4-Anilinoquinolines were identified as potent and narrow-spectrum inhibitors of the cyclin G associated kinase (GAK), an important regulator of viral and bacterial entry into host cells. Optimization of the 4-anilino group and the 6,7-quinoline substituents produced GAK inhibitors with nanomolar activity, over 50 000-fold selectivity relative to other members of the numb-associated kinase (NAK) subfamily, and a compound (6,7-dimethoxy-N-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)quinolin-4-amine; 49) with a narrow-spectrum kinome profile. These compounds may be useful tools to explore the therapeutic potential of GAK in prevention of a broad range of infectious and systemic diseases.

The direct introduction of the valuable SCF3 moiety into organic molecules has received considerable attention. While it can be achieved successfully for aryl chlorides under catalysis with Ni0(cod)2 and dppf, this report investigates the Ni-catalyzed functionalization of the seemingly more reactive aryl halides ArI and ArBr. Counterintuitively, the observed conversion triggered by dppf/Ni0 is ArCl > ArBr > ArI, at odds with bond strength preferences. By a combined computational and experimental approach, the origin of this was identified to be due to the formation of (dppf)NiI, which favors β-F elimination as a competing pathway over the productive cross-coupling, ultimately generating the inactive complex (dppf)Ni(SCF2) as a catalysis dead end. The complexes (dppf)NiI–Br and (dppf)NiI–I were isolated and resolved by X-ray crystallography. Their formation was found to be consistent with a ligand-exchange-induced comproportionation mechanism. In stark contrast to these phosphine-derived Ni complexes, the corresponding nitrogen-ligand-derived species were found to be likely competent catalysts in oxidation state I. Our computational studies of N-ligand derived NiI complexes fully support productive NiI/NiIII catalysis, as the competing β-F elimination is disfavored. Moreover, N-derived NiI complexes are predicted to be more reactive than their Ni0 counterparts in catalysis. These data showcase fundamentally different roles of NiI in carbon–heteroatom bond formation depending on the ligand sphere.

This paper describes the synthesis of a new, yellow triphenylamine dye, 4-[2-(4-diphenylaminophenyl) vinyl]benzoic acid] (6), with a sorption maximum at 380 nm in solution for which EQE data show shifts to 420 nm on sorption to TiO 2 . The performance of this dye has been measured in dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) devices, showing h ¼ 2.6% for 1 cm 2 devices. Light soaking of (6) shows excellent long-term stability with <10% variation in device performance over 1800 h. Full characterization data are reported for ( 6) and the intermediates used in its synthesis including single-crystal X-ray structural analysis of all compounds. The paper also describes the ultra-fast dye sensitization and co-sensitization of TiO 2 photo-electrodes in 5 minutes using one or two dyes and the first example of ultra-fast tri-sensitization. The dyes tested include the ruthenium dye N719, the squaraine dye SQ1, the red triphenylamine dye 2-cyano-3-{4-[2-(4-diphenylaminophenyl)vinyl]phenyl}acrylic acid ( 5) and ( 6). DSC efficiencies of 7.5% have been achieved for 1 cm 2 devices co-sensitized using (6) and N719. These efficiencies exceed those recorded for single dye devices and EQE measurements confirm efficient photon capture from two or more dyes in a single photo-electrode. Photo-acoustic calorimetry (PAC) has also been used to measure the energy of the charge separation states formed for (6) and N719, showing a larger value (1.47 eV) for (6) compared to N719 (1.08 eV), whilst a TiO 2 film co-sensitized with both (6) and N719 gave an intermediate value (1.28 eV). These data have been used to calculate dye HOMO, LUMO and l max levels for (6) and N719 leading to important insights for future successful co-sensitization.