Synthesis and novel reactivity of halomethyldimethylsulfonium salts

Iodomethyl-, chloromethyl-, and fluoromethyldimethylsulfonium salts, 4b-d, have been synthesized and are observed to be highly reactive molecules that exhibit extraordinary diversity with respect to the nature of their reactivity, undergoing facile direct substitution (S(N)2) reactions, but also being highly susceptible to electron-transfer reactions. Cyclic voltametry experiments indicated that the iodomethyldimethylsulfonium compound, 4b, is a potent electron acceptor, even surpassing the reactivity of perfluoro-n-alkyl iodides in that capacity. The iodo- and chloromethyldimethylsulfonium salts, 4b,c, as well as the analogous iodomethyltrimethylammonium salt, 3a, are shown to be reactive SET acceptors.     

NMR studies of the superconducting state of copper oxide superconductors

The authors review and up-date their work on Knight shifts, spin-lattice relaxation, and indirect nuclear spin-spin coupling for YBa₂Cu₃O₇ in the superconducting state. The data are analyzed in particular to show what it may indicate about the orbital and spin pairing of the superconducting state.     

Clean Donor Oxidation Enhances the H2 Evolution Activity of a Carbon Quantum Dot–Molecular Catalyst Photosystem

Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are new‐generation light absorbers for photocatalytic H₂ evolution in aqueous solution, but the performance of CQD‐molecular catalyst systems is currently limited by the decomposition of the molecular component. Clean oxidation of the electron donor by donor recycling prevents the formation of destructive radical species and non‐innocent oxidation products. This approach allowed a CQD‐molecular nickel bis(diphosphine) photocatalyst system to reach a benchmark lifetime of more than 5 days and a record turnover number of 1094±61 mol_H2 (mol_Ni)^?1 for a defined synthetic molecular nickel catalyst in purely aqueous solution under AM1.5G solar irradiation.