Electronegativity is a concept that we have to study and understand early in our science or engineering degrees. In chemistry this concept stays with us and we commonly invoke it in order to explain multiple phenomena what we observe or study…and of course, NMR is not the exception! Benchtop NMR 1-855-NMREADY (667-3239) toll-free in the US and Canada

For my first blog I have decided to talk a little bit about boron because it’s a fascinating element that imparts remarkable properties to its compounds. And believe me, there are hundred of different compounds with very different properties containing boron centers. We find boron in compounds like boronic acids (A), boronic esters (B), and MIDA boronates (C), all of which are very popular in Suzuki coupling reactions to make new C–C bonds.  Another popular family of compounds containing boron are the BODIPY dyes (D). These derivatives, composed of a dipyrromethene ligand supporting a BF2 unit, are used as stable functional dyes in several fields, but their application as biomolecular labels is the most investigated by far.

The Wittig reaction is a high-yielding, versatile synthetic procedure used to construct carbon-carbon double bonds. Unlike other sp2 bond forming reactions this can be used to provide convenient access to a cis– stereochemistry. At the time the reaction was discovered by Georg Wittig, this cis– confirmation was not reliably afforded by other synthetic means. To …