A novel conversion of erythro phospholane epoxides to one-carbon atom homologated allylic alcohols

A novel synthetic approach is described to incorporate one more carbon atom at C-2 position of phospholane oxides as homologated allylic alcohol by treatment of erythro-2,3-epoxy-3-methylphospholane 1-oxides with excess of dimethylsulfonium methylide.     

Visible‐Light‐Driven Halogen Bond Donor Based Molecular Switches: From Reversible Unwinding to Handedness Inversion in Self‐Organized Soft Helical Superstructures

Visible‐light‐driven molecular switches endowing reversible modulation of the functionalities of self‐organized soft materials are currently highly sought after for fundamental scientific studies and technological applications. Reported herein are the design and synthesis of two novel halogen bond donor based chiral molecular switches that exhibit reversible photoisomerization upon exposure to visible light of different wavelengths. These chiral molecular switches induce photoresponsive helical superstructures, that is, cholesteric liquid crystals, when doped into the commercially available room‐temperature achiral liquid crystal host 5CB, which also acts as a halogen‐bond acceptor. The induced helical superstructure containing the molecular switch with terminal iodo atoms exhibits visible‐light‐driven reversible unwinding, that is, a cholesteric–nematic phase transition. Interestingly, the molecular switch with terminal bromo atoms confers reversible handedness inversion to the helical superstructure upon irradiation with visible light of different wavelengths. This visible‐light‐driven, reversible handedness inversion, enabled by a halogen bond donor molecular switch, is unprecedented.     

Quantum equations for vibrational dynamics on metal surfaces

A first principles treatment of the vibrational dynamics of molecular chemisorbates on metal surfaces is presented. It is shown that the mean field quantum evolution of the vibrational position operator is determined by a quantum Langevin equation with an electronic friction. In the mean field limit, the quantum noise and friction are related by the quantum fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The classical limit of this model is shown to agree with previously proposed models. A criterion is presented to describe the validity of the weak-coupling approximation and equations of motion for the dynamics in the presence of strong nonadiabatic coupling to electron-hole pairs are presented.     

Dimers of boroglycine and methylamine boronic acid: a computational comparison of the relative importance of dative versus hydrogen bonding

Boronic acids are widely used in materials science, pharmacology, and the synthesis of biologically active compounds. In this Article, geometrical structures and relative energies of dimers of boroglycine, H2N-CH2-B(OH)2, and its constitutional isomer H3C-NH-B(OH)2, were computed using second-order M?ller-Plesset perturbation theory and density functional theory; Dunning-Woon correlation-consistent cc-pVDZ, aug-cc-pVDZ, cc-pVTZ, and aug-cc-pVTZ basis sets were employed for the MP2 calculations, and the Pople 6-311++G(d,p) basis set was employed for a majority of the DFT calculations. Effects of an aqueous environment were incorporated into the results using PCM and COSMO-RS methodology. The lowest-energy conformer of the H2N-CH2-B(OH)2 dimer was a six-membered ring structure (chair conformation; Ci symmetry) with two intermolecular B:N dative-bonds; it was 14.0 kcal/mol lower in energy at the MP2/aug-cc-pVDZ computational level than a conformer with the classic eight-centered ring structure (Ci symmetry) in which the boroglycine monomers are linked by a pair of H-O...H bonds. Compared to the results of MP2 calculations with correlation-consistent basis sets, DFT calculations using the PBE1PBE and TPSS functionals with the 6-311++G(d,p) basis set were significantly better at predicting relative conformational energies of the H2N-CH2-B(OH)2 and H3C-NH-B(OH)2 dimers than corresponding calculations using the BLYP, B3LYP, OLYP, and O3LYP functionals, particularly with respect to dative-bonded structures.     

