Posts Tagged ‘Taxol’

Driving the smallest car ever made: a chemical perspective.

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Fascination with nano-objects, molecules which resemble every day devices, is increasing. Thus the world’s smallest car has just been built[1]. The mechanics of such a device can often be understood in terms of chemical concepts taught to most students. So I thought I would have a go at this one!

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References

  1. T. Kudernac, N. Ruangsupapichat, M. Parschau, B. Maciá, N. Katsonis, S.R. Harutyunyan, K. Ernst, and B.L. Feringa, "Electrically driven directional motion of a four-wheeled molecule on a metal surface", Nature, vol. 479, pp. 208-211, 2011. http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10587

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Atropisomerism in Taxol. An apparently simple bond rotation?

Tuesday, November 1st, 2011

My previous post introduced the interesting guts of taxol. Two different isomers can exist, and these are called atropisomers; one has the carbonyl group pointing up, the other down. The barrier to their interconversion in this case is generated by a rotation about the two single bonds connecting the carbonyl group to the rest of the molecule. Introductory chemistry tells us that the barrier for rotation about such single bonds is low (i.e. fast at room temperature). But is that true here?

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