Rearrangements of organometallic compounds : XVII. Synthesis of lactones via the titanium-catalyzed hydromagnesiation of alkenols

An efficient, two-step synthesis is presented for preparing γ- and δ-lactones from aldehydes or ketones. (1) the addition of vinyl- or allyl-Grignard reagents to the appropriate carbonyl substrate; and (2) the titanium-catalyzed hydromagnesiation of the resulting alkenols with ethyl Grignard reagent and (η⁵-C₅H₅)₂TiCl₂, followed by carbonation. The selectivity of hydrometallation observed with 3-butenyl(methyl)vinylcarbinol indicates the importance of alkoxytitanium hydrides in determining the course of reaction.     

Angular momentum decoupling approximations in the quantum dynamics of reactive systems

Two methods for implementing angular momentum decoupling approximations in quantum mechanical reactive scattering examined. Applications of both reactive and nonreactive H + H₂ collisions indicate that for the most intense individual reactive transitions and for all degeneracy-averaged ones, these decoupling methods (especially the “proper” decoupling method) yield results in good agreement with those of fully-coupled calculations. However, for the less intense reactive transitions and all individual nonreactive transitions, very large errors can result from use of these approximate methods.     

Experimental anomalies and the conformational theory of polymers

The influence of the size and shape of the torsional potential upon the theoretical temperature coefficient (T? ln 〈r₀²〉/?T) of a polymeric chain was studied. The uncorrelated end-to-end distance equations for isotactic, syndiotactic, and completely atactic chains were differentiated with respect to temperature and the integrals in the resulting equations were evaluated by the method of Gaussian quadrature. The calculated coefficients were found to be nonlinear functions of the energy ratio U_max/KT, where U_max is the maximum potential barrier and possess real roots which critically depend upon the size and shape of the potential. Qualitative anomalies between experiment and theory disappeared when the entire torsional potential was used in the conformational theory. It appears that quantitative agreement between theory and experiment can be established for polymeric materials if the entire potential is used, rotations within bulky side groups are included, and the potential is determined by the method of minimum conformational energy.     

Indirect electrochemical methods of nitration: Novel nitroacetamidation of dienes

Solutions of nitronium tetrafluoroborate in acetonitrile prepared by anodic oxidation of nitrogen dioxide, efficiently nitrate aromatics, enolsilyethers, alkenes and conjugated dienes to afford respectively nitroaromatics, α-nitroketones, vicinal nitroamides and mixtures of nitroacetamides by 1,2- and 1,4-addition.     

Arylation with aryllead triacetates produced in situ by mercury-lead exchange

Reaction of a diarylmercury with lead tetraacetate to give an aryllead triacetate has been found to be a rapid reaction. The in situ generation of aryllead triacetates is thus an attractive alternative to the use of the purified reagents in the various electrophilic arylation reactions of these compounds.     

Metal to ligand group transfer reactions : II. Reactions of some π-allylrhodium(I) complexes with trifluoroacetic acid and alkyl,acyl and trimethyltin halides

Rh(π-C₃H₅)(PF₃)₃ (I), reacts with trifluoroacetic acid to form propene and [Rh(CF₃COO)(PF₃)₂]₂ (II). I reacts with t-butyl bromide to give [RhBr(PF₃)₂]₂ and a mixture of propene and 2-methyl-1-propene and with n-propyl bromide to give propene and [RhBr(PF₃)₂]₂. Rh(π-C₃H₅)(PPh₃)₂ (III), and t-butyl bromide yield propene and 2-methyl-1-propene. In these reactions a mechanism involving β-hydrogen abstraction and hydrogen migration via the metal to carbon is proposed. When III reacts with Me₃SnCl the Me₃Sn—moiety migrates intact to the π-allyl group. I reacts with acetyl chloride to give propene, [RhCl(PF₃)₂]₂ and the carbonyl rhodium complex Rh₂Cl₂(PF₃)₃(CO). II does not apparently undergo phosphine ligand exchange unlike the analogous halogeno-bridged dimers.     

