With a view to applications in bifunctional catalysis, a modular cross-coupling strategy has been used to prepare amine bis(imidazolium) salts (3a and 3b) and an amine mono(imidazolium) salt (6) as precursors to chelating amido-NHC ligands. Treating the pro-ligands 3 with 3 equivalents of the bulky base KHMDS and Pd(OAc)(2) or PtCl(2)(COD) gave the four amido bis(N-heterocyclic carbene) pincer ...

[1,2,3]Triazolo[1,5-a]pyridine and 3-substituted derivatives were regioselectively metalated at the 7 position using either Bu3MgLi or (TMP)3CdLi, the former at -10 degrees C and the latter at room temperature. The lithium arylmagnesates (R = H, Me, Ph) proved to react with iodine (34-75%) or 3,4,5-trimethoxybenzaldehyde (32-51%). Attempts to obtain the cross-coupling products using 2-bromopyri...

Six cobalt and manganese corrole complexes were synthesized and examined as single-site catalysts for water splitting. The simple cobalt corrole [Co(tpfc)(py)2] (1, tpfc = 5,10,15-tris(pentafluorophenyl)corrole, py = pyridine) catalyzed both water oxidation and proton reduction efficiently. By coating complex 1 onto indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes, the turnover frequency for electrocatalytic ...

Nature excels at breaking down glycans into their components, typically via enzymatic acid-base catalysis to achieve selective cleavage of the glycosidic bond. Noting the importance of proton transfer in the active site of many of these enzymes, we describe a sequestered proton reagent for acid-catalyzed glycan sequencing (PRAGS) that derivatizes the reducing terminus of glycans with a pyridine...

Two types of nanoscale catalysts were created to explore NMR signal enhancement via reversible exchange (SABRE) at the interface between heterogeneous and homogeneous conditions. Nanoparticle and polymer comb variants were synthesized by covalently tethering Ir-based organometallic catalysts to support materials comprised of TiO2/PMAA (poly methacrylic acid) and PVP (polyvinyl pyridine), respec...

The first 2-pyridylmethyl pendant-armed ethylene cross-bridged cyclam ligand has been synthesized and successfully complexed to Mn(2+), Fe(2+), Co(2+), Ni(2+), Cu(2+), and Zn(2+) cations. X-ray crystal structures were obtained for all six complexes and demonstrate pentadentate binding of the ligand with the requisite cis-V configuration of the cross-bridged cyclam ring in all cases, leaving a p...

Van der Waals (vdW) interaction, and its subtle interplay with chemically specific interactions and surface roughness at metal/organic interfaces, is critical to the understanding of structure-function relations in diverse areas, including catalysis, molecular electronics and self-assembly. However, vdW interactions remain challenging to characterize directly at the fundamental, single-molecule...

Our research group is implicated on the design and synthesis of supramolecular structures based on self-assembling cyclic peptides, particularly alpha,gamma-cyclic peptides (CPs). Most of these structures: dimer, nanotubes, fiber, etc, are based on beta-sheet type interactions. The CPs form structures that have allowed preparing a large variety of structures with applications in ion channels, e...

A mild method for the cross-coupling of arylboronic acids with CF3I via the merger of photoredox (to generate CF3 radical) and Cu catalysis (to generate reactive Cu−aryl species) was developed by Professor Sanford and her co-worker of University of Michigan (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 9034− 9037). Potassium carbonate was found a base of choice for the promotion of transmetalation in DMF solve...

Diflavin reductases are essential proteins capable of splitting the two-electron flux from reduced pyridine nucleotides to a variety of one electron acceptors. The primary sequence of diflavin reductases shows a conserved domain organization harboring two catalytic domains bound to the FAD and FMN flavins sandwiched by one or several non-catalytic domains. The catalytic domains are analogous t...