An efficient method for palladium-catalyzed homocoupling reaction of terminal alkynes in the synthesis of symmetric diynes is presented. The results showed that both Pd(OAc)(2) and CuI played crucial roles in the reaction. In the presence of 2 mol % Pd(OAc)(2), 2 mol % CuI, 3 equiv of Dabco, and air, homocoupling of various terminal alkynes afforded the corresponding symmetrical diynes in moder...

Developing effective heterogeneous metal catalysts with high selectivity and satisfactory activity for chemoselective hydrogenation of alkyne to alkene is of great importance in the chemical industry. Herein, we report our efforts to fabricate TiO2-supported Pd catalysts by a photodeposition method at room temperature for phenylacetylene semihydrogenation to styrene. The resulting Pd/TiO2 catal...

Phenylacetylene-based [2]rotaxanes were synthesized by a covalent-template approach by aminolysis of the corresponding prerotaxanes. The wheel and the bulky stoppers are made of phenylene-ethynylene-butadiynylene macrocycles of the same size. The stoppers are large enough to enable the synthesis and purification of the rotaxane. However, the wheel unthreads from the axle at elevated temperature...

Different inorganic and organometallic gold(III) and gold(I) complexes have been tested in the addition of water and methanol to terminal alkynes. Anionic and neutral organometallic gold(III) compounds can efficiently mediate these reactions in neutral media in refluxing methanol. The compounds are added in catalytic amounts (1.6-4.5 mol % with respect to the alkyne). Thus, compounds of the gen...

A Pd(II)-catalyzed Sonogashira type cross-coupling reaction between 2-iodothiophenol and phenylacetylene has been developed. A series of 2-substituted benzo[b]thiophenes were obtained in moderate to good yield (up to 87%). The application of this method was demonstrated by the synthesis of 2-(4-(tert-butyl)phenyl)benzo[b]thiophene 1,1-dioxide and (4-methoxyphenyl)(2-(4-methoxyphenyl) benzo[b]th...

We obtain the parameters of the exciton scattering (ES) model from the quantum-chemical calculations of the electronic excitations in simple phenylacetylene-based molecules. We determine the exciton dispersion and the frequency-dependent scattering matrices which describe scattering properties of the molecular ends as well as of meta- and orthoconjugated links. The extracted functions are smoot...

Effective tight-binding models have been introduced to describe vertical electronic excitations in branched conjugated molecules. The excited-state electronic structure is characterized by quantum particles (excitons) that reside on an irregular lattice (graph) that reflects the molecular structure. The methodology allows for the exciton spectra and energy-dependent exciton scattering matrices ...

The synthesis and self-assembly of two new phenylacetylene macrocycle (PAM) organogelators were performed. Polar 2-hydroxyethoxy side chains were incorporated in the inner part of the macrocycles to modify the assembly mode in the gel state. With this modification, it was possible to increase the reactivity of the macrocycles in the xerogel state to form polydiacetylenes (PDAs), leading to a si...

Employing the oxidative coupling of phenylacetylene with benzaldehyde as a model reaction, a density functional theory (DFT) study combined with extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) experiment was carried out to reveal the difference between dinuclear and mononuclear zinc mediated nucleophilic addition. Newly reported DFT method M11-L computed results suggest that the mononuclear zi...