Selectivity in cycloadditions-IX: Cycloadditions of nitrile oxides to indoles. Reactivity and regiochemistry

Cycloadditions of benzonitrile oxide and mesitonitrile oxide to N-methylindole and indole yield the acid sensitive cycloadducts 1 a-d with high regioselectivity. With N-carbethoxyindole the stable cycloadducts 1 e,f and minor amounts of the regioisomeric 2 e,f are isolated. The electron withdrawing substituent reduces both the regioselectivity and the reactivity of the cycloadditions.Frontier orbital considerations, based on MINDO/3 calculations, allow elucidation of the observed changes in reactivity and regiochemistry.     

Reaction of singlet oxygen with some benzylic sulfides

Product distribution, total quenching rate (k_T), and rate of chemical reaction (k_r) with singlet oxygen have been determined for some alkyl, benzyl, α-methylbenzyl, and cumyl sulfides. Their contributions depend on the steric hindering around the sulfur atom. In protic solvents, the sulfoxide is the main product via a hydrogen-bonded persulfoxide. In apolar solvents, intramolecular α-H abstraction leads to oxidative C-S bond cleavage, with varying efficiency. The behavior of sulfides is compared to that of alkenes and amines.     

Identification,Quantification, and Characterization of the Phenolic Fraction of Brunfelsia grandiflora: In Vitro Antioxidant Capacity

Brunfelsia grandiflora is an ancient plant widely used for its promising medicinal properties, although little explored scientifically. Despite being a rich source of phenolic compounds responsible in part for the proven anti-inflammatory activity, its characterization has not been carried out to date. The present work deals with the exhaustive identification and quantification of its phenolic fraction, along with its antioxidant activity. Decoction resulting from the bark as fine powder was filtered and lyophilized, and polyphenols were extracted from the resulting product by aqueous-organic solvents. Seventy-nine polyphenols were identified using LC-MSⁿ. Hydroxycinnamates was the most abundant group of compounds (up to 66.8%), followed by hydroxycoumarins (15.5%), lignans (6.1%), flavonols (5.7%), phenolic simples (3.1), gallates (2.3%), flavanols (0.3%), and flavanones (0.2%). About 64% of the characterized phenols were in their glycosylated forms. The quantification of these phytochemicals by LC-QToF showed that this medicinal plant contained 2014.71 mg of phenolic compounds in 100 g dry matter, which evidences a great antioxidant potency determined by ABTS and DPPH assays. Therefore, Brunfelsia grandiflora represents an important source of polyphenols which supports its therapeutic properties scientifically proven.     

(Co)oxidation/cyclization processes upon irradiation of triphenylamine

Irradiation of triphenylamine (Ph₃N) in nitrogen-flushed solution leads to 9-phenylcarbazole and two tetrahydroderivatives (1,2,3,4- and 1,2,7,8-) via disproportionation of the corresponding 4a,4b-dihydrocarbazole. In oxygen-equilibrated solution oxidative cyclization occurs through the intermediacy of a triplet peroxy diradical, which either abstracts a hydrogen atom intramolecularly or (mainly) cleaves back to the reagents. The role of the key intermediates is supported by DFT calculations and by trapping by triarylphosphines (that are thus efficiently oxidized, while preventing the cyclization of Ph₃N). The hydroperoxide, on the other hand, causes inefficient co-oxidation of sulfides.     

An Easy Route to (Hetero)arylboronic Acids

An unprecedented spontaneous reactivity between diazonium salts and diboronic acid has been unveiled, leading to a versatile arylboronic acid synthesis directly from (hetero)arylamines. This fast reaction (35 min overall) tolerates a wide range of functional groups and is carried out under very mild conditions. The radical nature of the reaction mechanism has been investigated.     

N,O-Nucleoside Analogues: Metabolic and Apoptotic Activity

Two new families of N,O-nucleoside analogues containing the anthracene moiety introduced through the nitrosocarbonyl ene reaction with allylic alcohols were prepared. The core structure is an isoxazolidine heterocycle that introduces either atom either a phenyl ring or dimethyl moiety at the C3 carbon. Different heterobases were inserted at the position 5 of the heterocyclic ring. One of the synthesized compounds demonstrated a good capacity to induce cell death and an appreciable nuclear fragmentation was evidenced in treated cells.     

Expedient BINOL derivative arylations

A dramatic improvement of our previous methodology based on a Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling to access 3,3′-disubstituted H₈-BINOLs using microwave heating is reported herein. These new conditions represent a large gain in term of atom-economy, reaction time, catalyst loading, and excess of reagents employed.     

Recent advances in the chemistry of phenazine oxides (review)

Data on the electronic structures and spectral characteristics of phenazine 5-oxides and 5, 10-dioxides are correlated. Methods for the synthesis of N-oxides of the phenazine series and their reactions (reduction, electrophilic and nucleophilic substitution, and photochemical transformations) are examined. Data on the natural compounds of this series are presented.Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 12, pp. 1587–1599, December, 1977.     

Morphological and compositional evolution of the ge/si(001) surface during exposure to a si flux

By using scanning tunneling microscopy we found that the surface reconstruction of Ge/Si(001) epilayers evolves from (M x N) to (2 x N), and eventually to (2 x 1), during exposure to a Si flux. This sequence appears to be just the inverse of that observed during the growth of Ge or SiGe alloys on Si(001). However, molecular dynamics simulations supported by ab initio calculations allow us to interpret this morphological evolution in terms of Si migration through the epilayer and complex Si-Ge intermixing below the top Ge layer.     

Homolytic vs heterolytic paths in the photochemistry of haloanilines

The photochemistry of 4-haloanilines and 4-halo-N,N-dimethylanilines has been studied in apolar, polar aprotic, and protic solvents. Photophysical and flash photolysis experiments show that the reaction proceeds in any case from the triplet state. It is rather unreactive in apolar media, the highest value being Phi = 0.05 for the iodoanilines in cyclohexane. Changing the solvent has little effect for iodoanilines and for the poorly reacting bromo analogue, while it leads to a variation of over 2 orders of magnitude in the quantum yield for the chloro and fluoro derivatives. The triplets have been characterized at the UB3LYP/6-31G(d) level of theory, evidencing a deformation and an elongation (except for C-F) of the C-X bond. Homolytic fragmentation is in every case endothermic, but calculations in acetonitrile solution show that heterolytic cleavage of C-Cl and C-Br is exothermic. Experimentally, the occurrence of heterolytic fragmentation has been monitored through selective trapping of the resulting phenyl cation by allyltrimethylsilane. Heterolytic dechlorination occurs efficiently in polar media (e.g., Phi = 0.77 in MeCN), while debromination remains ineffective due to the short lifetime of the triplet. Heterolytic defluorination is efficient only in protic solvents (Phi = 0.48 in MeOH), in accord with calculations showing that in the presence of an ancillary molecule of water fragmentation is exothermic due to the formation of the strong H-F bond. The energy profile for both homo- and heterolytic dissociation paths has been mapped along the reaction coordinates in the gas phase and in acetonitrile. The conditions determining the efficiency and mode of dehalogenation have been defined. This is significant for devising synthetic methods via photogenerated phenyl cations and for rationalizing the photodegradation of halogenated aromatic pollutants and the phototoxic effect of some fluorinated drugs.