Polyformylation of copper(II) porphyrins

Vilsmeier formylation of copper(II) octaethylporphyrin (1) is shown to yield the copper(II) complexes of meso-monoformyloctaethylporphyrin, meso-α,β- and meso-α,γ-diformyloctaethylporphyrins, meso-α,β,γ-triformyloctaethylporphyrin, and meso-α,β,γ,δ-tetraformyloctaethylporphyrin. There is therefore no difference in regioselectivity of meso-diformylation between the octaethylporphyrin and etioporphyrin-I series.     

A conjecture about Bäcklund transformations

It has been suggested that given a constant of motion for an evolution equation which comes from a Bäcklund transformation one can obtain further constants of motion from the one by further use of the Bäcklund transformation. Our conjecture is that no new constants can be so obtained. A number of examples verifying the conjecture are given.     

Asymmetric hydrogenation of N-sulfonylated-alpha-dehydroamino acids: toward the synthesis of an anthrax lethal factor inhibitor

A novel and highly enantioselective Ru-catalyzed hydrogenation of N-sulfonylated-alpha-dehydroamino acids has been discovered and demonstrated in the synthesis of an anthrax lethal factor inhibitor (LFI). Herein, this methodology is used to prepare N-sulfonylated amino acids in up to 98% ee. This unprecedented hydrogenation uses a chiral Ru catalyst rather than Rh as typical for acylated dehydroamino acids and esters, and this work reports the first asymmetric hydrogenation of a tetrasubstituted dehydroamino acid derivative using a Ru catalyst. [reaction: see text]     

Design of a functional protein for molecular recognition: specificity of ligand binding in a metal-assembled protein cavity probed by 19f NMR

A metal-assembled homotrimeric coiled coil based on the GCN4-p1 sequence has been designed that noncovalently binds hexafluorobenzene and other similar ligands in a hydrophobic cavity, created by making the core substitution Asn16Ala ([Fe(bpyGCN4-N16A)3]2+). The KD of binding of hexafluorobenzene with [Fe(bpyGCN4-N16A)3]2+ was observed to be 1.1(9) x 10(-4) M by diffusion NMR experiments. A control coiled coil with the core substitution Asn16Val ([Fe(bpyGCN4-N16V)3]2+) exhibited a significantly weaker association with hexafluorobenzene, providing evidence that even in the absence of structural data, benzene-like ligands bind in the cavity created by the Asn16Ala substitution. 19F NMR was employed to observe hexafluorobenzene binding and to monitor titrations with competing hydrophobic and polar ligands similar in size and shape to hexafluorobenzene. All hydrophobic ligands bound with greater affinity than the polar ligands in the hydrophobic core, although the cavity seems to be somewhat flexible in terms of the sizes of molecules it can accommodate. Thus 19F NMR has proved to be a useful spectral tool to probe molecular recognition in a hydrophobic cavity of a metal-assembled coiled coil.     

Dynamics of alkoxy-oligothiophene ground and excited states in nanochannels

Two oligothiophenes, 4,4'-dipentoxy-2,2'-dithiophene and 4,4"-dipentoxy-2,2':5',2":5",2' '-tetrathiophene, have been included in the nanochannels of the autoassembling host TPP (tris-o-phenylenedioxycyclotriphosphazene). The effect of the confinement on the structure and properties of the two dyes, as conformational arrangements, dynamics, and photophysical behavior, was addressed by the combination of high spinning speed solid-state NMR and time-resolved EPR spectroscopy. We compared the conformations of the dyes in their ground and photoexcited triplet states and described in detail the dynamics of the supramolecular adducts from 4 K to room temperature. Above 200 K surprisingly fast spinning rates of the dithiophene core were discovered, while the side chains show far slower reorientation motion, being in bulky gauche-rich conformations. These lateral plugs keep the planar core as appended in the space like a nanoscale gyroscope, allowing a reorientation in the motion regime of liquids and a long triplet lifetime at unusually high temperature. The nuclear magnetic properties of the guest dyes are also largely affected by the aromatic rings of the neighboring host, imparting an impressive magnetic susceptibility effect (2 ppm proton shift). The high mobility is due to the formation of a nanocage in a channel where aliphatic and aromatic functions isolate the thiophene moieties. Instead, two conformers of the tetrathiophene twisted on the central bond are stabilized by interaction with the host. They interconvert fast enough to be averaged in the NMR time scale.     

Electrochemically modulated liquid chromatographic separations of inorganic anions

Inorganic anion retention on a porous graphitic carbon (PGC) stationary phase is investigated by electrochemically modulated liquid chromatography (EMLC). Through various combinations of the potential applied (Eapp) to the PGC packing and/or changes in the composition (sodium salts of tetrafluoroborate, sulfate, and fluoride) and concentration (10, 25, and 50 mM) of an aqueous mobile phase, conditions for the separation of two different inorganic anion mixtures (iodate, bromide, nitrite, and nitrate or iodate, bromate, and chlorate) are developed. Results show that retention was affected by both variables, with the analyte retention factor, k', changing in a few cases by as much as a factor of ca. six. Moreover, plots of In k' are linearly dependent on both Eapp and In [SE], where [SE] is the supporting electrolyte concentration. Based on these findings, insights into the retention mechanism are briefly discussed by drawing on the theory for ion exchange chromatography.     

Source motion mitigation for adaptive matched field processing

Application of adaptive matched field processing to the problem of detecting quiet targets in shallow water is complicated by source motion, both the motion of the target and the motion of discrete interferers. Target motion causes spreading of the target peak, thereby reducing output signal power. Interferer motion increases the dimensionality of the interference subspace, reducing adaptive interference suppression. This paper presents three techniques that mitigate source motion problems in adaptive matched field processing. The first involves rank reduction, which enables adaptive weight computation over short observation intervals where motion effects are less pronounced. The other two techniques specifically compensate for source motion. Explicit target motion compensation reduces target motion mismatch by focusing snapshots according to a target velocity hypothesis. And time-varying interference filtering places time-varying nulls on moving interferers not otherwise suppressed by adaptive weights. The three techniques are applied to volumetric array data from the Santa Barbara Channel Experiment and are shown to improve output signal-to-background-plus-noise ratio by more than 3 dB over the standard minimum-variance, distortionless response adaptive beam-former. Application of the techniques in some cases proves to be the difference between detecting and not detecting the target.     

Laser-induced temperature jump electrochemistry on gold nanoparticle-coated electrodes

Laser-induced temperature jumps (LITJs) at gold nanoparticle-coated indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes in contact with electrolyte solutions have been measured using temperature-sensitive redox probes and an infrared charge-coupled device. Upon irradiation with 532 nm light, interfacial temperature changes of ca. 20 degrees C were recorded for particle coverages of ca. 1 x 1010 cm-2. In the presence of a redox molecule, LITJ yields open-circuit photovoltages and photocurrents that are proportional to the number of particles on the surface. When ssDNA was used to chemisorb nanoparticles to the ITO surface, solution concentrations as low as 100 fM of target ssDNA-modified nanoparticles could be detected at the electrode surface.     

Studies on high-temperature amination reactions of aromatic chlorides using discrete Palladium-N-Heterocyclic Carbene (NHC) complexes and in situ palladium/imidazolium salt protocols

The palladium catalysed coupling of aryl chlorides and amines can be readily achieved with short reaction times when carried out at high temperatures under thermal or microwave conditions. These coupling protocols are successful using two co-ordinate palladium-N-heterocyclic carbene complexes, or imidazolium salt protocols.