2,2′-Dihydroxybenzil: A Stereodynamic Probe for Primary Amines Controlled by Steric Strain

Chiroptical Sensing of Amines With Isatins

Isatins are extensively researched compounds with diverse applications, particularly as synthetic precursors in pharmaceutical developments. However, their use as optical probes for enantioselective sensing of chiral amines has not been explored to date. Herein, we present a novel chiroptical assay with an optimized isatin that generates strong, red-shifted circular dichroism (CD) signals at approximately 380 nm upon ketimine formation with chiral amines. The intensity of the induced CD signal increases linearly with the enantiomeric excess of the analyte and thus allows quantitative chirality analysis. The general usefulness of this approach is demonstrated with a broad range of aliphatic and aromatic chiral amines, and by accurate determination of the enantiomeric composition of 10 samples.

Optical Enantiodifferentiation of Chiral Nitriles

Chiroptical sensing of nitriles is achieved with excellent functional group tolerance by hydrozirconation and subsequent transmetalation of the corresponding iminate to a chromophoric palladium complex. A one-pot workflow that uses the Schwartz reagent and [(η3-1-tert-butylindenyl)(μ-Cl)Pd]2 as sensor generates a palladium complex displaying red-shifted CD inductions and characteristic UV changes. These chiroptical responses are accurately correlated to the enantiomeric ratio and total concentration of the original nitrile.

Organometallic Chirality Sensing via "Click"-Like η6-Arene Coordination with an Achiral Cp*Ru(II) Piano Stool Complex

Piano stool complexes have been studied over many years and found widespread applications in organic synthesis, catalysis, materials and drug development. We now report the first examples of quantitative chiroptical molecular recognition of chiral compounds through click-like η6-arene coordination with readily available half sandwich complexes. This conceptually new approach to chirality sensing is based on irreversible acetonitrile displacement of [Cp*Ru(CH3CN)3]PF6 by an aromatic target molecule, a process that is fast and complete within a few minutes at room temperature. The metal coordination coincides with characteristic circular dichroism inductions that can be easily correlated to the absolute configuration and enantiomeric ratio of the bound molecule. A relay assay that decouples the determination of the enantiomeric composition and of the total sample amount by a practical CD/UV measurement protocol was developed and successfully tested. The introduction of piano stool complexes to the chiroptical sensing realm is mechanistically unique and extends the scope of currently known methods with small-molecule probes that require the presence of amino, alcohol, carboxylate or other privileged functional groups for binding of the target compound. A broad application range including pharmaceutically relevant multifunctional molecules and the use in chromatography-free asymmetric reaction analysis are also demonstrated.

Circular Dichroism Sensing: Strategies and Applications

The analysis of the absolute configuration, enantiomeric composition, and concentration of chiral compounds are frequently encountered tasks across the chemical and health sciences. Chiroptical sensing methods can streamline this work and allow high-throughput screening with remarkable reduction of operational time and cost. During the last few years, significant methodological advances with innovative chirality sensing systems, the use of computer-generated calibration curves, machine learning assistance, and chemometric data processing, to name a few, have emerged and are now matched with commercially available multi-well plate CD readers. These developments have reframed the chirality sensing space and provide new opportunities that are of interest to a large group of chemists. This review will discuss chirality sensing strategies and applications with representative small-molecule CD sensors. Emphasis will be given to important milestones and recent advances that accelerate chiral compound analysis by outperforming traditional methods, conquer new directions, and pioneering efforts that lie at the forefront of chiroptical high-throughput screening developments. The goal is to provide the reader with a thorough understanding of the current state and a perspective of future directions of this rapidly emerging field.

A Real-Time Strategy for Chiroptical Sensing and Enantiomeric Excess Determination of Primary Amines via an Acid-Base Reaction

Two achiral aromatic carboxylic acids that included the 1,8-naphthalimide group and an imidazolium cation were synthesized and exploited as chiroptical sensors. These compounds showed the real-time discrimination and enantiomeric excess determination of chiral amines and amino alcohols via an acid-base interaction, especially for UV-silent chiral compounds.

On the non-innocence and reactive versus non-reactive nature of α-diketones in a set of diruthenium frameworks

Slightly modified ligand designs in diruthenium setups have major impacts on the reactivity/stability of coordination complexes. The 1,2-bis(2-hydroxyphenyl)ethane-1,2-dione bridge is also potentially redox non-innocent.

Point-to-Axial Chirality Transmission: A Highly Sensitive Triaryl Chirality Probe for Stereochemical Assignments of Amines

A readily available stereodynamic and the electronic circular dichroism (ECD)-silent 2,5-di(1-naphthyl)-terephthalaldehyde-based probe has been applied for chirality sensing of primary amines. The chiral amine (the inductor) forces a change in the structure of the chromophore system through the point-to-axial chirality transmission mechanism. As a result, efficient induction of optical activity in the chromophoric system is observed. The butterflylike structure of the probe, with the terminal aryl groups acting as changeable "wings", allowed for the generation of exciton Cotton effects in the region of 1Bb electronic transition in the naphthalene chromophores. The sign of the exciton couplets observed for inductor-reporter systems might be correlated with an absolute configuration of the inductor, whereas the linear relationship between amplitudes of the specific Cotton effect and enantiomeric excess of the parent amine gives potentiality for quantitative chirality sensing. Despite the structural simplicity, the probe turned out to be unprecedentedly highly sensitive to even subtle differences in the inductor structure (i.e., O vs CH2).

Design, synthesis, and characterization of novel organic–inorganic hybrid polymeric materials for electroluminescence applications

Design and syntheses of two electroluminescent metallopolymers from a novel, multidentate, redox active, and di-anionic organic building block.

