Following the general recognition of carbon as being tetrahedrally tetravalent in 1869 (Paterno) and 1874 (Van’t Hoff and Le Bell), an early seminal exploitation of this to the conformation of cyclohexane was by Hermann Sachse in 1890.[cite]10.1002/cber.189002301216 [/cite] This was verified when the Braggs in 1913[cite]10.1098/rspa.1913.0084[/cite], followed by an oft-cited article by Mohr in 1918,[cite]10.1002/prac.19180980123[/cite]
Continuing my hunt, here is a candidate for a strong(est?) halogen bond, this time between Se and I.[cite]10.1021/ic50038a006[/cite]. The features of interest include: The six-membered ring is in the chair conformation.
Ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate reacts with carbon dioxide to produce 3-keto-2-carboxyarabinitol 1,5-bisphosphate as the first step in the biochemical process of carbon fixation.
This is another in the occasional series of “what a neat molecule”. In this case, more of a “what a neat idea”. The s-triazine below, when coordinated to eg ZnI 2 , forms what is called a metal-organic-framework, or MOF.
The conformational analysis of cyclohexane is a mainstay of organic chemistry. Is there anything new that can be said about it? Let us start with the diagram below: This identifies the start of the process as a chair conformation of cyclohexane, with D 3d symmetry.
Conformational analysis comes from the classical renaissance of physical organic chemistry in the 1950s and 60s. The following problem is taken from E. D. Hughes and J. Wilby J. Chem. Soc. , 1960, 4094-4101, DOI: 10.1039/JR9600004094, the essence of which is that Hofmann elimination of a neomenthyl derivative (C below) was observed as anomalously faster than its menthyl analogue.
Most scientific theories emerge slowly, over decades, but others emerge fully formed virtually overnight as it were (think Einstein in 1905). A third category is the supernova type, burning brightly for a short while, but then vanishing (almost) without trace shortly thereafter.
Peter Murray-Rust in his blog asks for examples of the Scientific Semantic Web, a topic we have both been banging on about for ten years or more (DOI: 10.1021/ci000406v). What we are seeking of course is an example of how scientific connections have been made using inference logic from semantically rich statements to be found on the Web (ideally connections that might not have previously been spotted by humans, and lie overlooked and unloved in
In an earlier post, I re-visited the conformational analysis of cyclohexane by looking at the vibrations of the entirely planar form (of D 6h symmetry). The method also gave interesting results for the larger cyclo-octane ring. How about a larger leap into the unknown? Let us proceed as follows. One fun game to play in chemistry is to invoke i so-electronic substitutions.
The diagram below summarizes an interesting result recently reported by Hanson and co-workers (DOI: 10.1021/jo800706y. At ~neutral pH, compound 13 hydrolyses with a half life of 21 minutes, whereas 14 takes 840 minutes. Understanding this difference in reactivity may allow us to understand why some enzymes can catalyze the hydrolysis of peptides with an acceleration of up to twelve orders of magnitude.