Direct guanidinylation of aryl and heteroaryl halides via copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction

A modified Ullmann reaction using p-methoxybenzyl (PMB) guanidine as guanidinylation agent yielded various aryl and heteroaryl guanidines in good yields.     

Analysis of a Prototypical Multiscale Method Coupling Atomistic and Continuum Mechanics： the Convex Case

In order to describe a solid which deforms smoothly in some region,but non smoothly in someother region,many multiscale methods have been recently proposed that aim at coupling an atomistic model(discrete mechanics) with a macroscopic model (continuum mechanics).We provide here a theoretical basis forsuch a coupling in a one-dimensional setting,in the case of convex energy.     

New approach on the development of plasticized polylactide (PLA): Grafting of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) via reactive extrusion

In this work, new ways of plasticizing polylactide (PLA) with low molecular poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) were developed to improve the ductility of PLA while maintaining the plasticizer content at maximum 20 wt.% PLA. To this end, a reactive blending of anhydride-grafted PLA (MAG-PLA) copolymer with PEG, with chains terminated with hydroxyl groups, was performed. During the melt-processing, a fraction of PEG was grafted into the anhydride-functionalized PLA chains. The role of the grafted fraction was to improve the compatibility between PLA and PEG. Reactive extrusion and melt-blending of neat and modified PLA with PEG did not induce any dramatic drop of PLA molecular weight. The in situ reactive grafting of PEG into the modified PLA in PLA/PEG blends showed a clear effect on the thermal properties of PLA. It was demonstrated by DSC that the mobility gained by PLA chains in the plasticized blends yielded crystallization. The grafting of a fraction of PEG into PLA did not affect this process. However, DSC results obtained after the second heating showed an interesting effect on the T_g when 20 wt.% PEG were melt blended with neat PLA or 10 wt.% MAG-PLA. In the latter case, the T_g displayed by the reactive blend was shifted to even lower temperatures at around 14 °C, while the T_g of neat PLA and PLA blended with 20 wt.% PEG was around 60 and 23 °C, respectively. Regarding viscoelastic and viscoplastic properties, the presence of MAG-PLA does not significantly influence the behavior of plasticized PLA. Indeed, with or without MAG-PLA, elastic modulus and yield stress decrease, while ultimate strain increases with the addition of PEG into PLA.     

Codes defined by forms of degree 2 on non-degenerate Hermitian varieties in $${\mathbb{P}^{4}(\mathbb{F}_q)}$$

We study the functional codes of second order on a non-degenerate Hermitian variety as defined by G. Lachaud. We provide the best possible bounds for the number of points of quadratic sections of . We list the first five weights, describe the corresponding codewords and compute their number. The paper ends with two conjectures. The first is about minimum distance of the functional codes of order h on a non-singular Hermitian variety . The second is about distribution of the codewords of first five weights of the functional codes of second order on a non-singular Hermitian variety .      

Photocontrolled Cobalt Catalysis for Selective Hydroboration of α,β-Unsaturated Ketones

Selectivity between 1,2 and 1,4 addition of a nucleophile to an α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compound has classically been modified by the addition of stoichiometric additives to the substrate or reagent to increase their “hard” or “soft” character. Here, we demonstrate a conceptually distinct approach that instead relies on controlling the coordination sphere of a catalyst with visible light. In this way, we bias the reaction down two divergent pathways, giving contrasting products in the catalytic hydroboration of α,β-unsaturated ketones. This includes direct access to previously elusive cyclic enolborates, via 1,4-selective hydroboration, providing a straightforward and stereoselective route to rare syn-aldol products in one-pot. DFT calculations and mechanistic experiments confirm two different mechanisms are operative, underpinning this unusual photocontrolled selectivity switch.     

Tracking the Light-Induced Excited-State Dynamics and Structural Configurations of an Extraordinarily Long-Lived Metastable State at Room Temperature

Time-resolved X-ray (Tr-XAS) and optical transient absorption (OTA) spectroscopy on the pico-microsecond timescale coupled with density functional theory calculations are applied to study the light-induced spin crossover processes of a Fe-based macrocyclic complex in solution. Tr-XAS analysis after light illumination shows the formation of a seven-coordinated high-spin quintet metastable state, which relaxes to a six-coordinated high-spin configuration before decaying to the ground state. Kinetic analysis of the macrocyclic complex reveals an unprecedented long-lived decay lifetime of approximately 42.6 μs. Comparative studies with a non-macrocyclic counterpart illustrate a significantly shortened approximately 568-fold decay lifetime of about 75 ns, and highlight the importance of the ligand arrangement in stabilizing the reactivity of the excited state. Lastly, OTA analysis shows the seven-coordinated high-spin state to be formed within approximately 6.2 ps. These findings provide a complete understanding of the spin crossover reaction and relaxation pathways of the macrocyclic complex, and reveal the importance of a flexible coordination environment for their rational design.     

Chiral Supramolecular Nanotubes of Single-Chain Magnets

We report a single-chain magnet (SCM) made of a terbium(III) building block and a nitronyl-nitroxide radical (NIT) functionalized with an aliphatic chain. This substitution is targeted to induce a long-range distortion of the polymeric chain and accordingly it gives rise to chains that are curled with almost 20 nm helical pitch. They self-organize as a chiral tubular superstructure made of 11 chains wound around each other. The supramolecular tubes have a 4.5 nm internal diameter. Overall, this forms a porous chiral network with almost 44 % porosity. Ab initio calculations highlight that each Tb^III ion possesses high magnetic anisotropy. Indeed, notwithstanding the supramolecular arrangement each chain behaves as a SCM. Magnetic relaxation with both finite and infinite-size regimes is observed and confirms the validity of the Ising approximation. This is associated with quite strong coercive field and magnetic remanence (H_c=2400 Oe M_R=2.09 μ_B at 0.5 K) for this class of compounds.     

The epistemic gossip problem

In the gossip problem information (‘secrets’) must be shared among a certain number of agents using the minimum number of calls. We extend the gossip problem to arbitrary epistemic depths. For example, we may require not only that all agents know all secrets but also that all agents know that all agents know all secrets. We give optimal protocols for various versions of this epistemic gossip problem, depending on the graph of communication links, in the case of two-way communication, one-way communication and parallel communication. We show, among other things, that increasing epistemic depth from 1 (all agents know all secrets) to 2 (so that all agents know that all agents know all secrets) does not double the required number of calls but increases this number by $3∕2$ (for a complete graph). We also show that the following counter-intuitive result generalises to the epistemic gossip problem: asymptotically the same number of calls are required whether calls are two-way or one-way.