Here is a one-step transformation that I think few, perhaps not even Corey,* would come up with upon a traditional retrosynthetic analysis.

A and B are everyday organic reagents. The solvent is DCM and the temperature is around 0 °C. No metals, complexes or weird oxidation level crap. So – go ahead and name […]

I have a new BFF. Meet this mother of an ate-complex:

Recipe inhere: J. Org. Chem. 2007, 72, 5113-5118. (DOI: 10.1021/jo070643y)
The structure looks scary, but its preparation is quite straightforward, actually.

My new friend was able to ortho-lithiate an ‘impossible’ starting material and allowed me to introduce an electophile in […]

Help!

I have this stubborn starting material that is quite reluctant to react the way I need it to, under typical Sonogashira conditions with propargyl alcohol (PdCl2(PPh3)2, CuI, pyrrolidine, heat).

I am unfortunately not at liberty to disclose the exact structure, but what I can say is that the arylbromide is quite electron-rich (FGs […]

Spring was in the air today. Serious tidying up was in place. Unlabeled samples were trashed. Flasks, bottles and retorts were subjected to all kinds of solvents, then dried under the sun. Cobwebs were torched. At the end of the day, I even arsed myself to install electric lighting.

Yes, I find it so much […]

After unpacking today’s deliveries, one bottle stood out. The upside-down fish is creepy as hell. Also, I love the other GHS symbol that says ‘no GHS symbol’ – akin to the liar paradox – poetic almost.

So… what do you think this could be? Hint: It is not fentanyl, sarin, […]

The plan is to resurrect here in a couple of weeks from now. Until then, I am crazy busy. See you on the other side.

Let me tell you about my daily encounter with Gyro Gearloose. The web interface I use to access the literature accepts most of the common abbreviation we use without a glitch. For instance, if I type JACS, the first and only hit is the Journal of the American Chemical Society. Same thing with JOC […]

Time for another short quiz! This one is a little tougher than the last one, I believe. What is the mechanism for the following transformation?

And hey, no looking in SciFinder, Reaxys, Wikipedia, books or the literature. Only pencil, paper and brains are allowed.

The first one to submit the correct answer down below […]

This brief introduction to organic solar cells, and their potential for a very bright future (cheesy – I know), recently surfaced on Vimeo. I like it. More scientists should go out and make short and snappy video clips about their research and post it online for all to see.

And yeah, I will be returning […]

When I first saw compounds 22 and 23 (reference in Figure 2), I associated them with hieroglyphs, but as I carried on they struck me more as typical results of draw-a-person tests that they give four-year-olds (Figure 1).

Figure 1. a) Hieroglyphs b) Combined head and body, age 4½

Upon […]