Lipase‐Supported Metal–Organic Framework Bioreactor Catalyzes Warfarin Synthesis

A green and sustainable strategy synthesizes clinical medicine warfarin anticoagulant by using lipase‐supported metal–organic framework (MOF) bioreactors (see scheme). These findings may be beneficial for future studies in the industrial production of chemical, pharmaceutical, and agrochemical precursors.     

Bimetallic Covalent Organic Frameworks for Constructing Multifunctional Electrocatalyst

Covalent organic frameworks (COFs) are a new class of crystalline porous polymers comprised mainly of carbon atoms, and are versatile for the integration of heteroatoms such as B, O, and N into the skeletons. The designable structure and abundant composition render COFs useful as precursors for heteroatom-doped porous carbons for energy storage and conversion. Herein, we describe a multifunctional electrochemical catalyst obtained through pyrolysis of a bimetallic COF. The catalyst possesses hierarchical pores and abundant iron and cobalt nanoparticles embedded with standing carbon layers. By integrating these features, the catalyst exhibits excellent electrochemical catalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), with a 50 mV positive half-wave potential, a higher limited diffusion current density, and a much smaller Tafel slope than a Pt-C catalyst. Moreover, the catalyst displays superior electrochemical performance toward the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), with overpotentials of −0.26 V and −0.33 V in acidic and alkaline aqueous solution, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA cm⁻². The overpotential in the catalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was 1.59 V at the same current density.     

Comprehensive Profiling by Non-targeted Stable Isotope Tracing Capillary Electrophoresis-Mass Spectrometry: A New Tool Complementing Metabolomic Analyses of Polar Metabolites

Mass spectrometry (MS) driven metabolomics is a frequently used tool in various areas of life sciences; however, the analysis of polar metabolites is less commonly included. In general, metabolomic analyses lead to the detection of the total amount of all covered metabolites. This is currently a major limitation with respect to metabolites showing high turnover rates, but no changes in their concentration. Such metabolites and pathways could be crucial metabolic nodes (e.g., potential drug targets in cancer metabolism). A stable-isotope tracing capillary electrophoresis–mass spectrometry (CE-MS) metabolomic approach was developed to cover both polar metabolites and isotopologues in a non-targeted way. An in-house developed software enables high throughput processing of complex multidimensional data. The practicability is demonstrated analyzing [U-¹³C]-glucose exposed prostate cancer and non-cancer cells. This CE-MS-driven analytical strategy complements polar metabolite profiles through isotopologue labeling patterns, thereby improving not only the metabolomic coverage, but also the understanding of metabolism.     

A Hydroperoxide-Mediated Decarboxylation of α-Ketoacids Enables the Chemoselective Acylation of Amines

Strategies for the formation of amide bonds, that is, one of the most basic and important transformations in organic synthesis, have so far focused predominantly on dehydration reactions. Herein, we report and demonstrate the practical utility of a novel decarboxylative amidation of α-ketoacids by using inexpensive tert-butyl hydroperoxide (TBHP), which is characterized by high yields, a broad substrate scope, mild reaction conditions, and a unique chemoselectivity. These features enable the synthesis of peptides from amino acid derived α-ketoacids under preservation of the stereochemical information.     

Self-Assembly of C3 Symmetric Rigid Macrolactams into Very Polar and Porous Trigonal Crystals

Cyclohexane and cyclotri-β-alanyl have been used as scaffolds for the design of new C₃-symmetric rings incorporating conjugated alkenes and dienes. All three C₃-symmetric lactams share the same triangular shape and their crystal system is trigonal. They all belong to the R3 space group, R3m, R3 and R3c, for the increasingly large 12-, 18- and 24-membered rigid rings, respectively. All lactams stack on top of each other, through H-bonds and van der Waals noncovalent interactions, leading to endless supramolecular cylinders and tubes. The largest member of the family leads to tubes, the central pores of which is wide enough to let water in. A common feature of all the lactams is their very large dipole, of around 9 D, according to DFT calculations. Surprisingly, all the resulting cylinders and tubes pack side by side in the crystals, with all the dipoles pointing to the same direction. As a result, all three crystals are anisotropic and appear to be the first members of a new kind of highly polar crystals.     

