Strained thiacyclophanes: Reducing properties and gauge of transannular interactions.

The current study involves the investigation of reducing properties of disulfide bonded heteraphanes. The calculated adiabatic electron affinity (AEA) values of heteraphanes are found comparable to that of cystine molecule and are capable of undergoing reversible redox reactions. In aqueous phase, these show high propensity to get reduced. The reaction energies calculated using isodesmic equations reflect the strain associated with the studied thiacyclophane models. Increase in the number of disulfide bonds results in less strain and more stabilization. Through-space transannular interactions in the selected heteraphanes have a decisive influence on the structure stabilization associated with the systems. The results reported in the current study are expected to play a vital role while designing redox driven drug carriers by incorporating these systems in biomolecules.

Antiproliferative studies of transition metal chelates of a pyrazolone based hydrazone derivative.

Pyrazolone derivatives play a significant role in the treatment of cancer. The synergic effect which emerges from the combination of pyrazolone moiety with hydrazone functionality was investigated. The objective of this study was to explore the antiproliferative potential of copper(II), cobalt(II), nickel(II) and zinc(II) metal chelates synthesized from pyrazolone based hydrazone derivative. The ligand and the metal chelates were characterized by various spectroscopic and analytical studies. The ligand was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis.The results were in line with the spectroscopic methods. The geometry optimization of ligand and metal chelates were performed using density functional theory (DFT). The invitro cytotoxicity of ligand and metal chelates against different cancer cell lines was investigated by MTT assay. The cell-viability experiments showed that copper(II) complex is an efficient cytotoxic agent against HeLa cell line. Moreover, possible inhibition mechanism of synthesized compounds was evaluated in silico against HPV16-E6 receptor.Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Computational study on atom-economic alkyne hydrotelluration reaction using benchmarked ECP for Te.

Geometry and energy calibration studies are done for arriving at a proper ECP for tellurium containing compounds. Among the various d-function included ECPs cc-pwCVTZ-PP and def2-TZVP give more reliable results. Non-catalytic and base/radical initiated hydrotelluration reactions are computationally studied using the calibrated def2-TZVP, with a special focus on the regio-and stereoselective formation of vinyl tellurides. The explored gas phase reaction mechanism indicates the addition of tellurol to unsaturated carbon-carbon triple bond via a concerted transition structure. Regioselectivity has been noticeably realized in presence of both base and radical mediated hydrotelluration leading to Markovnikov and anti-Markovnikov product respectively.

Cationic closo-carboranes 2. Do computed 11B and 13C NMR chemical shifts support their experimental availability?

(11)B and (13)C NMR spectra of so-far experimentally unknown carbon-rich cationic closo-carboranes C(3)B(n-3)H(n)(+) (n = 5, 6, 7, 10, 12) have been calculated at the GIAO-MP2 level and subsequently analyzed to reveal the nature of bonding in these potentially weakly coordinating cations. All previous rules derived for understanding (11)B NMR spectra of borane derivatives can be applied to realistically account for the corresponding shieldings. The correlated wavefunction for n = 5 and, to a lesser extent, for n = 10 seems to be decisive when trying to compute realistic shielding tensors, which is in agreement with the corresponding known dicarbaboranes. For other cluster dimensions noncorrelated wavefunctions also work well, in particular in relation to the corresponding dicarbaboranes. All these observations strongly support the fact that experimental availability of these unique clusters is possible.

Theoretical study of the effect of coordinating solvent on ion pair SN2 reactions: the role of unsymmetrical transition structures.

Computations are reported at the HF/6-31+g* level for ion pair SN2 reactions of methyl, ethyl, n-propyl, isopropyl, and allyl halides with LiX.E, LiX.2E, and LiX.3E (X = F, Cl, Br; E = dimethyl ether as a model for THF). Some calculations were also done at the MP2, B3LYP, and mPW1PW91 levels. In addition to normal SN2-type (type I) transition structures (TSs), novel unsymmetrical TSs were found in which the Li is coordinated to a single halide. With LiX.2E, such structures are already competitive with the type I structures, and with LiX.3E, only the type II structures were found. With incorporation of dielectric solvation, the type II structures are relatively even more stable. The results suggest that such structures are better models for ion pair displacement reactions in ethereal solvents.

Hypercarbons in polyhedral structures.

Though carbon is mostly tetravalent and tetracoordinated, there are several examples where the coordination number exceeds four. Structural varieties that exhibit hypercarbons in polyhedral structures such as polyhedral carboranes, sandwich complexes, encapsulated polyhedral structures and novel planar aromatic systems with atoms embedded in the middle are reviewed here. The structural variety anticipated with hypercoordinate carbon among carboranes is large as there are many modes of condensation that could lead to large number of new patterns. The relative stabilities of positional isomers of polyhedral carboranes, sandwich structures, and endohedral carboranes are briefly described. The mno rule accounts for the variety of structural patterns. Wheel-shaped and planar hypercoordinated molecules are recent theoretical developments in this area.

Analogies between boron and carbon.

The structural connections between the compounds of boron and carbon are extended using the mno rule beyond the borane-carbocation continuum, the lithium boride-polycarbyne analogy, and the magnesium boride (MgB(2))-graphite equivalence to beta-rhombohedral boron and fullerenes. The structural similarity of the pentagonal pyramidal C(6)H(6)(2+) and MgB(4) is established. An interesting electronic structural relationship between the B(84) fragment of the beta-rhombohedral boron and the fulleride anion, C(60)(12-), is derived by replacing the 12 pentagonal pyramidal B(6)(4-) units by isoelectronic C(5)(-) units and removing the central B(12) from the electron-deficient B(84) unit. This relationship is well supported by the experimental realization of C(60)M(12) (M = Li, K) and C(48)N(12).

The rearrangement of dicarboranyl methyl cation: a possible synthetic strategy toward cationic closo-tricarbaboranes.

A quantitative study on cationic closo-tricarbaboranes proved their stability and a possible use for them as weakly coordinating ions due to the dispersal of positive charge throughout the cage. The current study explores computationally a synthetic strategy toward their realization in parallel with the benzyl cation-tropylium ion rearrangement. This study shows that cage expansion along with the incorporation of a carbon atom into the cage starting from the dicarboranyl methyl cation is in the realm of the possible. The rearrangements are found to have favorable energy barriers with one transition state. The geometry of the dicarboranyl methyl cations (benzyl cation analogues) with bent CH(2) groups favors the rearrangement into the tropylium analogues. Thus, the comparison of well-known benzyl ion-tropylium ion rearrangement with similar reactions among polyhedral boranes unravels the feasibility of cationic tricarboranes.