Carbodiimide-promoted coupling

Scheme 60 illustrates the proposed catalytic cycles for a samarium(II) silylamide precursor. The first step in both reactions is supposed to be the formation of a bimetallic samarium bis(amidinate) species originating from the reductive coupling of carbodiimide promoted by the Ln(II) complex. The active species is proposed to be a samarium guanidinate and a lanthanide amidinate [70]. 

The more activated the ester, the less stable is the compound. All the esters mentioned above can be used as shelf-stable reagents except benzotriazolyl esters, which decompose too readily. In addition to their use as activated forms of the A - a I ko x y ca r bo n y I am i n o acids, the esters derived from hydroxamic acids are implicated as intermediates in coupling reactions in which the A-hydroxy compounds have been added to promote efficient coupling between an acid and a primary or secondary amine (see Section 2.10). It is pertinent to mention that the O-acylisourea generated from carbodiimides (see Section 2.02) is an activated ester but one of nature different than those alluded to above. 

Carbodiimides are widely used to mediate the attachment of biomarkers to polypeptides. Examples include carbodiimides with ferrocenyl substituents. Also, peptides are covalently modified with ferrocenecarboxylic acid using EDCCl and N-hydroxy-succinimide to promote the coupling to surface lysines. They also mediate the attachment of substituents to single walled nanotubes (SWNTs) and multiwalled nanotubes (MWNTs). Also, microdots are attached to virus molecules using a water soluble carbodiimide. The attachment of viral DNA to gold particles is used in the manufacture of a new type of vaccine. 

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