Dielectric relaxation in poly(styrene-b-butadiene) copolymers with perfluorinated side chains

Polarity Matters: Dielectric Relaxation in All-cis-Multifluorinated Cycloalkanes

The polarity of all-cis-multifluorinated cyclohexanes can be fine-tuned by the number and relative orientation of fluoro substituents, giving rise to a series of compounds with strong dipole moments. Simulations provided the energetics, the dipole moments, and the respective molecular polarizabilities, while dielectric spectroscopy gave information on the dielectric permittivities and the molecular dynamics. In special cases, dipole moments in excess of 6 D and dielectric permittivities of over 300 were obtained by simulation and experiment. Melting temperatures within a given family of multifluorinated cyclohexanes were found to scale with the molecular volume. The less-symmetric all-cis-octafluorotetrahydronaphthalene did not readily crystallize, permitting an investigation of the molecular dynamics in an energetically unfavorable yet rigid and facially polarized isomer. The resulting dynamics above the glass temperature conform to the structural α-relaxation and to the celebrated Johari-Goldstein β-relaxation.

Palladium-Catalyzed Asymmetric Allylic Alkylations of Colby Pro-Enolates with MBH Carbonates: Enantioselective Access to Quaternary C-F Oxindoles

Owing to the innovative applications of fluorinated compounds in many areas of technology and medicine, methods for the preparation of C-F quaternary fluorine containing compounds are in extremely high demand. Here, we report the discovery of a general procedure for an S_N 2 reaction catalyzed by Pd/Ding-SKP-type ligands, and that occurs between Colby pro-enolates with MBH carbonates to afford the corresponding products featuring two consecutive stereogenic carbons, including a C-F quaternary stereogenic center. The reactions readily occur at ambient temperatures with high chemical yields and in excellent chemo-, diastereo- and enantioselective manners. This practically attractive stereochemical outcome, coupled with the operational simplicity and structural generality, bodes well for the synthetic application of this process in the preparation of a novel class of biologically relevant fluorine-containing compounds.