Search

The lowest energy conformation of nickel tetraalkylporphyrins is the ruffled conformation as revealed by molecular mechanics. The X-ray crystal structure of these porphyrins is consistent with the established results. The INDO molecular calculations reveal that conformational differences are responsible for UV-visible band shifts. The level of ruffling depends upon the repulsion between beta-carbons, hydrogens of the pyrrole ring and the peripheral substituents.

The catalytic reactions of indoles with CO 2 and phenylsilane afforded indolo[3,2- b ]carbazoles, where the fused benzene ring was constructed by forming two C-H bonds and four C-C bonds with two CO 2 molecules via deoxygenative conversions. Nine-membered cyclophanes made up of three indoles and three CO 2 molecules were also obtained, where the cyclophane framework was constructed by forming six C-H bonds and six C-C bonds. These multicomponent cascade reactions giving completely different carbocycles were switched simply by choosing the solvent, acetonitrile or ethyl acetate.

Hexameric and tetrameric porphyrin nanorings, Z6 · T6 and Z4 · T4 , were synthesized in 53% and 14% yields, respectively, by the Sonogashira-type self-oligomerization of porphyrin monomer 1 using hexadentate template T6 and tetrapyridylporphyrin template T4 . Template-free nanorings Z6 and Z4 were also prepared. The femtosecond transient absorption measurements revealed fast excitation energy hopping (EEH) along these nanorings with hopping rates of 2-5 ps. Treatment of Z6 with chiral template CT6 gave Z6 · CT6 showing circular dichroism (CD) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) in the absorption and fluorescence regions of Z6 , respectively, which indicates chirality transfer from CT6 to Z6 .

A series of pyrenes sandwiched by axially chiral 1,1'-binaphthyls were synthesized. Among them, ( R , R )- 3 possessing 2-hydroxy-3,3'-dimethylbinaphthyls exhibited solvent-dependent inversion of the sign of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) without a change in emission wavelength. The (-)- and (+)-CPL were detected in nonpolar and polar solvents, respectively, with g lum values of -0.012 and +0.012. This switching property originates from the inversion of excimer chirality caused by the presence or absence of intermolecular hydrogen bonds in the excited state. The CPL intensity was also changed by variation of the temperature and concentration.

A series of axially chiral peri -xanthenoxanthenes (PXXs) were synthesized from 1,1'-bi-2-naphthol without optical resolution. These are the first examples of chiral PXXs. Among them, PXX 5 with two naphthalene rings connected via a methylenedioxy bridge and a chiral axis displayed intense fluorescence (FL) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) both in solution (Φ FL of 0.72 and | g lum | of 1.4 × 10 -3 ) and in the solid state (Φ FL of 0.13 and | g lum | of 4.8 × 10 -3 ). The bridged structure of PXX 5 adjusts the angle between the vectors of the electric and magnetic transition dipole moments, which is essential for showing intense CPL activity.

A versatile method for converting various fluorescent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons into circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) excimer dyes with high g lum and Φ FL values is reported. This method involves the functionalization of a chiral quaternaphthyl with six fluorophores via ester linkages in the last step of the synthesis. The usefulness of this approach was demonstrated for 1-, 2-, and 4-pyrenyl, 2- and 3-perylenyl, and 2-anthryl dyes. Most of them are the first or rare examples of CPL dyes. In the ground state, the fluorophores are tightly arranged by cumulative steric and electronic effects. In the excited state, the fluorophores form a twist excimer that maintains the ground-state conformations. The local chiral excimer directly affected the CPL properties. The systematic study on the signs of the CPLs allowed us to find a rule called the excimer chirality rule: right- and left-handed excimers exhibit (+)- and (-)-CPL, respectively.

A series of chiral cyclic dyads, axially chiral binaphthyls linked to a 3,3'-bipyridyl, was synthesized. The dyad 2 bearing methoxy groups exhibited ON/OFF properties in circularly polarized luminescence (CPL), yielding a | g lum | of 1.6 × 10 -3 or 0 without any change in fluorescence. This type of CPL switch is unprecedented. Regioisomer 4 exhibited a dextro/ levo rotation switching ability in [α] D . X-ray structures as well as experimental and theoretical analyses suggested that the switching properties depended on conformational changes.

We prepared bifunctional Mg(II) porphyrin catalysts 1 for the solvent-free synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO2. The activities of 1d, 1h, and 1i, which have Br(-), Cl(-), and I(-) counteranions, respectively, increased in the order 1i < 1h < 1d. Catalysts 1d and 1j-m, which bear four tetraalkylammonium bromide groups with different alkyl chain lengths, showed comparable but slightly different activities. Based on the excellent catalyst 1d, we synthesized Mg(II) porphyrin 1o with eight tetraalkylammonium bromide groups, which showed even higher catalytic activity (turnover number, 138,000; turnover frequency, 19,000 h(-1)). The catalytic mechanism was studied by using 1d. The yields were nearly constant at initial CO2 pressures in the 1-6 MPa range, suggesting that CO2 was not involved in the rate-determining step in this pressure range. No reaction proceeded in supercritical CO2, probably because the epoxide (into which the catalyst dissolved) dissolved in and was diluted by the supercritical CO2. Experiments with (18)O-labeled CO2 and D-labeled epoxide suggested that the catalytic cycle involved initial nucleophilic attack of Br(-) on the less hindered side of the epoxide to generate an oxyanion, which underwent CO2 insertion to afford a CO2 adduct; subsequent intramolecular ring closure formed the cyclic carbonate and regenerated the catalyst. Density functional theory calculations gave results consistent with the experimental results, revealing that the quaternary ammonium cation underwent conformational changes that stabilized various anionic species generated during the catalytic cycle. The high activity of 1d and 1o was due to the cooperative action of the Mg(II) and Br(-) and a conformational change (induced-fit) of the quaternary ammonium cation.

Bifunctional macrocycles 1-4 and diamide 5 were designed and synthesized. NMR studies demonstrated that, among them, receptor 1 functions as the best chiral solvating agent (shift reagent), which is effective for a wide range of chiral compounds having a carboxylic acid, oxazolidinone, carbonate, lactone, alcohol, sulfoxide, sulfoximine, sulfinamide, isocyanate, or epoxide functionality. The addition of only 5 mol % (69 microg, 0.15 mM) of 1 splits the enantiomeric signals of sulfoxide 13. The excellent performance of 1 as a chiral solvating agent, such as versatility, signal sharpness, high splitting ability, high sensitivity, wide detection window, and synthetic accessibility, is reported. NMR studies revealed that the principal binding site of 1 is the two amide NH groups of the lower segment and that the additional binding site is the pyridyl nitrogen. The V-shaped arrangement of the two 2,6-diacylaminopyridine moieties as constructed in 1 was found to be much more effective for binding a variety of compounds than the parallel alignment of the two binding motifs as constructed in 4. The NO2 group in 1 enhanced not only the binding ability but also the degree of enantioselectivity. Unexpectedly, the comparisons between 1 and 3 enabled us to find the importance of the relative orientation of the binaphthyl moiety; the orthogonal disposition of the binaphthyl moiety in 1 most effectively brings about the differential ring-current effect on the chiral guest molecule bound, which leads to the high degree of chiral discrimination in NMR.