Unveiling the role of pyrylium frameworks on π-stacking interactions: a combined ab initio and experimental study.

A multidisciplinary study is presented to shed light on how pyrylium frameworks, as π-hole donors, establish π-π interactions. The combination of CSD analysis, computational modelling (ab intitio, DFT and MD simulations) and experimental NMR spectroscopy data provides essential information on the key parameters that characterize these intereactions, opening new avenues for further applications of this versatile heterocycle.

Chitosan Induces Plant Hormones and Defenses in Tomato Root Exudates.

In this work, we use electrophysiological and metabolomic tools to determine the role of chitosan as plant defense elicitor in soil for preventing or manage root pests and diseases sustainably. Root exudates include a wide variety of molecules that plants and root microbiota use to communicate in the rhizosphere. Tomato plants were treated with chitosan. Root exudates from tomato plants were analyzed at 3, 10, 20, and 30 days after planting (dap). We found, using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and excitation emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence, that chitosan induces plant hormones, lipid signaling and defense compounds in tomato root exudates, including phenolics. High doses of chitosan induce membrane depolarization and affect membrane integrity. 1H-NMR showed the dynamic of exudation, detecting the largest number of signals in 20 dap root exudates. Root exudates from plants irrigated with chitosan inhibit ca. twofold growth kinetics of the tomato root parasitic fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. radicis-lycopersici. and reduced ca. 1.5-fold egg hatching of the root-knot nematode Meloidogyne javanica.

Chitosan as a capping agent: Insights on the stabilization of gold nanoparticles.

A theoretical method based on Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD) was applied for the study of the interaction between coarse-grained models of chitosan and gold nanoparticles. These models were used to understand the role of chitosan in the stabilization of gold nanoparticles (5 and 7 nm). In addition, this stabilization was also supported by synthesized and characterized chitosan-gold nanoparticles comparing their stabilities with typical citrate-gold nanoparticles. Finally, the role of chitosan as a capping agent through the steric and electrosteric mechanisms in aqueous media with different pH values was also evaluated.

Preparation of chitosan-supported urea materials and their application in some organocatalytic procedures.

An efficient and mild procedure was developed for the preparation of three chitosan-supported ureas containing electron-withdrawing groups. These catalysts were characterized and employed as organocatalysts in different transformations, including the enantioselective cyanosilylation of α-ketoesters and aldehydes, the asymmetric addition of formaldehyde tert-butyl hydrazone to prochiral α-ketoesters and a Friedel-Crafts reaction. Several parameters that can affect the activity and selectivity of the reactions were analysed. The supported catalysts can be reused for more than 10 cycles with only a small loss in their properties. Finally, theoretical DFT calculations were carried out to interpret the results of the catalysed reactions.

Fingerprinting the Nature of Anions in Pyrylium Complexes: Dual Binding Mode for Anion-π Interactions.

The interplay between noncovalent interactions that involve oxygenated heteroaromatic rings have been studied for the first time in this work. In particular, we report an advance in knowledge-based anion-π interactions together with (C-H)+ ⋅⋅⋅anion contacts. To understand how the anion modulates these interactions, the synthesis of pyrylium salts with a variety of anions was performed by using an anionic metathesis methodology. The synthesized pyrylium complexes were classified in series, for example, anions derived from halogens, from oxoacids, from p-block elements, and from transition metals. Crystallographic data, DFT calculations, and NMR spectroscopy methods provided access to an overall insight into the noncovalent behavior of the anion in this kind of system. Based on the DFT calculations and 1 H NMR spectroscopy, pyrylium protons can be used as chemical tags to detect noncovalent interactions in this type of compound.

The Stabilization of Glycosyl Cations Through Cooperative Noncovalent Interactions: A Theoretical Perspective.

A systematic study of the stabilization of glycosyl cations on aromatic rings is reported at the B3LYP, M06-2X and M11 levels of theory. In particular, π-acidic arenes such as fluorobenzenes or naphthalenediimides efficiently stabilize these cations acting cooperatively as sandwich-type ternary cation-π-anion systems. The stabilization and cooperativity in polar (both protic and aprotic) and non-polar solvents has been also evaluated by using the polarizable continuum model. In addition, the role of the protecting group at the C-2 position (methyl, acetyl, benzyl, and pivaloyl) for this noncovalent stabilization has been explored, as well as the behaviour of the corresponding 2-deoxy glycosyl cation.

Fluorescent imino and secondary amino chitosans as potential sensing biomaterials.

A variety of fluorescent imino and secondary amino chitosans were synthesized under very mild conditions by reaction of the biopolymer amino functions with aromatic aldehydes in an acidified methanolic suspension. Simultaneous reactions of several aldehydes with chitosan were successfully carried out, and kinetic studies showed that 1-pyrenecarboxaldehyde reacts the fastest among them. An unprecedented study on the evaluation of the degree of N-substitution (DS, ranging from 31.7% to 12.0%) for the chitosan Schiff bases by using solid state CPMAS (13)C NMR is performed. A linear correlation between the DS obtained for the secondary amino chitosans by (1)H NMR (55.3-10.2%) and those obtained by CPMAS (13)C NMR (34.4-13.8%) has allowed us to calculate an empirical correlation factor that could be applied on chitosan-based aromatic systems. The new chiral-labelled chitosan derivatives exhibit a stable fluorescent behaviour, which was used to explore solvent sensoring applications.

Electronically tunable anion-π interactions in pyrylium complexes: experimental and theoretical studies.

Noncovalent interactions of anions with electron-deficient aromatic rings that have been studied so far involve non-heteroaromatic or nitrogen-based heteroaromatic systems. Here we report the first case of an organic oxygenated aromatic system, in particular the tri-aryl-pyrylium tetrafluoroborate system, for which noncovalent anion-π interactions of the pyrylium cation with the tetrafluoroborate anion have been experimentally detected and demonstrated by means of (19)F NMR spectroscopy in solution. A series of pyrylium tetrafluoroborate salts were synthesized in the presence of BF3·Et2O, by direct reaction of 4-substituted benzaldehydes with 4-substituted acetophenones or via the previously obtained chalcone of the less reactive ketone. Correlations of (19)F NMR chemical shifts of tetrafluoroborate anion for most of the synthesized tri-arylpyrylium tetrafluoroborate complexes with both the pyrylium cation molecular weight and the standard substituent Hammett constants, demonstrate anion-π(+) interaction to act between the polyatomic anion BF4(-) and the pyrylium aromatic system. DFT calculations reveal that an additional (C-H)(+)-anion hydrogen bond involving the H(5) of pyrylium ring exists for these fluorescent dyes that show a tunable cup-to-cap shape cavity. The strong fluorescence emission observed for some representative pyrylium tetrafluoroborates described herein, makes them a promising class of tunable emission wavelength dyes for laser technology applications.

Synthesis of cyclically constrained sugar derived α/ß- and α/γ-peptides.

A general approach to enantiopure conformationally constrained sugar derived α/ß- and α/γ-peptides has been established. Five-membered ring α/ß-peptides were synthesized via formyl C-glycofuranosides, easy available from hexose-derived azido-2-equatorial-OH-glycopyranosides by DAST-promoted ring contraction. By means of a regioselective oxidation with TEMPO at C-6 of hexose-derived 3-azido glycopyranosides as the key step, two- and three-residue α/γ-peptides having a six-membered ring were obtained in good yields and under very simple experimental conditions.