Steric effects

About: Steric effects is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 16112 publications have been published within this topic receiving 319615 citations. The topic is also known as: steric hindrance.

Mechanistic insights into triterpene synthesis from quantum mechanical calculations. Detection of systematic errors in B3LYP cyclization energies

Abstract: Most quantum mechanical studies of triterpene synthesis have been done on small models. We calculated mPW1PW91/6-311+G(2d,p)//B3LYP/6-31G* energies for many C30H51O+ intermediates to establish the first comprehensive energy profiles for the cationic cyclization of oxidosqualene to lanosterol, lupeol, and hopen-3β-ol. Differences among these 3 profiles were attributed to ring strain, steric effects, and proton affinity. Modest activation energy barriers and the ample exothermicity of most annulations indicated that the cationic intermediates rarely need enzymatic stabilization. The course of reaction is guided by hyperconjugation of the carbocationic 2p orbital with parallel C–C and C–H bonds. Hyperconjugation for cations with a horizontal 2p orbital (in the plane of the ABCD ring system) leads to annulation and ring expansion. If the 2p orbital becomes vertical, hyperconjugation fosters 1,2-methyl and hydride shifts. Transition states leading to rings D and E were bridged cyclopropane/carbonium ions, which allow ring expansion/annulation to bypass formation of undesirable anti-Markovnikov cations. Similar bridged species are also involved in many cation rearrangements. Our calculations revealed systematic errors in DFT cyclization energies. A spectacular example was the B3LYP/6-311+G(2d,p)//B3LYP/6-31G* prediction of endothermicity for the strongly exothermic cyclization of squalene to hopene. DFT cyclization energies for the 6-311+G(2d,p) basis set ranged from reasonable accuracy (mPW1PW91, TPSSh with 25% HF exchange) to underestimation (B3LYP, HCTH, TPSS, O3LYP) or overestimation (MP2, MPW1K, PBE1PBE). Despite minor inaccuracies, B3LYP/6-31G* geometries usually gave credible mPW1PW91 single-point energies. Nevertheless, DFT energies should be used cautiously until broadly reliable methods are established.

Ligand-Controlled Remarkable Regio- and Stereodivergence in Intermolecular Hydrosilylation of Internal Alkynes: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

Abstract: The first highly efficient ligand-controlled regio- and stereodivergent intermolecular hydrosilylations of internal alkynes have been disclosed. Cationic ruthenium complexes [Cp*Ru(MeCN)3]+ and [CpRu(MeCN)3]+ have been demonstrated to catalyze intermolecular hydrosilylations of silyl alkynes to form a range of vinyldisilanes with excellent but opposite regio- and stereoselectivity, with the former being α anti addition and the latter β syn addition. The use of a silyl masking group not only provides sufficient steric bulk for high selectivity but also leads to versatile product derivatizations toward a variety of useful building blocks. DFT calculations suggest that the reactions proceed by a mechanism that involves oxidative hydrometalation, isomerization, and reductive silyl migration. The energetics of the transition states and intermediates varies dramatically with the catalyst ligand (Cp* and Cp). Theoretical studies combined with experimental evidence confirm that steric effect plays a critical role...

Definition and display of steric, hydrophobic, and hydrogen-bonding properties of ligand binding sites in proteins using Lee and Richards accessible surface: validation of a high-resolution graphical tool for drug design.

Abstract: The accessible surface, described by Lee and Richards (the L&R surface: J. Mol. Biol. 1971, 55, 379), has remarkably useful properties for displaying ligand-protein interactions. The surface is placed one van der Waals radius plus one probe radius away from the protein atoms. The ligands are displayed in skeletal form. With a suitable probe radius, those parts of the ligand in good van der Waals contact with the protein binding site are found superimposed on the L&R surface. Display of the surface using parallel contours therefore provides a very powerful guide for interactive drug design because only ligand atoms lying on or close to the surface are in low-energy contact. The ability of the surface to accurately display steric complementarity between ligands and proteins was optimized using data from small molecule crystal structures. The possibility of displaying the chemical specificity of the binding site was also investigated. The surface can be colored to give precise information about chemical specificity. Electrostatic potential, electrostatic gradient, and distance to hydrogen-bonding groups were tested as methods of displaying chemical specificity. The ability of these methods to describe the complementarity actually observed in the interior of proteins was compared. High-resolution crystal data for ribonuclease and trypsin was used. The environment surrounding extended peptide chains in the protein was treated as a virtual binding site. The peptide chain served as a virtual ligand. This large sample of experimental data was used to measure the correlation between type of ligand atom and the calculated property of the nearest binding site surface. The best correlation was obtained using hydrogen-bonding properties of the binding site. Using this parameter the surface could be divided into three separate zones representing the hydrophobic, hydrogen-bond-acceptor, and hydrogen-bond-donor properties of the binding site. The percentage of hydrophobic ligand atoms found to lie closest to the hydrophobic protein surface was 91%. The equivalent scores for ligand hydrogen-acceptor atoms and hydrogen-donor atoms found at the corresponding complementarity zone were 94% and 91%. The surface zones can be readily displayed using three colors. To test the method on real ligand/binding site interactions, nine thermolysin-inhibitor complexes of known structure were evaluated using the parameters and criteria derived from the protein-packing study and a correlation between complementary contacts and logarithm of potency was obtained which had an r2 of 0.99.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Substituent position effect on the properties of new unsymmetrical isomeric diarylethenes having a chlorine atom

Abstract: Three new unsymmetrical photochromic diarylethenes bearing a chlorine atom at para-, meta- and ortho-position of one terminal benzene ring, namely {1-(2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(4-chlorophenyl)-3-thienyl]}perfluorocyclopentene (para 1o), {1-(2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(3-chlorophenyl)-3-thienyl]}perfluorocyclopentene (meta 2o), and {1-(2-methyl-5-phenyl-3-thienyl)-2-[2-methyl-5-(2-chlorophenyl) -3-thienyl]}perfluorocyclopentene (ortho 3o), have been synthesized. The substituent position effect on their properties, including photochromism, fluorescence both in solution and in PMMA amorphous film and their electrochemical properties were investigated in detail. The results elucidated that the chlorine atom and its substituent position had a remarkable effect on the absorption characteristics, photochromic reactivity, fluorescence, as well as the electrochemical performances of these diarylethene compounds. For diarylethenes 1, 2 and 3, the cycloreversion quantum yields were gradually increased when the chlorine atom was attached to the para-, meta- and ortho-positions of the one terminal benzene rings; but their molar absorption coefficients both of their open-ring and closed-ring isomers were remarkably decreased. The fluorescent properties of para-substituted diarylethene embedded in poly(methyl methacylate) (PMMA) amorphous film showed good fluorescent switches (quenched to 28%). Furthermore, the cyclic voltammograms experiments elucidated that the electrochemical properties of these diarylethene derivatives were also remarkably dependent on the chlorine atom position effect, which may be attributed to the different electron-inducing ability and steric effect when the chlorine atom was substituted on the different position of the terminal benzene ring.

13c n.m.r. studies: viii. 13c spectra of some substituted anisoles

Abstract: The 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectra of a series of 40 substituted anisoles have been obtained to investigate the effects of substitution on the aromatic and methoxyl carbon shieldings. This work extends our studies on the variations of chemical shifts of carbon nuclei in side chains of aryl derivatives. The question of steric hindrance to conjugative interaction of a methoxyl group with an aromatic ring is considered on the basis of the present results. Evidence of a steric effect in compounds in which both ortho positions are substituted is presented.