An Unexpected Formation of a 14‐Membered Cyclodepsipeptide

The treatment of diluted solutions of the hydroxy diamides 6a and 6b in toluene with HCl gas at 100° gave the dimeric, 14‐membered cyclodepsipeptide 10 in up to 72% yield (Scheme 3). The same product was formed from the linear dimer of 6b , the depsipeptide 11 , under the same conditions (cf. Scheme 4). All attempts to prepare the cyclic seven‐membered monomer 9 , starting with different precursors and using different lactonization methods failed, and 10 was the only product which was isolated (cf. Scheme 6). For example, the reaction of the ester 20 with NaH in toluene at 80° led exclusively to the cyclodimer 10 . On the other hand, the base‐catalyzed cyclization of the hydroxy diester 22 , which is the ‘O‐analogue' of 20 , yielded neither the seven‐membered dilactone, nor the 14‐membered tetralactone, but only the known trimer 23 and tetramer 24 of 2,2‐dimethylpropano‐3‐lactone (cf. Scheme 7).     

Optical second-harmonic generation from a monolayer of centrosymmetric molecules adsorbed on silver

An increase in the optical second-harmonic signal arising from an electrochemically treated silver surface upon adsorption of a monolayer of the centrosymmetric molecule pyrazine is reported and an effective second-order non-linear polariz-ability for the adsorbed species deduced. These investigations illustrate the potential of second-harmonic generation in the elucidation of interfaces.     

Totalsynthese von natürlichem α-Tocopherol. 2. Mitteilung. Aufbau der Seitenkette aus (−)-(S)-3-Methyl-γ-butyrolacton

Total Synthesis of Natural α-Tocopherol A short and efficient route to optically pure (+)-(3 R, 7 R)-trimethyldodecanol ( 14 ) is demonstrated, 14 serving as side chain unit in the preparation of natural vitamin E. The synthesis of 14 is based on the concept of using a single optically active C₅-synthon of suitable configuration and functionalization to introduce both asymmetric centres in 14 . (?)-(S)-3-Methyl-γ-butyrolacton ( 1 ) and ethyl (?)-(S)-4-bromo-3-methylbutyrate ( 2 ), respectively, is used in a sequence of either two Grignard C,C-coupling reactions 5 → 8 and 12 → 13 or two Wittig reactions 17a → 18 and 20 → 21 to achieve this goal. 14 is converted to (2 R, 4′R, 8′R)-α-tocopherol (= vitamin E) by coupling with a chroman unit in known manner. Optical purity of products and intermediates is established.     

Zur photochemischen (Z)⇆(E)-Isomerisierung von Gallenpigment-Partialstrukturen

The photochemical (Z)?(E) isomerization of the exocyclic double bond is only possible in pyrromethenones (partial structure1) but not in2–4. From spectral investigations, chelation and methylation of certain positions within these structures it can be shown that it is most probably a proton transfer reaction which competes successfully with the isomerization.     

Isomerization of hydrocarbon ions. VIII—The electron impact induced decomposition of n-dodecane

The literature on the mass spectrometry of ²H and ¹³C labelled higher alkanes is reviewed and the decomposition behaviour of both the molecular and the fragment ions of n-dodecane, n-dodecane-1, 12-[¹³C₂] and n-dodecane-1,1,1,12,12,12-[²H₆] studied with special emphasis on metastable decompositions. It is shown that the elimination of alkane molecules and alkyl radicals from the n-dodecane molecular ion occurs primarily by simple splitting of the C? C bond. In addition, both small alkane molecule and alkyl radicals are eliminated with low probability from centreal parts of the molecular ion. The alkane elimination is less specific than the alkyl elimination. The methyl elimination shows an exceptionally high non-specificity, but is of negligible abundance in the 70 e V electron impact spectrum. The metastable ion spectra suggest, but do not prove unambiguously, that those small alkyl ions (with up to four carbon atoms) originating directly from the molecular ion, may be formed both by direct cleavage of the terminal groups and from central parts of the molecular ion. However, the majority of the small alkyl fragment ions in the 70 eV spectrum are formed by secondary decomposition explaining their apparent non-specific formation. The strikingly different fragmentation behaviour of even electron, [C_nH_2n+1]⁺, and odd electron fragment ions, results from differences in the product stabilities. Using collisional activation and metastable ion spectra it is shown that the odd electron fragments have the structure of the linear alkene (most probably the 1-alkene) molecular ion. In contrast to the molecular ions, alkyl fragment ions decompose with complicated skeletal rearrangements, which lead to substantial, but not complete, carbon randomization. The terminal hydrogen atoms, however, show little scrambling.     

Die thermische Umlagerung von 2-(Buta-1′,3′-dienyl)-phenolen in 2-Alkyl-2H-chromene; Beispiele für aromatische [1,7a]- und [1,5s]sigmatropische Wasserstoffverschiebungen