Functionalized Silver-Ion-Mediated α-dC/β-dC Hybrid Base Pairs with Exceptional Stability: α-d-5-Iodo-2′-Deoxycytidine and Its Octadiynyl Derivative in Metal DNA

Silver-mediated α-dC–Ag⁺–β-dC hybrid base pairs decorated with 5-iodo- or 5-octadiynyl residues are well accommodated in duplex DNA. A strong T_m increase and favorable thermodynamic data for duplex DNA were observed after addition of silver ions. The phenomenon is particularly obvious when both nucleobases of the base pairs are functionalized. Neither the position of the base pair, nor the type of 5-substituent had a negative influence. On the contrary, functionalization of conventional silver-mediated β-dC–Ag⁺–β-dC homo base pairs showed a negative impact induced by the bulky substituents. To this end, cytosine modified 12-mer oligodeoxynucleotides were prepared by solid-phase synthesis employing new α-anomeric 2′-deoxycytidine phosphoramidites. A multigram scale synthesis was developed for 5-iodo-α-d -2′-deoxycytidine ( 1 ) employing the direct glycosylation of cytosine with Hoffer's α-d -halogenose followed by separation of anomeric DMT nucleosides. Regarding base-pair stability and functionalization silver-mediated α/β-dC hybrid base pairs were found to be superior to β/β-dC homo pairs. According to their extraordinary properties, they might find applications in DNA diagnostics, material science, or nanotechnology.     

Dynamic Interactions in Synthetic Receptors: A Guest Exchange Saturation Transfer Study

The accumulated knowledge regarding molecular architectures is based on established, reliable, and accessible analytical tools that provide robust structural and functional information on assemblies. However, both the dynamicity and low population of noncovalently interacting moieties within studied molecular systems limit the efficiency and accuracy of traditional methods. Herein, the use of a saturation transfer-based NMR approach to study the dynamic binding characteristics of an anion to a series of synthetic receptors derived from bambusuril macrocycles is demonstrated. The exchange rates of BF₄⁻ are mediated by the side chains on the receptor (100 s⁻¹<k_ex<5000 s⁻¹), which play a critical role in receptor-anion binding dynamics. The signal amplification obtained with this approach allows for the identification of different types of intermolecular interactions between the receptor and the anion, something that could not have been detected by techniques hitherto used to study molecular assemblies. These findings, which are supported by a computational molecular dynamic study, demonstrate the uniqueness and added value of this NMR method.     

Flexible Structures Based on a Short Pitch Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

We report on the realization and characterization of electro-responsive and pressure sensitive polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) conductive photonic structures combined with the reconfigurable properties of short pitch cholesteric liquid crystals (aligned in Grandjean configuration). By combining ion-implantation process and surface chemistry functionalization, we have overcome the insulating properties of PDMS and induced long range organization of cholesteric liquid crystals, thus controlling both diffraction and selective Bragg reflection of light by means of external perturbations (electric field, pressure). We have characterized our devices in terms of morphological, optical and electro-optical properties.     

Transition‐Metal‐Free Trifluoromethylthiolation of N‐Heteroarenes

A general and efficient methodology for the direct transition metal free trifluoromethylthiolation of a broad range of biologically relevant N‐heteroarenes is reported employing abundant sodium chloride as the catalyst. This method is operationally simple, exhibits high functional group tolerance, and does not require protecting groups.     

D3h‐Symmetric Porphyrin‐Based Rigid Macrocyclic Ligands for Multicofacial Multinuclear Complexes in a One‐Nanometer‐Sized Cavity

The one‐step synthesis of D_3h‐symmetric cyclic porphyrin trimers 1 composed of three 2,2′‐[4,4′‐bis(methoxycarbonyl)]bipyridyl moieties and three porphyrinatozinc moieties was achieved from a nickel‐mediated reductive coupling of meso‐5,15‐bis(6‐chloro‐4‐methoxycarbonylpyrid‐2‐yl)porphyrinatozinc. Although cyclic trimers 1 were obtained as a mixture that included other cyclic and acyclic porphyrin oligomers, an extremely specific separation was observed only for cyclic trimers 1 when using columns of silica gel modified with pyrenylethyl, cyanopropyl, and other groups. Structural analysis of cyclic trimers 1 was carried out by means of NMR spectroscopy and X‐ray crystallography. Treatment of an η³‐allylpalladium complex with a cyclic trimer gave a tris(palladium) complex containing three η³‐allylpalladium groups inside the space, which indicated that the bipyridyl moieties inside the ring could work as bidentate metalloligands.