Synthesis and Reactivity of Six‐Membered Oxa‐Nickelacycles: A Ring‐Opening Reaction of Cyclopropyl Ketones

Cyclopropanecarboxaldehyde ( 1 a ), cyclopropyl methyl ketone ( 1 b ), and cyclopropyl phenyl ketone ( 1 c ) were reacted with [Ni(cod)₂] (cod=1,5‐cyclooctadiene) and PBu₃ at 100 °C to give η²‐enonenickel complexes ( 2 a – c ). In the presence of PCy₃ (Cy=cyclohexyl), 1 a and 1 b reacted with [Ni(cod)₂] to give the corresponding μ‐η²:η¹‐enonenickel complexes ( 3 a , 3 b ). However, the reaction of 1 c under the same reaction conditions gave a mixture of 3 c and cyclopentane derivatives ( 4 c , 4 c′ ), that is, a [3+2] cycloaddition product of 1 c with (E)‐1‐phenylbut‐2‐en‐1‐one, an isomer of 1 c . In the presence of a catalytic amount of [Ni(cod)₂] and PCy₃, [3+2] homo‐cycloaddition proceeded to give a mixture of 4 c (76 %) and 4 c′ (17 %). At room temperature, a possible intermediate, 6 c , was observed and isolated by reprecipitation at ?20 °C. In the presence of 1,3‐bis(2,6‐diisopropylphenyl)imidazol‐2‐ylidene (IPr), both 1 a and 1 c rapidly underwent oxidative addition to nickel(0) to give the corresponding six‐membered oxa‐nickelacycles ( 6 ai , 6 ci ). On the other hand, 1 b reacted with nickel(0) to give the corresponding μ‐η²:η¹‐enonenickel complex ( 3 bi ). The molecular structures of 6 ai and 6 ci were confirmed by X‐ray crystallography. The molecular structure of 6 ai shows a dimeric η¹‐nickelenolate structure. However, the molecular structure of 6 ci shows a monomeric η¹‐nickelenolate structure, and the nickel(II) 14‐electron center is regarded as having “an unusual T‐shaped planar” coordination geometry. The insertion of enones into monomeric η¹‐nickelenolate complexes 6 c and 6 ci occurred at room temperature to generate η³‐oxa‐allylnickel complexes ( 8 , 9 ), whereas insertion into dimeric η¹‐nickelenolate complex 6 ai did not take place. The diastereoselectivity of the insertion of an enone into 6 c having PCy₃ as a ligand differs from that into 6 ci having IPr as a ligand. In addition, the stereochemistry of η³‐oxa‐allylnickel complexes having IPr as a ligand is retained during reductive elimination to yield the corresponding [3+2] cycloaddition product, which is consistent with the diastereoselectivity observed in Ni⁰/IPr‐catalyzed [3+2] cycloaddition reactions of cyclopropyl ketones with enones. In contrast, reductive elimination from the η³‐oxa‐allylnickel having PCy₃ as a ligand proceeds with inversion of stereochemistry. This is probably due to rapid isomerization between syn and anti isomers prior to reductive elimination.     

Homoleptic Organoderivatives of High‐Valent Nickel(III)

