Natural Science Foundation of China [20771091, 20721001]; 973 Program [2007CB815301]; Ministry of Education [NCET-06-0563

Chemoselective reactions for amide bond formation have transformed the ability to access synthetic proteins and other bioconjugates through ligation of fragments. In these ligations, amide bond formation is accelerated by transient enforcement of an intramolecular reaction between the carboxyl and the amine termini of two fragments. Building on this principle, we introduce an aldehyde capture ligation that parlays the high chemoselective reactivity of aldehydes and amines to enforce amide bond formation between amino acid residues and peptides that are difficult to ligate by existing technologies.

Peanut clusters: Anion templates are used in a facile approach for the synthesis of high-nuclearity silver clusters. The cluster nuclearity can be controlled by adjusting the size of the templating anions and by using different alkynyl ligands. The largest silver alkynyl cluster, which consists of 35 silver(I) centers in the shape of a peanut, has been prepared by using chromate anions as templates (see picture).

Methanol drives the blue emissive complex, [Cu(2)(dppy)(3)(MeCN)](BF(4))(2) (dppy = diphenylphosphino-pyridine), with a head-to-tail arrangement of the three bridging phosphine ligands to convert to its linkage isomer (head-to-head, green emissive) in the solid state, and the transformation could be reversibly realized through recrystallization in different solvents.

Erdnussförmig: Eine einfache Synthese großer Silbercluster nutzt Anionen als Template. Die Zahl an Silberatomen im Cluster lässt sich über die Größe des Templats und die Eigenschaften der Alkinylliganden einstellen. Für den größten Cluster mit 35 Silber(I)‐Zentren wurden Chromat‐Ionen als Templat eingesetzt (siehe Bild).