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Biogenic polyamines, especially spermine and spermidine, are associated with cell growth and development. These amines can be found at high concentrations in the tumor cells, tissues, and urine of cancer patients. In contrast, spermidine levels drop with age, and a possible connection between low endogenous spermidine concentrations and age-related deterioration has been suggested. Thus, the quantification of these amines in body fluids like urine could be used in the diagnosis of different pathological situations. Here a new fluorescent molecular probe based on a tetraphenylethylene derivative is reported. This probe is able to selectively detect these amines through the enhancement of the fluorescence emission of the resulting complex. This fluorescence enhancement may be related to restricted intramolecular rotations of TPE phenyl rings induced by the analyte. Theoretical studies were carried out to shed light on the observed selectivity. Finally, the detection of these amines in urine was performed with limits of detection of 0.70 µM and 1.17 µM for spermine and spermidine, respectively.

Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assault (DFSA) is a problem of considerable dimensions on a global scale. Among the different compounds used in DFSA assaults, 4-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) is one of the most elusive due to its physical and biological characteristics. Therefore, the development of real-time detection methods to detect GHB not only in drinks but also in urine is very important for personal and social security. Here, we report two new heteroditopic chemosensors capable of recognizing and detecting GHB in soft drinks, alcoholic beverages and synthetic urine. The compounds have two moieties: a trifluoroacetyl group and a thiourea, which are able to interact respectively with the hydroxyl and the carboxylic groups present in the GHB structure. In addition, the distance between these two groups has been optimized to allow a double interaction which guarantees the recognition even in very competitive media such as beverages or urine samples.

A recompilation of applications of mesoporous silica nanoparticles in sensing from the last five years is presented. Its high potential, especially as hybrid materials combined with organic or bio-molecules, is shown. Adding to the multiplying effect of loading high amounts of the transducer into the pores, the selectivity attained by the interaction of the analyte with the layer decorating the material is described. Examples of the different methodologies are presented.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with rhodamine B and capped with acetylcholinesterase are able to be selectively opened and deliver their cargo in the presence of nerve agent simulant diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP)., Financial support from the Spanish Government and FEDER funds (Project MAT2015-64139-C4-1) and the Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEOII/2014/047) is gratefully acknowledged. L.P. is grateful to the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for his grant.

[EN] A simple and effective colorimetric method for the detection of normetanephrine (NMN), an O-methylated metabolite of norepinephrine, using functionalised gold nanoparticles is described. This metabolite is an important biomarker in the diagnosis of adrenal tumours such as pheocromocytoma or paraganglioma. The colorimetric probe consists of spherical gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) functionalised with two different ligands, which specifically recognize different functional groups in normetanephrine. Thus, a benzaldehyde-terminated ligand was used for the recognition of the amino alcohol moiety in NMN, by forming the corresponding oxazolidine. On the other hand, N-acetyl-cysteine was chosen for the recognition of the phenolic hydroxyl group through the formation of hydrogen bonds. The selective double molecular recognition between the probe and the hydroxyl and the amino-alcohol moieties of normetanephrine led to interparticle-crosslinking aggregation resulting in a change in the color of the solution, from red to blue, which could be observed by naked eye. The probe was highly selective towards normetanephrine and no color changes were observed in the presence of other neurotransmitter metabolites such as homovanillic acid (HVA) (dopamine metabolite), 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) (serotonin metabolite), or other biomolecules present in urine such as glucose (Glc), uric acid (U.A), and urea. Finally, the probe was evaluated in synthetic urine with constituents that mimic human urine, where a limit of detection of 0.5 mu M was achieved., Financial support from the Spanish Government (project MAT2015-64139-C4) and Generalitat Valenciana (Project PROMETEOII/2014/047 and AICO/2017/093) is gratefully acknowledged. T. Godoy-Reyes is grateful to Generalitat Valenciana for her Santiago Grisolia fellowship.

[EN] Gold nanoparticles functionalized with a triarylcarbinol derivative have been used as colorimetric molecular probes for the naked-eye detection of the nerve agent simulants DCNP and DFP. The detection process is based on the compensation of charges at the surface of the nanoparticles which triggers their aggregation in solution with the resulting change in their plasmon band. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved., We thank the Spanish Government and the European FEDER funds (project MAT2012-38429-C04-02) for support. A.M. is grateful to the Spanish Government for a fellowship. SCSIE (Universidad de Valencia) is also gratefully acknowledged for all the equipment employed.

