Alcohol is the answer! An inactive, air-stable, dimeric molybdenum alkylidyne complex is activated toward ring-opening alkyne metathesis polymerization (ROAMP) by the addition of methanol. The ROAMP is compatible with water and phenol-containing substrates and with the in situ photochemical generation of alkyne monomers from cyclopropenones.

Alkyne metathesis by molybdenum and tungsten alkylidyne complexes is now ~45 years old. Progress in the practical aspects of alkyne metathesis reactions with well-defined complexes, as well as applications, in the last decade, guarantees that it is destined to become a useful method for the synthesis of organic molecules.

A concise synthesis of a useful intermediate 10 for the preparation of fingolimod (FTY-720) analogs was achieved by utilizing a chemoselective Sonogashira reaction of trihalobenzene 12 with alkyne 13. The reaction proceeded with high selectivity to give alkyne 11 containing the dihalobenzene moiety in good yield. Compound 11 was converted into intermediate 10 by hydrogenation without reduction ...

The reaction of acetylides with sulfonyl azides was found to selectively form 1,5-substituted sulfonyl triazoles. This reaction thus provides access to the regioisomeric product as compared to the popular copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition. The reaction is efficient and selective with a variety of alkyne sources and sulfonyl azides and can incorporate an additional electrophile to yiel...

An alkyne-azide addition, i.e., click, reaction in conjunction with an electrostatic self-assembly and covalent fixation (ESA-CF) process has been demonstrated to effectively construct a variety of unprecedented multicyclic polymer topologies. A series of single cyclic poly(tetrahydrofuran), poly(THF), precursors having an alkyne group (Ia), an azide group (Ib), two alkyne groups at the opposit...

The development of robust tools and practical RNA labeling strategies that would facilitate the biophysical analysis of RNA in both cell-free and cellular systems will have profound implications in the discovery of new RNA diagnostic tools and therapeutic strategies. In this context, we describe the development of a new alkyne-modified UTP analog, 5-(1,7-octadinyl)uridine triphosphate (ODUTP), ...

Artificial metalloenzymes result from anchoring an organometallic catalyst within evolvable protein scaffold. Thanks to its dimer of dimers quaternary structure, streptavidin allows the precise positioning two metal cofactors activate a single substrate, thus expanding reaction scope accessible artificial metalloenzymes. To validate this concept, we report herein on our efforts engineer and evo...

Real-time enzymatic studies are gaining importance as their chemical and technical instrumentation improves. Here we report the efficient synthesis of γ-alkyne modified triphosphate amidates that are converted into a variety of γ-fluorophore labeled triphosphates by Cu(I) catalyzed alkyne/azide click reactions. The synthesized triphosphates are incorporated into DNA by DNA polymerases.