A highly efficient asymmetric organocatalytic aldol reaction in a ball mill.

Anti-aldol products with up to >99 % enantiomeric excess (ee) have been obtained by proline catalysis in excellent yields under experimentally simple solvent-free conditions. Efficient mixing of all the components is accomplished by applying a mechanochemical technique (ball milling). The catalysis is air and moisture tolerant and can be performed with non-purified starting materials.

Stabilization of excess charge in isolated adenosine 5'-triphosphate and adenosine 5'-diphosphate multiply and singly charged anions.

Multiply charged anions (MCAs) represent highly energetic species in the gas phase but can be stabilized through formation of molecular clusters with solvent molecules or counterions. We explore the intramolecular stabilization of excess negative charge in gas-phase MCAs by probing the intrinsic stability of the [adenosine 5'-triphosphate-2H](2-) ([ATP-2H](2-)), [adenosine 5'-diphosphate-2H](2-) ([ADP-2H](2-)), and H(3)P(3)O(10)(2-) dianions and their protonated monoanionic analogues. The relative activation barriers for decay of the dianions via electron detachment or ionic fragmentation are investigated using resonance excitation of ions isolated within a quadrupole trap.