Michael reaction. V. Stereochemistry of the NaNH2 catalyzed two-step reaction between phenylacetic acid dialkyl amides and methyl cinnamate or cinnamic acid dialkyl amides

The reaction is investigated between sodium-metallated (NaNH₂) phenylacetic acid dialkyl amides and methyl cinnamate or cinnamic acid dialkyl amides. The thermodynamic equilibrium between the diastereomeric 2,3-diphenylglutaric acid amidoesters or diamides is 5/95 in favour of thethreo-isomer. Under kinetic conditions the stereochemistry of the reaction depends on the nature of the donor and the solvent.

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Michael Reaktion. V. Stereochemie der durch NaNH₂ katalysierten zweistufigen Reaktion zwischen Dialkylamiden der Phenylessigsäure und Methylestern oder Dialkylamiden der Zimtsäure

Zusammenfassung Die Umsetzung zwischen der mit festem NaNH₂ gewonnenen Natriumderivaten der Dialkylamiden der Phenylessigsäure und Methylestern oder Dialkylamiden der Zimtsäure wurde untersucht. Das thermodynamischeE/T-Verhältnis zwischen den gewonnenen diastereomeren Amidestern und Diamiden der 2,3-Diphenylglutarsäure beträgt in allen Fällen 5/95. Das stereochemische Ergebnis unter kinetischen Bedingungen hängt von der Natur des Donators und von den Lösungsmitteln ab.

     

Pathways of decomposition of <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-cyclopropyl <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis> nitrosoureas in methanol

Decomposition of a series of N-cyclopropyl-N-nitrosoureas (CNU) in CD₃OD was studied. These decompose much more rapidly than N-methyl-N-nitrosourea, one of the decomposition pathways being denitrosation, which is atypical of alkylnitrosoureas under the reaction conditions used. The nature of substituents in the cyclopropane ring has a great effect on the stability of CNU and the product ratio. In the presence of H₂ SO₄, decomposition occurs much more rapidly. Possible pathways of the formation of the major decomposition products of CNU are proposed based on the experimental data.__________Published in Russian in Izvestiya Akademii Nauk. Seriya Khimicheskaya, No. 2, pp. 359–370, February, 2005.     

1,2,5]Thiadiazolo[3,4-c][1,2,5]thiadiazolidyl: a long-lived radical anion and its stable salts

[1,2,5]Thiadiazolo[3,4-c][1,2,5]thiadiazole (1) is synthesized in 62% yield by fluoride ion-induced condensation of 3,4-difluoro-1,2,5-thiadiazole with (Me(3)SiN=)(2)S. The reversible electrochemical reduction of 1 leads to the long-lived [1,2,5]thiadiazolo[3,4-c][1,2,5]thiadiazolidyl radical anion (2) and further to the dianion (3). The radical anion 2 is also obtained by the chemical reduction of the precursor 1 with t-BuOK in MeCN. The radical anion 2 is characterized by ESR spectroscopy in solution and in the crystalline state. The stable salts [K(18-crown-6)][2] and [K(18-crown-6)][2].MeCN (8 and 9, respectively) are isolated from the spontaneous decomposition of the [K(18-crown-6)][PhXNSN] (6, X = S; 7, X = Se) salts in MeCN solution followed by XRD characterization. The radical anion 2 acts as a bridging ligand in 8 and as chelating ligand in 9. The structural changes observed by XRD in going from 1 to 2 are explained by means of DFT/(U)B3LYP/6-311+G calculations.     

Functional analysis of the lipoglycodepsipeptide antibiotic ramoplanin

The peptide antibiotic ramoplanin is highly effective against several drug-resistant gram-positive bacteria, including vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), two important opportunistic human pathogens. Ramoplanin inhibits bacterial peptidoglycan (PG) biosynthesis by binding to Lipid intermediates I and II at a location different than the N-acyl-D-Ala-D-Ala dipeptide site targeted by vancomycin. Lipid I/II capture physically occludes these substrates from proper utilization by the late-stage PG biosynthesis enzymes MurG and the transglycosylases. Key structural features of ramoplanin responsible for antibiotic activity and PG molecular recognition have been discovered by antibiotic semisynthetic modification in conjunction with NMR analyses. These results help define a minimalist ramoplanin pharmacophore and introduce the possibility of generating ramoplanin-derived peptide or peptidomimetic antibiotics for use against VRE, MRSA, and related pathogens.     

Rheology of viscoelastic solutions of cationic surfactant. Effect of added associating polymer

Rheological studies were performed with aqueous salt solutions of viscoelastic cationic surfactant erucyl bis(hydroxyethyl)methylammonium chloride (EHAC) and its mixtures with hydrophobically modified polyacrylamide. The solutions of surfactant itself above the concentration of crossover of wormlike micelles exhibit two regions of rheological response. In the first region, they behave like polymer solutions in semidilute regime characterized by viscoelastic behavior with a spectrum of relaxation times. In the second region, unlike polymer solutions their relaxation after shear is dominated by a single relaxation time. Being composed of "living" micelles, the EHAC solutions easily lose their viscosity at the variation of the external conditions. For instance, heating from 20 to 60 degrees C reduces viscosity by up to 2 orders of magnitude, while added hydrocarbons induce a sudden drop of viscosity by 3-6 orders of magnitude. Polymer profoundly affects the rheological properties of EHAC solutions. The polymer/surfactant system demonstrates a 10,000-fold increase in viscosity as compared to pure-component solutions, the effect being more pronounced for polymer with less blocky distribution of hydrophobic units. A synergistic enhancement of viscosity was attributed to the formation of common network, in which some subchains are made up of elongated surfactant micelles, while others are composed of polymer. At cross-links the hydrophobic side groups of polymer anchor EHAC micelles. In contrast to surfactant itself, the polymer/surfactant system retains high viscosity at elevated temperature; at the same time it keeps a high responsiveness to hydrocarbon medium inherent to EHAC.     

