The arylation of nitroalkanes and nitronate salts with aryllead triacetates

Nitroalkanes and their nitronate salts undergo α-arylation in good yield when treated with an aryllead triacetate in dimethyl sulfoxide.     

Spatially constrained minimization of macromolecules

A structural minimization procedure which converges rapidly and restricts the atomic shifts is outlined. It is implemented by adding a harmonic penalty term for the displacements of atomic positions and resetting the reference coordinates with respect to which the constraints are computed during the minimization. The resetting serves to reduce the constraint energy of the minimized structure to negligible levels.     

Etude de la reactivite d'ylures de sulfonium et de pyridinium stabilises par un groupement cyanoformyle

The sulfonium and pyridinium ylides stabilized by a cyanoformyl group, in an acidic medium, lead to sulfonium and pyridinium salts which are equivalents of pyridinium or sulfonium ketene salts. This originality has been used to prepare new stabilized ylides, or derivatives of substituted arylacetic acids or 4-hydroxy thiazoles.     

Molecular Structures from Density Functional Calculations with Simulated Annealing

The geometrical structure of any aggregate of atoms is one of its basic properties and, in principle, straightforward to predict. One chooses a structure, determines the total energy E of the system of electrons and ions, and repeats the calculation for all possible geometries. The ground state structure is that with the lowest energy. A quantum mechanical calculation of the exact wave function Ψ would lead to the total energy, but this is practicable only in very small molecules. Furthermore, the number of local minima in the energy surface increases dramatically with increasing molecular size. While traditional ab initio methods have had many impressive successes, these difficulties have meant that they have focused on systems with relatively few local minima, or have used experiment or experience to limit the range of geometries studied. On the other hand, calculations for much larger molecules and extended systems are often forced to use simplifying assumptions about the interatomic forces that limit their predictive capability. The approach described here avoids both of these extremes: Total energies of predictive value are calculated without using semi-empirical force laws, and the problem of multiple minima in the energy surface is addressed. The density functional formalism, with a local density approximation for the exchange-correlation energy, allows one to calculate the total energy for a given geometry in an efficient, if approximate, manner. Calculations for heavier elements are not significantly more difficult than for those in the first row and provide an ideal way to study bonding trends. When coupled with finite-temperature molecular dynamics, this formalism can avoid many of the energetically unfavorable minima in the energy surface. We show here that the method leads to surprising and exciting results.     

Sequential versus direct multiphoton absorption

We present results of exact calculations on a three-level Morse oscillator modeling HF which suggest that multiphoton absorption proceeds by sequential single-level transitions, transitions arising from coupling between non-adjacent states being dynamically negligible. The time-dependent Schrödinger equation is integrated in the Floquet formalism.     

Stoichiometric and catalytic deuterium and tritium labeling of "unactivated" organic substrates with cationic Ir(III) complexes

[reaction: see text] Ir(III) complex [Cp(PMe(3))IrMe(CH(2)Cl(2))][BAr(f)] (1) was used to introduce deuterium stoichiometrically into substituted naphthalene/benzene templates and several "drug-like" entities. The exchange process is tolerant of a wide array of functional groups. Labeling of warfarin using subatmospheric pressures of T(2) led to specific activities and total activities rivaling current functional group directed tritium labeling methods. When paired with the appropriate deuterium donor, Cp(PMe(3))Ir(H(3))OTf (4) was found to deuterate a number of organic compounds catalytically.     

Polymerization and characterization of nitrile-terminated diacetylene materials

A family of nitrile-terminated diacetylene materials were synthesized. Samples were prepared in various forms and polymerization was performed photochemically and thermally. The resulting materials exhibited low molecular weights and were obtained in low yields. Although the diacetylene group had oligomerized, no evidence was found in support of ? C?N? chain formation. Thermochromism was exhibited by the irradiated 8-nitrile sample and a molecular interpretation of this chromic transition was discussed. Diffraction data implied that strong intermolecular interactions were present between adjacent nitrile groups in the low temperature phase. It is suggested that stresses are built up during polymerization which cause the low degree of polymerization and yield.     

Magnetic coupling and intermetallic electron transfer in the heterodinuclear bioctahedral complexes MW(III)Cl(9)(n-) (M = V(II), Cr(III), Mn(IV)): tweaking the balance between ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been used to investigate the effect of intermetallic electron transfer on the mode of magnetic coupling in the face-shared bimetallic complexes MWCl(9)(n-) (M = V, Cr, Mn; all with a nominal d(3) valence electronic configuration on each metal atom). These calculations illustrate a simple rule: when the oxidation state of M is lower than that of W, antiferromagnetic coupling is preferred, while ferromagnetism (via crossed exchange pathways) is favored when M has the higher oxidation state. This underlying trend in intermetallic interactions is seen to depend on the interplay among ligand field splitting, spin polarization splitting of alpha- and beta-spin orbitals, and the relative energies of the M and W valence d orbitals, and is mirrored in the results seen in a wider survey of mixed-metal, face-shared complexes.     

An efficient synthesis of cyercene A

An efficient approach to the total synthesis of the marine derived polypropionate cyercene A is described. A key feature of the synthesis is the development of methodology for the diastereoselective Wadsworth-Emmons type condensation of a functionalised γ-pyrone unit.     

A constant-denominator perturbation theory using circulant orbitals

Molecular-orbital calculations, using the INDO procedures, were carried out on the tautomers of 1, 2, 4-triazole and its benzo-derivative as well as on 1, 2, 5-oxadiazole and its benzo-derivative. Calculations of the transition energy as well as the dipole moment helped to predict the predominant tautomer in an equilibrium mixture. The correspondence between the calculated and observed data is satisfactory. The results of calculations indicated some differences in the electronic structures of the tautomers of a compound.