A library of vinyl phosphonate anions dimerize with cyanostars, form supramolecular polymers and undergo statistical sorting.

Supramolecular dimers are elementary units allowing the build-up of multi-molecule architectures. New among these are cyanostar-stabilized dimers of phosphate and phosphonate anions. While the anion dimerization at the heart of these assemblies is reliable, the covalent synthesis leading to this class of designer anions serves as a bottleneck in the pathway to supramolecular assemblies.

Polarity-Tolerant Chloride Binding in Foldamer Capsules by Programmed Solvent-Exclusion.

Persistent anion binding in a wide range of solution environments is a key challenge that continues to motivate and demand new strategies in synthetic receptor design. Though strong binding in low-polarity solvents has become routine, our ability to maintain high affinities in high-polarity solvents has not yet reached the standard set by nature. Anions are bound and transported regularly in aqueous environments by proteins that use secondary and tertiary structure to isolate anion binding sites from water.

Mo Insertion into the H Bond in MoS + H Reactions.

A combined experimental and computational study of H reactions with small MoS clusters ranging from subsulfide ( ∼ ) to hypersulfide ( > 2) is presented. Results suggest that the subsulfides react with H primarily by insertion of a more reduced Mo center into the H-H bond, forming a dihydride product. We find that this reaction occurs up to Mo oxidation states of +4.

Melting of size-selected gallium clusters with 60-183 atoms.

Heat capacities have been measured as a function of temperature for size-selected gallium cluster cations with between 60 and 183 atoms. Almost all clusters studied show a single peak in the heat capacity that is attributed to a melting transition. The peaks can be fit by a two-state model incorporating only fully solid-like and fully liquid-like species, and hence no partially melted intermediates.