Gallai’s path decomposition conjecture for graphs of small maximum degree

Gallai’s path decomposition conjecture states that the edges of any connected graph on $n$ vertices can be decomposed into at most $\frac{n+1}{2}$ paths. We confirm that conjecture for all graphs with maximum degree at most five.     

PtII-Catalyzed Hydroxylation of Terminal Aliphatic C(sp3)−H Bonds with Molecular Oxygen

The practical application of Shilov-type Pt catalysis to the selective hydroxylation of terminal aliphatic C−H bonds remains a formidable challenge, due to difficulties in replacing Pt^IV with a more economically viable oxidant, particularly O₂. We report the potential of employing FeCl₂ as a suitable redox mediator to overcome the kinetic hurdles related to the direct use of O₂ in the Pt reoxidation. For the selective conversion of butyric acid to γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), a significantly enhanced catalyst activity and stability (turnover numbers (TON)>30) were achieved under 20 bar O₂ in comparison to current state-of-the-art systems (TON<10). In this regard, essential reaction parameters affecting the overall activity were identified, along with specific additives to attain catalyst stability at longer reaction times. Notably, deactivation by reduction to Pt⁰ was prevented by the addition of monodentate pyridine derivatives, such as 2-fluoropyridine, but also by introducing varying partial pressures of N₂ in the gaseous atmosphere. Finally, stability tests revealed the involvement of Pt^II and FeCl₂ in catalyzing the non-selective overoxidation of GHB. Accordingly, in situ esterification with boric acid proved to be a suitable strategy to maintain enhanced selectivities at much higher conversions (TON>60). Altogether, a useful catalytic system for the selective hydroxylation of primary aliphatic C−H bonds with O₂ is presented.     

Synthesis and Diverse Transformations of a Dinitrogen Dititanium Hydride Complex Bearing Rigid Acridane-Based PNP-Pincer Ligands

Studies on N₂ activation and transformation by transition metal hydride complexes are of particular interest and importance. The synthesis and diverse transformations of a dinitrogen dititanium hydride complex bearing the rigid acridane-based ^acriPNP-pincer ligands {[(^acriPNP)Ti]₂(μ₂-η¹:η²-N₂)(μ₂-H)₂} are presented. This complex enabled N₂ cleavage and hydrogenation even without additional H₂ or other reducing agents. Furthermore, diverse transformations of the N₂ unit with a variety of organometallic compounds such as ZnMe₂, MgMe₂, AlMe₃, B(C₆F₅)₃, PinBH, and PhSiH₃ have been well established at the rigid ^acriPNP-ligated dititanium framework, such as reversible bonding-mode change between the end-on and side-on/end-on fashions, diborylative N=N bond cleavage, the formal insertion of two dimethylaluminum species into the N=N bond, and the formal insertion of two silylene units into the N=N bond. This work has revealed many unprecedented aspects of dinitrogen reaction chemistry.     

Direct Transformation of Arenols Based on C—O Activation

In the view of substrate availability, atomic efficiency and cost, directly using arenols as coupling partners in cross‐coupling, would be one of the most attractive goals. Up to date, many efforts have been made to activate the C—O bond of phenols with different strategies, for example, through in‐situ formed intermediates, through a catalytic reductive dearomatization‐condensation‐rearomatization sequence or catalytic deoxygenation. In this review, we summarized recent advances in cross‐couplings of arenols as the electrophiles via C—O activation.     

Vertex-disjoint rainbow triangles in edge-colored graphs

Let $G$ be an edge-colored graph of order $n$. The minimum color degree of $G$, denoted by ${\delta }^c\left(G\right)$, is the largest integer $k$ such that for every vertex $v$, there are at least $k$ distinct colors on edges incident to $v$. We say that an edge-colored graph is rainbow if all its edges have different colors. In this paper, we consider vertex-disjoint rainbow triangles in edge-colored graphs. Li (2013) showed that if ${\delta }^c\left(G\right)\ge (n+1)∕2$, then $G$ contains a rainbow triangle and the lower bound is tight. Motivated by this result, we prove that if $n\ge 20$ and ${\delta }^c\left(G\right)\ge (n+2)∕2$, then $G$ contains two vertex-disjoint rainbow triangles. In particular, we conjecture that if ${\delta }^c\left(G\right)\ge (n+k)∕2$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint rainbow triangles. For any integer $k\ge 2$, we show that if $n\ge 16k-12$ and ${\delta }^c\left(G\right)\ge n∕2+k-1$, then $G$ contains $k$ vertex-disjoint rainbow triangles. Moreover, we provide sufficient conditions for the existence of $k$ edge-disjoint rainbow triangles.     

Influence of Polarity and Activation Energy in Microwave–Assisted Organic Synthesis (MAOS)

The aim of this work was to determine the parameters that have decisive roles in microwave-assisted reactions and to develop a model, using computational chemistry, to predict a priori the type of reactions that can be improved under microwaves. For this purpose, a computational study was carried out on a variety of reactions, which have been reported to be improved under microwave irradiation. This comprises six types of reactions. The outcomes obtained in this study indicate that the most influential parameters are activation energy, enthalpy, and the polarity of all the species that participate. In addition to this, in most cases, slower reacting systems observe a much greater improvement under microwave irradiation. Furthermore, for these reactions, the presence of a polar component in the reaction (solvent, reagent, susceptor, etc.) is necessary for strong coupling with the electromagnetic radiation. We also quantified that an activation energy of 20–30 kcal mol⁻¹ and a polarity (μ) between 7–20 D of the species involved in the process is required to obtain significant improvements under microwave irradiation.     

Palladium‐Catalyzed Domino CH/NH Functionalization: An Efficient Approach to Nitrogen‐Bridged Heteroacenes

Palladium‐catalyzed domino C?H/N?H functionalization for the synthesis of novel nitrogen‐bridged thienoacenes and 10H‐benzo[4,5]thieno[3,2‐b]indole derivatives from dihaloarene is reported. This domino sequence consists of initial C?H functionalization of the benzo[b]thiophene moiety, followed by Buchwald–Hartwig coupling. This transformation is also useful for the synthesis of highly π‐extended compounds.     

Sufficient Conditions for a Digraph to be Supereulerian

A (di)graph is supereulerian if it contains a spanning eulerian sub(di)graph. This property is a relaxation of hamiltonicity. Inspired by this analogy with hamiltonian cycles and by similar results in supereulerian graph theory, we analyze a number of sufficient Ore type conditions for a digraph to be supereulerian. Furthermore, we study the following conjecture due to Thomassé and the first author: if the arc‐connectivity of a digraph is not smaller than its independence number, then the digraph is supereulerian. As a support for this conjecture we prove it for digraphs that are semicomplete multipartite or quasitransitive and verify the analogous statement for undirected graphs.