Palladium-catalyzed, direct boronic acid synthesis from aryl chlorides: a simplified route to diverse boronate ester derivatives

Although much current research focuses on developing new boron reagents and identifying robust catalytic systems for the cross-coupling of these reagents, the fundamental preparations of the nucleophilic partners (i.e., boronic acids and derivatives) has been studied to a lesser extent. Most current methods to access boronic acids are indirect and require harsh conditions or expensive reagents. A simple and efficient palladium-catalyzed, direct synthesis of arylboronic acids from the corresponding aryl chlorides using an underutilized reagent, tetrahydroxydiboron B(2)(OH)(4), is reported. To ensure preservation of the carbon-boron bond, the boronic acids were efficiently converted to the trifluoroborate derivatives in good to excellent yields without the use of a workup or isolation. Further, the intermediate boronic acids can be easily converted to a wide range of useful boronates. Finally, a two-step, one-pot method was developed to couple two aryl chlorides efficiently in a Suzuki-Miyaura-type reaction.     

Scope of the palladium-catalyzed aryl borylation utilizing bis-boronic acid

The Suzuki-Miyaura reaction has become one of the more useful tools for synthetic organic chemists. Until recently, there did not exist a direct way to make the most important component in the coupling reaction, namely the boronic acid. Current methods to make boronic acids often employ harsh or wasteful reagents to prepare boronic acid derivatives and require additional steps to afford the desired boronic acid. The scope of the previously reported palladium-catalyzed, direct boronic acid synthesis is unveiled, which includes a wide array of synthetically useful aryl electrophiles. It makes use of the newly available second generation Buchwald XPhos preformed palladium catalyst and bis-boronic acid. For ease of isolation and to preserve the often sensitive C-B bond, all boronic acids were readily converted to their more stable trifluoroborate counterparts.     

Nonlinear Luminescence Quenching in Eu2O3

We report a laser spectroscopic investigation of saturation effects in the spectra and dynamics of Eu₂O₃. The saturation effects occur at high laser intensity and appear as dips in the center of the fluorescence excitation lines and as a shortening of the ⁵D₀ excited‐state decay curve. The saturation effects are observed in nanoparticles, micrometer‐sized particles, and a fused crystal of monoclinic‐phase Eu₂O₃ and in micrometer‐sized particles of cubic‐phase Eu₂O₃. We attribute the mechanism of the nonlinear luminescence quenching to upconversion by energy transfer.     

Imaging cytoplasmic cAMP in mouse brainstem neurons

Background  

cAMP is an ubiquitous second messenger mediating various neuronal functions, often as a consequence of increased intracellular Ca²⁺ levels. While imaging of calcium is commonly used in neuroscience applications, probing for cAMP levels has not yet been performed in living vertebrate neuronal tissue before.     

Stable isotopic studies of earthworm feeding ecology in tropical ecosystems of Puerto Rico

Feeding strategies of earthworms and their influence on soil processes are often inferred from morphological, behavioral and physiological traits. We used (13)C and (15)N natural abundance in earthworms, soils and plants to explore patterns of resource utilization by different species of earthworms in three tropical ecosystems in Puerto Rico. In a high altitude dwarf forest, native earthworms Trigaster longissimus and Estherella sp. showed less (15)N enrichment ((15)N = 3-6 per thousand) than exotic Pontoscolex corethrurus ((15)N =7-9 per thousand) indicating different food sources or stronger isotopic discrimination by the latter. Conversely, in a lower altitude tabonuco forest, Estherella sp. and P. corethrurus overlapped completely in (15)N enrichment ((15)N = 6-9 per thousand), suggesting the potential for interspecific competition for N resources. A tabonuco forest converted to pasture contained only P. corethrurus which were less enriched in (15)N than those in the forest sites, but more highly enriched in (13)C suggesting assimilation of C from the predominant C(4) grass. These results support the utility of stable isotopes to delineate resource partitioning and potential competitive interactions among earthworm species. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Novel self-organization mechanism in ultrathin liquid films: theory and experiment

When an ultrathin metal film of thickness h (<20 nm) is melted by a nanosecond pulsed laser, the film temperature is a nonmonotonic function of h and achieves its maximum at a certain thickness h*. This is a consequence of the h and time dependence of energy absorption and heat flow. Linear stability analysis and nonlinear dynamical simulations that incorporate such intrinsic interfacial thermal gradients predict a characteristic pattern length scale Lambda that decreases for h>h*, in contrast to the classical spinodal dewetting behavior where Lambda increases monotonically as h2. These predictions agree well with experimental observations for Co and Fe films on SiO2.