Catalytic enantioselective allylation of aldehydes via a moisture-tolerant chiral BINOL-In(III) complex

A moisture-tolerant chiral indium complex has been developed to effect good enantioselectivities in the addition of allyltributylstannanes to aldehydes. The allylation of a variety of aromatic, α,β-unsaturated and aliphatic aldehydes resulted in both moderate to good yields and high enantioselectivities (up to 86% ee).     

Gram-scale synthesis of (-)-epibatidine

[reaction: see text] A gram-scale approach toward (-)-epibatidine (1, naturally occurring enantiomer), a novel class of amphibian alkaloid, has been developed from readily available starting materials using mild and easily controlled reactions. The entire synthetic route is straightforward and convenient for gram-scale synthesis.     

Silicon-assisted propargylic transfer to aldehydes

A new and efficient method of obtaining homopropargylic alcohols via homopropargylic transfer from the allenic alcohol to various aldehydes in the presence of Lewis acid catalysts is described; stereochemical studies have shown that this process is the first oxonium [3,3]-sigmatropic rearrangement of an allenic alcohol to a homopropargylic alcohol in the presence of aldehydes and Lewis acid.     

Liquid Formulations for Long-Term Storage of Monoclonal IgGs

Proteins like immunoglobulin (IgGs) are prone to degradation by a variety of pathways. In this study, a stabilizing formulation for long-term storage of a panel of seven monoclonal IgGs was found using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). In the chosen formulations, the IgGs were subjected to stress, accelerated and real-time storage, and analyzed by size exclusion chromatography to determine fragment and aggregate content, and fluorescence-activated cell sorting to measure immunoreactivity. All IgGs showed the greatest conformational stability near their isoelectric point which was enhanced by adding sorbitol, sucrose, glycine, and sodium chloride. Optimized formulations, found by DSC, containing 20 % sorbitol and 1 M glycine prevented IgG aggregation and fragmentation and conserved immunoreactivity against shear stress, multiple freeze–thaw cycles, accelerated storage at 37 °C, and 12 months storage at 4 and ?20 °C. Relatively poor thermal stability of the antigen-binding fragment domain was shown to limit storage stability of IgGs. This study confirms the predictive power of DSC to find storage formulations which protect IgGs during stress and long-term storage from aggregation and degradation. Liquid formulations found in this study may have a broad utility for other IgGs.     

Access to multi-functionalized oxazolines via silver-catalyzed heteroannulation of enamides with sulfoxonium ylides

Disclosed herein is an efficient Ag-catalyzed 4+1 heteroannulation reaction of enamides with α-carbonyl sulfoxonium ylides.The diastereoselective transformation provides a practical access to a diverse range of multi-functionalized oxazoline derivatives.The synthetic utility of the resultant tetrasubstituted oxazolines is further demonstrated by a series of useful manipulations into valuable building blocks of pharmaceutical relevance.     

Observing High‐Pressure Chemistry in Graphene Bubbles

Using IR spectroscopy, high‐pressure reactions of molecules were observed in liquids entrapped by graphene nanobubbles formed at the graphene–diamond interface. Nanobubbles formed on graphene as a result of thermally induced bonding of its edges with diamond are highly impermeable, thus providing a good sealing of solvents within. Owing to the optical transparency of graphene and diamond, high‐pressure chemical reactions within the bubbles can be probed with vibrational spectroscopy. By monitoring the conformational changes of pressure‐sensitive molecules, the pressure within the nanobubble can be calibrated as a function of temperature and it is about 1 GPa at 600 K. The polymerization of buckministerfullerene (C₆₀), which is symmetrically forbidden under ambient conditions, is observed to proceed in well‐defined stages in the pressurized nanobubbles.