Design and structural extension of a supramolecular inclusion-compound host made by the formation of dimers of isonicotinic acid and thiocyanato coordinating bridges

A new host design for an inclusion compound with a preference for large planar aromatic guest molecules has been proposed. Our host design includes a rectangular cavity made using a long and a short building block based on the concept of supramolecular chemistry. The long building block facilitates the inclusion of large guests, and the short building block prevents the formation of an interpenetrated structure, which is often observed in frameworks with large void spaces. The long building block is made when dimers of 4-pyridinecarboxylic acid (isoH) form through hydrogen bonding between the two carboxylic acid moieties. This isoH dimer can link two transition metal centers using the N atoms at both ends to act as a long building block. For the short building block, the thiocyanato ion was used. This makes a bent bridge between two metal centers to form a 1D double-chain [M(SCN)2]infinity complex. From the self-assembly of isoH, SCN- and Ni2+, a 2D network of [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2]infinity, in which the 1D [Ni(SCN)2]infinity complexes are linked by the isoH dimers, is built up. The rectangular cavity is formed as a mesh within the 2D network. The crystal of our inclusion compound has a layered structure of 2D networks, and a 1D channel-like cavity penetrating the layered 2D networks is formed where guests may be included. Moreover, our host design has the advantage of easy extension of the host structure. Replacement of isoH with another component and use of three components is possible for making the long building block. In the latter case, a linear spacer having two carboxy groups is inserted into the isoH dimer to form a long building block with a trimer structure. Based on our host design, a series of new inclusion compounds were synthesized. The crystal structures of three compounds were determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. These were a biphenyl inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2].1/2C12H10 (the basic case), a 9,10-dichloroanthracene inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(acrylH)2].1/2C14H8Cl2, where isoH is replaced with 3-(4-pyridinyl)-2-propenoic acid (acrylH), and a perylene inclusion compound [Ni(SCN)2(isoH)2(fumaricH2)].1/2C20H12, whose long building block is a trimer inserted with fumaric acid (fumaricH2) as a linear spacer.     

Selective aerobic oxidation of hydroxy compounds catalyzed by photoactivated ruthenium-salen complexes (selective catalytic aerobic oxidation)

Selective oxidation of alcohols to the corresponding carbonyl compounds is one of the most fundamental reactions in organic synthesis. Traditional methods for this transformation generally rely on stoichiometric amount of oxidants represented by Cr(VI) or DMSO reagents, though their synthetic utility is encumbered by unpleasant waste materials. From ecological and atom-economic viewpoints, catalytic aerobic oxidation is much more advantageous because molecular oxygen is ubiquitous and the byproduct is basically non-toxic water or hydrogen peroxide. On the other hand, phenol derivatives undergo oxidative coupling, forming C-C or C-O bond, through radical intermediates coupled with an electron-transfer process. Molecular oxygen is also well known to serve as electron acceptor in this reaction. Thus, a variety of transition metal complexes have so far been examined for aerobic oxidations of alcohols and phenols, and high catalytic activities have been achieved in some cases. However, stereo- and chemo-selective aerobic oxidations are still limited in number and are of current interest. Presented in this paper is our recent studies on catalytic aerobic oxidations with photoactivated nitrosyl ruthenium-salen complexes, including asymmetric oxidation of secondary alcohols to ketones (kinetic resolution), enantioselective oxidative coupling of 2-naphthols to binaphthols and oxygen-radical bicyclization of 2,2'-dihydroxystilbene, chemoselective oxidation of primary alcohols to aldehydes and diols to lactols, and asymmetric desymmetrization of meso-diols to lactols.     

Cu3(CN)4(NH3)2Hg(CN)2: a novel inter­penetrating framework formed from CuI,CuII, HgII and cyanide bridges

The title compound, poly[diammine­hexa‐μ‐cyano‐di­copper(I)­copper(II)­mercury(II)], [Cu₃Hg(CN)₆(NH₃)₂]_n, has a novel threefold‐inter­penetrating structure of three‐dimensional frameworks. This three‐dimensional framework consists of two‐dimensional network Cu₃(CN)₄(NH₃)₂ complexes and rod‐like Hg(CN)₂ complexes. The two‐dimensional network complex contains trigonal–planar Cu^I (site symmetry m) and octa­hedral Cu^II (site symmetry 2/m) in a 2:1 ratio. Two types of cyanide group form bridges between three coordination sites of Cu^I and two equatorial sites of Cu^II to form a two‐dimensional structure with large hexa­gonal windows. One type of CN⁻ group is disordered across a center of inversion, while the other resides on the mirror plane. Two NH₃ mol­ecules (site symmetry 2) are located in the hexa­gonal windows and coordinate to the remaining equatorial sites of Cu^II. Both N atoms of the rod‐like Hg(CN)₂ group (Hg site symmetry 2/m and CN⁻ site symmetry m) coordinate to the axial sites of Cu^II. This linkage completes the three‐dimensional framework and penetrates two hexa­gonal windows of two two‐dimensional network complexes to form the threefold‐inter­penetrating structure.     

