President Obama gave a speech earlier this week at the National Academies of Sciences. He mentioned that substantial funding was included in the stimulus package for research and education programs to spurt interest in sciences from students. President Obama also promised to make it a national imperative to improve the level of US students in maths and sciences. This program goal is to get US students in the top of international benchmarks in maths and sciences.

The science community, and in particular Chemistry, offers a number of blogs of interest. This morning I ran across two I thought our ChemBlogs readers might be interested in.

The first, from Rich Apodaca, a chemist and software developer in San Diego, California. His blog is Depth-First and the recent posting is Scientific Blogging: Ignore It and Be Ignored? His post discusses various ways in which scientists are connecting, and asks the reader if they can afford to sit on the sidelines as the world changes around them.

The second post was from my good friend Professor Jean-Claude Bradley of Drexel University. His UsefulChem Blog is regular reading for me. Jean-Claude poses the question Is it becoming dangerous to NOT blog?

This makes me wonder, what do you, our readers think about blogging and science? Do you blog? Please post your comments and take part in the dialogue.

Written by: Dr. Sharbil J. Firsan

Subscribe to the Aldrichimica Acta!

The #1 ranked* Aldrichimica Acta has been providing the chemistry community with open access to high-quality scientific information for over 41 years.  The Acta continues to publish review articles on innovative chemistry research written by leading experts from around the world.  A list of upcoming authors and review topics follows.

Upcoming Authors and Topics        

• Prof. Hisashi Yamamoto, University of Chicago The Super Silyl Group in Diastereoselective Aldol and Cascade Reactions
• Prof. Martin D. Burke, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Iterative Cross-Coupling with MIDA Boronates: Towards a General Platform for Small-Molecule Synthesis
• Prof. Tamio Hayashi, Kyoto University Chiral Diene Ligands for Asymmetric Catalysis
• Prof. Alexandre Alexakis and Dr. Marc Mauduit, University of Genevaand ENSC (Rennes) Chiral Alkoxy- and Aryloxy NHCs in Asymmetric Conjugate Addition
• Prof. Paul Knochel, Ludwig-Maximilians U. Zinc and Magnesium Organometals
• Prof. Carolyn R. Bertozzi, U. of California, Berkeley Copper-Free Click Chemistry
• Prof. A. Stephen K. Hashmi, Heidelberg University Catalysis with Gold Complexes
• Prof. James L. Leighton, Columbia University  Strained Chiral Silacycles: A Powerful and Versatile Family of Reagents for Asymmetric Synthesis
• Prof. Bruce H. Lipshutz,U. of California, Santa Barbara New PTS-Enabled Transformations in Water at Room Temperature

Also look into requesting your complimentary copy of the Aldrichimica Acta Archival Collection on CD, 40th Anniversary Edition (1968–2007).

* Journal rankings by Impact Factor are published by Thomson Scientific’s Journal Citation Reports^®, Science Edition.

A celebration of appreciation for our earth and an excellent opportunity for discussion of environmental issues and solutions. Earth Week runs from April 16th to Earth Day, April 22nd. Make a difference this week! Make a small change that will benefit the environment.

For a closer look at activities the American Chemical Society has planned for Earth Day visit http://tr.im/ACSEarthDay

To read how Sigma-Aldrich is contributing read  - Green Chemistry: Supporting the Advancement of Chemistry through Sound Environmental, Social and Fiscal Responsibilities .

At home turn down your water heater or only water your lawn in the early morning, install energy efficient light bulbs and please always recycle.

Written by: Dr. Sharbil J. Firsan

Myers and Raines have recently disclosed the “deimidogenation” of azides as a mild and convenient method for the synthesis of diazo compounds, which, while being versatile intermediates in organic synthesis, are a challenging class of compounds to prepare and isolate.  The current approach utilizes a phosphine-mediated conversion of azides into alkyl acyl triazenes in wet THF.  The triazenes then undergo a base-catalyzed fragmentation in situ to generate the diazo compounds in high yields, with phosphinyl-tethered primary amides as byproducts.

Myers, E. L.; Raines, R. T.  Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 2359.

Written By: Mark Redlich, Ph.D.

Due to limitations with cost and stability of triflates, alternative electrophilic coupling partners for cross-coupling reactions are continually being researched.  I recently came across a communication in Organic Letters which details the use of imidazolylsulfonates as electrophilic coupling partners.  These products show significantly improved shelf-stability versus the corresponding triflates, and better reactivity than the tosylates or mesylates.  The imidazolylsulfonates are easily prepared from the phenol and a slight excess of 1,1’-sulfonyldiimidazole and the successive Suzuki or Negishi couplings proceeded in good to excellent yields.  An added benefit to using the imidazolylsulfonates is the degradation of the imidazolesulfonic acid byproduct in aqueous or acidic conditions to form imidazole and sulfuric acid; this eliminates the formation of potentially genotoxic alkyl or aryl sulfonates from any residual sulfonic acid, a potential which exists when triflic, methanesulfonic, or toluenesulfonic acids are the byproduct.

Albaneze-Walker, J. et al. Org. Lett. 2009, 11, 1463.

Written by Dr. William Sommer, product line manager for Catalysis 

Professor DeBoef from the University of Rhode Island developed a new method for C-C coupling. This new method cleaves C-H bond and forms a new C-C bond. This process could have a major impact on chemistry if widely adopted. It can also potentially reduce the impact on the environment by reducing the use of halogenated compounds as well as boron derivatives.

This work was awarded a $550,000 grant from the NSF to develop this new process further.

For more information on the different publications from this work visit

http://www.chm.uri.edu/bdeboef/index3.htm

While amide coupling is one of the most common reactions in organic synthesis, the development of methods that are general for all substrates is still warranted. In addition, preactivation of an acid is routinly required, either in situ or in a two-step process. Researchers at Pfizer developed a useful method utilizing sub-stoichiometric quantities of DBU in the mild conversion of alkyl cyanoacetates to the corresponding amides, which was proposed to proceed through a mechanism by which DBU behaves as a nucleophilic catalyst, activating the acid. The method is relatively general, generated the amidation product when a variety of amines and alkyl cyanoacetates were employed, and the only byproduct generated is the corresponding alcohol derived from the alkyl cyanoacetate.

Price, K.E.; Larrivee-Aboussafy, C.; Lillie, B. M.; McLaughlin, R. W.; Mustakis, J; Hettenbach, K.W.; Hawkins, J. M.; Vaidyanathan, R. Org. Lett. ASAP.