” approach is very challenging, we developed a self-templating surface-initiated method. It is based on the formation of multimonomer template chains in the first surface-initiated polymerization step, followed by the second polymerization leading to conjugated chains in an overall ladder-like architecture. This strategy exploits the extended conformation of the surface-grafted brushes, thereby enabling alignment of the pendant polymerizable groups along the template chains. We synthesized a new bifunctional monomer and used the developed approach to obtain quaternized poly(ethynylpyridine) chains on a conductive indium tin oxide surface. A catalyst-free quaternization polymerization was for the first time used here for surface grafting. The presence of charged groups makes the obtained brushes both ionically and electronically conductive. After doping with iodine, the brushes exhibited electronic conductivity, in the direction perpendicular to the surface, as high as 10^–1–10⁰ S m^–1. Tunneling AFM was used for mapping the surface conductivity and measuring the conductivity in the spectroscopic mode. The proposed synthetic strategy is very versatile as a variety of monomers with pendant polymerizable groups and various polymerization techniques may be applied, leading to platforms of molecular wires with the desired characteristics.     

Synthesis and isomer distribution of 2-alkyltropinones and 2-alkylgranatanones

Tropinone (8-methyl-8-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octan-3-one) metal (Li, Na, K, Mg) enolates were used to achieve α-alkylation. The reactions, regardless of the metal or conditions used, were low-yielding. N,N-Dimethylhydrazones of tropinone and granatanone (pseudopelletierine, 9-methyl-9-azabicyclo[3.3.1]nonan-3-one) were prepared and α-alkylated using n-butyllithium as the lithiating reagent. Lithium amides, including a polymer-supported lithium amide, were less effective. The reactions were modelled using DFT calculations at the B3LYP 6-31G(d) level and the CPCM solvent model, revealing that the face-selective alkylations of tropinone and granatanone hydrazones favoured the exo-isomers. Granatanone and α-isopropyl tropinone derivatives resisted typical mild hydrolytic hydrazone cleavage (aqueous trifluoroacetic acid) and required more forceful conditions (p-TsOH, boiling dioxane). Using the hydrazone alkylation strategy, 16 α-alkyl derivatives (benzyl, methyl, propyl, isopropyl, allyl, pentyl, heptyl, p-methoxybenzyl) were prepared in 52–90% yields overall. For the α-alkylated tropinones and granatanones (10 examples), the DFT calculations and experimental thermodynamic distributions in base catalysed equilibrations showed that except for the α-isopropyl derivatives, the endo-isomers were more stable than the exo-isomers and were the major products. For 2-isopropyltropinone, the bulky substituent favoured the exo (axial) position in the bicyclic skeleton. The thermodynamic distribution for the α,α′-dibenzyl tropinone isomers was also evaluated.