Volume 95, Issue 4

Dynamic helical molecules, which can undergo a reversible chirality inversion between the P and M forms, are useful as a platform for switchable chiral functional molecules. The chirality inversion of these molecules has been extensively studied. However, it has mostly been discussed from the viewpoint of the equilibrated P / M ratios before and after the inversion; control of the response speeds or kinetic profiles has rarely been explored. In order to construct helical structures with controllable kinetic profiles, triple-helical metallocryptands, LM 3 , have been designed and synthesized. These molecules can undergo a relatively slow dynamic P / M chirality inversion (helicity inversion) to produce an equilibrated mixture. The P / M equilibration was accelerated or decelerated based on the following two strategies. One is based on the guest binding in the cryptand cavity. The P / M racemization kinetics of LNi 3 was significantly decelerated by recognition of guanidinium ion in the cavity. The other strategy is based on the ligand exchange reactions at the octahedral cobalt(III) centers in LCo 3 (amine) 6 . The P / M chirality inversion speeds were controlled by changing the initial and entering amine ligands. In addition, a unique transient chirality inversion behavior was observed when chiral amine ligands were removed from the metallocryptand by the ligand exchange reaction with piperidine.

Octaphosphonate biscavitand and self-folding deep biscavitand show strong positive and negative cooperativity, respectively. The mechanism of the cooperativity is discussed in terms of thermodynamic parameters and the detailed structure of the host-guest complexes. The two cavitand units of both biscavitands are tightly connected via four butylene linkers; thus, they are conformationally coupled, with the first guest binding information transferred to the resting-state cavities. This preorganization modulates the successive guest binding process in strong positive and negative cooperative manners, even though they display structural similarity. The first guest complexation always preorganizes the resting-state cavities where an existing water cluster and a toluene molecule are enthalpically stabilized. Successive guest complexation competes with the water cluster or a toluene molecule, reducing enthalpy gains. However, the desolvation upon successive guest binding processes liberate the solvents within the resting-state cavities. The water cluster is composed of 12 water molecules that are released upon successive guest complexation, resulting in a large entropy benefit. In contrast, toluene desolvation results in a limited entropy benefit. The difference in entropy benefits directs the strong positive or negative cooperativity of the structurally similar biscavitands.

Bis-periazulene (cyclohepta[ def ]fluorene) is one of the seven possible non-alternant isomers of pyrene. Different from the other isomers, bis-periazulene had remained an uncharacterized hydrocarbon until 2022, since it was first reported in 1955. This paper documents our recent achievements in synthesizing and characterizing bis-periazulene derivatives. Its triaryl derivatives 5c ‒ e exhibited the superimposed electronic structures of peripheral, polarized, and open-shell π-conjugated systems. Furthermore, in contrast to previous theoretical predictions, bis-periazulene derivatives showed the singlet ground state.

Unlike triplet diradicals, singlet diradicals can vary in diradical character from 0 % to 100 % depending on linker units that allow two formally unpaired electrons to couple covalently. In principle, the electronic structure of singlet diradicals can be described as a quantum superposition of closed-shell and open-shell structures. This means that, depending on the external environment, singlet diradicals can behave as either closed-shell or open-shell species. This paper summarizes our progress in understanding the electronic structure of π -conjugated singlet diradical molecules in terms of closed-shell and open-shell dual nature. We first discuss the coexistence of intra- and intermolecular covalent bonding interactions in the π -dimer of a singlet diradical molecule. The intra- and intermolecular coupling of two formally unpaired electrons are related to closed-shell and open-shell nature of singlet diradical, respectively. Then we demonstrate the coexistence of the covalent bonding interactions in the one-dimensional stack of singlet diradical molecules having different diradical character. The relative strength of the interactions is varied with the magnitude of singlet diradical index y 0 . Finally, we show the dual reactivity of a singlet diradical molecule, which undergoes rapid [4 + 2] and [4 + 4] cycloaddition reactions in the dark at room temperature. Closed-shell and open-shell nature endow the singlet diradical molecule with the reaction manner as diene and diradical species, respectively.

