Trifluorosulfonylation Cascade in Allenols: Stereocontrolled Synthesis of Bis(triflyl)enones

Herein, we report investigations embodying the first example of reversal of the native regioselectivity in the reaction of allenols with electrophiles. The effortlessness of C−C bond formation, mild reaction conditions, neither catalysts nor light irradiation, and exquisite selectivity, both in terms of functional-group tolerance and chemo-, site-, and stereo-selectivity, converts this trifluorosulfonylation-rearrangement sequence into an appealing protocol for the preparation of novel functionalized enones. The synthetic utility of this method has been validated by the conversion of the initially prepared bis(triflyl)enones into a variety of bis(triflyl)-functionalized molecules such as 1,3-dienes, allylic alcohols, pyrroles, pyrazoles, and chromenes. Besides, DFT calculations have provided a reliable understanding of observed selectivity.     

Three-Component Reaction for the Synthesis of Highly Functionalized Propargyl Ethers

Multicomponent reactions provide efficient means to access molecular complexity. Herein, we report a copper-catalyzed three-component reaction of diazo compounds, alcohols and ethynyl benziodoxole (EBX) reagents for the synthesis of propargyl ethers. Extensive variations of the three partners of the reaction is possible, leading to highly functionalized and structurally diverse products under mild conditions. Alkynylation of a copper ylide intermediate is postulated as key step for this transformation.     

Recent Advances in Iodine-Promoted C−S/N−S Bonds Formation

Sulfur-containing scaffold, as a ubiquitous structural motif, has been frequently used in natural products, bioactive chemicals and pharmaceuticals, particularly C−S/N−S bonds are indispensable in many biological important compounds and pharmaceuticals. Development of mild and general methods for C−S/N−S bonds formation has great significance in modern research. Iodine and its derivatives have been recognized as inexpensive, environmentally benign and easy-handled catalysts or reagents to promote the construction of C−S/N−S bonds under mild reaction conditions, with good regioselectivities and broad substrate scope. Especially based on this, several new strategies, such as oxidation relay strategy, have been greatly developed and accelerated the advancement of this field. This review focuses on recent advances in iodine and its derivatives promoted hybridized C−S/N−S bonds formation. The features and mechanisms of corresponding reactions are summarized and the results of some cases are compared with those of previous reports. In addition, the future of this domain is discussed.     

Mechanism of Iodine(III)-Promoted Oxidative Dearomatizing Hydroxylation of Phenols: Evidence for a Radical-Chain Pathway

The oxidative dearomatization of phenols with the addition of nucleophiles to the aromatic ring induced by hypervalent iodine(III) reagents and catalysts has emerged as a highly useful synthetic approach. However, experimental mechanistic studies of this important process have been extremely scarce. In this report, we describe systematic investigations of the dearomatizing hydroxylation of phenols using an array of experimental techniques. Kinetics, EPR spectroscopy, and reactions with radical probes demonstrate that the transformation proceeds by a radical-chain mechanism, with a phenoxyl radical being the key chain-carrying intermediate. Moreover, UV and NMR spectroscopy, high-resolution mass spectrometry, and cyclic voltammetry show that before reacting with the phenoxyl radical, the water molecule becomes activated by the interaction with the iodine(III) center, causing the Umpolung of this formally nucleophilic substrate. The radical-chain mechanism allows the rationalization of all existing observations regarding the iodine(III)-promoted oxidative dearomatization of phenols.     

Fullerene compounds with general formulae C60Ox (x = 1–3): Isomerism,stability and polarizability

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Bounds on Malapportionment

Uniformly sized constituencies give voters similar influence on election outcomes. When constituencies are set up, seats are allocated to the administrative units, such as states or counties, using apportionment methods. According to the impossibility result of Balinski and Young, none of the methods satisfying basic monotonicity properties assign a rounded proportional number of seats (the Hare-quota). We study the malapportionment of constituencies and provide a simple bound as a function of the house size for an important class of divisor methods, a popular, monotonic family of techniques.     

Negative compressibility property in hinging open-cell Kelvin structure

A new three-dimensional(3 D) cellular model based on hinging open-cell Kelvin structure is proposed for its negative compressibility property. It is shown that this model has adjustable compressibility and does exhibit negative compressibility for some certain conformations. And further study shows that the images of compressibility are symmetrical about the certain lines, which indicates that the mechanical properties of the model in the three axial directions are interchangeable and the model itself has a certain geometric symmetry. A comparison of the Kelvin model with its anisotropic form with the dodecahedron model shows that the Kelvin model has stronger negative compressibility property in all three directions.Therefore, a new and potential method to improve negative compressibility property can be derived by selecting the system type with lower symmetry and increasing the number of geometric parameters.     

Hexagonal boron nitride quantum dots: Properties,preparation and applications

As a new type of quantum dots (QDs), hexagonal boron nitride quantum dots (BNQDs) exhibit promising potential in the applications of disease diagnosis, fluorescence imaging, biosensing, metal ion detection, and so on, because of their remarkable chemical stability, excellent biocompatibility, low cytotoxicity, and outstanding photoluminescence properties. However, the large-scale fabrication of homogeneous BNQDs still remains challenging. In this article, the properties and common fabrication methods of BNQDs are summarized based on the recent research progress. Then, the corresponding yields, morphologies, and fabrication mechanisms of these as-obtained BNQDs are discussed in detail. Moreover, the applications of these as-obtained BNQDs in different fields are also discussed. This article is expected to inspire new methods and improvements to achieve large-scale fabrication of homogeneous BNQDs, which will enable their practical applications in future.     

Insights into MWCNTs/polyimide nanocomposites: from synthesis to application as free-standing flexible electrodes in low-cost micro-supercapacitors

In the pursuit to enlarge the library of polyimide materials for energy applications, new polyimide/MWCNTs composite films have been developed by MWCNTs-assisted polycondensation reaction of a hydroxyl and triphenylmethane-containing diamine with benzophenone tetracarboxylic dianhydride targeting to highlight their electrical storage capability as flexible electrodes in micro-supercapacitors (mSCs). The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, UV–vis, fluorescence, and Raman spectroscopies were used to demonstrate the evolution of interfacial interactions between MWCNTs and the precursors (diamine monomer and intermediate polyamidic acid) and polyimide matrix that proved to be the origin of MWCNTs homogeneous dispersion. Thus, composite films incorporating 1, 3, 5, and 10 w.t.% MWCNTs were obtained and thoroughly investigated with regard to their morphology, mechanical behavior, thermal stability, and electrical conductivity. The electrochemical performance of these composites was first analyzed in a classical three-electrode cell by cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge-discharge in both aqueous and organic electrolyte systems. By far, the best electrical storage capacity was obtained with the composite polyimide film containing 10% MWCNTs that was further used as both active material and current collector in a flexible symmetric mSC realized by a straightforward and low-cost procedure. In the attempt to better exploit the advantages of this composite film, it was layered with a graphite-containing paint and tested as an electrode in a flexible mSC, which provided satisfactory results. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the electrical charge storage capability of a polyimide/MWCNTs free-standing film as a flexible electrode in mSCs, which do not require time- and resource-consuming processing steps.