Sulfur and Nitrogen Codoped Carbon Tubes as Bifunctional Metal‐Free Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction and Hydrogen Evolution in Acidic Media

Invited for the cover of this issue is the group of Qiang Wu and Zheng Hu at Nanjing University. The image depicts sulfur and nitrogen codoped carbon tubes as bifunctional metal‐free electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution in acidic media. Read the full text of the article at 10.1002/chem.201601535 .     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Insertion of an Allene into an Aminal: Aminomethylamination of Allenes by C?N Bond Activation

A new and atom‐economic palladium‐catalyzed aminomethylamination of allenes with aminals by C N bond activation is described. This direct and operationally simple method provides a fundamentally novel approach for the synthesis of 1,3‐diamines. Mechanistic studies suggest that a unique cationic π‐allylpalladium complex containing an aminomethyl moiety is generated as a key intermediate through the carbopalladation of the allene with a cyclometalated palladium–alkyl species.     

Enantioselective Synthesis of a Chiral Coordination Polymer with Circularly Polarized Visible Laser

Circular dichroism is known to be the feature of a chiral agent which has inspired scientist to study the interesting phenomena of circularly polarized light (CPL) modulated molecular chirality. Although several organic molecules or assemblies have been found to be CPL‐responsive, the influence of CPL on the assembly of chiral coordination compounds remains unknown. Herein, a chiral coordination polymer, which is constructed from achiral agents, was used to study the CPL‐induced enantioselective synthesis. By irradiation with either left‐handed or right‐handed CPL during the reaction and crystallization, enantiomeric excesses of the crystalline product were obtained. Left‐handed CPL resulted in crystals with a left‐handed helical structure, and right‐handed CPL led to crystals with a right‐handed helical structure. It is exciting that the absolute asymmetric synthesis of a chiral coordination polymer could be enantioselective when using CPL, and provides a strategy for the control of the chirality of chiral coordination polymers.     

Synthesis and antitumor and antibacterial evaluation of fluoroquinolone derivatives(Ⅲ):Mono- and bis-Schiff-bases

To further explore an efficient modified route for the shift from an antibacterial fluoroquinolone to an antitumor one,mono-Schiff bases 6a-6h related to ciprofloxacin C3 carbonylhydrazone and bis-Schiff bases 4a-4h corresponding to C3/C7 carbonylhydrazone/hydrazone attached on a skeleton of ciprofloquinolone were designed and synthesized,and their in vitro antitumor activity against CHO,HL60,L1210 cells and antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli were also reported.     

Improved Synthesis and Structure of 3-Carboxy-2-pyrazinecarbohydroxamic Acid

3-Carboxy-2-pyrazinehydroxamic acid was prepared by a one pot reaction starting from pyrazine-2,3-dicarboxylic anhydride with a high yield, and characterized by IR, Mass spectrum, 1H NMR and 13C NMR spectra and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. It crystallizes in triclinic, space group Pī with a=4.8659(10), b=7.4233(15), c=11.602(2), α=96.904(2), β=92.422(3), γ=107.454(2)°, V=395.51(14)3 , Z=2, Dc=1.689g/cm3 , F(000)=208, μ(MoKα)=0.149 mm-1 , the final R=0.0473 and wR=0.1306 for 2853 observed reflections (I>2σ (I)). A three-dimensional framework was assembled through intermolecular hydrogen bonding between water and 3-carboxy-2-pyrazine-carbohydroxamic acid molecules.     

Effect of solvent on directional drift in Brownian motion of particle/molecule with broken symmetry

The directional drifting of particles/molecules with broken symmetry has received increasing attention. Through molecular dynamics simulations, we investigate the effects of various solvents on the time-dependent directional drifting of a particle with broken symmetry. Our simulations show that the distance of directional drift of the asymmetrical particle is reduced while the ratio of the drift to the mean displacement of the particle is enhanced with increasing mass, size, and interaction strength of the solvent atoms in a short time range. Among the parameters considered, solvent atom size is a particularly influential factor for enhancing the directional drift of asymmetrical particles, while the effects of the interaction strength and the mass of the solvent atoms are relatively weaker. These findings are of great importance to the understanding and control of the Brownian motion of particles in various physical, chemical, and biological processes within finite time spans.     

Development and validation of an LC/MS/MS method for simultaneous determination of shionone and epi‐friedelinol in rat plasma for pharmacokinetic study after oral administration of Aster tataricus extract

A rapid and sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method was developed and validated using spinasterol as the internal standard (IS) for the simultaneous determination of shionone and epi‐friedelinol in rat plasma. Plasma samples were pretreated using liquid–liquid extraction with ethyl ether. Chromatographic separation was achieved on a C₁₈ column (100 × 2.1 mm, 5 μm) with an isocratic elution consisting of acetonitrile–0.1% formic acid water (75:25, v/v) at a flow rate of 0.30 mL/min. Detection was performed under the selected reaction monitoring scan using an electrospray ionization in the positive ion mode. The mass transitions were as follows: m/z 427.4 → 95.1 for shionone, m/z 411.4 → 205.2 for epi‐friedelinol and m/z 395.3 → 105.2 for IS. All calibration curves exhibited good linearity (r > 0.995) over the concentration range for both components. The intra‐ and inter‐day precisions at three QC and lower limit of quantitation levels were both <10.21% in terms of relative standard deviation, and the accuracy ranged from ?7.13 to 8.02% in terms of relative error. The extraction recoveries of the compounds ranged from 82.07 to 89.81%. The developed method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic study of shionone and epi‐friedelinol after oral administration of Aster tataricus extract to rats. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.