Fast shuttling motions in solution have been observed by cyclic voltammetry in a Cu(I/II)-based [2] rotaxane. In the reported system, the different coordination preferences of both copper oxidation states are exploited to promote the electrochemically-triggered gliding of the ring from a tetra to a pentacoordinated site and vice versa. The thread of this rotaxane consists of a tridentate 2,2':6',2''-terpyridine chelating unit directly bonded through its 5-position to the 3-position of the bidentate 1,10-phenanthroline unit. This distribution reduces to a minimum the distance between the two coordination sites and lessens the congestion around the tetrahedral environment. These two factors have been demonstrated to highly increase the kinetics of the switching process. In addition, the electrochemical experiments carried out in different solvent mixtures evidenced the influence of the solvent on the shuttling mechanism.

The sensing properties towards aliphatic α,ω-dicarboxylates of five cyclohexane-based ligands are described. The studied ligands have been designed following the binding site-signalling unit approach and they all possess thiourea groups as recognition moieties. Ligands 1 and 3 containing naphthalene units can be used as fluorescent sensors as they form intra- or intermolecular excimers in the presence of appropriate dicarboxylates. Selective sensing of succinate and malonate versus their longer or shorter homologues has been observed.

Five heteroditopic ligands have been prepared to be used in solid–liquid extraction of ω-amino acids into DMSO solutions. The prepared ligands contain crown ethers as cation binding sites and thiourea or amide groups for anion recognition. The aliphatic zone of the 1H NMR spectra suggests that two different species related to the amino acid are present in solution. One of these species is the complexed zwitterionic form and the other seems to be free non-zwitterionic amino acid. The presence of these two species allows extraction efficiencies higher than 100%.

Thioureas are able to act as organocatalysts in the electrochemical reduction of aromatic carboxylates.

Four new homoditopic biphenyl thiourea derivatives have been prepared to be used in carboxylate sensing. Experiments carried out with these ligands have demonstrated that the conformation of the free ligand has a strong influence on both complex stoichiometry and geometry. High equilibrium constants were obtained in DMSO.

Six new biphenyl thiourea derivatives have been prepared to be used in carboxylate sensing. Experiments carried out with these ligands have demonstrated that the type of interaction with TBA carboxylates is strongly dependent on the substituents in the thiourea moiety. These interactions go from the formation of 1:1 hydrogen-bonded complexes to acid–base reactions. In addition, different geometries have been observed for the complexes being dependent on the conformations of the free ligands in solution.

The present work aims to give insight into the effect that metal coordination has on the room-temperature conductance of molecular wires. For that purpose, we have designed a family of rigid, highly conductive ligands functionalized with different terminations (acetylthiols, pyridines, and ethynyl groups), in which the conformational changes induced by metal coordination are negligible. The single-molecule conductance features of this series of molecular wires and their corresponding Cu(I) complexes have been measured in break-junction setups at room temperature. Experimental and theoretical data show that no matter the anchoring group, in all cases metal coordination leads to a shift toward lower energies of the ligand energy levels and a reduction of the HOMO−LUMO gap. However, electron-transport measurements carried out at room temperature revealed a variable metal coordination effect depending on the anchoring group: upon metal coordination, the molecular conductance of thiol and ethynyl derivatives decreased, whereas that of pyridine derivatives increased. These differences reside on the molecular levels implied in the conduction. According to quantum-mechanical calculations based on density functional theory methods, the ligand frontier orbital lying closer to the Fermi energy of the leads differs depending on the anchoring group. Thereby, the effect of metal coordination on molecular conductance observed for each anchoring could be explained in terms of the different energy alignments of the molecular orbitals within the gold Fermi level.

New multicomponent species consisting of [2]-catenates incorporating the [Ru(tpy)2]2+ moiety (tpy = 2,2‘:6‘,2‘ ‘-terpyridine) within their framework have been prepared, and their electrochemical an...

Three different multicomponent molecular systems have been synthesized by means of the three-dimensional template effect of copper(I). These systems incorporate both a coordinating ring (2,9-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline-containing 30-membered ring) and a molecular string which consists of two different coordination sites (2,9-disubstituted-1,10-phenanthroline and 5,5‘ ‘-disubstituted-2,2‘:6‘,2‘ ‘-terpyridine unit). Each end of the string could be functionnalyzed by a small group or by a bulky stopper (tris(p-tert-butylphenyl)(4-hydroxyphenyl)methane), leading to an unstoppered compound, to a semi-rotaxane, or to a real rotaxane. As in the case of a disymmetrical copper [2]-catenane, large reversible molecular motions have been induced both electrochemically and photochemically. The driving force of the rearrangement processes is the high stability of two markedly different coordination environments for the copper(I) and copper(II) ions. In the copper(I) state, two phenanthroline units (one of the ring, on...

