The inside cover picture shows an electrochemical oxidative Csp3‐H/S‐H activation with hydrogen evolution for the synthesis of tetrasubstituted olefins. This method features very high atom economy, besides hydrogen gas, under the base‐free, transition met‐al‐free, and oxidants‐free conditions, no other by‐products were generated. More details are discussed in the article by Lei et al. on page 547–551.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
The cover picture shows that sequential 1,1‐dihydrosilylation of terminal aliphatic alkynes with primary silanes enabled by one earth‐abundant cobalt catalyst has been developed. This protocol is operationally simple using readily available aliphatic alkynes, including simple acetylene and complex drug derivative, for efficient access to valuable gem‐bis(dihydrosilyl)alkanes in highly regioselective and atom‐economic manners. Corresponding asymmetric transformations are achieved with excellent enantioselectivities. More details are discussed in the article by Lu et al. on page 457–461.
The inside back cover picture shows the controllable skeleton rearrangement of 3‐substituted cyclobutanones under basic conditions. In this paper, a series of 3‐substituted cyclobutanones with different Z group underwent skeleton rearrangement with the treatment of K3PO4 and 18‐crown‐6 ether. Various lactones, lactams and acids were afforded in this concise reaction. More interestingly, an eight‐membered ring was produced with pentaflurophenyl group as a good leaving group. More details are discussed in the article by Lu et al. on page 1103—1106.
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 cover picture shows an approach toward less‐trace SpyTag‐SpyCatcher ligation. A proteolytic recognition sequence has been engineered into the second loop of SpyCatcher to produce SpyCatcherDDDDK variant. The reaction between SpyTag and SpyCatcherDDDDK is highly efficient both in vivo and in vitro, producing a stable covalent complex. The complex can be further cleaved at the second loop by enterokinase, resulting in only a small scar after ligation. This protocol adds to the expanding toolbox of genetically‐encoded peptide‐protein chemistry for protein topology engineering. More details are discussed in the article by Zhang et al. on page 113–118.
The cover picture shows a new protocol for the NiCl2 ‐catalyzed cross‐electrophile coupling of aryl bromides with pyrimidin‐2‐yl tosylates to give the corresponding C2 ‐arylation pyrimidine derivatives. This study provides an improvement over previous methods by using pyrimidin‐2‐yl tosylates instead of halides as coupling partners that are stable and easily available. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 1366–1370.
The cover picture shows a new silver cluster‐assembled material of {[Ag18(StBu)10(CF3COO)2(PhPO3)(PhPO3H)4(bpy‐NH2)2]?(PhPO3H2)}n, being prepared by a facile one‐pot method. Ag18bpy‐NH2 exhibits reversible luminescent mechanochromism between blue and cyan upon external mechanical stimulation and treatment with ethanol‐acetone. In addition, the as‐synthesized Ag18bpy‐NH2 also showed reversible luminescent thermochromism from blue at room temperature to bluish white at 83 K and vice versa. More details are discussed in the article by Zang et al. on page 1120–1124.
The cover picture shows a facile synthetic methodology towards S-fused multi-membered polycyclic heterocycles containing five-membered thiophene, six-membered thiopyran, and seven-membered thiepine. A construction strategy for thermally stable thiepine derivatives is thus established. More details are discussed in the article by Zhou et al. on page 13—20.
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.
Reactions of homoleptic rare‐earth aryloxides based Lewis pairs with organic azides were investigated, which gave either bimetallic rare‐earth azide complexes in an end‐to‐end fashion or FLP‐type 1,1‐addition product depending on the nature of azide reagents. The current reaction was found to be applicable for Lewis acids across the full range of rare‐earth metals. More details are discussed in the article by Xu et al. on page 559—564.
The love story of “Niu Lang and Zhi Nv” is one of the most famous tales in China. The couple separated by the Tianhe river were able to meet each other once a year with the help of numerous magpies who built a colorful bridge across the river. With this backdrop, Y.‐F. Han et al. present in their article a metal‐carbene‐templated photochemistry in solution. Assisted by the bridge of carbene‐metal‐carbene units, two olefin substrates can reach each other closely, leading to photodimerization and the formation of cyclobutane derivatives. More details are discussed in the article by Han et al. on page 1147–1152.
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 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.
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.
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.
