Highly enantioselective hydrogenation of aromatic-heteroaromatic ketones

Asymmetric hydrogenation of ketone 1 using trans-RuCl(2)[(R)-xylbinap][(R)-daipen] (3) as a catalyst afforded secondary alcohol 2 quantitatively and in 99.4% ee. Further exploration of the effect of the thiazole ring substitution revealed that the catalyst was highly effective for the enantioselective hydrogenation of 5-benzoyl thiazoles, which afforded corresponding alcohols in 92-99% ee. The same protocol was applicable to a variety of aromatic-heteroaromatic ketones to generate secondary alcohols in excellent enantioselectivities. [reaction: see text]     

Automated system for simultaneous analysis of delta(13)C, delta(18)O and CO(2) concentrations in small air samples

In this paper we present an automated system for simultaneous measurement of CO(2) concentration, delta(13)C and delta(18)O from small (<1 mL) air samples in a short period of time (approximately 1 hour). This system combines continuous-flow isotope ratio mass spectrometry (CF-IRMS) and gas chromatography (GC) with an inlet system similar to conventional dual-inlet methods permitting several measurement cycles of standard and sample air. Analogous to the dual-inlet method, the precision of this system increases with the number of replicate cycles measured. The standard error of the mean for a measurement with this system is 0.7 ppm for the CO(2) concentration and 0.05 per thousand for the delta(13)C and delta(18)O with four replicate cycles and 0.4 ppm and 0.03 per thousand respectively with nine replicate cycles. The mean offset of our measurements from NOAA/CMDL analyzed air samples was 0.08 ppm for the CO(2) concentration, 0.01 per thousand for delta(13)C and 0.00 per thousand for delta(18)O. A specific list of the parts and operation of the system is detailed as well as some of the applications for micrometeorological and ecophysiological applications.     

Mechanistic study of enantiomeric recognition with native gamma-cyclodextrin by capillary electrophoresis,reversed-phase liquid chromatography,nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,electrospray mass spectrometry and circular dichroism techniques

The possible mechanisms for the chiral recognition of 2(S)-(3,5-bis-trifluoromethyl-phenyl)-2-[3(S)-(4-fluorophenyl)-4-(1H-[1,2,4]triazol-3-ylmethyl)-morpholin-2(R)-yloxy]-ethanol (compound A) and its enantiomer with native gamma-cyclodextrin (gamma-CD) were investigated using capillary electrophoresis (CE), reversed-phase liquid chromatography (RPLC), proton (1H), fluorine (19F) and carbon (13C) nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) and circular dichroism (CD). All experiments provided clear evidence of the formation of diastereomeric complexes between the enantiomers and gamma-CD. Proton, fluorine and carbon NMR spectra suggested that both aromatic rings, with mono-fluoro and bis-tri-fluoro functional groups, on the guest molecule were partially included into the cavity of the gamma-CD. ESI-MS spectra indicated that the diastereomeric complexes have a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio. The binding constants of the diastereomeric complexes obtained by CE, RPLC and CD were compared. The effects of the gamma-CD concentration, organic modifiers and temperature on the CE-chiral separation were also investigated.     

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer between a quantum dot donor and a dye acceptor attached to DNA

We show that direct coupling of a dye-labelled DNA (acceptor) to a quantum dot (QD) donor significantly reduces the donor-acceptor distance and improves the FRET efficiency: a highly efficient FRET (approximately 88%) at a low acceptor-to-donor ratio of 2 has been achieved at the single-molecule level.     

Rapid deposition of triangular silver nanoplates on planar surfaces: application to metal-enhanced fluorescence

A simple and rapid wet-chemical technique for the deposition of silver triangles on conventional glass substrates, which alleviates the need for lithography, has been developed. The technique is based on the seed-mediated cetyltrimethylammonium-bromide-directed growth of silver triangles on glass surfaces, where smaller spherical silver seeds that were attached to the surface were subsequently converted and grown into silver triangles in the presence of a cationic surfactant and silver ions. The size of the silver triangles was controlled by sequential immersion of silver seed-coated glass substrates into a growth solution and by the duration time of immersion. Atomic force microscopy studies revealed that the size of the silver triangles ranged between 100 and 500 nm. Interestingly, these new surfaces are a significant improvement over traditional silver island films for applications in metal-enhanced fluorescence. A routine 16-fold enhancement in emission intensity was typically observed, for protein-immobilized indocyanine green, with a relatively very low loading density of silver triangles on the glass surface.     