The constant need for novel drugs has prompted the scientific community to explore alternative structures to natural products and small and medium size organic compounds used in classic medicinal and pharmaceutical chemistry. Since the discovery of cisplatin, organometallic compounds have revealed great potential as metallodrugs and their development has exponentially grown in recent years. In this manuscript, we describe our efforts towards the synthesis of new metallodrugs by reaction of bis(pyridyl)allenes and metal complexes. Two classes of compounds are presented: one in which the allene structure is intact and the metal (Pd(II), Pt(IV) or Au(III)) coordinates to the pyridine-nitrogens; and another, in which one of the pyridines cyclises into a gold-activated allene to form β-N-stabilised gold carbenes. Both classes of compounds are active catalysts in important organic reactions, and are also promising antimicrobial, antifungal and anticancer agents. In this work, we describe the promising anticancer activity, against breast cancer cells, of the gold carbene complexes, and preliminary studies of their interaction with DNA, including non-canonical DNA structures. Our results have revealed an unusual selective stabilisation of hTeloC i-motif by one of the Au(III) carbene complexes, that opens up exciting opportunities for further development of novel DNA-binding metallodrugs.

Cyclopropanes that carry an electron-accepting group react as electrophiles in polar, ring-opening reactions. Analogous reactions at cyclopropanes with additional C2 substituents allow one to access difunctionalized products. Consequently, functionalized cyclopropanes are frequently used building blocks in organic synthesis. The polarization of the C1–C2 bond in 1-acceptor-2-donor-substituted cyclopropanes not only favorably enhances reactivity toward nucleophiles but also directs the nucleophilic attack toward the already substituted C2 position. Monitoring the kinetics of non-catalytic ring-opening reactions with a series of thiophenolates and other strong nucleophiles, such as azide ions, in DMSO provided the inherent S N 2 reactivity of electrophilic cyclopropanes. The experimentally determined second-order rate constants k 2 for cyclopropane ring-opening reactions were then compared to those of related Michael additions. Interestingly, cyclopropanes with aryl substituents at the C2 position reacted faster than their unsubstituted analogues. Variation of the electronic properties of the aryl groups at C2 gave rise to parabolic Hammett relationships.

Hydrocarbons with open-shell singlet and triplet ground states have long been studied. In contrast to studies of Kekulé hydrocarbons with an open-shell singlet ground state, studies of non-Kekulé and Kekulé hydrocarbons with a triplet ground state are quite limited, and no hydrocarbon with a triplet ground state has been isolated as single crystals. In this review, our work on the synthesis, isolation, and properties of m -quinodimethane-based non-Kekulé polycyclic hydrocarbon, a kinetically stabilized triangulene derivative, and Kekulé polycyclic hydrocarbon, a kinetically stabilized bisdibenzo[3,4:5,6]cyclohepta[1,2- a :2,1- d ]benzene derivative, are described. Triplet ground states of these hydrocarbons were experimentally confirmed by ESR and magnetic measurements, and these are the first example of polycyclic hydrocarbons with a triplet ground state whose structures were characterized by X-ray crystal structural analysis. These studies will enable the development of various polycyclic hydrocarbon multi-radicals with high spin multiplicity.

In this work, we report an energy upconversion system based on triplet-triplet annihilation comprised of rose bengal dye as the sensitizer and a highly fluorescent 9-(triphenyl)ethynyl-10-phenylanthracene (TPE-PAn) as the triplet annihilator. The energy upconversion can be observed with a low-power laser excitation at 532 nm or noncoherent Xe arc lamp excitaion at 540 nm. A delayed fluorescence from (TPE-PAn) at 418 nm was observed with an energy upconversion up to 0.64 eV and quantum yield of 0.8 %. A white-light emission was achieved as a result of combination of delayed fluorescence from TPE-PAn and residual fluorescence from rose bengal dye.

