2,5-Di-tert-butyl-2,5-diethylpyrrolidine-1-oxyls: Where Is a Reasonable Limit of Sterical Loading for Higher Resistance to Reduction?

The pyrrolidine nitroxides with four bulky alkyl substituents adjacent to the N-O∙ group demonstrate very high resistance to reduction with biogenic antioxidants and enzymatic systems. This makes them valuable molecular tools for studying the structure and functions of biomolecules directly in a living cell and for functional EPR and NMR tomography in vivo. The first example of highly strained pyrrolidine nitroxides with both ethyl and tert-butyl groups at each of the α-carbon atoms of the nitroxide moiety with cis-configuration of the tert-butyl groups was prepared using a three-component domino reaction of tert-leucine and 2,2-dimethylpentan-3-one with dimethyl fumarate with subsequent conversion of the resulting strained pyrrolidine into 1-pyrroline-1-oxide and addition of EtLi. The nitroxide has demonstrated unexpectedly fast reduction with ascorbate, the rate constant k2 = (2.0 ± 0.1) × 10-3 M-1s-1. This effect was explained by destabilization of the planar nitroxide moiety due to repulsion with the two neighboring tert-butyl groups cis to each other.

Synthesis of Sterically Shielded Nitroxides Using the Reaction of Nitrones with Alkynylmagnesium Bromides.

Sterically shielded nitroxides, which demonstrate high resistance to bioreduction, are the spin labels of choice for structural studies inside living cells using pulsed EPR and functional MRI and EPRI in vivo. To prepare new sterically shielded nitroxides, a reaction of cyclic nitrones, including various 1-pyrroline-1-oxides, 2,5-dihydroimidazole-3-oxide and 4H-imidazole-3-oxide with alkynylmagnesium bromide wereused. The reaction gave corresponding nitroxides with an alkynyl group adjacent to the N-O moiety. The hydrogenation of resulting 2-ethynyl-substituted nitroxides with subsequent re-oxidation of the N-OH group produced the corresponding sterically shielded tetraalkylnitroxides of pyrrolidine, imidazolidine and 2,5-dihydroimidazole series. EPR studies revealed large additional couplings up to 4 G in the spectra of pyrrolidine and imidazolidine nitroxides with substituents in 3- and/or 4-positions of the ring.

A Simple Method of Synthesis of 3-Carboxy-2,2,5,5-Tetraethylpyrrolidine-1-oxyl and Preparation of Reduction-Resistant Spin Labels and Probes of Pyrrolidine Series.

Stable free radicals are widely used as molecular probes and labels in various biophysical and biomedical research applications of magnetic resonance spectroscopy and imaging. Among these radicals, sterically shielded nitroxides of pyrrolidine series demonstrate the highest stability in biological systems. Here, we suggest new convenient procedure for preparation of 3-carboxy-2,2,5,5-tetraethylpyrrolidine-1-oxyl, a reduction-resistant analog of widely used carboxy-Proxyl, from cheap commercially available reagents with the yield exceeding the most optimistic literature data. Several new spin labels and probes of 2,2,5,5-tetraethylpyrrolidine-1-oxyl series were prepared and reduction of these radicals in ascorbate solutions, mice blood and tissue homogenates was studied.

2-Butyl-2-tert-butyl-5,5-diethylpyrrolidine-1-oxyls: Synthesis and Properties.

Nitroxides are broadly used as molecular probes and labels in biophysics, structural biology, and biomedical research. Resistance of a nitroxide group bearing an unpaired electron to chemical reduction with low-molecular-weight antioxidants and enzymatic systems is of critical importance for these applications. The redox properties of nitroxides are known to depend on the ring size (for cyclic nitroxides) and electronic and steric effects of the substituents. Here, two highly strained nitroxides, 5-(tert-butyl)-5-butyl-2,2-diethyl-3-hydroxypyrrolidin-1-oxyl (4) and 2-(tert-butyl)-2-butyl-5,5-diethyl-3,4-bis(hydroxymethyl)pyrrolidin-1-oxyl (5), were prepared via a reaction of the corresponding 2-tert-butyl-1-pyrroline 1-oxides with butyllithium. Thermal stability and kinetics of reduction of the new nitroxides by ascorbic acid were studied. Nitroxide 5 showed the highest resistance to reduction.

Reaction of Paramagnetic Synthon, Lithiated 4,4,5,5-Tetramethyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxyl 3-oxide, with Cyclic Aldonitrones of the Imidazole Series.

It was shown that dipole-stabilized paramagnetic carbanion lithiated 4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxyl 3-oxide can be attached in a nucleophilic manner to either isolated or conjugated aldonitrones of the 2,5-dihydroimidazole 3-oxide and 2H-imidazole 1-oxide series to afford adducts the subsequent oxidation of which leads to polyfunctional mono- and diradicals. According to XRD, at least two polymorphic modifications can be formed during crystallization of the resulting paramagnetic compounds, and for each of them, geometric parameters of the molecules are similar. An EPR spectrum of the diradical in frozen toluene has a complicated lineshape, which can be fairly well reproduced by using X-ray diffraction structural analysis and the following set of parameters: D=14.9 mT, E=1.7 mT; tensor a((14) N)=[0.260 0.260 1.625] mT, two equivalent tensors for the nitronyl nitroxide moiety a((14) N)=[0.198 0.198 0.700] mT, and g≈2.007. According to our DFT and ab initio calculations, the intramolecular exchange in the diradical is very weak and most likely ferromagnetic.

pH-sensitive C-ON bond homolysis of alkoxyamines of imidazoline series with multiple ionizable groups as an approach for control of nitroxide mediated polymerization.

Recently, a new concept of pH-switchable agents for reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization has been introduced by Benaglia et al. (J. Am. Chem. Soc.2009, 131, 6914-6915). In this paper we extended the concept of pH-switchable mediators to nitroxide mediated polymerization (NMP) by employing nitroxides with basic or acidic groups as controlling agents. Four alkoxyamines, the derivatives of 2-(4-(dimethylamino)-2-ethyl-5,5-dimethyl-2-(pyridin-4-yl)-2,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxyl and 2-(2-carboxyethyl)-5,5-diethyl-2,4-dimethyl-2,5-dihydro-1H-imidazol-1-oxyl, have been prepared. The influence of pH on alkoxyamine homolysis rate constants (k(d)) and on the nitroxide-alkyl radical recombination rate constants (k(c)) was studied. All alkoxyamines under study as well as the parent nitroxides have several basic groups, which under pH variation can undergo consecutive protonation. It was shown that the k(d) value under basic conditions are significantly (up to 15-fold) higher than in acidic solution at the same temperature, whereas the k(c) value in basic solutions decrease by a factor of 2 only. The efficiency of NMP is known to be dependent on k(d) and k(c), both constants being dependent on the monomer structure; therefore the performance of NMP of different monomers in the controlled mode requires different conditions. It is shown that the pH value crucially affects the polymerization regime, changing it from the controlled to the uncontrolled mode. The controlled regime of NMP of different hydrophilic monomers (sodium 4-styrenesulphonate and acrylamide) in aqueous solution under mild conditions (90 °C) can be achieved using the same alkoxyamine by the variation of the pH value. The chain length of polymers depends on pH value during the polymerization.