Oxidation Kinetics of the Potent Insulin Mimetic Agent Bis(maltolato)oxovanadium(IV) (BMOV) in Water and in Methanol

The kinetics of oxidation of bis(maltolato)oxovanadium(IV), BMOV or VO(ma)(2), by dioxygen have been studied by UV-vis spectroscopy in both MeOH and H(2)O media. The VO(ma)(2):O(2) stoichiometry was 4:1. In aqueous solution, the pH-dependent rate of the VO(ma)(2)/O(2) reaction to generate cis-[VO(2)(ma)(2)](-) is attributed to the deprotonation of coordinated H(2)O, the deprotonated species [VO(ma)(2)(OH)](-) being more easily oxidized (k(OH) = 0.39 M(-)(1) s(-)(1), 25 degrees C) than the neutral form VO(ma)(2)(H(2)O) (k(H)()2(O) = 0.08 M(-)(1) s(-)(1), 25 degrees C). The activation parameters for the two second-order reactions in aqueous solution were deduced from variable temperature kinetic measurements. In MeOH, VO(ma)(2) was oxidized by dioxygen to cis-VO(OMe)(ma)(2), whose structure was characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction; the crystals were monoclinic, C2/c, with a = 28.103(1) ?, b = 7.721(2) ?, c = 13.443(2) ?, beta = 94.290(7) degrees, and Z = 8. The structure was solved by Patterson methods and was refined by full-matrix least-squares procedures to R = 0.043 for 1855 reflections with I >/= 3sigma(I). The kinetic results are consistent with a mechanism involving an attack of O(2) at the V(IV) center, followed by the formation of radicals and H(2)O(2) as transient intermediates.     

1-[Hydroxy(sulfonyloxy)iodo]-1H,1H-perfluoroalkanes: Stable, Fluoroalkyl Analogs of Koser's Reagent

1-[Hydroxy(sulfonyloxy)iodo]-1H,1H-perfluoroalkanes 3 [R(f)CH(2)I(OH)OSO(2)R; R = CH(3), CF(3), p-CH(3)C(6)H(4), R(f) = CF(3), C(2)F(5)] can be prepared in two steps from the appropriate iodofluoroalkanes by oxidation with peroxytrifluoroacetic acid and subsequent reaction with TsOH, MsOH, or Me(3)SiOTf. The tosylate derivative 3a reacts with silyl enol ethers under mild conditions to give the respective alpha-(tosyloxy) ketones. A similar reaction of cyclohexene furnishes cis-1,2-bis(tosyloxy)cyclohexane as the major product. Triflates 3c,f react with (trimethylsilyl)arenes under mild conditions to afford the respective (fluoroalkyl) (aryl)iodonium triflates 7, while the analogous reaction with alkynyltrimethylsilanes leads to novel (fluoroalkyl)(alkynyl)iodonium salts 8.     

Derivation of class II force fields. VIII. Derivation of a general quantum mechanical force field for organic compounds

A class II valence force field covering a broad range of organic molecules has been derived employing ab initio quantum mechanical "observables." The procedure includes selecting representative molecules and molecular structures, and systematically sampling their energy surfaces as described by energies and energy first and second derivatives with respect to molecular deformations. In this article the procedure for fitting the force field parameters to these energies and energy derivatives is briefly reviewed. The application of the methodology to the derivation of a class II quantum mechanical force field (QMFF) for 32 organic functional groups is then described. A training set of 400 molecules spanning the 32 functional groups was used to parameterize the force field. The molecular families comprising the functional groups and, within each family, the torsional angles used to sample different conformers, are described. The number of stationary points (equilibria and transition states) for these molecules is given for each functional group. This set contains 1324 stationary structures, with 718 minimum energy structures and 606 transition states. The quality of the fit to the quantum data is gauged based on the deviations between the ab initio and force field energies and energy derivatives. The accuracy with which the QMFF reproduces the ab initio molecular bond lengths, bond angles, torsional angles, vibrational frequencies, and conformational energies is then given for each functional group. Consistently good accuracy is found for these computed properties for the various types of molecules. This demonstrates that the methodology is broadly applicable for the derivation of force field parameters across widely differing types of molecular structures. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 22: 1782-1800, 2001