Making Chiral Salen Complexes Work with Organocatalysts.

Bisimine derivatives of salicylaldehyde with chiral diamines (salens) are privileged ligands in asymmetric organometallic catalysis, which can be used in cooperation with organocatalysts as additives. The latter can be a modifier of the metal reactivity by liganding or a true co-catalyst working in tandem or in a dual system. All scenarios encountered in the literature are reviewed and classified according to the organocatalyst. In each case, mechanistic and physical-organic chemistry considerations are discussed to better understand the gears of these complex catalytic settings.

A Chemical History of Polycyclic Musks.

Musk odorants are ubiquitous in fine perfumery as well as household products, and are divided into four main families, the nitromusks, the macrocyclic musks, the polycyclic aromatic musks, and the alicyclic musks, following their order of appearance on the perfumery market. This article presents the scientific and industrial adventures during the discovery of the seven commercial polycyclic musks, which invigorated the aroma chemistry corporations during the second half of the 20th century, resulting in relentless competition. Research and development strategies are exposed, and reactivity, analytical, mechanistic, and structure-activity relationships aspects are discussed as well as some biographical elements of the main scientific actors, and some fine perfumery examples are given as illustrations of their use.

Annelated pyridines as highly nucleophilic and Lewis basic catalysts for acylation reactions.

New heterocyclic derivatives of 9-azajulolidine have been synthesized and characterized with respect to their nucleophilicity and Lewis basicity. The Lewis basicity of these bases as quantified through their theoretically calculated methyl-cation affinities correlate well with the experimentally measured reaction rates for addition to benzhydryl cations. All newly synthesized pyridines show exceptional catalytic activities in benchmark acylation reactions, which correlate only poorly with Lewis basicity or nucleophilicity parameters. A combination of Lewis basicity with charge and geometric parameters in the framework of a three-component quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) model is, however, highly predictive.

Increasing the reactivity of nitrogen catalysts.

This review article presents how nitrogen-centred Lewis bases were modified in order to increase their reactivity in catalytic processes. As examples, we focus on alcohol acylation and Morita-Baylis-Hilman reactions in order to showcase the fundamental parameters at play in transformations initiated by catalysts bearing respectively an active sp(2) or sp(3) nitrogen atoms. These two aspects are epitomised by two leading compounds, the Steglich base 4-dimethylaminopyridine (DMAP), and 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO). Throughout this review, we stress the role played and the information brought by physical organic chemistry. Comprehension of these complex transformations relies on the fundamental knowledge of parameters, such as, nucleophilicity, nucleofugality, Lewis basicity, and crucially also the knowledge of their divergent impacts on each elementary step of the catalytic cycle.

Synthesis and reactivity of highly nucleophilic pyridines.

3,4,5-Triamino-substituted pyridines are avid for electrophiles but are still willing to give them back. In these compounds three amino groups conjoin their forces into the heterocyclic nitrogen, making it a powerful Lewis base. A short and efficient synthesis is described, and the origin of its unique activity in nucleophilic organocatalysis is rationalized by kinetics and thermodynamic quantifications.

One-step synthesis of chiral cages.

A novel type of hemispherical cage was synthesized in a one-pot procedure, which displayed good binding properties towards nickel(ii).

Membrane lipids of mesophilic anaerobic bacteria thriving in peats have typical archaeal traits.

The 16S ribosomal DNA based distinction between the bacterial and archaeal domains of life is strongly supported by the membrane lipid composition of the two domains; Bacteria generally contain dialkyl glycerol diester lipids, whereas Archaea produce isoprenoid dialkyl glycerol diether and membrane-spanning glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraether (GDGT) lipids. Here we show that a new group of ecologically abundant membrane-spanning GDGT lipids, containing branched instead of isoprenoid carbon skeletons, are of a bacterial origin. This was revealed by examining the stereochemistry of the glycerol moieties of those branched tetraether membrane lipids, which was found to be the bacterial 1,2-di-O-alkyl-sn-glycerol stereoconfiguration and not the 2,3-di-O-alkyl-sn-glycerol stereoconfiguration as in archaeal membrane lipids. In addition, unequivocal evidence for the presence of cyclopentyl moieties in these bacterial membrane lipids was obtained by NMR. The biochemical traits of biosynthesis of tetraether membrane lipids and the formation of cyclopentyl moieties through internal cyclization, which were thought to be specific for the archaeal lineage of descent, thus also occur in the bacterial domain of life.

Click-chemistry as an efficient synthetic tool for the preparation of novel conjugated polymers.

The Cu(I)-catalysed 1,3-dipolar "click" cycloaddition is utilised as an efficient reaction for the preparation of novel fluorene-based conjugated polymers.

A mixed ladderane/n-alkyl glycerol diether membrane lipid in an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacterium.

A novel glycerol diether containing ladderane and tetradecyl moieties has been identified in an anaerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacterium by GC/MS and high-field NMR spectroscopy.