The cover picture shows a synergistically directed assembly route towards novel multi‐component coordination architectures driven by aromatic donor‐acceptor and coordination interactions. The huge structural discrepancies between coronene donor present and absent experiments clearly prove the significance of aromatic donor‐accepter pairs and their inherent cooperation mechanism in these assembly processes. More details are discussed by Bu et al. on page 871–877.
The inside cover picture shows the hydrogen transfer process of the production of acetic acid from ethanol and water mixture catalyzed by iridium catalyst owning bpyO ligand. A DFT mechanistic study indicates that the cooperation of the iridium center and bpyO ligand plays an important role in the catalytic activity, and that the hydrogen release process from the iridium center is the rate‐determining step. More details are discussed in the article by Lei et al. on page 883–886.
The cover picture shows a critical review on the organic reactions catalyzed by dinucleating complexes via metal‐metal cooperation. The reaction modes for the catalysis involving late transition metals are including the bimetallic co‐activation of single molecules and dual‐activation of two molecules. More details including the pathways of the metal‐metal cooperation are discussed by Zeng et al. on page 185—201.
In this paper, we design a new interrupted AST‐type zeolitic imidazolate framework with cub and interrupted ast cages, which exhibits permanent porosity, high hydrophobicity and strong solid‐state photoluminescent properties. More details are discussed in the article by Wang & Zhang et al. on page 449–452.
The cover picture shows Schilancidilactones A, B and Schilancitrilactones A, B, C all belong to schinortriterpenoid. Preliminary bioassay shows some of them possess fascinating bioactivities, such as antitumor, antihepatitis, and anti‐HIV‐1 activities. The total synthesis of Schilancidilactones A, B and Schilancitrilactones A, B, C has been accomplished from the common intermediates for the first time by Tang group. An intramolecular radical cyclization, late‐stage halogenation and AIBN‐mediated or Ni‐catalyzed intermolecular radical cross coupling reaction were employed as the key steps. More details are discussed in the article by Tang et al. on page 255–268.
The cover picture shows an efficient one‐pot condensation of maleimide derivatives in the presence of acetic acid and water to afford a series of benzene triimides (BTIs). The structure, physicochemical properties and electrochemistry behavior of BTIs were systematically investigated. Owing to the planar structure and unique electron‐deficient nature, BTIs can self‐assemble into different motifs. More details are discussed by Wang et al. on page 684–688.
The inside cover picture shows in situ construction of highly emissive Pt(II) metallacycles upon irradiation. The self‐assembled diarylethene‐containing metallacycles can realize supramolecular transform from the open‐ring isomers to their closed‐ring ones under UV irradiation. Moreover, the closed‐ring isomers featured a relatively high fluorescence quantum yield. This property of “turn‐on” fluorescence switching provides a new method to construct highly emissive supramolecular fluorescent materials by light stimulus. More details are discussed in the article by Yang et al. on page 323–329.
The back cover picture shows the first LA‐catalyzed [3+2]IMCC of GDA‐epoxides with carbon‐carbon double bonds. This provides an efficient and general strategy for construction of bridged oxa‐[n.2.1] skeletons. A novel SN‐like mechanism through a carbon‐carbon bond cleavage of epoxide ring has been proposed. The colorful fireworks in the picture imply the generation of skeletal diversity from the epoxide‐diene, and express a dedication to the 100th Anniversary of Nankai University as well. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 695–699.
Interfacial engineering is expected to be a feasible strategy to improve the charge transport properties of the hole transport layer, which is of crucial importance to boost the device performance of organic solar cells. In this study, the doping of F4‐TCNQ and N719 dye in the hole transport layer with and without integrating a graphene quantum‐dots layer has been explored in non‐fullerene acceptor‐based organic solar cells. More details are discussed in the article by Feng et al. on page 817–822.
The cover picture shows A new strategy for preparing antimicrobial peptides from the natural occurring peptide gramicidin A has been developed by simply removing its N‐terminal formyl group and decoration at the terminal NH2 group. The peptides are able to selectively insert into Gram‐positive bacterial membrane to form transmembrane channels but not that of erythrocyte membrane, which leads to their high antimicrobial activity and low hemolytic toxicity. More details are discussed in the article by Hou et al. on page 25–29.
Chiral structure is very common in nature. especially, the chiral materials could rotate the polarized light. Light‐matter interaction is very important for process of nature. Inorganic nanomaterials with unique chiral configuration and suitable size have shown exquisitely chiral recognition and selective catalysis function, similar to natural restriction endonuclease. There are no unbridgeable gulf between organic molecules and inorganic materials. The physical and chemical mechanisms involved in chiral phenomenon are very helpful to exploit novel application of chiral materials in biological sensing, imaging, gene editing and information communications. More details are discussed in the article by Kuang et al. on page 25—31.