Predictive chirality sensing via Schiff base formation

Among the large number of chiroptical sensors that have been developed to date, few allow rational determination of the absolute configuration of chiral substrates together with quantitative ee analysis. We have prepared and tested stereodynamic N-aryl aminobenzaldehyde sensors that bind chiral amines via Schiff base formation. The covalent binding of the amine substrate generates a conformational bias in the chromophoric sensor moiety which results in characteristic CD signals. Computational analysis revealed that CD prediction of the sign of the Cotton effect and thus determination of the absolute configuration of the substrate becomes practical with a sterically crowded sensor design because the number of conformations to be considered is largely reduced and the chiroptical sensor response is less sensitive to conformational equilibria. The amplitude of the measured CD signal can be used for quantitative ee analysis of nonracemic amine samples with the help of a calibration curve.

Central-to-axial chirality induction in biphenyl chiroptical probes for the stereochemical characterization of chiral primary amines

Flexible biphenyls have been applied as efficient and practical chiroptical probes for absolute configuration assignment to chiral primary amines. The mechanism of the central-to-axial chirality transfer from the amine moiety to the conformationally flexible biphenyl system has been determined by NMR and computational studies. This allowed proposing a general non-empirical rule in order to establish, simply by looking at the sign of the 250 nm A band in the ECD spectrum of the biphenyl derivative, the torsion of the biphenyl and thus the absolute configuration of the amine. The method proved to be very reliable and sensitive, allowing treatment of samples on the μmol scale and permitting the simultaneous determination of the amine sample's absolute configuration and enantiopurity.

Palladium-catalyzed carbene/alkyne metathesis with enynones as carbene precursors: synthesis of fused polyheterocycles

An unprecedented palladium-catalyzed novel carbene/alkyne metathesis cascade reaction of alkyne-tethered enynones is described. This reaction affords fused polyheterocycles in moderate to good yields. The transformation begins with Pd-catalyzed 5-exo-dig cyclization of the enynone to form the donor/donor metal carbene, which then undergoes metathesis with the alkyne followed by electrophilic aromatic substitution.

Chirality sensing and discrimination of lysine derivatives in water with a dyn[4]arene

The asymmetric deformation of a dyn[4]arene upon the binding of various lysine derivatives leads to distinct induced circular dichroism outputs in buffered water, which can be exploited not only for the determination of their enantiomeric excesses, but also for their classification by linear discriminant analysis.

Dynamic Covalent Chemistry within Biphenyl Scaffolds: Reversible Covalent Bonding, Control of Selectivity, and Chirality Sensing with a Single System

Axial chirality is a prevalent and important phenomenon in chemistry. Herein we report a combination of dynamic covalent chemistry and axial chirality for the development of a versatile platform for the binding and chirality sensing of multiple classes of mononucleophiles. An equilibrium between an open aldehyde and its cyclic hemiaminal within biphenyl derivatives enabled the dynamic incorporation of a broad range of alcohols, thiols, primary amines, and secondary amines with high efficiency. Selectivity toward different classes of nucleophiles was also achieved by regulating the distinct reactivity of the system with external stimuli. Through induced helicity as a result of central-to-axial chirality transfer, the handedness and ee values of chiral monoalcohol and monoamine analytes were reported by circular dichroism. The strategies introduced herein should find application in many contexts, including assembly, sensing, and labeling.

Di(1-naphthyl) methanol ester of carboxylic acids for absolute stereochemical determination

The absolute stereochemistry of chiral carboxylic acids is determined as a di(1-naphthyl)methanol ester derivative. Computational scoring of conformations favoring either P or M helicity of the naphthyl groups, capable of exciton-coupled circular dichroic coupling, leads to a predicted stereochemistry for the derivatized carboxylic acids.

Biomimetic Chirality Sensing with Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate

Pyridoxal-5'-phosphate (PLP) is introduced to a biomimetic indicator displacement assay for simultaneous determination of the absolute configuration, enantiomeric composition and concentration of unprotected amino acids, amino alcohols and amines. The chiroptical assay is based on fast imine metathesis with a PLP aryl imine probe to capture the target compound for circular dichroism and fluorescence sensing analysis. The substrate binding yields characteristic Cotton effects that provide information about the target compound ee and the synchronous release of the indicator results in a nonenantioselective off-on fluorescence response that is independent of the enantiomeric sample composition and readily correlated to the total analyte concentration.

Resonance-Assisted Hydrogen Bonding as a Driving Force in Synthesis and a Synthon in the Design of Materials

Resonance-assisted hydrogen bonding (RAHB), a concept introduced by Gilli and co-workers in 1989, concerns a kind of intramolecular H-bonding strengthened by a conjugated π-system, usually in 6-, 8-, or 10-membered rings. This Review highlights the involvement of RAHB as a driving force in the synthesis of organic, coordination, and organometallic compounds, as a handy tool in the activation of covalent bonds, and in starting moieties for synthetic transformations. The unique roles of RAHB in molecular recognition and switches, E/Z isomeric resolution, racemization and epimerization of amino acids and chiral amino alcohols, solvatochromism, liquid-crystalline compounds, and in synthons for crystal engineering and polymer materials are also discussed. The Review can provide practical guidance for synthetic chemists that are interested in exploring and further developing RAHB-assisted synthesis and design of materials.

Quantitative chirality sensing of amines and amino alcohols via Schiff base formation with a stereodynamic UV/CD probe

A readily available probe is used for quantitative sensing of the concentration and ee of chiral amines and amino alcohols.

Bis(zinc porphyrin) as a CD-sensitive bidentate host molecule: direct determination of absolute configuration of mono-alcohols

A facile and direct protocol to determine the absolute configurations of chiral mono-alcohols without analyte derivatization can now be realized using a novel circular dichroic (CD)-sensitive bis(zinc porphyrin) BP1 host system.