Poly(ethylene glycol)--oligolactates with monodisperse hydrophobic blocks: preparation, characterization, and behavior in water

Methoxypoly(ethylene glycol)-b-oligo-L-lactate (mPEG-b-OLA) diblock oligomers with monodisperse OLA blocks were obtained by fractionation of polydisperse block oligomers using preparative HPLC. The fractionated oligomers were composed of an mPEG block with a molecular weight of 350, 550, or 750 and an OLA block with a degree of polymerization of 4, 6, 8, or 10. The diblock oligomers with a low PEG content were fully amorphous, with glass transition temperatures ranging from -60 to -20 degrees C, indicating that the blocks were miscible. Upon heating aqueous dispersions of the block oligomers, cloud points, depending on the PEG/OLA ratio of the block oligomer, were observed at temperatures above 40 degrees C. The monodispersity of the hydrophobic block enabled the amphiphilic molecules to form nanoparticles in water with a hydrodynamic radius of 130-300 nm, at concentrations above the critical aggregation concentration (0.4-1 mg/mL), whereas polydisperse mPEG-b-OLAs gave formation of large aggregates. Static light scattering measurements showed that the nanoparticles have a low density (0.6-25 mg/mL), indicating that the particles are highly hydrated. In agreement herewith, the (1)H NMR spectra of nanoparticles in D2O closely resembled spectra in a good solvent for both blocks (CDCl3). It is therefore suggested that the nanoparticles contain a hydrated core of mPEG-b-OLA block oligomers, stabilized by a thin outer PEG layer. The particles were stable for two weeks, except for the mPEG350 series and mPEG750-b-OLA4, indicating that both the PEG block size and the PEG weight fraction of the oligomers determine their stability. The evident self-emulsifying properties of mPEG-b-oligo-l-lactates with monodisperse hydrophobic blocks as demonstrated in this study, together with their expected biocompatibility and biodegradability, make these systems well suitable for pharmaceutical applications.     

Amino substituted 1-oxa-3-azabutatrienium salts: preparation, structure and reaction with carbonyl compounds

N,N-Dimethylformamide ($\text{4a}$) and N,N-dimethylpivalamide ($\text{4b}$) react with carbonyl chloride isocyanate ($\text{5}$) in the presence of antimony pentachloride to afford the amino substituted 1-oxa-3-azabutatrienium hexachloroantimonates $\text{6a}$,$\text{b}$. An X-ray diffraction analysis of $\text{6a}$ confirms the proposed structure. The heterocumulenes $\text{6a}$,$\text{b}$ react with aldehydes, ketones and tertiary carboxamides to give the amino substituted 2-azaallenium salts $\text{13a}$-$\text{O}$ in high yields.     

Acetylenchemie 12. Mitt.: Weitere studien über die phasentransfer-katalysierte umsetzung des 9(10H)-acridinons mil alkinylhalogeniden

By the phase transfer catalyzed reaction of 9(10H)-acridinone with 1-bromo-2-propyne, 10-(2-propynyl)-9(10H)-acridinone is synthesized. As prototropic rearrangement products of this 10-(1,2-propadienyl)-9(10H)-acridinone and 10-(1-propynyl)-9(10H)-acridinone are obtained, Under the given conditins 1-bromo-2butyne leads to 10-(2-butynyl)-9(10H)-acridinone and 2-chloro-3-butyne leads to 10-(1-methyl-1,2-propddienyl)-9(10H)-acridinone, 10-(1-methyl-2-propynyl)-9(10H)-acridinone, 9-(1-methyl-2-propynyloxy)acridine and 10-[1-methyl-3-(3,4-dimethylphenyl-2-propynyl)]-9(10H)-acridinone. The formation of the products is experimentally confirmed and with published work compared.     

Resonances and microlocal analysis

In this paper we outline briefly how microlocal analysis can be applied to give a general approach to the mathematical theory of resonances in the semiclassical limit. We also describe recent results about the asymptotic behavior of resonances generated by closed trajectories and stationary points in the classical flow.     

