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Synthetic bioconjugation at cysteine (Cys) residues in peptides and proteins has emerged as a powerful tool in chemistry. Soft nucleophilicity of the sulfur in Cys renders an exquisite chemoselectivity with which various functional groups can be placed onto this residue under benign conditions. While a variety of reactions have been successful at producing Cys-based bioconjugates, the majority of these feature sulfur-carbon bonds. We report Cys-borylation, wherein a benchtop stable Pt(II)-based organometallic reagent can be used to transfer a boron-rich cluster onto a sulfur moiety in unprotected peptides forging a boron-sulfur bond. Cys-borylation proceeds at room temperature and tolerates a variety of functional groups present in complex polypeptides. Further, the bioconjugation strategy can be applied to a model protein modification of Cys-containing DARPin (designed ankyrin repeat protein). The resultant bioconjugates show no additional toxicity compared to their Cys alkyl-based congeners. Finally, we demonstrate how the developed Cys-borylation can enhance the proteolytic stability of the resultant peptide bioconjugates while maintaining the binding affinity to a protein target.

Synthetic bioconjugation at cysteine (Cys) residues in peptides and proteins has emerged as a powerful tool in chemistry. Soft nucleophilicity of the sulfur in Cys renders an exquisite chemoselectivity with which various functional groups can be placed onto this residue under benign conditions. While a variety of reactions have been successful at producing Cys-based bioconjugates, the majority of these feature sulfur-carbon bonds. We report Cys-borylation, wherein a benchtop stable Pt(II)-based organometallic reagent can be used to transfer a boron-rich cluster onto a sulfur moiety in unprotected peptides forging a boron-sulfur bond. Discovered Cysborylation proceeds at room temperature and is tolerant to a variety of functional groups present in complex polypeptides. The resultant bioconjugates show no additional toxicity compared to their Cys aryl-based congeners. Finally, we demonstrate how the developed Cys-borylation can enhance the proteolytic stability of the produced peptide bioconjugates while maintaining the binding affinity to a protein target.

This Viewpoint Article describes major advances pertaining to perfunctionalized boron clusters in synthesis and their respective applications. The first portion of this work highlights key synthetic methods allowing one to access a wide range of polyhedral boranes (B4 and B6 – B12 cluster cores) that contain exhaustively functionalized vertices. The second portion of this Viewpoint showcases the historical developments in using these molecules for applications ranging from materials science to medicine. Lastly, we suggest potential new directions for these clusters as they apply to both synthetic methods and applications.

Carboranes are boron-rich molecules that can be functionalized through metal-catalyzed cross-coupling. Here, for the first time, we report the use of bromo-carboranes in palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling for efficient B-N, B-O, and unprecedented B-CN bond formation. In many cases bromo-carboranes outperform the traditionally utilized iodo-carborane species. This marked difference in reactivity is leveraged to circumvent multistep functionalization by directly coupling small nucleophiles (-OH, -NH2, and -CN) and multiple functional groups onto the boron-rich clusters.

We report the first observed Pd-catalyzed isomerization (“cage-walking”) of B(9)-bromo-meta-carborane during Pd-catalyzed cross-coupling, which enables the formation of B–O and B–N bonds at all boron vertices (B(2), B(4), B(5), and B(9)) of meta-carborane. Experimental and theoretical studies suggest this isomerization mechanism is strongly influenced by the steric crowding at the Pd catalyst by either a biaryl phosphine ligand and/or substrate. Ultimately, this “cage-walking” process provides a unique pathway to preferentially introduce functional groups at the B(2) vertex using B(9)-bromo-meta-carborane as the sole starting material through substrate control.

There is significant interest in the development of methods to create hybrid materials that transform capabilities, in particular for Earth-abundant metal oxides, such as TiO2, to give improved or new properties relevant to a broad spectrum of applications. Here we introduce an approach we refer to as ‘molecular cross-linking’, whereby a hybrid molecular boron oxide material is formed from polyhedral boron-cluster precursors of the type [B12(OH)12]2–. This new approach is enabled by the inherent robustness of the boron-cluster molecular building block, which is compatible with the harsh thermal and oxidizing conditions that are necessary for the synthesis of many metal oxides. In this work, using a battery of experimental techniques and materials simulation, we show how this material can be interfaced successfully with TiO2 and other metal oxides to give boron-rich hybrid materials with intriguing photophysical and electrochemical properties.

Reaction of [Ln(CH(2)SiMe(3))(2)(THF)(n)][BPh(4)] (Ln = Sc, Y, Lu ; n = 3, 4) with Li{B(NArCH)(2)}(THF)(2) (Ar = 2,6-C(6)H(3)(i)Pr(2)) formed the first group 3 and lanthanide boryl compounds, Sc{B(NArCH)(2)}(CH(2)SiMe(3))(2)(THF) and Ln{B(NArCH)(2)}(CH(2)SiMe(3))(2)(THF)(2) (Ln = Y, Lu), which contain two-center, two-electron Ln-B σ bonds. All of these systems were crystallographically characterized. Density functional theory analysis of the Ln-B bonding found it to be predominantly ionic, with covalent character in the σ-bonding Ln-B HOMO.

In contrast to the plethora of metal-catalyzed cross-coupling methods available for the installation of functional groups on aromatic hydrocarbons, a comparable variety of methods are currently not available for icosahedral carboranes, which are boron-rich three-dimensional aromatic analogues of aryl groups. Part of this is due to the limited understanding of the elementary steps for cross-coupling involving carboranes. Here, we report our efforts in isolating metal-boryl complexes to further our understanding of one of these elementary steps, oxidative addition. Structurally characterized examples of group 10 M-B bonds featuring icosahedral carboranes are completely unknown. Use of mercurocarboranes as a reagent to deliver M-B bonds saw divergent reactivity for platinum and palladium, with a Pt-B bond being isolated for the former, and a rare Pd-Hg bond being formed for the latter.

By employing strongly σ-donating boryl ancillary ligands, the oxidative addition of H2 to a single site Sn(II) system has been achieved for the first time, generating (boryl)2SnH2. Similar chemistry can also be achieved for protic and hydridic E-H bonds (N-H/O-H, Si-H/B-H, respectively). In the case of ammonia (and water, albeit more slowly), E-H oxidative addition can be shown to be followed by reductive elimination to give an N- (or O-)borylated product. Thus, in stoichiometric fashion, redox-based bond cleavage/formation is demonstrated for a single main group metal center at room temperature. From a mechanistic viewpoint, a two-step coordination/proton transfer process for N-H activation is shown to be viable through the isolation of species of the types Sn(boryl)2·NH3 and [Sn(boryl)2(NH2)](-) and their onward conversion to the formal oxidative addition product Sn(boryl)2(H)(NH2).

In the version of this Article originally published, Liban M. A. Saleh was incorrectly listed as Liban A. M. Saleh due to a technical error. This has now been amended in all online versions of the Article.

Bringing a common biological motif to the world of inorganic materials (from Advanced Materials).

The anionic Group 13 NHC analogues [(CHNDipp)(2)E](-) (E = B or Ga) display contrasting reactivity towards the half-sandwich titanium imido complex Cp*TiCl(NtBu)py; while the gallium system undergoes salt metathesis yielding the first example of a titanium gallyl compound, the more nucleophilic boryl anion generates a dearomatized pyridyl fragment via attack at the ligand 2-position.