Homoleptic perhalophenyl derivatives of divalent nickel complexes with the general formula [NBu₄]₂[Ni^II (C₆X₅)₄] [X=F ( 1 ), Cl ( 2 )] have been prepared by low‐temperature treatment of the halo‐complex precursor [NBu₄]₂[NiBr₄] with the corresponding organolithium reagent LiC₆X₅. Compounds 1 and 2 are electrochemically related by reversible one‐electron exchange processes with the corresponding organometallate(III) compounds [NBu₄][Ni^III (C₆X₅)₄] [X=F ( 3 ), Cl ( 4 )]. The potentials of the [Ni^III (C₆X₅)₄]^?/[Ni^II (C₆X₅)₄]^2? couples are +0.07 and ?0.11 V for X=F or Cl, respectively. Compounds 3 and 4 have also been prepared and isolated in good yield by chemical oxidation of 1 or 2 with bromine or the amminium salt [N(C₆H₄Br‐4)₃][SbCl₆]. The [Ni^III (C₆X₅)₄]^? species have SP‐4 structures in the salts 3 and 4 , as established by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction methods. The [Ni^II (C₆F₅)₄]^2? ion in the parent compound 1 has also been found to exhibit a rather similar SP‐4 structure. According to their SP‐4 geometry, the Ni^III compounds (d⁷) behave as S=1/2 systems both at microscopic (EPR) and macroscopic levels (ac and dc magnetization measurements). The spin Hamiltonian parameters obtained from the analysis of the magnetic behavior of 3 and 4 within the framework of ligand field theory show that the unpaired electron is centered mainly on the metal atom, with >97 % estimated d contribution. Thermal decomposition of 3 and 4 proceeds with formation of the corresponding C₆X₅? C₆X₅ coupling compounds.     

Nickel‐Catalyzed Cross‐Coupling of Alkyl Zinc Halides for the Formation of C(sp2)?C(sp3) Bonds: Scope and Mechanism

Optimal conditions for a general Ni‐catalysed Negishi cross‐coupling of alkyl zinc halides with aryl, heteroaryl and alkenyl halides have been determined. These conditions allow the reaction to take place smoothly, with low catalyst loading, and in the presence of a wide variety of functional groups to afford products in good yields at room temperature. DFT studies on the mechanism support the occurrence of a catalytic cycle involving transmetalation of the alkyl zinc halide to Ni^I followed by oxidative addition of the haloarene and C? C reductive elimination.     

磷酸铝镍介孔催化材料的低热固相合成及形成机理

以十六烷基三甲基溴化铵为模板,通过二水磷酸二氢钠、六水氯化铝与六水氯化镍的固相反应直接合成了磷酸铝镍(NiAlPO)介孔材料。用X-射线衍射、高分辨透射电镜、N₂脱附-吸附、红外光谱仪等分析技术对材料进行了物相与表面织构表征,通过电感耦合等离子发射光谱仪对材料的元素组成进行分析;探讨了磷酸铝镍介孔材料的形成机理。结果表明,金属镍已进入了磷酸铝骨架,镍的含量为5.15wt%;所得介孔材料呈蠕虫状、无定形的六面体结构;其BET比表面积为157.3 m²·g^-1,孔径分布中心为3.65和5.3 nm。P(Al)-O-Ni键伸缩振动所产生的吸收峰为983.7 cm^-1。     

超细镍粉复合材料的微波电磁特性研究

以蒸馏水为溶剂,利用快捷、温和的液相还原法制备超细镍粉,将得到的超细镍粉作为填料制备了复合材料,考察了复合材料的电磁屏蔽和吸波性能．结果表明,超细镍粉质量分数为80％的树脂基复合材料在130MHz～1．5GHz测试频段范围内的电磁屏蔽性能高于45dB;而厚度为2mm的超细镍粉／石蜡复合材料在7GHz附近的反射率可达-27dB．     

Oxidation Reactivity of Bis(μ‐oxo) Dinickel(III) Complexes: Arene Hydroxylation of the Supporting Ligand

In the nick(el) of time : Bis(μ‐oxo) dinickel(III) complexes 2 (see scheme), generated in the reaction of 1 with H₂O₂, are capable of hydroxylating the xylyl linker of the supporting ligand to give 3 . Kinetic studies reveal that hydroxylation proceeds by electrophilic aromatic substitution. The lower reactivity than the corresponding μ‐η²:η²‐peroxo dicopper(II) complexes can be attributed to unfavorable entropy effects.

