Dictyosphaeric Acid A
2 August 2010
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This month’s Chemistry World piece is a rather nice synthesis of Dictyosphaeric Acid A by Richard Taylor’s group in York.
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Is it just me, or does this seem fishy…
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja103050x
looks like another poorly peer reviewed paper….thoughts?!
I tried to figure out the mechanism but could not get it. It looks great if its truth, but I was also suspicious of the stuff. If its reproducible then they have great work anyway. Probably someone should retry out and tell us the results!
The DMEDA-catalyzed coupling of iodobenzene and benzene definitely looks very suspicious.
However, it is known that at least 30% of JACS papers from Chinese groups have severe reproducibility issues…
I wonder. They specifically emphasise how they sublimed KOtBu and purified other reagents. Although I am highly skeptical, this ‘might’ be true. Would need to try it out myself. But my suspicions do rank high!
This seems very fishy to me – having flash backs to the NaH oxidation.
I think the reaction will only work in deserts and near deep sea thermal vents where the “fairly ambient” temperatures are 80 degC.
…
Seriously, this is some of the most atrocious writing I’ve ever read in an English language journal, even for a Chinese group. (To say nothing of the quality of science)
One of the reagents probably contained traces of some transition metal. Maybe their meticulos purification of potassium t-butoxide by sublimation actually enriched the compound with a covalent, and more volatile, trans. metal t-butoxide (or related decomp.product).
ACS should probably institute a committee for verification of highly suspicious science. I would not be surprised if there was a retraction coming very soon.
If they sublimed it from a RBF that had hosted a Pd/C hydrogenation previously… :/
Well…but what do you think about analogous results reported in JACS by a Japanese group:
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja1080822
Very similar procedure…except that the authors didn’t sublime their NaOt-Bu.