Synthesis of amphidinolide Y precursors

The Negishi coupling between a chiral C3 synthon and an iodoalkene arising from 3-butyn-1-ol, which gave the C3–C9 fragment of amphidinolide Y, was the starting point of a formal total synthesis of this marine natural product. By means of Sharpless ADH and TADDOL-mediated crotylation, the full western fragment (C1–C11) was obtained, which was coupled with the eastern fragment (3-hydroxyoxolane derivative). The penultimate step (ring-closing metathesis, with G-II, H–G-II, or Nitro-Grela reagents, under several conditions) posed great difficulties. The cyclization was achieved with 15c (7,9-bis-O-TES) and 15d (7-O-TES, 9-O-TBS); more than stoichiometric amounts of the H–G-II Ru complex were required for complete conversion.     

Optical Mechanotransduction with Carbazole‐Based Luminescent Liquid Single‐Crystal Elastomers

Carbazole‐based liquid single‐crystal elastomers (LSCEs) are valuable fluorescent flexible materials to perform optical mechanotransduction under ambient conditions. Indeed, the covalent incorporation of carbazole derivatives into nematic LSCEs allows to tune their luminescence on demand under mechanical control in a quick and reversible fashion. Specifically, the fluorescence intensity for these materials can be switched back and forth in less than a second. Moreover, such a process can be performed several times without detecting any sign of fatigue in the system. In addition, these materials show excellent resistance to aging; 2 years after their preparation they exhibit the very same mechanofluorescent behavior as when freshly prepared. In fact, the here reported fluorescent systems are highly sensitive; the application of a force of 70 mN decreases the fluorescence in the elastomeric material by 7%. Thus, mechanical forces are attractive external stimuli to modulate the fluorescence of nematic elastomers rapidly and reversibly enabling thereby mechanotransduction.

     

Nucleophilic β‐Carbon Activation of Propionic Acid as a 3‐Carbon Synthon by Carbene Organocatalysis

Direct β‐carbon activation of propionic acid (C₂H₅CO₂H) by carbene organocatalysis has been developed. This activation affords the smallest azolium homoenolate intermediate (without any substituent) as a 3‐carbon nucleophile for enantioselective reactions. Propionic acid is an excellent raw material because it is cheap, stable, and safe. This approach provides a much better solution to azolium homoenolate synthesis than the previously established use of acrolein (enal without any substituent), which is expensive, unstable, and toxic.     

Cyclometallated platinum(II) compounds with imine ligands derived from amino acids: Synthesis and oxidative addition reactions

The reactions of [PtMe₂(μ-SMe₂)]₂ with imines 4-ClC₆H₄CHNCHRCO₂Me (R = H (1a), Me (1b), ⁱPr (1c), CH₂C₆H₄(4’-OH) (1d), C₆H₅ (1e), CH₂C₆H₅(1f)) derived from natural amino acids produced under mild conditions cyclometallated platinum(II) compounds [PtMe{κ²-(C,N)-4-ClC₆H₃CHNCHRCO₂Me}(SMe₂)] (2a-2f). These compounds gave the corresponding phosphine derivatives [PtMe{κ²-(C,N)-4-ClC₆H₃CHNCHRCO₂Me}(PPh₃)] (3a-3f). The corresponding cyclometallated platinum(IV) compounds [PtMe₂I{κ²-(C,N)-4-ClC₆H₃CHNCHRCO₂Me}(PPh₃)] (4) arising from intermolecular oxidative addition of methyl iodide were obtained with a high degree of stereo selectivity. Analogous results were obtained for imine 2,6-Cl₂C₆H₃CHNCH(CH₂C₆H₅)CO₂Me (1g) in a process involving intramolecular oxidative addition of a C-Cl bond. The obtained compounds were fully characterized including structure determinations for compounds 3f, 4d and 4f.     

Coexistence of ferro- and antiferromagnetic interactions in a metal-organic radical-based (6,3)-helical network with large channels

A metal-organic open-framework with an unprecedented (6,3)-helical topology, large channels and mixed ferro- and antiferromagnetic interactions has been synthesized using a three-connecting tricarboxylic polychlorotriphenylmethyl radical and Co(ii) ions.     

Ion binding to polyelectrolytes: Monte Carlo simulations versus classical mean field theories

The influence of ion size and surface charge model in titrations of ionizable polyelectrolytes is studied by means of the Semi Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulation method in the context of the primitive model. Three models describing a discrete distribution of charged functional groups on the polyelectrolyte and different values for the radius of the background electrolyte spanning from ionic to hydrated radii values were analyzed. The polyelectrolyte titrations were simulated by calculating the degree of ionization versus pH curves at two ionic strengths. The results allow us to quantify the impact of the sizes of the background salt ions and surface functional groups of the polyelectrolyte on the dissociation degree. This influence is explained in terms of the effectiveness of the screening of the charged surface sites. Finally, by comparison with the Non-Linear Poisson–Boltzmann model, the influence of ionic correlations and finite size of the solution ions is assessed.     

Regularization of Discontinuous Vector Fields on $${\mathbb{R}^3}$$ via Singular Perturbation

Singular perturbations problems in dimension three which are approximations of discontinuous vector fields are studied in this paper. The main result states that the regularization process developed by Sotomayor and Teixeira produces a singular problem for which the discontinuous set is a center manifold. Moreover, the definition of sliding vector field coincides with the reduced problem of the corresponding singular problem for a class of vector fields.