Interfacial electrical properties of DNA-modified diamond thin films: intrinsic response and hybridization-induced field effects

We have investigated the frequency-dependent interfacial electrical properties of nanocrystalline diamond films that were covalently linked to DNA oligonucleotides and how these properties are changed upon exposure to complementary and noncomplementary DNA oligonucleotides. Frequency-dependent electrical measurements at the open-circuit potential show significant changes in impedance at frequencies of >10(4) Hz when DNA-modified diamond films are exposed to complementary DNA, with only minimal changes when exposed to noncomplementary DNA molecules. Measurements as a function of potential show that at 10(5) Hz, the impedance is dominated by the space-charge region of the diamond film. DNA molecules hybridizing at the interface induce a field effect in the diamond space-charge layer, altering the impedance of the diamond film. By identifying a range of impedances where the impedance is dominated by the diamond space-charge layer, we show that it possible to directly observe DNA hybridization, in real time and without additional labels, via simple measurement of the interfacial impedance.     

PHYCOBILIPROTEINS: COMPARISON OF SOLUTION AND SINGLE CRYSTAL FLUORESCENCE FOR C-PHYCOCYANIN AND B-PHYCOERYTHRIN*

Abstract— Trimeric and hexameric solution forms of C-phycocyanin (CPC) from the cyanophyte Agme-nellum quadruplicatum have been isolated and their spectral properties compared to those obtained from single crystals. Although the absorbance peak of a suspension of small C-phycocyanin crystals is red-shifted only 7 nm relative to the solution forms, the single crystal fluorescence is red-shifted 60 nm relative to the solution forms. The crystal fluorescence spectrum exhibits a single peak at LD_max= 708 nm when excited at 514.5 or 530.9 nm and two peaks (LD_max= 661 and 708 nm) when excitation occurs at 568.2 nm. Fluorescence depolarization measurements indicate that extensive energy transfer could occur for both solution and crystal forms with the latter being dependent upon the relative orientation of the crystal with respect to the excitation dipole. Similar results were obtained with B-phycoerythrin (BPE) from the red alga Porphyridium cruentum where the single crystal fluorescence is red-shifted =50nm relative to the solution spectra with two peaks (LD_max= 583 and 617 nm) observed whose relative intensities are dependent on the excitation wavelength (LD_max– 514.5 and 530.9 nm). Single crystal fluorescent lifetimes exhibited considerable shortening relative to that observed for the solution forms. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the possible relationships of the crystalline structures to the assembly forms present within phycobilisomes.     

Carbon-bound diazeniumdiolates from the reaction of nitric oxide with amidines

[reaction: see text] The enediamine tautomer of a variety of substituted amidine free bases reacts with nitric oxide (NO) to produce compounds containing a carbon-bound diazeniumdiolate [R1R2R3C-N(O)=NO-] functional group (previously called "nitrosohydroxylamines"). The new reaction has been shown to be quite general, although the nature of the products does vary. Amidines containing more than one replaceable hydrogen produce polydiazeniumdiolates as intermolecular salts, while those in which only one diazeniumdiolation can occur provide zwitterionic salts. These diazeniumdiolated amidines are shown to be useful NO donor compounds which undergo very slow spontaneous dissociation on dissolution in pH 7.4 phosphate buffer to produce mixtures of NO and nitrous oxide containing mostly NO. The most advantageous manifestation of the new discovery is the preparation of the monodiazeniumdiolated amidine zwitterions. Reaction of the medically relevant alpha-adrenergic agonists tetrahydrozoline and idazoxan produced monodiazeniumdiolated amidine zwitterions from which NO release was observed for up to 28 days and showed little sign of ending. The reaction should be applicable to a variety of pharmaceutical agents, including NO synthase inhibitors, antitumor agents, and antibacterials.     

Reactions of methylniobium(V) and methyltantalum(V) chlorides with carbodiimides

The chlorides Me_xMCl_5-x, M = Nb, Ta, x = 1, 2, 3 react with carbodiimides RNCNR (R = isopropyl, cyclohexyl, p-tolyl) to give products of the types MCl₄[NR-C(Me)=NR], MeMCl₃[NR-C(Me)=NR], MCl₃[NR-C(Me)=NR]₂, Me₂MCl₂[NR-C(Me)=NR], MeMCl₂[NR-C(Me)=NR]₂, which cóntain bidentate acetamidine groups arising from insertion of the carbodiimide into the metal-carbon bond. The products have been characterised by elemental analysis IR and proton NMR spectra.