Hydrophosphination of CO2 and Subsequent Formate Transfer in the 1,3,2‐Diazaphospholene‐Catalyzed N‐Formylation of Amines

Hydrophosphination of CO₂ with 1,3,2‐Diazaphospholene (NHP‐H; 1 ) afforded phosphorus formate (NHP‐OCOH; 2 ) through the formation of a bond between the electrophilic phosphorus atom in 1 and the oxygen atom from CO₂, along with hydride transfer to the carbon atom of CO₂. Transfer of the formate from 2 to Ph₂SiH₂ produced Ph₂Si(OCHO)₂ ( 3 ) in a reaction that could be carried out in a catalytic manner by using 5 mol % of 1 . These elementary reactions were applied to the metal‐free catalytic N‐formylation of amine derivatives with CO₂ in one pot under ambient conditions.     

Aromaticity‐promoted CO2 Capture by P/N‐Based Frustrated Lewis Pairs: A Theoretical Study

Carbon dioxide (CO₂, a common combustion pollutant) releasing continuously into the atmosphere is primarily responsible for the rising atmospheric temperature. Therefore, CO₂ sequestration has been an indispensable area of research for the past several decades. On the other hand, the concept of aromaticity is often employed in designing chemical reactions and metal‐free frustrated Lewis pairs (FLPs) have proved ideal reagents to achieve CO₂ reduction. However, considering FLP and aromaticity together is less developed in CO₂ capture. Here we report theoretical investigations on the aromaticity‐promoted CO₂ activation, involving heterocyclopentadiene‐bridged P/N‐FLPs. The calculations reveal that furan‐ and pyrrole‐bridged P/N‐FLPs can make CO₂ capture both thermodynamically and kinetically favorable (with activation energies of 5.4–7.7 kcal mol^?1) due to the aromatic stabilization of the transition states and products. Our findings could open an avenue to the design of novel FLPs for CO₂ capture.     

Ag-based bimetallic clusters as catalysts for p-nitrophenol reduction by glycerol: A DFT investigation

Reducing p-nitrophenol (PNP) to p-aminophenol is an industrially relevant synthesis. Nevertheless, only a few heterogeneous catalysts have been evaluated for the reduction of PNP by glycerol. Appropriate quantum computational studies can screen potential catalysts for this crucial green reaction. The present research investigates the catalytic activities of Pd@Ag and Ni@Ag core-shell nanogeometries toward PNP reduction by glycerol through density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The central atom of a geometry-optimized 13-atom Ag cluster was replaced by Pd and Ni atoms to create the core-shell morphologies. The interaction energies of PNP and glycerol with each of the (metal/bimetallic) clusters were evaluated by DFT calculations to find the best PNP and glycerol molecule orientation with the respective bimetallic cluster. Electrostatic potential surface and natural bond orbital analyses were performed to study the charge distribution and transfer between atomic orbitals. The frequencies of vibrational modes in isolated PNP/glycerol structures were compared to those when these molecules were in the presence of the different metal clusters to infer the effect of the interactions. All performed analyses indicated improved catalytic activity toward PNP reduction by glycerol upon Ni-doping of the Ag₁₃ cluster.     

Propane activation by MC5H5 (M = Ni and Co): An experimental and theoretical work

The reactions of MC₅H⁺₅ (M = Ni and Co) with propane in gaseous phase have been studied with an ion trap mass spectrometer; the MC₅H⁺₅ ions are able to activate the propane molecule which undergoes a dehydrogenation reaction. At variance with the reactions of the bare metal ions no loss of methane is observed; the reaction mechanism has been explored by means of DFT calculations and a possible explanation is offered for the different reactivity of these ligated ions.     

A Catalytic SEAr Approach to Dibenzosiloles Functionalized at Both Benzene Cores

A general procedure for the catalytic preparation of dibenzosiloles functionalized at one or both benzene rings starting from readily available ortho‐silylated biphenyls is reported. This method provides rapid access to silole building blocks substituted with chlorine atoms at both phenylene groups, thereby allowing catalytic access to directly polymerizable dibenzosiloles. Moreover, it is shown that, despite the involvement of highly electrophilic intermediates, a considerable range of Lewis‐basic, for example, oxygen‐ and nitrogen‐containing, functional groups is tolerated. The mechanism of this intramolecular electrophilic aromatic substitution (S_EAr) proceeds through a sulfur‐stabilized silicon cation, generated catalytically from the hydrosilane precursor.     

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium Hydrogen Sulfate [bmim]HSO4: An Efficient Reusable Acidic Ionic Liquid for the Formylation of Alcohols

1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate [bmim]HSO4 as an acidic ionic liquid was prepared and used as a catalyst for the formylation of alcohols with ethyl formate at room temperature with good to excellent yields. A good selectivity was observed for the formylation of primary alcohols in the presence of tertiary alcohols.     

The influence of spatial limits on the modeling chemical reactivity: The example of CO2 hydration in MeX zeolites (Me = K,Rb, Cs)

Zeolite cell size variations upon cationic exchange are frequently disregarded while calculating chemical reactions with rather bulky reagents. An example of the reaction between the small reagents (H₂O and CO₂) illustrates a necessity to check this assumption for faujasite (FAU) zeolites with large porous space. The interplay of the space for the reaction center and the mobility of alkali cations forces lattice parameters to play a crucial role for the accurate computation of activation barrier of CO₂ hydration. While the CO₂ hydration is modeled in the MeX forms (Me = Rb, or Cs) with a fixed volume of NaX one, barrierless reactions were predicted that is not confirmed by experimental data. When the RbX and CsX cell parameters were optimized with Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP), activation energies were obtained in agreement with the experimental data that CO₂ hydration in CsX occurs at room temperature.     

Aromaticity‐promoted C−F Bond Activation in Rhodium Complex: A Facile Tautomerization

Fluorine is the most electronegative element in the periodic table. Thus, activation of the carbon–fluorine (C?F) bond, the strongest single bond to carbon, has attracted considerable interest from both experimentalists and theoreticians. In comparison with numerous approaches to activate C?F bonds, the aromaticity‐promoted method is less developed. Herein, we demonstrate that the C?F bond activation could be achieved by a facile tautomerization, benefitting from aromaticity, which can stabilize both the transition states and products. Our findings highlight an important application of aromaticity in the C?F bond activation, providing experimentalists with an alternative approach to activate C?F bonds.     

A novel tubular hydrogen‐bond pattern in a new diazaphosphole oxide: a combination of X‐ray crystallography and theoretical study of hydrogen bonds

In the structure of 2‐(4‐chloroanilino)‐1,3,2λ⁴‐diazaphosphol‐2‐one, C₁₂H₁₁ClN₃OP, each molecule is connected with four neighbouring molecules through (N—H)₂…O hydrogen bonds. These hydrogen bonds form a tubular arrangement along the [001] direction built from R ³₃(12) and R ₄³(14) hydrogen‐bond ring motifs, combined with a C (4) chain motif. The hole constructed in the tubular architecture includes a 12‐atom arrangement (three P, three N, three O and three H atoms) belonging to three adjacent molecules hydrogen bonded to each other. One of the N—H groups of the diazaphosphole ring, not co‐operating in classical hydrogen bonding, takes part in an N—H…π interaction. This interaction occurs within the tubular array and does not change the dimension of the hydrogen‐bond pattern. The energies of the N—H…O and N—H…π hydrogen bonds were studied by NBO (natural bond orbital) analysis, using the experimental hydrogen‐bonded cluster of molecules as the input file for the chemical calculations. In the ¹H NMR experiment, the nitrogen‐bound proton of the diazaphosphole ring has a high value of 17.2 Hz for the ²J _H–P coupling constant.     

A Masked Form of an O-Borylated Breslow Intermediate for the Diastereoselective FLP-Type Activation of Aldehydes

Breslow intermediates are very often elusive species whose application in frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) chemistry is unprecedented. Described herein is the use of a masked form of an O-borylated Breslow (OBB) intermediate that performs FLP-type activation of the carbonyl function of five different benzaldehyde derivatives with complete diastereoselectivity. The resulting compounds are characterised in solution by NMR spectroscopy (compounds 4 – 8 ) and in solid state by X-ray diffraction analysis (compounds 4 – 6 ). A combined kinetic and theoretical investigation reveals the associative nature of the rate determining step and suggests that the OBB intermediate part is never released during the whole process.     

Single‐ and double‐electron reductions of CO2 by using superalkalis: An ab initio study

CO₂, a major contributor to global warming, can be balanced by converting it into fuels. The reduction of CO₂ has been difficult due to its extremely high stability. Recently, single‐electron reduction of CO₂ by superalkalis has been proposed using quantum chemical methods. Herein, we report a systematic study on the single‐reduction of CO₂ by using typical superalkalis. Superalkalis are hypervalent species possessing lower ionization energies than alkali atoms. We have studied the interaction of CO₂ with FLi₂, OLi₃, and NLi₄ superalkalis using ab initio MP2 calculations. We notice that this interaction leads to stable superalkali‐CO₂ complexes in which the structure of CO₂ is bent due to electron transfer from superalkalis. This clearly reveals that the CO₂ can successfully be reduced to the anion. It has been also noticed that the size of superalkalis plays a crucial in the single‐electron reduction of CO₂. For instance, the binding energy of superalkali‐CO₂ complex and charge transfer to CO₂ decreases monotonically with the increase in the size of superalkali. We have also proposed that CO₂ can be further reduced to in case of the anionic complex such as (FLi₂ CO₂)‾. Thus, FLi₂ superalkali is also capable of double‐electron reduction of CO₂. These findings should provide new insights into CO₂‐activation as well as motivate further research in this direction.     

Nonheme Iron Imido Complexes Bearing a Non-Innocent Ligand: A Synthetic Chameleon Species in Oxidation Reactions

High-valent iron-imido complexes can perform C−H activation and sulfimidation reactions, but are far less studied than the more ubiquitous iron-oxo species. As case studies, we have looked at a recently published iron(V)-imido ligand π-cation radical complex, which is formally an iron(VI)-imido complex [Fe^V(NTs)(TAML^+.)] ( 1 ; NTs=tosylimido), and an iron(V)-imido complex [Fe^V(NTs)(TAML)]⁻ ( 2 ). Using a theoretical approach, we found that they have multiple energetically close-lying electromers, sometimes even without changing spin states, reminiscent of the so-called Compound I in Cytochrome P450. When studying their reactivity theoretically, it is indeed found that their electronic structures may change to perform efficient oxidations, emulating the multi-spin state reactivity in Fe^IVO systems. This is actually in contrast to the known [Fe^V(O)(TAML)]⁻ species ( 3 ), where the reactions occur only on the ground spin state. We also looked into the whole reaction pathway for the C−H bond activation of 1,4-cyclohexadiene by these intermediates to reproduce the experimentally observed products, including steps that usually attract no interest (neither theoretically nor experimentally) due to their non-rate-limiting status and fast reactivity. A new “clustering non-rebound mechanism” is presented for this C−H activation reaction.     

The Weak Interaction on CO2 …CO van der Waals Complex : A Theoretical Study

The geometries of van der Waals complex CO2…CO were optimized at DFT and second-order Moller-Plesset perturbation(MP2) levels with the large basis set,three stable structures were found.The most stable structure has a T-shape geometry in which the CO lies along the C2 axis of CO2,with the two C atoms direct contact and R(C…C)=0.3227nm.The corresponding energies of the most stable structure were calculated by means of MP2,MP4D,MP4DQ,MP4SDTQ,MP4SDQ,CCSD and CCSD(T) methods,The BSSE (basis set superposition error) wads eliminated by the Boys-Bernardi counterpoise correction(CP) method.According to thermodynamics data.van der Waals complex CO2…CO can found at a low temperature and or a high pressure,There is a little charge transferred between the two interacted subunits.In the most stable structure,CO2 is the acceptor and CO is the donor.     

Germyliumylidene: A Versatile Low Valent Group 14 Catalyst

Bis-NHC stabilized germyliumylidenes [RGe(NHC)₂]⁺ are typically Lewis basic (LB) in nature, owing to their lone pair and coordination of two NHCs to the vacant p-orbitals of the germanium center. However, they can also show Lewis acidity (LA) via Ge−C^NHC σ* orbital. Utilizing this unique electronic feature, we report the first example of bis-NHC-stabilized germyliumylidene [^MesTerGe(NHC)₂]Cl ( 1 ), (^MesTer=2,6-(2,4,6-Me₃C₆H₂)₂C₆H₃; NHC= IMe₄=1,3,4,5-tetramethylimidazol-2-ylidene) catalyzed reduction of CO₂ with amines and arylsilane, which proceeds via its Lewis basic nature. In contrast, the Lewis acid nature of 1 is utilized in the catalyzed hydroboration and cyanosilylation of carbonyls, thus highlighting the versatile ambiphilic nature of bis-NHC stabilized germyliumylidenes.     

Catalytic activation of nitrobenzene on PVP passivated silver cluster: A DFT investigation

Poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) (PVP) has been used extensively to stabilize the surface of noble metal nanoparticles against aggregation and also to produce anisotropic nanostructures. Naturally, it is very important to understand the effect of such surface stabilization by PVP on the catalytic activity of these nanoparticles. This communication investigates through DFT calculations the electronic properties of PVP stabilized 13‐atom Ag cluster for catalytic activation of nitrobenzene (NB). These computations suggest that poly(N‐vinyl‐2‐pyrrolidone) (PVP) interact with silver (Ag) cluster mainly through oxygen atom and acts not only as a stabilizer to prevent the aggregation of Ag clusters but also as an electron donor to activate the Ag clusters for further reaction. Natural Bonding Orbital (NBO) calculations show that catalytic activation of NB by PVP passivated Ag cluster occurs due to interaction of the oxygen of the nitro group with the Ag cluster. Weak back donation of electrons from M(dπ) orbital of Ag to antibonding σ* of one of the N O bond, facilitates the formation of the nitroso intermediate. To understand the extent and the nature of this interaction better, vibrational frequency calculation of nitrobenzene association with Ag13‐2PVP cluster is carried out. Red shift in the frequencies is consequence of strong interaction with that of silver cluster present in Ag13‐2PVP‐NB model.     

Theoretical investigation of C–HM interactions in organometallic complexes: A natural bond orbital (NBO) study

The nature of C–HM agostic interactions in model metal complexes [M²⁺(CH₂CH₃)(PH₃)_nCl] (where M = Sc, Ti, V, Ti, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn; n = 1, 2, 3, 4) was studied with the natural bond orbital analysis (NBO) approach using density functional theory (DFT) optimized geometries at the B3LYP/6-31G(d,p) level of theory. The effect of nature of metal, coordination number, oxidation state and ligand field effects on the agostic interaction is examined. A set of 20 crystal structures of organometallic complexes taken from the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) was studied computationally employing AIM theory and NBO analysis, and the applicability of these methods was critically accessed in demarcating the two types of interaction.     

聚合物{[CuII(Hpb) (mal)]H2O}n :单体的量子化学计算和磁性研究

{[Cu^Ⅱ（Hpb）（mal）]H=O}n （Hpb=2-2＇-pyridylbenzimidazole, mal=maleic acid） is a helical chain-like polymer complex. In order to investigate the electronic structure of the complex, the monomer Cu^Ⅱ（Hpb）（mal） was obturated with different functional groups respectively. For these selective segments, the geometry optimizations were conducted by using hybrid DFT （B3LYP）methods to find that the structure obturated with H2O was better consistent with the experiment, and then this model would be used to latter calculations, such as the frontier molecular orbital and the NBO charge population analysis. In addition the magnetic behaviors of this complex were analyzed by experiments and the weak antiferromagnetic couple between copper（Ⅱ） ions was observed. The exchange coupling constant was calculated by DFT based on the spin broken symmetry formalism. The calculated coupling constants were in good agreement with the experimental data.     

失配的Lewis对:非金属催化氢化的新策略

“失配的Lewis对”(Frustrated Lewis Pairs,FLPs)作为有机化学领域的新概念,在非金属活化H2,CO2和NH3等小分子方面的研究和应用格外引人注目.以“失配的Lewis对”为催化剂,直接以氢气作为氢源,非金属催化氢化还原醛、烯胺、亚胺、腈和二氧化碳等获得了很好的结果.手性“失配的Lewis对”(Chiral Frustrated Lewis Pairs,Chiral FLPs)在不对称催化氢化还原亚胺的反应中也呈现出较高的光学选择性,产物胺的对映体过量最高达83％ ee.综述了近几年“失配的Lewis对”在非金属催化氢化研究领域的进展情况.     

A Single-Atom Manipulation Approach for Synthesis of Atomically Mixed Nanoalloys as Efficient Catalysts

Synthesis of well-defined atomically mixed alloy nanoparticles on desired substrates is an ultimate goal for their practical application. Herein we report a general approach for preparing atomically mixed AuPt, AuPd, PtPd, AuPtPd NAs(nanoalloys) through single-atom level manipulation. By utilizing the ubiquitous tendency of aggregation of single atoms into nanoparticles at elevated temperatures, we have synthesized nanoalloys on a solid solvent with CeO₂ as a carrier and transition-metal single atoms as an intermediate state. The supported nanoalloys/CeO₂ with ultra-low noble metal content (containing 0.2 wt % Au and 0.2 wt % Pt) exhibit enhanced catalytic performance towards complete CO oxidation at room temperature and remarkable thermostability. This work provides a general strategy for facile and rapid synthesis of well-defined atomically mixed nanoalloys that can be applied for a range of emerging techniques.