Induced-fit catalysis of corannulene bowl-to-bowl inversion.

Stereoelectronic complementarity between the active site of an enzyme and the transition state of a reaction is one of the tenets of enzyme catalysis. This report illustrates the principles of enzyme catalysis (first proposed by Pauling and Jencks) through a well-defined model system that has been fully characterized crystallographically, computationally and kinetically. Catalysis of the bowl-to-bowl inversion processes that pertain to corannulene is achieved by combining ground-state destabilization and transition-state stabilization within the cavity of an extended tetracationic cyclophane. This synthetic receptor fulfils a role reminiscent of a catalytic antibody by stabilizing the planar transition state for the bowl-to-bowl inversion of (ethyl)corannulene (which accelerates this process by a factor of ten at room temperature) by an induced-fit mechanism first formulated by Koshland.

Arenium acid catalyzed deuteration of aromatic hydrocarbons.

The arenium acid [mesitylene-H](+) has been shown to be an extraordinarily active H/D exchange catalyst for the perdeuteration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The reactions take place under ambient conditions in C6D6 as an inexpensive deuterium source. High isolated yields and excellent degrees of deuterium incorporation were achieved using the substrates p-terphenyl, fluoranthene, pyrene, triphenylene, and corannulene.