Cirque de heterocycle

Under the covers

Heterocycles are ring-shaped molecules that contain atoms other than carbon and hydrogen as part of the main ring structure. Stephen Hashmi, of Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, and artist Svetlana Tšupova explain their heterocycle-inspired cover.

Stephen: Gold as a catalyst allows us to conduct new and highly unusual conversions. In this publication we report the combination of two easily available building blocks to form interesting heterocycles. Such types of heterocycles form the core of many pharmaceuticals.

Our interest is driven by both the desire to develop new synthetic methods and mechanistically understand them as well as to contribute to the progress of organic synthesis. Efficiency and selectivity are important key factors here.

From the art desk

Svetlana: To me, the use of a 6-membered cycle as a reaction partner was the key feature, so I thought it should be centre of the picture. The exchange of molecular fragments can be metaphorically interpreted as a dance. Therefore, the three ballerinas was a straightforward representation for me. The gold catalysis was more difficult to fit to the theme.