2-(1′-cis,3′-cis-)- and 2-(1′-cis,3′-trans-Penta-1′,3′-dienyl)-phenol (cis, cis- 4 and cis, trans- 4 , cf. scheme 1) rearrange thermally at 85–110° via [1,7 a] hydrogen shifts to yield the o-quinomethide 2 (R ? CH₃) which rapidly cyclises to give 2-ethyl-2H-chromene ( 7 ). The trans formation of cis, cis- and cis, trans- 4 into 7 is accompanied by a thermal cis, trans isomerisation of the 3′ double bond in 4. The isomerisation indicates that [1,7 a] hydrogen shifts in 2 compete with the electrocyclic ring closure of 2 . The isomeric phenols, trans, trans- and trans, cis- 4 , are stable at 85–110° but at 190° rearrange also to form 7 . This rearrangement is induced by a thermal cis, trans isomerisation of the 1′ double bond which occurs via [1, 5s] hydrogen shifts. Deuterium labelling experiments show that the chromene 7 is in equilibrium with the o-quinomethide 2 (R ? CH₃), at 210°. Thus, when 2-benzyl-2H-chromene ( 9 ) or 2-(1′-trans,3′-trans,-4′-phenyl-buta1′,3′-dienyl)-phenol (trans, trans- 6 ) is heated in diglyme solution at >200°, an equilibrium mixture of both compounds (～ 55% 9 and 45% 6 ) is obtained.     

cis‐(6RS,13RS)‐3,3,10,10‐Tetra­methyl‐6,13‐diphenyl‐1,8‐dioxa‐4,11‐diaza­cyclo­tetra­decane‐2,5,9,12‐tetra­one and two of its precursors

The title macrocycle, C₂₆H₃₀N₂O₆, (VI), was obtained by `direct amide cyclization' from the linear precursor 3‐hydr­oxy‐N‐[1‐methyl‐1‐(N‐methyl‐N‐phenyl­carbamoyl)ethyl]‐2‐phenylpropanamide, the N‐methyl­anilide of rac‐2‐methyl‐2‐[(3‐hydroxy‐2‐phenyl­propanoyl)­amino]­propanoic acid, C₁₃H₁₇NO₄, (IV). The reaction proceeds via the inter­mediate rac‐2‐(2‐hydroxy‐1‐phenyl­ethyl)‐4,4‐dimethyl‐1,3‐oxazol‐5(4H)‐one, C₁₃H₁₅NO₃, (V), which was synthesized independently and whose structure was also established. Unlike all previously described analogues, the title macrocycle has the cis‐diphenyl configuration. The 14‐membered ring has a distorted rect­angular diamond‐based [3434] configuration and inter­molecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into a three‐dimensional framework. The propanoic acid precursor forms a complex series of inter­molecular hydrogen bonds, each of which involves pairwise association of mol­ecules and which together result in the formation of extended two‐dimensional sheets. The oxazole inter­mediate forms centrosymmetric hydrogen‐bonded dimers in the solid state.     

Synthesis of a Derivative of the Peptaibol‐Antibiotic Trichovirin I 1B by Means of the ‘Azirine/Oxazolone Method’

According to the earlier published synthesis of the C‐terminal nonapeptide of Trichovirin I 1B, Z‐Ser(^tBu)‐Val‐Aib‐Pro‐Aib‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Leuol ( 5 ), the complete tetradecapeptide Z‐Aib‐Asn(Trt)‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Ser(^tBu)‐Val‐Aib‐Pro‐Aib‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Leuol ( 11b ), a protected Trichovirin I 1B, has now been prepared by means of the ‘azirine/oxazolone method’. With the exception of the N‐terminal Aib(1), all Aib residues were introduced by the coupling of the corresponding amino or peptide acids with 2,2‐dimethyl‐2H‐azirine‐3‐(N‐methyl‐N‐phenylamine) ( 1a ) and methyl N‐(2,2‐dimethyl‐2H‐azirin‐3‐yl)‐L ‐prolinate ( 3a ) as the Aib and Aib‐Pro synthons, respectively. Single crystals of two segments, i.e., the N‐terminal hexapeptide Z‐Aib‐Asn(Trt)‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Ser(^tBu)‐OMe ( 23 ) and the C‐terminal octapeptide Z‐Val‐Aib‐Pro‐Aib‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Leuol ( 17 ), were obtained and their structures have been established by X‐ray crystallography. Following the same strategy, the C‐terminal nonapeptide of Trichovirin I 4A, Z‐Ala‐Val‐Aib‐Pro‐Aib‐Leu‐Aib‐Pro‐Leuol ( 26 ), was also synthesized and characterized by X‐ray crystallography.     

Conformations of silicon-containing rings. 5. Conformational properties of 1-methyl-1-silacyclohexane: gas electron diffraction,low-temperature NMR,and quantum chemical calculations

The molecular structure of 1-methyl-1-silacyclohexane 3 has been determined by gas electron diffraction (GED). The conformational preference of the methyl group was studied experimentally in the gas phase (GED) and in solution (low-temperature (13)C NMR) and by quantum chemical calculations (HF, MP2, and B3LYP with 6-31G basis sets and mPW1PW91/6-311G(2df,p)). Both experimental methods result in a preference of the equatorial position of the methyl group, 68(7)% in the gas phase at 298 K and 74(1)% in solution at 110 K. The calculations predict 68-73% equatorial conformer at room temperature. From coalescence temperatures, Gibbs free energies of activation for ring inversion DeltaG++ (eq --> ax) = 5.81(18) and DeltaG++ (ax --> eq) = 5.56(18) kcal mol(-1) were derived. The calculated values for DeltaG++ (eq --> ax) are 5.92 (B3LYP) and 5.84 kcal mol(-1) (mPW1PW91).     

Stationary points in the temperature dependence of electron transfer rates

The temperature dependence of the rate of electron transfer is analyzed in the framework of a molecular theory presented recently, characterized by decoupling the total solvent reorganization energy into two contributions featuring reorganizations of permanent dipoles as well as solvent density. The inclusion of the temperature dependence of liquid density reorganization can give rise to a maximum in the Arrhenius coordinates for electron transfer in the inverted region and for exothermic reactions with small activation barriers as well.