Recycling of “green” solvents : Recycling of ionic liquids with high efficiency is of key importance on going from the laboratory‐scale to large‐scale industrial application of these solvents.
Let it shine! The impact of the anchoring group on photovoltaic performance by a series of phthalocyanine sensitisers (see figure) has been demonstrated.
The fiveway junction : The synthesis of ligands with five symmetrically diverging binding sites is described and their assembly into large spherical structures (such as that shown here) investigated.
Longer switching wavelengths and good photochemical yields and stabilities of the cis isomers in reducing aqueous environments are achieved by introducing 2,2′‐aminoalkyl substituents into 4,4′‐diamido‐substituted azobenzenes. The products are thus suitable for photocontrol of biomolecular structures in intracellular environments, such as switching between two peptide configurations (see picture).
Shine a light with cyanates : A novel approach for the synthesis of urea complexes and homoleptic cyanates of alkaline earth metals and europium is described. The compounds have been fully characterized, including their magnetism and temperature‐dependent luminescence properties (see graphic).
InBr 3 promotes the addition of ketene silyl acetals to monosubstituted alkynes to afford 2,2‐disubstituted alkenylindium compounds in high regio‐ and stereoselectivity (see scheme). In addition, the alkenylindium derivatives have been subsequently coupled with iodobenzene in the presence of a palladium catalyst.
Work‐alcoholic! The elusive enantioselective catalytic α‐alkylation of aldehydes, a widely sought transformation, was brought to execution by the use of alcohols capable of forming stabilized carbocations (see scheme, TFA=trifluoroacetic acid).
New balls please! The viability of using carbonate as the primary anion in cluster formation is demonstrated in the synthesis of ‘lanthaballs’, spherical tridecanuclear lanthanoid complexes with a novel [Ln(CO3)6] moiety in a [Ln13(CO3)14] core (see picture). The chirality of the lanthaballs is evidenced in the configuration of extended columns of π‐stacked phenanthroline ligands. The structural and magnetic properties of lanthaballs are investigated.
Better the second time around : The title compounds were synthesized by using a one‐pot double methylene transfer catalyzed by a heterobimetallic La/Li complex. Chiral amplification in the second step was the key to obtaining oxetanes in high enantiomeric excess (see scheme).
What's your role? New oligothiophene–vinylene compounds have been synthesized to study the role of the conjugated chain in two different cases (see scheme; MV=mixed valence). The electronic and molecular structures were analyzed by means of electronic, X‐ray photoelectron, and Raman spectroscopy, together with thermo spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and DFT calculations.
Surfing gold and silica! A new cholesterol‐based tether was attached to both amine‐functionalised silica and gold surfaces. The resultant self‐assembled monolayers, which can be deep‐UV‐patterned, were used in attaching essentially equivalent patterned supported lipid bilayers both on silica for fluorescence studies (left figure) and on gold for impedance studies (right figure).
