Extraordinary transformations to achieve the synthesis of remarkable aromatic compounds

Abstract

Note from the Editor: When we walk around a sculpture, it can speak to us in many ways, sometimes quite differently from various view points. Central to Tetsuo Nozoe and the Nozoe Autograph Book project are novel aromatic compounds. Just look at nearly any page and such compounds jump out at us. We can categorize them in many ways. Their structures. Their physical properties. Their pharmacological and toxicological properties. Their commercial utilities. Their symmetry. Their size. In this essay, Graham Bodwell brings to us his analysis of the various ways in which some of the most remarkable of these compounds have been ingeniously synthesized. We are privileged to have Bodwell's vision and his sense of organization and beauty. Tetsuo Nozoe would have beamed! - Jeffrey I. Seeman Guest Editor University of Richmond Richmond, Virginia 23173, USA E-mail: jseeman@richmond.edu In the eye of the beholder: There is no shortage of transformations that can be considered extraordinary and an abundance of molecules that can be considered remarkable. In this Essay, G. Bodwell discusses a selection of transformations and molecules from the diverse field of aromatics, many examples having ties to entries in the Nozoe Autograph Books (picture: Boekelheide's drawing of superphane). This Essay and the interactive website that accompanies the Nozoe Autograph Book project are available free-access for at least a three-year period at http://www.tcr.wiley-vch.de/ nozoe. Copyright © 2014 The Chemical Society of Japan and Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.