Palladium complexes of chiral bis(acyclic diaminocarbene) ligands with seven-membered chelate rings catalyze the aza-Claisen rearrangement of an allylic benzimidate to an allylic amide with moderate yields and enantioselectivities of 30–59% ee. The promotion of electrophilic catalysis by complexes of these ligands highlights their distinct stereoelectronic properties relative to those of common bis(N-heterocyclic carbenes).

In recent years, interfacial mobility has gained popularity as a model with which to rationalize both affinity in ligand binding and the often observed phenomenon of enthalpy-entropy compensation. While protein contraction and reduced mobility, as demonstrated by computational and NMR techniques respectively, have been correlated to entropies of binding for a variety of systems, to our knowledge, Raman difference spectroscopy has never been included in these analyses. Here, non-resonance Raman difference spectroscopy, isothermal titration calorimetry, and x-ray crystallography were utilized to correlate protein contraction, as demonstrated by an increase in protein interior packing and decreased residual protein movement, with trends of enthalpy-entropy compensation. These results are in accord with the interfacial mobility model, and lend additional credence to this view of protein activity.