     

Selective C?F Bond Activation of Tetrafluorobenzenes by Nickel(0) with a Nitrogen Donor Analogous to N‐Heterocyclic Carbenes

N, not NHC : A neutral, basic, strong σ‐donor nitrogen ancillary ligand with properties analogous to those of N‐heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) was developed to aid in the oxidative additions of challenging substrates to late transition metals. Selective, room‐temperature C? F bond activation was observed with hexa‐, penta‐, and all three isomers of tetrafluorobenzene using a nickel(0) source in the presence of this donor.

     

Antibandwidth and cyclic antibandwidth of meshes and hypercubes

The antibandwidth problem consists of placing the vertices of a graph on a line in consecutive integer points in such a way that the minimum difference of adjacent vertices is maximised. The problem was originally introduced in [J.Y.-T. Leung, O. Vornberger, J.D. Witthoff, On some variants of the bandwidth minimisation problem, SIAM Journal of Computing 13 (1984) 650-667] in connection with the multiprocessor scheduling problems and can also be understood as a dual problem to the well-known bandwidth problem, as a special radiocolouring problem or as a variant of obnoxious facility location problems. The antibandwidth problem is NP-hard, there are a few classes of graphs with polynomial time complexities. Exact results for nontrivial graphs are very rare. Miller and Pritikin [Z. Miller, D. Pritikin, On the separation number of a graph, Networks 19 (1989) 651-666] showed tight bounds for the two-dimensional meshes and hypercubes. We solve the antibandwidth problem precisely for two-dimensional meshes, tori and estimate the antibandwidth value for hypercubes up to the third-order term. The cyclic antibandwidth problem is to embed an n-vertex graph into the cycle C_n, such that the minimum distance (measured in the cycle) of adjacent vertices is maximised. This is a natural extension of the antibandwidth problem or a dual problem to the cyclic bandwidth problem. We start investigating this invariant for typical graphs and prove basic facts and exact results for the same product graphs as for the antibandwidth.     

A characteristic finite element method with local mesh refinements for the Lamm equation in analytical ultracentrifugation

The Lamm equation is a fundamental differential equation in analytical ultracentrifugation, for describing the transport of solutes in an ultracentrifuge cell. In this article, we present a characteristic finite element method with local mesh refinements for solving the Lamm equation. The numerical method is mass‐conservative by design and allows relatively large time steps to be used. Numerical experiments indicate that the numerical solutions are oscillation‐free in the region near the cell bottom, where mass build up and large concentration gradients occur. Positivity of solutions is also well kept. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2009     

RNA unrestrained molecular dynamics ensemble improves agreement with experimental NMR data compared to single static structure: a test case

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) provides structural and dynamic information reflecting an average, often non-linear, of multiple solution-state conformations. Therefore, a single optimized structure derived from NMR refinement may be misleading if the NMR data actually result from averaging of distinct conformers. It is hypothesized that a conformational ensemble generated by a valid molecular dynamics (MD) simulation should be able to improve agreement with the NMR data set compared with the single optimized starting structure. Using a model system consisting of two sequence-related self-complementary ribonucleotide octamers for which NMR data was available, 0.3 ns particle mesh Ewald MD simulations were performed in the AMBER force field in the presence of explicit water and counterions. Agreement of the averaged properties of the molecular dynamics ensembles with NMR data such as homonuclear proton nuclear Overhauser effect (NOE)-based distance constraints, homonuclear proton and heteronuclear ¹H–³¹P coupling constant (J) data, and qualitative NMR information on hydrogen bond occupancy, was systematically assessed. Despite the short length of the simulation, the ensemble generated from it agreed with the NMR experimental constraints more completely than the single optimized NMR structure. This suggests that short unrestrained MD simulations may be of utility in interpreting NMR results. As expected, a 0.5 ns simulation utilizing a distance dependent dielectric did not improve agreement with the NMR data, consistent with its inferior exploration of conformational space as assessed by 2-D RMSD plots. Thus, ability to rapidly improve agreement with NMR constraints may be a sensitive diagnostic of the MD methods themselves.