Substituting olefinic for acetylenic pi-spacers in anthracene-based conjugated semiconductor donors leads to appreciable increases in the power conversion efficiencies of the resulting bulk heterojunction solar cells.

The first examples of a Pd-catalyzed carbonylation of aryl boronic acids with sp(3) carbon partners are presented. Various boronic acids were shown to react with 1,3-diesters and 1,3-diketones to afford structurally unique carbonyl compounds. By employing 2-substituted 1,3-diesters, synthetically-challenging quaternary carbon centres were accessed. In total, 42 examples of aryl carbonyl compoun...

The hydrogenation of dicarboxylic acids and their esters in the presence of anilines provides a new synthesis of heterocycles. [Ru(acac)3] and 1,1,1-tris(diphenylphosphinomethyl)ethane (triphos) gave good to excellent yields of the cyclic amines at 220 °C. When aqueous ammonia was used with dimethyl 1,6-hexadienoic acid, ε-caprolactam was obtained in good yield. A side reaction involving alkyla...

Water-soluble metal working fluids are used for processing of aluminum alloy materials. This short article describes properties of new additives in water-soluble metal working fluids for aluminum alloy materials. Many half esters or diesters were prepared from the reactions of higher alcohols with acid anhydrides. Interestingly, diesters of PTMG (tetrahydrofuran oligomer, MW = 650 and 1000) and...

Marine-derived compounds have been explored and considered as possible antitumor agents. In this study, we analyzed extracts of the sponge Cribrochalina vasculum for their ability to inhibit tumor cell proliferation. Screening identified two acetylenic compounds of similar structure that showed strong tumor-specific toxicity in non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cells and small-cell lung car...

Mouse brain glutamate decarboxylase(s) was specifically titrated in vivo and in crude brain homogenates by a combination of gabaculine and [a-'H]acetylenic yaminobutyric acid. This specific titration is based on the differential spectra of action of these two mechanism-based enzyme inactivators. The specificity of the titration in vitro was demonstrated by showing that the time course of radioa...

Silver(I) triflate efficiently catalyzes the tandem reaction of acetylenic aldehydes with indoles to give highly substituted tetrahydrocarbazoles in high yields.