Urotropine: a unique scaffold in molecular recognition for phenolic substrates

Electrocatalytic Coupling of Nitrate and Formaldehyde for Hexamethylenetetramine Synthesis via C-N Bond Construction and Ring Formation

Hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) is extensively used in the defense industry, medicines, food, plastics, rubber, and other applications. Traditional organic synthesis of HMTA relies on ammonia derived from the Haber process at high temperatures and pressures. In contrast, electrochemical methods enable a safe and green one-pot synthesis of HMTA from waste NO3-. However, HMTA synthesis through the electrochemical method is challenging owing to the complex reaction pathways involving C-N bond construction and ring formation. In this study, HMTA was efficiently synthesized over electrochemical oxidation-derived copper (e-OD-Cu), with a yield of 76.8% and a Faradaic efficiency of 74.9% at -0.30 VRHE. The catalytic mechanism and reaction pathway of HMTA synthesis on e-OD-Cu were investigated through a series of in situ characterization methods and density-functional theory calculations. The results demonstrated that the electrocatalytic synthesis of HMTA involved a tandem electrochemical-chemical reaction. Additionally, the results indicated that the presence of Cu vacancies enhanced substrate adsorption and inhibited the further hydrogenation of C═N. Overall, this study provides an electrocatalytic method for HMTA synthesis and an electrochemical strategy for constructing multiple C-N bonds.

Biological activity tuning of antibacterial urotropine via co-crystallization: synthesis, biological activity evaluation and computational insight

Urotropine (1) is a synthetic heterocyclic antibacterial agent.

Mechanochemical synthesis and X-ray structural characterization of three 3-nitrophenol cocrystals with three aminal cage azaadamantanes: the role of the stereoelectronic effect on intermolecular hydrogen-bonding patterns

The structures of the cocrystalline adducts of 3-nitrophenol (3-NP) with 1,3,5,7-tetraazatricyclo[3.3.1.1^3,7]decane [HMTA, (1)] as the 2:1:1 hydrate, 2C₆H₅NO₃·C₆H₁₂N₄·H₂O, (1a), with 1,3,6,8-tetraazatricyclo[4.3.1.1^3,8]undecane [TATU (2)] as the 2:1 cocrystal, 2C₆H₅NO₃·C₇H₁₄N₄, (2a), and with 1,3,6,8-tetraazatricyclo[4.4.1.1^3,8]dodecane [TATD, (3)] as the 2:1 cocrystal, 2C₆H₅NO₃·C₈H₁₆N₄, (3a), are reported. In the binary crystals (2a) and (3a), the 3-nitrophenol molecules are linked via O-H...N hydrogen bonds into aminal cage azaadamantanes. In (1a), the structure is stabilized by O-H...N and O-H...O hydrogen bonds, and generates ternary cocrystals. There are C-H...O hydrogen bonds present in all three cocrystals, and in (1a), there are also C-H...O and C-H...π interactions present. The presence of an ethylene bridge in the structures of (2) and (3) defines the formation of a hydrogen-bonded motif in the supramolecular architectures of (2a) and (3a). The differences in the C-N bond lengths of the aminal cage structures, as a result of hyperconjugative interactions and electron delocalization, were analysed. These three cocrystals were obtained by the solvent-free assisted grinding method. Crystals suitable for single-crystal X-ray diffraction were grown by slow evaporation from a mixture of hexanes.

Cocrystals in the Cambridge Structural Database: a network approach

To obtain a better understanding of which coformers to combine for the successful formation of a cocrystal, techniques from data mining and network science are used to analyze the data contained in the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD). A network of coformers is constructed based on cocrystal entries present in the CSD and its properties are analyzed. From this network, clusters of coformers with a similar tendency to form cocrystals are extracted. The popularity of the coformers in the CSD is unevenly distributed: a small group of coformers is responsible for most of the cocrystals, hence resulting in an inherently biased data set. The coformers in the network are found to behave primarily in a bipartite manner, demonstrating the importance of combining complementary coformers for successful cocrystallization. Based on our analysis, it is demonstrated that the CSD coformer network is a promising source of information for knowledge-based cocrystal prediction.

Synthon hierarchy in theobromine cocrystals with hydroxybenzoic acids as coformers

Cocrystals, solids composed of molecular and/or ionic compounds connected by noncovalent interactions, are objects of interest in crystal engineering. Theobromine, as an active pharmaceutical ingredient, was used in cocrystallization with dihydroxybenzoic acids.

Supramolecular hydrogen-bonding patterns of co-crystals containing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) phloroglucinol andN-heterocycles

The active pharmaceutical ingredient phloroglucinol (PHL) has been taken as an illustrative molecule to explore the intermolecular interactions which can be established with other molecular entities to build PHL pharmaceutical co-crystals. The crystal structures of five newly synthesized co-crystals are reported, where PHL is crystallized withN-heterocycles, namely 2-hydroxy-6-methylpyridine (1), 2,4-dimethyl-6-hydroxypyrimidine (2), 4-phenylpyridine (3), 2-hydroxypyridine (4) and 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine (5). The structural characteristics of these co-crystals, as far as the hydrogen-bonding networks and the crystalline architectures are concerned, are strongly dependent on the chemical features of the coformer molecules, as well as on their size and shape. A detailed analysis of the intermolecular interactions established in all the PHL co-crystals of known structures has allowed the recognition of some regularities in the packing modes that can be useful in the design of new supramolecular adducts forming predictable structural motifs.

FT-IR and DFT studies of the proton affinity of small aminal cages

The proton affinity scale of small aminal cages was investigated using experimental and theoretical methodologies. The formation constant (K(f)) was determined for 1:1 hydrogen-bonded complexes between p-fluorophenol (PFP) and some aminal cage type (B) in CCl(4) at 298 K using FT-IR spectrometry. Then, the total interaction energy (E(PFF***B)), the energy of protonation (E(HB+)), the HOMO-LUMO GAP values and the Fukui index were calculated using the DFT/B3LYP/6-31 G(d,p) level of theory as theoretical descriptors. The values of the formation constant and energy changes vary with the tetrahedral character of the nitrogen lone pair. Good correlation between experimental and theoretical scales was observed, evidence for the existence of a relationship between the total energy of interaction calculated by structural parameters and the proton affinity in this series.

Vibrational dynamics of carboxylic acid dimers in gas and dilute solution

Ultrafast mid-IR transient absorption spectroscopy has been used to study the vibrational dynamics of hydrogen-bonded cyclic dimers of trifluoroacetic acid and formic acid in both the gas and solution phases (0.05 M in CCl(4)). Ultrafast excitation of the broad O-H cyclic dimer band leads, in the gas phase, to large-scale structural changes of the dimer creating a species with a distinct free O-H stretching band on 20 ps and 200 ps timescales. These timescales are assigned to ring-opening and dissociation of the dimer, respectively. In the solution phase, no such structural rearrangement occurs and our results are consistent with previous studies. The gas phase dynamics are insensitive to both the specific excitation energy (over a span of 550 cm(-1)) and the chemical identity of the dimer.