Reinvestigation of mucohalic acids,versatile and useful building blocks for highly functionalized alpha,beta-unsaturated gamma-butyrolactones

[reaction: see text] Mucohalic acids (mucochloric acid (1, 3,4-dichloro-5-hydroxy-5H-furan-2-one) and mucobromic acid (2, 3,4-dibromo-5-hydroxy-5H-furan-2-one)) are inexpensive, commercially available starting materials with multiple functional groups. These compounds have been modified by way of reduction followed by Suzuki cross-coupling reactions involving arylboronic acids to afford highly functionalized alpha,beta-unsaturated gamma-butyrolactones in excellent yield. The synthetic utility of these building blocks was effectively demonstrated through preparation of the antiinflammatory drug Vioxx.     

A beta-lactone route to chiral gamma-substituted alpha-amino acids: application to the concise synthesis of (S)-alpha-azidobutyro lactone and a natural amino acid

[reaction: see text] Beta-lactones are useful synthetic intermediates allowing access to a number of functional arrays. In this report, enantiomerically pure 4-trichloromethyl-2-oxetanone is shown to be a versatile amino acid synthon leading to a variety of gamma-substituted alpha-amino acid precursors. The utility of this methodology was demonstrated by the concise synthesis of a protected homoserine equivalent, alpha-azidobutyro lactone, and a naturally occurring alpha-amino acid from the seeds of Blighia unijugata.     

Bis(isoquinoline N-oxide) pincers as a new type of metal cation dual channel fluorosensor

[structure: see text] A new type of donor-spacer-acceptor podand system has been synthesized and proved as an efficient dual channel fluorosensor for Li+, Mg2+, and Ca2+. The known ability for the N-oxide function to bind Lewis acids is the key step in the appearance of a new emitting charge-transfer (CT) excited state. The occurrence of this CT state for alkaline earth (Mg2+ and Ca2+) and not for alkaline metals (Li+) provided a new type of dual channel fluorosensors.     

Self-organization of chalcogen-containing cyclic alkynes and alkenes to yield columnar structures

Close contacts between chalcogen atoms in cyclic dienes and diynes are used to create columnar structures in the solid state. Rigid and fairly planar cycles with chalcogen centers are the preconditions for forming those columnar structures.     

Halophilic reactions of a stable silylene with chloro and bromocarbons

A number of disilanes have been synthesized from a stable silylene, 1 (N,N'-di-tert-butyl-1,3-diaza-2-silacyclopent-4-en-2-ylidene), and a variety of halocarbons. It is proposed that disilane formation is a result of an initial halophilic interaction between the silylene and halocarbon. Formation of disilanes from 1 and CCl4, 2a, CHCl3, 2b, CH2Cl2, 2c, benzyl chloride, 2d, and bromobenzene, 5, are described here. An X-ray crystal structure of 2b was determined.     

Luminescence lifetime-based sensor for cyanide and related anions

A new Ru(II) complex is described which serves as a luminescence lifetime-based sensor for fluoride and cyanide anions (KF = 640 000 mol-1, KCN = 430 000 mol-1). This chromophore displays observable changes in its UV-vis and steady-state luminescence spectra upon cyanide binding. Prior to cyanide addition, this complex exhibits a single-exponential lifetime (tau = 377 +/- 20 ns). With increasing cyanide concentrations, the intensity decays are composed of two exponentials: long tau (320-370 ns) and short tau (13-17 ns). The average lifetimes shorten as a function of cyanide concentration since the fractional intensity shifts from an initial dominant long lifetime component to the short lifetime component. This work represents the first example of a direct method for the luminescence lifetime-based sensing of anions.     

Supramolecular assembly on surfaces: manipulating conductance in noncovalently modified mesoscale structures

Molecules capable of complementary hydrogen bonding were used to control the noncovalent self-assembly and electronic properties of a chemically well-defined surface mesostructure. In this work, we patterned a footprint region for molecular assembly on a surface and used moieties featuring complementary recognition to tune the current-voltage properties of the patterned region. With the appropriate functionalities on the complementary moieties, we were able to increase and decrease the observed conductance in surface-bound mesoscale structures imaged by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM).