Inside Cover: Temperature‐responsive Catalyst for the Coupling Reaction of Carbon Dioxide and Propylene Oxide (Chin. J. Chem. 4/2018)

The inside cover picture shows a temperature controllable porphyrin aluminum catalyst using 5,10,15,20‐tetra(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8‐octahydro‐1,4:5,8‐dimethanoanthracen‐9‐yl)porphyrin as ligand, which showed significantly temperature‐responsive selectivity in the coupling reaction of CO₂ and PO. Only cycloaddition reaction happened at temperature above 75 °C to produce 100% CPC, whereas copolymerization became dominant to afford PPC with selectivity over 91% at temperature below 50 °C. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 299–305.

     

Inside Back Cover: Cu(II)‐Catalyzed Ligand‐Free Oxidation of Diarylmethanes and Second Alcohols in Water (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2017)

The inside back cover picture shows a simple and efficient Cu(II )‐catalyzed ligand‐free oxidation of diarylmethanes and secondary alcohols using 70% TBHP in water. A series of diarylmethanes were directly oxidized into diaryl ketones in 67%–98% yields. Additionally, various secondary alcohols were also transformed into the desired products in 48%–98% yields. Importantly, the catalytic system in the absence of any organic solvent, surfactant, or phase transfer agent, had a wide substrate scope and a high tolerance for various functional groups. More details are discussed in the article by Liu et al. on page 1391–1395.

     

Inside Cover: Upgrading CO2 by Incorporation into Urethanes through Silver‐Catalyzed One‐Pot Stepwise Amidation Reaction (Chin. J. Chem. 2/2018)

The inside cover picture shows an outline of significant advances on exhaust gas e.g. sustainable CO₂ recycling into urethanes via effective and renewable silver catalysis. Through one‐pot two‐step stepwise reaction of propargylic alcohols, CO₂, and various amines, a wide range of urethanes are obtained in excellent yields and selectivity together with unprecedented high TON and TOF value under mild conditions. Here, robust catalyst is compared to Magician's hand for its versatility in organic synthesis, and the picture indicates the meanings of greenness and transformation. More details are discussed in the article by Zhang et al. on page 147–152.

     

Back Cover: Asymmetric Synthesis of Chiral α‐Substituted Mercaptoglycine Derivatives via α‐Sulfenylation of Ni(II) Complex of Glycine and S‐Substituted 4‐Methylbenzenesulfonothioate (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2017)

The back cover picture shows the asymmetric synthesis of α ‐substituted mercaptoglycine via nickel(II) complex. The α ‐substituted mercaptoglycine is an important framework of various peptide drugs and nickel(II) complex can be utilized to generate single enantiomer of α ‐substituted amino acid efficiently. This work establishes an efficient method to access α ‐substituted mercaptoglycine with good yield and high stereoselectivity, which can promote the design of new peptide drugs in a broad scope. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 1383‐1390.

     

Cover Picture: Nitrogen Analogues of o‐Quinodimethane with Unexpected non‐Kekulé Diradical Character (Chin. J. Chem. 6/2018)

The cover picture shows para‐Quinodimethane (p‐QDM) and ortho‐quinodimethane (o‐QDM) are two typical examples of Kekulé‐type delocalized diradicals. The cover picture shows that the replacement of the carbinyl centers with isoelectronic aminium centers leads to the formation of isolable nitrogen analogues of o‐QDM. In contrast to o‐QDM, the nitrogen analogues exhibit unexpected non‐Kekulé diradical characters and features open‐shell singlet ground states with thermally accessible triplet states. More details are discussed in the article by wang et al. on page 487–490.

     

Cover Picture: Visible Light Accelerated Vinyl C–H Arylation in Pd‐Catalysis: Application in the Synthesis of ortho Tetra‐substituted Vinylarene Atropisomers (Chin. J. Chem. 1/2018)

The cover picture shows a protocol of a palladium‐catalyzed arylation of vinylarenes with diaryliodonium salts with the assistance of visible light. A palladium‐vinylarene complex may be excited via the visible light irradiation, where the kinetic isotope effect (k_H/k_D) was around 1.1. However under darkness, the reaction proceeded very slowly, and the kinetic isotope was found as 3.6, indicating the C—H bond cleavage step is the rate‐determining step. This protocol avoided high reaction temperature and enabled us to access a series of ortho tetra‐substituted vinylarene atropisomers with high enantiospecificity. More details are discussed in the article by Gu et al. on page 11–14.

     

Cover Picture: Synthesis of Subnanometer‐Sized Gold Clusters by a Simple Milling‐Mediated Solid Reduction Method (Chin. J. Chem. 4/2018)

The cover picture shows a simple milling‐mediated solid reduction method for fabricating of ultrafine gold catalysts. By solid grinding of the N‐modified SiO₂ supported Au precursors with NaBH₄, subnanometer‐sized clusters and isolated Au atoms can be facilely obtained by tuning the metal loading. This method establishes a good basis for fundamental understanding the size effect of Au in the hydrogenation of CO₂ to formate, and provides a general methodology for supported nano‐catalyst preparation. More details are discussed in the article by Huang et al. on page 329–332.

     

Cover Picture: Building up 1‐D, 2‐D,and 3‐D Polyiodide Frameworks by Finely Tuning the Size of Aryls on Ar‐S‐TTF in the Charge‐Transfer (CT) Complexes of Ar‐S‐TTFs and Iodine (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2018)

The cover picture shows The arylthio‐substituted tetrathiafulvalenes (Ar‐S‐TTFs) are electron donors having three reversible states, neutral, cation radical, and dication. The charge‐transfer (CT) between Ar‐S‐TTFs and iodine (I2) occurs in solution, whereas the Ar‐S‐TTFs are partially at cation radical state. In CT complexes of Ar‐S‐TTFs with I₂, the charged states of Ar‐S‐TTFs are distinctly increased, say, the dicationic state is observed. The iodine components in CT complexes show various structures including 1‐D polymeric chain, and 2‐D and 3‐D iodine networks. More details are discussed in the article by Shao et al. on page 845–850.

     

Back Cover: Asymmetric Synthesis of the Ring A Substructure of Genkwadane A (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2018)

The back cover picture shows Genkwadane A was isolated from the flower buds of Daphne genkwa which shows bioactivity against HeLa, HepG2, HT‐1080, MCF‐7, A549, U‐937, K562 and HL60 cell lines. It is the first time that a daphnane diterpenoid bearing a 1,10‐double bond was isolated. In this paper, B. Liu and co‐workers report asymmetric synthesis of the ring A substructure of genkwadane A in 10 steps from D‐tartrate derivative. More details are discussed in the article by Liu et al. on page 831–836.

     

Cover Picture: Electrochemical Synthesis of (Aza)indolines via Dehydrogenative [3+2] Annulation: Application to Total Synthesis of (±)‐Hinckdentine A (Chin. J. Chem. 10/2018)

The cover picture shows an electricity powered dehydrogenative [3+2] annulation reaction of (hetero)arylamines with tethered di‐, tri, and tetra‐substituted alkenes for the preparation of indoline and azaindoline products. The electrochemical reactions proceed through H2 evolution and thus avoid the use of stoichiometric chemical oxidants. This method, which is applicable to the preparation of highly functionalized (aza)indoline scaffold, enables the total synthesis of (±)‐hinckdentine A in 12 steps. More details are discussed in the article by Xu et al. on page 909–915.

     

Cover Picture: Palladium‐Catalyzed Intermolecular Oxidative Coupling Reactions of (Z)‐Enamines with Isocyanides through Selective β‐C(sp2)‐H and/or C=C Bond Cleavage (Chin. J. Chem. 8/2018)

The cover picture shows Two efficient intermolecular oxidative coupling reactions of (Z)‐enamines with isocyanides via palladium catalysis have been developed. In these transformations, the β‐C(sp²)‐H and/or C ＝ C bond were cut off selectively by using different anionic ligands, leading to controllable chemodivergent and stereoselective construction of a wide range of (E)β‐carbamoylenamine derivatives with intramolecular hydrogen bonds. More details are discussed in the article by Jiang et al. on page 712–715.

     

Cover Picture: Nickel‐Catalyzed Cross‐Electrophile Coupling of Aryl Bromides with Pyrimidin‐2‐yl Tosylates (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2017)

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.

     

Inside Back Cover: Photochemical and Electrochemical Carbon Dioxide Utilization with Organic Compounds (Chin. J. Chem. 7/2018)

Inside Back Cover picture shows The carps trying hard to make a successful jump over the Dragon Gate will change into fish‐dragons, which is a legend handed down in China over generations. The back cover picture shows photochemical and electrochemical CO₂ transformations with organic compounds through the utilization of solar energy or electric energy, producing a series of valuable products, including carboxylic acids and hetero‐cyclic compounds. The combined utilization of both clean energy and CO₂ has attracted increasing attention in sustainable development of renewable energy and green chemistry. Recent advances are summarized by He et al. on page 644–659.

     

Cover Picture: Highly Stable Molecular Borromean Rings (Chin. J. Chem. 2/2018)

The cover picture shows a series of Cp*Rh‐based molecular Borromean rings (BRs), which consist of three chemically independent rings that are locked in such a way that no two of the three rings are linked with each other. Interestingly, the structure of BRs is very similar to Kong Ming Lock (孔明锁), a kind of Chinese traditional six‐piece burr puzzle. In this work, some of as‐synthesized BRs display high stability in solution. The reason is related to the length ratio of the long‐arm linker and short‐arm linker, where smaller aspect ratios of the metallarectangles promote improved stability of the BRs in solution. Increasing the width of the metallaligand or pyridyl ligand hinders the formation of BRs and leads to unoccupied monomeric rectangles, which were further used as catalysts. More details are discussed in the article by Jin et al. on page 106–111.

     

Inside Cover: Synthetic Strategies for Constructing Two‐Dimensional Metal‐Organic Layers (MOLs): A Tutorial Review (Chin. J. Chem. 8/2018)

The inside cover picture shows Metal‐organic layer (MOL), the two‐dimensional analog of metal‐organic framework (MOF), is a new member of two‐dimensional materials. This tutorial review summarizes current synthetic approaches for MOL preparation. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 754–764.

     

Back Cover: Internally Reuse Waste: Catalytic Asymmetric One‐Pot Strecker Reaction of Fluoroalkyl Ketones,Anilines and TMSCN by Sequential Catalysis (Chin. J. Chem. 4/2018)

A highly enantioselective one‐pot Strecker reaction of α‐fluoroalkyl α‐aryl ketones, anilines, and TMSCN is disclosed, which simultane‐ously reuses water byproduct and catalyst from the ketimine formation step as a promoter and an additive to improve the reactivity and enantioselectivity of the subsequent Strecker reaction, respectively. The picture shows that the chiral bifunctional tertiary amine mediated asymmetric Strecker reaction is irrigated by the water generated in the p‐TsOH catalyzed ketimine formation, and fertilized by the remaining acid catalyst. More details are discussed in the article by Zhou et al. on page 321–328.

     

Inside Cover: General Reductive Amination of Aldehydes and Ketones with Amines and Nitroaromatics under H2 by Recyclable Iridium Catalysts (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2017)

The inside cover picture shows secondary and tertiary amines, which are important intermediates in organic synthesis for the preparation of natural products, pharmaceutical and agronomical compounds. The direct reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones represents a powerful tool for the preparation of secondary and tertiary amines. Here, direct and general reductive amination of aldehydes and ketones with amines and nitroaromatics was presented under H₂ using recyclable iridium catalysts, and lots of secondary and tertiary amines were produced in high yields. Moreover, the heterogeneous iridium catalysts Ir@NC(600‐2h) can be reused several times without evident deactivation. More details are discussed in the article by Huang et al. on page 1371–1377.

     

Back Cover: Dual Stereocontrol for Enantioselective Hydrogenation of Dihydroisoquinolines Induced by Tuning the Amount of N‐Bromosuccinimide (Chin. J. Chem. 2/2018)

The back cover picture shows an efficient dual enantioselective synthesis of 1‐substituted 1,2,3,4‐tetrahydroisoquinoline, which was realized through iridium‐catalyzed hydrogenation of 1‐substituted 3,4‐dihydroisoquinolines. Only tuning the amount of N‐bromosuccinimide, this reaction promoted by (R)‐BINAP is able to furnish both enantiomers of products up to 89% ee (S) and 98% ee (R), respectively. Dual activation role of N‐bromosuccinimide is proposed to be responsible for the reversal of enantioselectivity under two hydrogenation conditions. More details are discussed in the article by Zhou et al. on page 139–142.

     

Cover Picture: Synergistically Directed Assembly of Aromatic Stacks Based Metal‐Organic Frameworks by Donor‐Acceptor and Coordination Interactions (Chin. J. Chem. 9/2019)

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.

     

Cover Picture: Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society 5/2017

In this paper, a simple in situ preparation of aluminum iodide (AlI₃) from cheap, abundant aluminum metal (Al_(s)) and elemental iodine (I₂) served as an efficient catalyst for the dehydrative thioglycosylation of 1‐hydroxyl sugars with various alkyl and aryl mercaptans. Due to the anchimeric assistant mechanism, the anomerically pure β‐thioglycosides were obtained in high yields with exclusive diastereoselectivity. More details will be discussed by Dr. Shiue‐Shien on page 464–473 in this issue.