Modeling solvent effects on electron-spin-resonance hyperfine couplings by frozen-density embedding

In this study, we investigate the performance of the frozen-density embedding scheme within density-functional theory [J. Phys. Chem. 97, 8050 (1993)] to model the solvent effects on the electron-spin-resonance hyperfine coupling constants (hfcc's) of the H2NO molecule. The hfcc's for this molecule depend critically on the out-of-plane bending angle of the NO bond from the molecular plane. Therefore, solvent effects can have an influence on both the electronic structure for a given configuration of solute and solvent molecules and on the probability for different solute (plus solvent) structures compared to the gas phase. For an accurate modeling of dynamic effects in solution, we employ the Car-Parrinello molecular-dynamics (CPMD) approach. A first-principles-based Monte Carlo scheme is used for the gas-phase simulation, in order to avoid problems in the thermal equilibration for this small molecule. Calculations of small H2NO-water clusters show that microsolvation effects of water molecules due to hydrogen bonding can be reproduced by frozen-density embedding calculations. Even simple sum-of-molecular-densities approaches for the frozen density lead to good results. This allows us to include also bulk solvent effects by performing frozen-density calculations with many explicit water molecules for snapshots from the CPMD simulation. The electronic effect of the solvent at a given structure is reproduced by the frozen-density embedding. Dynamic structural effects in solution are found to be similar to the gas phase. But the small differences in the average structures still induce significant changes in the computed shifts due to the strong dependence of the hyperfine coupling constants on the out-of-plane bending angle.     

Electronic energy transfer and collection in luminescent molecular rods containing ruthenium(II) and osmium(II) 2,2':6',2"-terpyridine complexes linked by thiophene-2,5-diyl spacers

The electronic absorption spectra, luminescence spectra and lifetimes (in MeCN at room temperature and in frozen n-C3H7CN at 77 K), and electrochemical potentials (in MeCN) of the novel dinuclear [(tpy)Ru(3)Os(tpy)]4+ and trinuclear [(tpy)Ru(3)Os(3)Ru(tpy)]6- complexes (3 = 2,5-bis(2,2':6',2'-terpyridin-4-yl)thiophene) have been obtained and are compared with those of model mononuclear complexes and homometallic [(tpy)Ru(3)Ru(tpy)]4+, [(tpy)Os(3)Os(tpy)]4+ and [(tpy)Ru(3)Ru(3)Ru(tpy)]6+ Complexes. The bridging ligand 3 is nearly planar in the complexes, as seen from a preliminary X-ray determination of [(tpy)Ru(3)Ru(tpy)][PF6]4, and confers a high degree of rigidity upon the polynuclear species. The trinuclear species are rod-shaped with a distance of about 3 nm between the terminal metal centres. For the polynuclear complexes, the spectroscopic and electrochemical data are in accord with a significant intermetal interaction. All of the complexes are luminescent (phi in the range 10(-4)-10(-2) and tau in the range 6-340 ns, at room temperature), and ruthenium- or osmium-based luminescence properties can be identified. Due to the excited state properties of the various components and to the geometric and electronic properties of the bridge, Ru --> Os directional transfer of excitation energy takes place in the complexes [(tpy)Ru(3)Os(tpy)]4+ (end-to-end) and [(tpy)Ru(3)Os(3)Ru(tpy)]6+ (periphery-to-centre). With respect to the homometallic case, for [(tpy)Ru(3)Os(3)Ru(tpy)]6+ excitation trapping at the central position is accompanied by a fivefold enhancement of luminescence intensity.     

Ru-Catalyzed Heptalene Formation from Azulenes and Dimethyl Acetylenedicarboxylate

It is shown that azulenes react with dimethyl acetylenedicarboxylate (ADM) in solvents such as toluene, dioxan, or MeCN in the presence of 2 mol-% [RuH₂(PPh₃)₄] already at temperatures as low as 100° and lead to the formation of the corresponding heptalene-1,2-dicarboxylates in excellent yields (Tables 1 and 2). The Ru-catalyzed reaction of ADM with 1-(tert-butyl)-4,6,8-trimethylazulene ( 31 ) takes place even at room temperature, yielding the primary tricyclic addition product 32 and its thermal retro-Diels-Alder product dimethyl 4,6,8-trimethylazulene-1,2-dicarboxylate ( 21 ; Scheme 4). At 100° in MeCN, 32 yields 90% of 21 and only 10% of the corresponding heptalene. These observations demonstrate that [RuH₂(PPh₃)₄] catalyzes the first step of the thermal formation of heptalenes from azulenes and ADM which occurs in apolar solvents such as tetralin or decalin at temperatures > 180° (cf. Scheme 1).     

Übergangsmetall-silyl-komplexe: IV. Bildung eines ring-substituierten wolframocen dihydrid derivats durch reaktion von Cp2WCl2 MIT Li[Si(SiMe3)3]

In the reaction of Cp₂WGl₂ with Li[Si(SiMe₃)₃] the dihydrid tungstenocene derivative [(Me₃Si)₃SiC₅H₄]WH₂ (3) is formed with a 56% yield. 3 crystallizes in space group P$\text{1}$, with a 918.0(4), b 1580.9(4), c 1621.2(7) pm, α 117.63(2), β 89.95(3), γ 94.39(3)° at ?40° C. The dihedral angle between the Cp planes is 140.9°.