The gas-phase acidity of a series of amine-borane complexes has been investigated through the use of electrospray mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), with the application of the extended Cooks kinetic method, and high-level G4 ab initio calculations. The most significant finding is that typical nitrogen bases, such as aniline, react with BH(3) to give amine-borane complexes, which, in the gas phase, have acidities as high as those of either phosphoric, oxalic, or salicylic acid; their acidity is higher than many carboxylic acids, such as formic, acetic, and propanoic acid. Indeed the complexation of different amines with BH(3) leads to a substantial increase (from 167 to 195 kJ mol(-1)) in the intrinsic acidity of the system; in terms of ionization constants, this increase implies an increase as large as fifteen orders of magnitude. Interestingly, this increase in acidity is almost twice as large as that observed for the corresponding phosphine-borane analogues. The agreement between the experimental and the G4-based calculated values is excellent. The analysis of the electron-density rearrangements of the amine and the borane moieties indicates that the dative bond is significantly stronger in the N-deprotonated anion than in the corresponding neutral amine-borane complex, because the deprotonated amine is a much better electron donor than the neutral amine. On the top of that, the newly created lone pair on the nitrogen atom in the deprotonated species, conjugates with the BN bonding pair. The dispersion of the extra electron density into the BH(3) group also contributes to the increased stability of the deprotonated species.

Several convergent techniques were used to characterize 1,1′‐bi‐2‐naphthol (BINOL) and some of its properties. Its acidity in the gas‐phase, from neutral species to monoanion, was measured by mass spectrometry. The conformation and structure of BINOL in the gas phase was determined by microwave rotational spectroscopy. NMR experiments in fluorosulfonic acid established that BINOL was monoprotonated on one of the hydroxyl oxygen atoms. The enantiomerization barriers reported in the literature for BINOL under neutral, basic, and acid conditions were analyzed with regard to the species involved. Finally, DFT calculations allowed all of these results to be gathered in a coherent picture of the BINOL structure.

Carborane clusters are not found in Nature and are exclusively man-made. In this work we study, both experimentally and computationally, the gas-phase acidity (measured GA = 1325 kJ•mol −1 , computed GA = 1321 kJ•mol −1 ) and liquid-phase acidity (measured pK a = 2.00, computed pK a = 1.88) of the carborane acid closo-1-COOH-1,7-C 2 B 10 H 11 . The experimental gasphase acidity was determined with electrospray tandem mass spectrometry (ESI/MS), by using the extended Cooks kinetic method (EKM). Given the similar spatial requirements of the title icosahedral cage and benzene and the known importance of aminoacids as a whole, such a study is extended, within an acid−base context, to corresponding ortho, meta, and para amino acids derived from icosahedral carborane cages, 1-COOH-n-NH 2 -1, n-R with {R = C 2 B 10 H 10 , n = 2, 7, 12}, and from benzene {R = C 6 H 4 , n = 2, 3, 4}. A remarkable difference is found between the proportion of neutral versus zwitterion structures in water for glycine and the carborane derived amino acids.

IntroductionSuspected infectious diseases located in difficult-to-access sites can be challenging due to the need for invasive procedures to isolate the etiological agent. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a non-invasive imaging technology that can help locate the infection site. The most widely used radiotracer for PET imaging (2-deoxy-2[18F] fluoro-D-glucose: [18F]FDG) shows uptake in both infected and sterile inflammation. Therefore, there is a need to develop new radiotracers able to specifically detect microorganisms.MethodsWe tested two specific radiotracers: 2-deoxy-2-[18F]-fluoro-D-sorbitol ([18F]FDS) and 2-[18F]F-ρ-aminobenzoic acid ([18F]FPABA), and also developed a simplified alternative of the latter for automated synthesis. Clinical and reference isolates of bacterial and yeast species (19 different strains in all) were tested in vitro and in an experimental mouse model of myositis infection.Results and discussionNon-lactose fermenters (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Stenotrophomonas maltophilia) were unable to take up [18F]FDG in vitro. [18F]FDS PET was able to visualize Enterobacterales myositis infection (i.e., Escherichia coli) and to differentiate between yeasts with differential assimilation of sorbitol (i.e., Candida albicans vs. Candida glabrata). All bacteria and yeasts tested were detected in vitro by [18F]FPABA. Furthermore, [18F]FPABA was able to distinguish between inflammation and infection in the myositis mouse model (E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus) and could be used as a probe for a wide variety of bacterial and fungal species.