Toward the Total Synthesis of Onchidin,a Cytotoxic Cyclic Depsipeptide from a Mollusc

The total synthesis of onchidin ( 1 ), a cytotoxic, C₂‐symmetric cyclic decadepsipeptide from a marine mollusc, according to the published structure, is described. A novel β‐amino acid, (2S,3S)‐3‐amino‐2‐methyl‐7‐octynoic acid (AMO), was efficiently prepared in high yield with high diastereo‐ and enantioselectivity based on a catalytic asymmetric three‐component Mannich‐type reaction with a chiral zirconium catalyst. The formation of sterically unfavorable N‐methyl amide and hindered ester bonds were successfully demonstrated, and final macrocyclization was achieved at a secondary‐amide site. Completion of the synthesis of 1 suggested that a revision of the structure of the natural product is required. Two diastereomers were also synthesized as candidates for the actual structure of onchidin. Furthermore, efficient solid‐phase methods were employed for the combinatorial synthesis of other derivatives to clarify the real structure of onchidin. The solid‐phase assembly of a pentadepsipeptide containing all the building blocks was established followed by dimeric cyclization in solution.     

Structural and spectroscopic features of a cis (hydroxo)-Fe(III)-(carboxylato) configuration as an active site model for lipoxygenases

In our preliminary communication (Ogo, S.; Wada, S.; Watanabe, Y.; Iwase, M.; Wada, A.; Harata, M.; Jitsukawa, K.; Masuda, H.; Einaga, H. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 1998, 37, 2102-2104), we reported the first example of X-ray analysis of a mononuclear six-coordinate (hydroxo)iron(III) non-heme complex, [Fe(III)(tnpa)(OH)(RCO(2))]ClO(4) [tnpa = tris(6-neopentylamino-2-pyridylmethyl)amine; for 1, R = C(6)H(5)], which has a characteristic cis (hydroxo)-Fe(III)-(carboxylato) configuration that models the cis (hydroxo)-Fe(III)-(carboxylato) moiety of the proposed (hydroxo)iron(III) species of lipoxygenases. In this full account, we report structural and spectroscopic characterization of the cis (hydroxo)-Fe(III)-(carboxylato) configuration by extending the model complexes from 1 to [Fe(III)(tnpa)(OH)(RCO(2))]ClO(4) (2, R = CH(3); 3, R = H) whose cis (hydroxo)-Fe(III)-(carboxylato) moieties are isotopically labeled by (18)OH(-), (16)OD(-), (18)OD(-), (12)CH(3)(12)C(18)O(2)(-), (12)CH(3)(13)C(16)O(2)(-), (13)CH(3)(12)C(16)O(2)(-), (13)CH(3)(13)C(16)O(2)(-), and H(13)C(16)O(2)(-). Complexes 1-3 are characterized by X-ray analysis, IR, EPR, and UV-vis spectroscopy, and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS).     

Semantic security for the McEliece cryptosystem without random oracles

In this paper, we formally prove that padding the plaintext with a random bit-string provides the semantic security against chosen plaintext attack (IND-CPA) for the McEliece (and its dual, the Niederreiter) cryptosystems under the standard assumptions. Such padding has recently been used by Suzuki, Kobara and Imai in the context of RFID security. Our proof relies on the technical result by Katz and Shin from Eurocrypt ’05 showing “pseudorandomness” implied by the learning parity with noise (LPN) problem. We do not need the random oracles as opposed to the known generic constructions which, on the other hand, provide a stronger protection as compared to our scheme—against (adaptive) chosen ciphertext attack, i.e., IND-CCA(2). In order to show that the padded version of the cryptosystem remains practical, we provide some estimates for suitable key sizes together with corresponding workload required for successful attack.     

Structures and magnetic properties of imidazolate-bridged tetranuclear and polymeric copper(II) complexes

Eight kinds of imidazolate-bridged copper(II) complexes were found to be classified into two categories from the magnetic properties. The crystal structures of [Cu(L)(μ-im)]_n (Him = imidazole; L = nonane-4,6-dionate, 2,6-dimethylheptane-3,5-dionate) and [Cu(L)(μ-im)]₄ (L = nonane-4,6-dionate, 1-phenylbutane-1,3-dionate) were determined, to reveal that they consist of polymeric chains and tetranuclear cycles, respectively. Note that the nonane-4,6-dionate derivative gave the two phases. The Bonner–Fisher model (a one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chain model) was plausibly applied to [Cu(L)(μ-im)]_n for the best fit, while a square model was to [Cu(L)(μ-im)]₄. The complexes with unknown crystal structures were also subjected to magnetic measurements, and the tetra- and polymeric structures could be clearly distinguished from each other by fitting the magnetic data to appropriate models. The exchange parameters were comparable for both series (2J/k_B = ?78 to ?97 K) because the structurally common bridges Cu–N(eq)–N(eq)–Cu afford comparable magnitudes of couplings.