Conversion of Amides into Esters by the Nickel-Catalyzed Activation of Amide C-N Bonds

The amide function is ubiquitous in natural compounds as well as in man-made molecules and materials. It is generally very stable and poorly reactive owing to its resonance-stabilized C–N group that imparts a planar geometry to amides. In contrast, carboxylic esters are generally reactive under a variety of mild conditions; therefore, it is not surprising that a number of direct methods are available to the chemist for converting esters into amides (amino-de-alkoxylation reaction) but very few for achieving the opposite transformation. Recently, Professors Neil Garg and Ken Houk from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA, USA) reported in Nature a groundbreaking method for converting amides into esters with a high degree of efficiency

Femtosecond, Cr{sup 4+}:YAG laser

Results from both a regeneratively-initiated and self-initiated, mode-locked CR.YAG laser which is tunable from 1.51 to 1.53 {mu}m are reported. One hundred and twenty femtsosecond, nearly transform-limited pulses have been generated with peak output powers of 45 kW. The stable, high peak power pulses and room temperature operation of this laser make it a very suitable alternative to the cumbersome, cryogenic mode-locked NaCl laser commonly used in both narrow bandgap semiconductor and optical communications research

Nickel-Catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura Cross-Coupling in a Green Alcohol Solvent for an Undergraduate Organic Chemistry Laboratory

A modern undergraduate organic chemistry laboratory experiment involving the Suzuki–Miyaura coupling is reported. Although Suzuki–Miyaura couplings typically employ palladium catalysts in environmentally harmful solvents, this experiment features the use of inexpensive nickel catalysis, in addition to a “green” alcohol solvent. The experiment employs heterocyclic substrates, which are important pharmaceutical building blocks. Thus, this laboratory procedure exposes students to a variety of contemporary topics in organic chemistry, including transition metal-catalyzed cross-couplings, green chemistry, and the importance of heterocycles in drug discovery, none of which are well represented in typical undergraduate organic chemistry curricula. The experimental protocol uses commercially available reagents and is useful in both organic and inorganic instructional laboratories