Formation and reactions of substituted diazocyclopropanes and cyclopropyldiazonium ions

Decomposition of N-nitroso-N-cyclopropylureas at 5—7 °C on treatment with K₂CO₃ containing 15—20% H₂O allows simultaneous generation of both substituted diazocyclopropanes and cyclopropyldiazonium ions, which can react according to 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition or azo-coupling pattern with appropriate substrates. The nature of substituents in the cyclopropyl ring have a pronounced influence on the product ratio (and, probably, on the equilibrium between the diazo compound and the diazonium ion). Thus, on treatment with a base in the presence of equimolar amounts of methyl metacrylate as a trap for the diazo compound and 2-naphthol as a trap for the diazonium ion, N-cyclopropyl- and N-(2,2-dimethylcyclopropyl)-N-nitrosourea azo coupling products predominate. Conversely, N-(2,2-dichlorocyclopropyl)-N-nitrosourea is transformed predominantly into 1,3-cycloaddition products. A rationalization for the experimental data is proposed.     

Stereochemical non-rigidity of N-(dimethylhalogenosilylmethyl)-N-(1-phenylethyl) acetamides in solutions

The structure and dynamic behavior of (O-Si)-chelate N-(dimethylhalogenosilyl)methyl acetamides of the type MeC(O)N(CH(Ph)Me)CH₂ SiMe₂ X, where X = F, Cl, Br with the OSiC₃X coordination set, were studied by multinuclear (¹H, ¹³C, ¹⁷O, ²⁹Si) and dynamic ¹H NMR spectroscopy. Ligand permutation at silicon was detected. The observed influence of the solvent, nucleofugacity of the X substituent and the external nucleophile on the calculated values of the free energies of activation testify to the dissociative and/or associative mechanisms of the process, but including the stages in which the regular (pseudo-rotation or ‘turnstile’) mechanism takes place. At lower temperatures (up to −90°C) the ¹H, ¹³C, ²⁹Si NMR spectra of N-(dimethylchlorosilyl)methyl acetamide contain the signals of two species of unequal intensity. This effect was explained by an equilibrium between monomers containing the intramolecular O → Si bond and dimers with a hexacoordinate silicon and the bridging chlorine atoms.     

Synthesis of alpha-amino acids via asymmetric phase transfer-catalyzed alkylation of achiral nickel(II) complexes of glycine-derived Schiff bases

Achiral, diamagnetic Ni(II) complexes 1 and 3 have been synthesized from Ni(II) salts and the Schiff bases, generated from glycine and PBP (7) and PBA (11), respectively, in MeONa/MeOH solutions. The requisite carbonyl-derivatizing agents pyridine-2-carboxylic acid(2-benzoyl-phenyl)-amide 7 (PBP) and pyridine-2-carboxylic acid(2-formyl-phenyl)-amide 11 (PBA) were readily prepared from picolinic acid and o-aminobenzophenone or picolinic acid and methyl o-anthranilate, respectively. The structure of 1 was established by X-ray crystallography. Complexes 1 and 3 were found to undergo C-alkylation with alkyl halides under PTC conditions in the presence of beta-naphthol or benzyltriethylammonium bromide as catalysts to give mono- and bis-alkylated products, respectively. Decomposition of the complexes with aqueous HCl under mild conditions gave the required amino acids, and PBP and PBA were recovered. Alkylation of 1 with highly reactive alkyl halides, carried out under the PTC conditions in the presence of 10% mol of (S)- or (R)-2-hydroxy-2'-amino-1,1'-binaphthyl 31a (NOBIN) and/or its N-acyl derivatives and by (S)- or (R)-2-hydroxy-8'-amino-1,1'-binaphthyl 32a (iso-NOBIN) and its N-acyl derivatives, respectively, gave rise to alpha-amino acids with high enantioselectivities (90-98.5% ee) in good-to-excellent chemical yields at room temperature within several minutes. An unusually large positive nonlinear effect was observed in these reactions. The Michael addition of acrylic derivatives 37 to 1 was conducted under similar conditions with up to 96% ee. The (1)H NMR and IR spectra of a mixture of the sodium salt of NOBIN and 1 indicated formation of a complex between the two components. Implications of the association and self-association of NOBIN for the observed sense of asymmetric induction and nonlinear effects are discussed.     

Ionic conductivity in the crystalline polymer electrolytes PEO6:LiXF6, X = P,As, Sb

Ionically conducting polymers (salts dissolved in a polymer matrix) are of great interest because they uniquely exhibit ionic conductivity in a soft but solid membrane. As such, they are critical to the development of devices such as all-solid-state lithium batteries. The established view of ionic conductivity in polymer electrolytes is that this occurs in amorphous materials above their glass transition temperature and that crystalline polymer electrolytes are insulators. In contrast, we show that three crystalline polymer electrolytes, poly(ethylene oxide)(6):LiXF(6), X = P, As, Sb, not only conduct but do so better than the analogous amorphous phases! It is also shown that the conductivities of all three 6:1 complexes are similar, consistent with the dimension of the bottlenecks to conduction derived from their crystal structures. An increase in ionic conductivity with reduction of molecular weight of the crystalline polymer electrolyte (from 2000 to 1000) is reported and shown to relate to the increase in crystallite size on reducing molecular weight.