Bio‐Inspired Formal Synthesis of Hirsutellones A–C Featuring an Electrophilic Cyclization Triggered by Remote Lewis Acid‐Activation

A bio‐inspired strategy was used to complete the formal synthesis of the antitubercular hirsutellone B and congeners A and C, through construction of its decahydrofluorene core from a linear polyene strand activated at both ends by a silyl enol ether and an allyl acetate. Our synthesis features a key electrophilic cyclization, starting with the remote activation (by [Yb(OTf)₃] or BF₃ ? OEt₂) of the allyl acetate and stereoselectively affording the C ring. This was followed by an intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction to get the tricyclic core of the natural product. The stereoselective reduction of the resulting ketone towards the formal intermediate was critical to the success of this strategy.     

Synthesis and characterization of intrinsic high‐barrier polyimide derived from a novel diamine monomer containing rigid planar moiety

A new diamine monomer containing rigid planar fluorenone moiety, 2,7‐bis(4‐aminophenyl)‐9H‐fluoren‐9‐one, was synthesized through Suzuki coupling reaction. Then it was reacted with pyromellitic dianhydride to obtain a polyimide (FOPPI) via a conventional two‐step polymerization process. The prepared FOPPI exhibits excellent barrier properties, with the oxygen transmission rate and water vapor transmission rate low to 3.2 cm³·m^?2·day^?1 and 2.9 g·m^?2·day^?1, respectively. The results of wide angle X‐ray diffractograms, positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy, and molecular dynamics simulations reveal that the excellent barrier properties of FOPPI are mainly ascribed to the crystallinity, high chain rigidity, and low free volume, which are resulted from the rigid planar moiety. FOPPI also shows outstanding thermal stability and mechanical properties with a glass transition temperature up to 420 °C, 5% loss temperature of 607 °C, coefficient of thermal expansion of 1.28 ppm K^?1, and tensile strength of 150.8 MPa. The polyimide has an attractive potential application prospect in the flexible electronics encapsulation area. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2017 , 55 , 2373–2382     

Controlling domain orientation of liquid crystalline block copolymer in thin films through tuning mesogenic chemical structures

Controlling the macroscopic orientation of nanoscale periodic structures of amphiphilic liquid crystalline block copolymers (LC BCPs) is important to a variety of technical applications (e.g., lithium conducting polymer electrolytes). To study LC BCP domain orientation, a series of LC BCPs containing a poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) block as a conventional hydrophilic coil block and LC blocks containing azobenzene mesogens is designed and synthesized. LC ordering in thin films of the BCP leads to the formation of highly ordered, microphase‐separated nanostructures, with hexagonally arranged PEO cylinders. Substitution on the tail of the azobenzene mesogen is shown to control the orientation of the PEO cylinders. When the substitution on the mesogenic tails is an alkyl chain, the PEO cylinders have a perpendicular orientation to the substrate surface, provided the thin film is above a critical thickness value. In contrast, when the substitution on the mesogenic tails has an ether group the PEO cylinders assemble parallel to the substrate surface regardless of the film thickness value. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2017 , 55, 532–541