Organic crystalline dielectric materials are attractive target in the field of materials chemistry. In their designing strategy, the molecular motion induced by the external dielectric field is required to maximize the polarization effect in the materials to realize a large dielectric constant. Especially, the molecular motion of curved-π aromatics such as C 60 and their supramolecular complexes are the known to show characteristic smoothness in the solid state. In this context, we focused on the in-plane motion of the one of the representative buckybowl, sumanene ( Sum ) in its curve-to-curve-contacted columnar structure as the new platform of the motion for the emergence of dielectric response. The newly designed and synthesized fluorinated sumanene, 1,1-difluorosumanene ( F2-Sum ), which possesses two fluorine atoms on the same benzylic carbon of pristine sumanene showed a large dipole moment along the in-plane direction. Thermal analyses, variable temperature X-ray diffraction and IR measurements indicated the presence of in-plane motion of F2-Sum although no clear phase transition was involved. This thermal property of F2-Sum realized an anisotropic dielectric response with a Debye-type dielectric relaxation in the single crystalline state. Further trials to form the solid solution of Sum and F2-Sum in various mixing ratio realized the tuning of the dielectric property.

Lithium-ion batteries are attractive for their use in portable electronics and electric vehicles owing to their high energy and power density. Organic materials as active materials for the positive electrode have attracted attention as an alternative to inorganic materials in sustainable batteries. However, there is a serious drawback that elution into the electrolyte solution. This article describes our attempts in the development of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) analogs for active materials. We have developed four types of fused TTF systems; multifused TTF systems, TTF analogs extended with cyclohexene moieties, TTF analogs extended with an anthraquinoid spacer, and fused TTF and benzoquinone systems. These molecules were designed based on the idea that increasing the size and planarity of the molecules and intermolecular interactions. They were successfully synthesized and their cell performances were clarified. We also describe that a TTF analog bearing triphenylamines was applied to long-cycle-life electrodes as a recent effort. This molecule was successfully synthesized using palladium-catalyzed C-H arylation and the cycle life of the cells comprising this molecule was markedly improved by in-cell electropolymerization.

As the primary method of communicating research results, journals garner an enormous impact on community behavior. Publishing the underlying research data alongside journal articles is widely considered good scientific practice. Ideally, journals and their publishers place these recommendations or requirements in their author guidelines and data policies. Several efforts are working to improve the infrastructure, processes, and uptake of research data sharing, including the NFDI4Chem consortium, working groups within the RDA, and IUPAC, including the WorldFAIR Chemistry project. In this article, we present the results of a large-scale analysis of author guidelines from several publishers and journals active in chemistry research, showing how well the publishing landscape supports different criteria and where there is room for improvement. While the requirement for deposition of X-ray diffraction data is commonplace, guidelines rarely mention machine-readable chemical structures and metadata/minimum information standards. Further evaluation criteria included recommendations on persistent identifiers, data availability statements, data deposition into repositories as well as of open analytical data formats. Our survey shows that publishers and journals are starting to include aspects of research data in their guidelines. We as authors should accept and embrace the guidelines with increasing requirements for data availability, data interoperability, and re-usability to improve chemistry research.

Textural properties of the solid sorbents are critical to tuning their CO 2 capture performance. In this work, we studied the effect of fiber density (in turn, pore size, distribution, and accessibility) on CO 2 capture capacity and kinetics. CO 2 solid sorbents were prepared by physisorption of tetraethylenepentamine (TEPA) molecules on dendritic fibrous nanosilica (DFNS) with varying fiber density. Among the various DFNS, the DFNS with moderate fiber density [DFNS-3] showed the best CO 2 capture capacity under the flue gas condition. The maximum CO 2 capture capacity achieved was 24.3 wt % (5.53 mmol/g) at 75 °C for DFNS-3 under humid gas conditions. Fiber density also played a role in the kinetics of CO 2 capture. DFNS-1 with dense fiber density needed ∼10.4 min to reach 90 % capture capacity, while DFNS-3 (moderate fiber density) needed only 6.4 min, which further decreased to 5.9 min for DFNS-5 with lightly dense fibers. The DFNS-impregnated TEPA also showed good recyclability during 21 adsorption and desorption cycles under humid and dry conditions. The total CO 2 capture capacity of DFNS-3 (14.7) in 21 cycles was 108.9 and 105.0 mmol/g under humid and dry conditions, respectively. Adsorption lifetime calculation and recyclability confirmed the fiber density-dependent CO 2 capture performance.