The inside cover picture shows a palladium‐catalyzed asymmetric dihydroxylation of 1,3‐dienes with catechols utilizing chiral pyridinebis(oxazoline) ligand. The reaction is proposed to proceed via a cascade Wacker‐type hydroxypalladation/asymmetric allylation process. This methodology provides a direct and straightforward synthesis to prepare chiral 2‐substituted 1,4‐benzodioxane motifs in moderate to good yield and enantioselectivity from readily available starting materials. More details are discussed in the article by Gong et al. on page 226–232.
The cover picture shows that the radical sam enzyme hpnh catalyzes the coupling of an extremely hydrophilic substrate s‐adenosylmethionine (sam) and an extremely hydrophobic substrate hopene, producing adenosylhopane as a key intermediate in bacteriohopanepolyol biosynthesis. Coupling of the two substrates with totally distinct properties is somewhat analogous to the “1 up, 1 down” buddy system in freediving, in which one diver dives down and the other stays above the surface. Meeting the buddy in the middle way in the late stage of diving is always the most gratifying moment for the divers. More details are discussed by zhang et al. on page 39—42.
This cover picture shows a heterogeneous photocatalytic decarboxylative coupling reaction of imidazo-fused heterocycles with N-arylglycines. In this reaction, eco-friendly carbon nitride nanosheet is found to be an efficient and recyclable photocatalyst, which could be recovered and reused at least 7 times. More details are given in the article by Yu et al. on page 97–103.
The cover picture shows a typical building within the Campus of Xiamen University displaying Chen Jiageng (Tan Kah Kee)'s style. Just like many beautiful buildings designed and constructed by human, Nature “designs and constructs” a huge number of useful molecules with fascinating structures called natural products. Many natural products possess a fused six or seven‐membered carbocyclic unity. On page 315–322, the Huang's group disclosed a three‐step “[2+n]” annulation method for the construction of fused six and seven‐membered carbocyclic enimines and enones. The method starts from simple cyclic ketones and terminal olefinic amides, and relies on both the Suzuki coupling reaction and the olefin‐amide based Friedel‐Crafts type acylating reaction, a method developed by Huang and coworkers.
The inside cover picture shows the development of chiral pyridoxal and pyridoxamine catalysts by mimicking vitamin B6‐dependent enzymes. These chiral pyridoxals and pyridoxamines displayed extraordinary catalytic performances in asymmetric biomimetic transamination and Mannich reaction, to give various chiral α‐amino acids and α,β‐diamino acid esters in good yields with excellent diastero‐ and/or enantioselectivities. The research has provided some useful information for further applications of the catalytic power of vitamin B6 in the area of asymmetric cayalysis. More details are discussed in the article by Zhao et al. on page 103–112.
A copper‐catalyzed aerobic oxidative ring expansion reaction of isatins with 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinoline for the synthesis of tetracyclic quinazolinones has been developed. The capacity of the resultant 5H‐isoquinolino[1,2‐b]quinazolin‐8(6H)‐one for a range of palladium‐catalyzed directing C—H activation has been further demonstrated, thus giving a broader access to diverse tetracyclic quinazolinones. More details are discussed in the article by Xiao and Deng et al. on page 87—92.
The cover picture shows a highly enantioselective organocatalytic protonation of monofluorinated silyl enol ethers to α‐secondary α‐fluoroketones using water as proton source. Notably, in the presence of D2O and MeOD, the facile access of chiral α‐deuterated α‐fluoroketones in excellent enantioselectivity is achieved. More details are discussed by Zhou et al. on page 799–806.
The cover picture shows a simple, inexpensive and robust method on defluorosilylation of diverse fluoroalkenes with silylboronates in the presence of alkoxy base to directly synthesize various silylated fluoroalkenes. Density functional theory calculations revealed that transient silyl anion complex undergoes SN2’ or SNV substitution, which is responsible for this base‐mediated defluorosilylation reaction, thus obviating the need for copper salts. More details are discussed in the article by Shi et al. on page 1009–1014.
Glycerol molecules can be selectively converted into 1,2‐propanediol in water by the way of Ni‐based Great‐Wall Catalysts with Beacon‐like macropores and Passage‐like mesoporous channels. Otherwise, an amount of by‐product lactic acid was produced via rearrangement from glycerol. More details are discussed in the article by Zhang & Ma et al. on page 439–444.
