Catalytic Cyclophanes. Part XI. A flavo-thiazolio-cyclophane as a biomimetic catalyst for the preparative-scale electro-oxidation of aromatic aldehydes to methyl esters

Tuning the Photophysical Properties of Flavins by Attaching an Aryl Moiety via Direct C-C Bond Coupling

Palladium-catalyzed Suzuki reactions of brominated flavin derivatives (5-deazaflavins, alloxazines, and isoalloxazines) with boronic acids or boronic acid esters that occur readily under mild conditions were shown to be an effective tool for the synthesis of a broad range of 7/8-arylflavins. In general, the introduction of an aryl/heteroaryl group by means of a direct C-C bond has been shown to be a promising approach to tuning the photophysical properties of flavin derivatives. The aryl substituents caused a bathochromic shift in the absorption spectra of up to 52 nm and prolonged the fluorescence lifetime by up to 1 order of magnitude. Moreover, arylation of flavin derivatives decreased their ability to generate singlet oxygen.

Cyclizations catalyzed inside a hexameric resorcinarene capsule

The self-assembled, hydrogen-bonded hexameric resorcin[4]arene capsule represents one of the most readily accessible host systems for the study of container catalysis.

Enzyme Mimics: Advances and Applications

Enzyme mimics or artificial enzymes are a class of catalysts that have been actively pursued for decades and have heralded much interest as potentially viable alternatives to natural enzymes. Aside from having catalytic activities similar to their natural counterparts, enzyme mimics have the desired advantages of tunable structures and catalytic efficiencies, excellent tolerance to experimental conditions, lower cost, and purely synthetic routes to their preparation. Although still in the midst of development, impressive advances have already been made. Enzyme mimics have shown immense potential in the catalysis of a wide range of chemical and biological reactions, the development of chemical and biological sensing and anti-biofouling systems, and the production of pharmaceuticals and clean fuels. This Review concerns the development of various types of enzyme mimics, namely polymeric and dendrimeric, supramolecular, nanoparticulate and proteinic enzyme mimics, with an emphasis on their synthesis, catalytic properties and technical applications. It provides an introduction to enzyme mimics and a comprehensive summary of the advances and current standings of their applications, and seeks to inspire researchers to perfect the design and synthesis of enzyme mimics and to tailor their functionality for a much wider range of applications.

Supramolecular catalysis. Part 2: artificial enzyme mimics

The design of artificial catalysts able to compete with the catalytic proficiency of enzymes is an intense subject of research. Non-covalent interactions are thought to be involved in several properties of enzymatic catalysis, notably (i) the confinement of the substrates and the active site within a catalytic pocket, (ii) the creation of a hydrophobic pocket in water, (iii) self-replication properties and (iv) allosteric properties. The origins of the enhanced rates and high catalytic selectivities associated with these properties are still a matter of debate. Stabilisation of the transition state and favourable conformations of the active site and the product(s) are probably part of the answer. We present here artificial catalysts and biomacromolecule hybrid catalysts which constitute good models towards the development of truly competitive artificial enzymes.

Modulation of the reactivity, stability and substrate- and enantioselectivity of an epoxidation catalyst by noncovalent dynamic attachment of a receptor functionality—aspects on the mechanism of the Jacobsen–Katsuki epoxidation applied to a supramolecular system

The synthesis of the components of the dynamic supramolecular hydrogen-bonded catalytic system 2 + 3 is described. The catalytic performance and substrate- and enantioselectivity of Mn(salen) catalyst 2 were investigated in the presence and absence of the Zn(porphyrin) receptor unit 3. The effects of pyridine and pyridine N-oxide donor ligands were also studied. Some aspects on the mechanism of the Jacobsen-Katsuki epoxidation, based on literature observations, are introduced as a means to analyse the behaviour of 2 and its modulation by the formation of macrocycle 1 with 3. A complete association model of the metal-free system 4 + 5 refutes the earlier assumption that macrocycle 1 is the predominant form of catalyst 2 under the standard epoxidation reaction conditions with 2 + 3. Evidence are provided that receptor-binding substrates and nonbinding substrates, respectively, are epoxidised by two different catalytic species, or two distinct distributions of species in competitive epoxidations using catalytic system 2 + 3. The two species are assigned to the endo and exo faces of the Mn(salen) catalyst in macrocycle 1, and to equivalently folded oligomeric structures with monomers 2 and 3 in adjacent positions.

Self-activated supramolecular reactions: effects of host-guest recognition on the kinetics of the Diels-Alder reaction of open-chain oligoether quinones with cyclopentadiene

Diels-Alder reactions of acyclic oligoether-substituted quinones 1b, 1c, 2b, and 2c with cyclopentadiene were accelerated by the addition of alkali and alkaline earth metal perchlorates, and scandium trifluoromethane sulfonate (k(c)/k(f) = 1.2-23 for univalent cations, 11-1160 for divalent cations, and 1700-192 000 for Sc(3+), where k(c) and k(f) are the rate constants for the metal complexed and uncomplexed quinones, respectively). The shorter-armed 1a, 2a, and 3, however, exhibited no such acceleration effects. The rate accelerations can be rationalized by the FMO consequence in which the bound guest cation withdraws electron density from the quinone dienophile and lowers the LUMO energy suitable for the orbital interaction with the HOMO of cyclopentadiene. Despite the poor cation selectivity, these acyclic oligoether quinones showed larger rate accelerations than the relevant quinocrown ethers 4 (k(c)/k(f) = 1.3-3.0 for univalent cations, 5.0-160 for divalent cations, and 100-2020 for Sc(3+)). The effective electron withdrawal, which leads to the enhanced rate acceleration, can be caused by the direct interaction between the metal cation accommodated in the pseudo-cyclic oligoether linkage and the quinone carbonyl oxygen, as indicated by (1)H NMR spectroscopy. In addition, the larger rate enhancement is rather achieved in the complex with low binding constant K, because the strong encapsulation of metal cation by the oligoether chain diminishes the crucial interaction to the quinone carbonyl oxygen. As a whole, the smaller and higher valent cations tend to bring about notable rate acceleration due to the more enhanced ion-dipole interaction with the quinone carbonyl oxygen. Spectroscopic titration (absorption and (1)H NMR) and kinetic experiments indicated that only the longest di-armed 2c constructs 1:1, and then 1:2, host/guest complexes with Ca(2+), Sr(2+), and Ba(2+). These 1:2 complexes exhibited the most effective acceleration for the respective metal cations.

Supramolecular chemistry of dendrimers with functional cores

Dendritic microenvironments are analogous to local environments created within protein superstructures. Correspondingly, properties of functional cores such as molecular recognition and catalytic activity are profoundly influenced by the surrounding dendritic branches.

Total synthesis of (-)-cylindrocyclophanes A and F exploiting the reversible nature of the olefin cross metathesis reaction

Efficient total syntheses of the C(2)-symmetric (-)-cylindrocyclophanes A and F (1a and 1f) have been achieved. The initial strategy featured the use of a common advanced intermediate to assemble in stepwise fashion the required macrocycle of 1f, exploiting in turn a Myers reductive coupling followed by ring-closing metathesis. In a second-generation strategy, a remarkable cross olefin metathesis dimerization cascade was discovered and exploited to assemble the requisite [7,7]-paracyclophane macrocycles of both 1a and 1f from dienyl monomers. The successful syntheses also featured the effective use of the Danheiser annulation to construct substrates for both the Myers reductive coupling and the metathesis dimerizations strategies. Finally, the Kowalski two-step chain homologation of esters to siloxyalkynes proved superior over the original one-step protocol.