Written by: Josephine Nakhla, Ph.D
Fagnou and coworkers reported a Pd-catalyzed benzylation reaction of a variety of aromatic heterocycles, including thiazoles, thiophenes, indolizines, imidazopyrimidines, triazoles, oxazoles, and furans. Traditional methods for this transformation involve either Friedel-Crafts alkylation (requires strong Lewis or Bronsted acids and invariably precludes use of electron-deficient substrates) or deprotonation and addition of an electrophile (in both methods protection of acid- and base-sensitive functionalities is necessary, respectively). In this Pd-catalyzed process, benzylic chlorides are the most optimal electrophiles and in the presence of Pd(OPiv)₂, 2-diphenylphosphino-2'-(N,N-dimethylamino)biphenyl, Cs₂CO₃, and PivOH, a plethora of substrates are converted to the desired functionalized heterocycles in good to excellent yield. As expected, the method allows for increased functional group tolerance in the conversion of acid and base-sensitive substrates to their benzylated derivatives and selectivity was observed for reaction at the benzylic chloride over the aryl chloride in several instances.

Lapointe, D.; Fagnou, K. Org. Lett. ASAP.

Written by Dr. Sharbil J. Firsan

Sigma-Aldrich is thrilled to announce that its highly acclaimed chemistry review journal, Aldrichimica Acta, has again been ranked #1 by Impact Factor (IF), out of 55 similar journals in the field of Organic Chemistry.  In 2008, the latest year for which such rankings are available, the Acta achieved an impressive Impact Factor of 16.733—a difference of 9.283 points (more than double) between it and the second-ranked publication (with an IF of only 7.450), and a jump of 4.804 points over the Acta's own 2007 IF of 11.929.  In 2008, the Acta also ranked first by 5-Year Impact Factor and by Article Influence™ Score (4.907 compared to 2.712 for the second-ranked journal). The Acta has also been ranked #1 in seven of the past eight years.  These rankings appear annually in the Science Edition of Journal Citation Reports® (JCR), which is published by Thomson Reuters.  JCR, Science Edition, tracks close to 6598 international science journals annually and offers quantifiable statistical data, which allows the systematic and objective ranking of journals by relative importance within their subject categories. 
     The Aldrichimica Acta publishes in-depth reviews on topics of current interest to chemists.  It is published three or four times a year and distributed at no charge to about 120,000 subscribers worldwide who are members of the scientific community.
     Subscription information and all issues dating back to 1968 are available online at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/acta and on CD-ROM at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/acta40cd.

     Journal Citation Reports is a registered trademark and Article Influence Score a trademark of Thomson Reuters.

Written by: Nate Wallock, Ph.D

We are pleased to announce the 2009 winners of the annual Aldrich Chemistry Graduate Student Innovation Award (GSIA) program.  In this sponsorship, selected universities are invited to nominate their outstanding graduate students performing research in the area of synthetic organic chemistry methodology.  The GSIA award consists of a monetary award to support the student's research efforts and a travel allowance to attend a scientific meeting.  Additionally, award program culminates with a symposium at our Sigma-Aldrich site in Milwaukee where the students have the opportunity to present their research, tour our facilities, and visit with key personel in the Aldrich Chemistry group.

This year, the following four students have been selected to receive awards:

Brett Fors, MIT (Prof. Stephen Buchwald)
Andrew Young, U. of Illinois (Prof. M. Christina White)
Nathan Werner, U of Illinois (Prof. Scott Denmark)
Eric Gillis, U of Illinois (Prof. Martin Burke)

Where I live, a local radio station has a format called "Bummer Free Fridays". Upbeat, happy songs, no reporting on local bad news, only good news stories. I love this idea. So to emulate that tradition today, I have a fun chemistry-related video to share with our readers.

The American Chemical Society (ACS) Web community site for nanoscience and nanotechnology researchers and enthusiasts — ACS Nanotation — launched a second installment of the NanoTube video contest and yesterday we ran across this entry that made all of us at Sigma-Aldrich grin with delight.

UNC-Charlotte's Nanoscale Science PhD Program & Chemistry Dept released their NanoGirls video: "You look like a girl from Sigma-Aldrich". We like it! Thanks guys!!