INFRARED AND RAMAN STUDIES ON SOME IMINES AND THEIR PICRATES. RELATION TO THE PROBLEM OF PROTONATION IN VISUAL PIGMENTS

Synthesis of Functional Polymer Particles from Morita-Baylis-Hillman Polymerization

Functional synthetic polymers are frequently explored for their use in the biomedical field. To fulfill the stringent demands of biodegradability and compatibility, the materials need to be versatile and tunable. Post-modification is often considered challenging for well-known degradable materials like poly(lactic acid) because of their chemical inertness. In this work a procedure is proposed to produce densely functionalized polymer particles using oligomeric precursors synthesized via the Morita-Baylis-Hillman reaction. This allows for a variety of post-modification reactions to serve bio-conjugation or tuning of the material properties. The particles are subjected to basic media and found to be degradable. Furthermore, cytotoxicity tests confirm good biocompatibility. Finally, as a proof of concept to demonstrate the versatility of the particles, post-modification reactions are carried out through the formation of imines.

High aspect ratio nanotubes assembled from macrocyclic iminium salts

One-dimensional nanostructures such as carbon nanotubes and actin filaments rely on strong and directional interactions to stabilize their high aspect ratio shapes. This requirement has precluded making isolated, long, thin organic nanotubes by stacking molecular macrocycles, as their noncovalent stacking interactions are generally too weak. Here we report high aspect ratio (>10³), lyotropic nanotubes of stacked, macrocyclic, iminium salts, which are formed by protonation of the corresponding imine-linked macrocycles. Iminium ion formation establishes cohesive interactions that, in organic solvent (tetrahydrofuran), are two orders of magnitude stronger than the neutral macrocycles, as explained by physical arguments and demonstrated by molecular dynamics simulations. Nanotube formation stabilizes the iminium ions, which otherwise rapidly hydrolyze, and is reversed and restored upon addition of bases and acids. Acids generated by irradiating a photoacid generator or sonicating chlorinated solvents also induced nanotube assembly, allowing these nanostructures to be coupled to diverse stimuli, and, once assembled, they can be fixed permanently by cross-linking their pendant alkenes. As large macrocyclic chromonic liquid crystals, these iminium salts are easily accessible through a modular design and provide a means to rationally synthesize structures that mimic the morphology and rheology of carbon nanotubes and biological tubules.

BOROX catalysis: self-assembled amino-BOROX and imino-BOROX chiral Brønsted acids in a five component catalyst assembly/catalytic asymmetric aziridination

A five-component catalyst assembly/aziridination reaction is described starting from an aldehyde, an amine, ethyl diazoacetate, B(OPh)(3), and a molecule of a vaulted biaryl ligand (VAPOL or VANOL). A remarkable level of chemo-selectivity was observed since, while 10 different products could have resulted from various reactions between the five components, an aziridine was formed in 85% yield and 98% ee and only two other products could be detected in 3% yield. Studies reveal that the first in a sequence of three reactions is an exceedingly rapid amine-induced assembly of an amino-BOROX chiral Brønsted acid species from VAPOL and B(OPh)(3), which is followed by imine formation from the amine and aldehyde and the concomitant formation of an imino-BOROX chiral Brønsted acid and finally the reaction of the imine with ethyl diazoacetate mediated by the imino-BOROX catalyst to give aziridine-2-carboxylic esters with very high diastereo- and enantioselectivity.

Spectroscopic conformational study of PMS 952, a specific imidazoline ligand. Experimental results

X-ray analysis of PMS 952 displays two kinds of very strong hydrogen bonds, an intramolecular one stabilizing the conformer A and an intermolecular one that associates conformers A to form two infinite chains. The 1H NMR study of vicinal coupling constants based on dihedral angle values, evidences that PMS 952 takes up an eclipsed conformation, in CCl4 and CDCl3 solutions, closely related to the conformation in solid state. Deuterium exchange in methanol-d4 points out the presence of a tautomeric form. However, as there is spectral evidence neither from NMR nor from FTIR studies for such a tautomer, this specie cannot be taken into account to explain the complexity of the FTIR spectra. NMR data also reveal that the imidazoline ring freely rotates while FTIR analysis allows characterizing two conformers (A and B), with lifetime shorter than NMR time scale. These two conformers are stabilized by two different intramolecular H-bonds. Taking into account that conformer A could exist in two states (monomer A and (A)n-chains), an equilibrium between A, (A)n, and B entities allowed the assignment of all main bands of the IR spectra, assigned to vNH, vOH, vCH, and vCN modes. The strength of hydrogen bonds is solvent dependent. Polar solvents, either proton donor or acceptor stabilized the conformer A, while CCl4 favors the conformer B.Key words: hydrogen bonds, X-ray, NMR, FTIR, imidazoline derivative.

The protonation of a retinyl Schiff base: a study by FTIR spectroscopy at low temperature in solution

The hydrogen bonding-protonation equilibrium for retinyl Schiff base/propionic acid or 3-chloropropionic acid systems was examined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy in non polar solutions at temperatures ranging from 25 degrees C to about -150 degrees C. The spectra give evidence for the gradual increase in the degree of protonation as temperature is lowered. The bearing of this on applying low temperature spectroscopic results to physiological conditions in rhodopsin research is discussed.