Galactose-Grafted 2D Nanosheets from the Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Janus Dendrimers for the Capture and Agglutination of Escherichia coli

High aspect ratio, sugar-decorated 2D nanosheets are ideal candidates for the capture and agglutination of bacteria. Herein, the design and synthesis of two carbohydrate-based Janus amphiphiles that spontaneously self-assemble into high aspect ratio 2D sheets are reported. The unique structural features of the sheets include the extremely high aspect ratio and dense display of galactose on the surface. These structural characteristics allow the sheet to act as a supramolecular 2D platform for the capture and agglutination of E. coli through specific multivalent noncovalent interactions, which significantly reduces the mobility of the bacteria and leads to the inhibition of their proliferation. Our results suggest that the design strategy demonstrated here can be applied as a general approach for the crafting of biomolecule-decorated 2D nanosheets, which can perform as 2D platforms for their interaction with specific targets.     

NMR analysis of a Tau phosphorylation pattern

The phosphorylation of the neuronal Tau protein modulates both its physiological role of microtubule binding and its aggregation into paired helical fragments observed in Alzheimer's diseased neurons. However, detailed knowledge of the role of phosphorylation at specific sites has been hampered by the analytical difficulties to evaluate the level of site-specific phosphate incorporation. Even with recombinant kinases, mass spectrometry and immunodetection are not evident for determining the full phosphorylation pattern in a qualitative and quantitative manner. We show here that heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy on a 15N labeled Tau sample modified by the cAMP dependent kinase allows identification of all phosphorylation sites, measures their level of phosphate integration, and yields kinetic data for the enzymatic modification of the individual sites. Filtering through the 15N label discards the necessity of any further sample purification and allows the in situ monitoring of kinase activity at selected sites. We finally demonstrate that the NMR approach can equally be used to evaluate potential kinase inhibitors in a straightforward manner.     

Ultrafast dynamics and excited state deactivation of [Ru(bpy)2Sq]+ and its derivatives

Femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy has been employed to understand the excited state dynamics of [Ru(bpy)(2)Sq](+) (I; bpy is 2,2'-bipyridyl, and Sq is the deprotonated species of the semiquinone form of 1,2-dihydroxy benzene) and its derivatives, a widely studied near-infrared (NIR) active electrochromic dye. Apart from the well-defined dpi(Ru) --> pi(bpy)-based metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) transition bands at approximately 480 nm, this class of molecules generally shows another dpi(Ru) --> pi(Sq)(SOMO)-based intense MLCT band at around 900 nm, which is known to be redox active and bleaches reversibly upon a change in the oxidation state of the coordinated dioxolene moiety. To have better insight into the photoinduced electron transfer dynamics associated with this MLCT transition, detailed investigations have been carried out on exciting this MLCT band at 800 nm. Immediately after photoexcitation, bleach at 900 nm has been observed, whose recovery is found to follow a triexponential function with major contribution from the ultrafast component. This ultrafast component of approximately 220 fs has been ascribed to the S(1) to S(0) internal conversion process. In addition to the bleach, we have detected two transient species absorbing at 730 and 1000 nm with a formation time approximately 220 fs for both species. The excited state lifetimes for these two transient species have been measured to be 1.5 and 11 ps and have been attributed to excited singlet ((1)MLCT) and triplet ((3)MLCT) states, respectively. Transient measurements carried out on the different but analogous derivatives (II and III) have also shown similar recovery dynamics except that the rate for the internal conversion process has increased with the decrease in the S(1) to S(0) energy gap. The observed results are consistent with the energy gap law for nonradiative decay from S(1) to S(0).     

Simple,Copper(I)-Catalyzed Oxidation of Benzylic/Allylic Alcohols to Carbonyl Compounds: Synthesis of Functionalized Cinnamates in One Pot

An environmentally benign [Cu(I)]-catalyzed oxidation of activated (benzylic/allylic) alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds is presented. Interestingly, the reaction was also compatible with benzylic alcohols containing ortho-bromo substituents on the aromatic ring without competing with the expected intermolecular Buchwald coupling. Significantly, the catalytic system enables the synthesis of cinnamate-esters in a sequential domino one-pot fashion via oxidation followed by Wittig–Horner protocol.