The synthesis of a rigid ditopic ligand incorporating a 1,10-phenanthroline directly connected through its 3-position to the 5-position of a 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine is described. The synthesis is based on a series of palladium(0)-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions (Stille and Suzuki couplings) starting from 1,10-phenanthroline and bromo-substituted pyridines.

This work describes a new method for the preparation of metal-containing catenanes and rotaxanes, using pure coordination chemistry, by stepwise reaction of organic fragments with two different transition metals. The key organic compound contains two terpyridine (terpy) ligands and one diphenylphenanthroline (dpp) moiety and was prepared in high yield by alkylation of 2,9-bis(hydroxyphenyl)-1,10-phenanthroline with 5-(3-methanosulfonyl-1-propyl)-5‘‘-methyl-2,2‘:6‘,2‘‘-terpyridine. Reaction of this polyfunctional ligand with 1 equiv of a dpp-containing 30-membered macrocycle and Cu(I) as a template led to a threaded Cu(dpp)2+-type precursor complex (P). Due to the high affinity of Cu(I) for the dpp ligands, the reaction is selective, and no competition of the terpy units for the metal takes place. Thus, this threaded complex contains two free terpy moieties suitable for a further coordination reaction. Ru(II) was used to build the stoppers or to clip the free ligands due to the high stability of Ru(terpy)2...

Polymer-supported acetals 1 and 2 have been prepared by reaction of hydroxy acetals of decanal 6 + 7 and 8 with a Merrifield resin, whereas the glycol 3 and the related 2-nonyl dioxolane 4 have been prepared from a polystyrene resin. The polymer-supported acetals 1, 2 and 4 release decanal in a stream of moist air when an acid catalyst is previously imbedded in the polymer. Similarly, 4-phenyl-2-nonyldioxolane 5 affords decanal when imbedded in a polystyrene resin along with an acid catalyst.

The photodeacetalization of 4-(p-isopropylphenyl)-2-nonyl-1,3-dioxolane 1 using 2,4,6-triphenylpyrylium tetrafluoroborate (TPT) as sensitizer has been studied to explore the possibility of achieving a slow sunlight-controlled release of polymer-bound carbonyl functionalized semiochemicals. This reaction has been found to produce mainly n-decanal and p-isopropylbenzaldehyde, together with lower amounts of the corresponding acids. The degree of conversion and the product distribution depended on the presence of water or oxygen and the amount of photosensitizer. The results are justified through generation of the radical cation 1+·, followed by ring opening and trapping of the radical/cationic sites by oxygen or water. The delocalized 1,3-radical cations III and the ozonides IV appear to be involved as key intermediates. Formation of n-nonanal as a minor product is explained through cleavage of the C2-nonyl bond of 1+·.

Substituted 2-cyclohexenones 4 to 7 and hexaxydronaphthalenones and hexahydroindenones 13 to 18 are prepared by tandem Michael-Dieckmann addition of lithium dienediolates of acyclic and alicyclic unsaturated carboxylic acids to the lithium salts of the same or other unsaturated carboxylic acids.

[structure: see text] The selectivity and sensitivity of a benzothiazolium hemicyanine dye toward mercury(II) in aqueous solutions are described. Mercury ions coordinate to the dye forming a 1:1 complex. This interaction induces a color change in the dye at micromolar concentrations of mercury. Furthermore, the color change and quenching of the dye emission are selective for mercury when compared with other ions such as lead(II), cadmium(II), zinc(II), or iron(II).

CO2 is fixed by a Cu2+ complex of a macrocyclic terpyridinophane ligand forming a carbamate group. Several features of the structure mimic the enzyme rubisco.

An efficient synthesis of trans-2-phenylcyclohexanol has been achieved by enantioselective protonation of the enolate of 2-phenylcyclohexanone with α-sulfinyl alcohols and subsequent reduction of the chiral ketone by sodium naphthalenide in the presence of acetamide. Interestingly, the chirality source is not consumed in the synthesis of the chiral target.