Over the last six years, highly active catalysts for the synthesis of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and carbon dioxide have been developed. Initial studies showed that bimetallic aluminium(salen) complexes [Al(salen)]2O formed active catalysts and kinetic studies allowed the catalytic cycle to be determined. The catalysts could be immobilized on silica, allowing them to be used in a gas phase...

A unique cooperative H2 activation reaction by heterobimetallic (NHC)M'-MCp(CO)2 complexes (NHC = N-heterocyclic carbene, M' = Cu or Ag, M = Fe or Ru) has been leveraged to develop a catalytic alkyne semi-hydrogenation transformation. The optimal Ag-Ru catalyst gives high selectivity for converting alkynes to E-alkenes, a rare selectivity mode for reduction reactions with H2. The transformation...

Expanded porphyrins are synthetic analogues of porphyrins consisting of at least 17 atoms in a cyclic conjugated framework that contains at least three pyrrole or pyrrole-like heterocyclic subunits. These macrocyclic systems have aroused great interest as near-IR-absorbing or -emitting chromophores and as two-photon dyes; their cavities are large enough to function as anion-recognition systems,...

The μ-amino-borane complexes [Rh2 (L(R) )2 (μ-H)(μ-H2 B=NHR')][BAr(F) 4 ] (L(R) =R2 P(CH2 )3 PR2 ; R=Ph, (i) Pr; R'=H, Me) form by addition of H3 B⋅NMeR'H2 to [Rh(L(R) )(η(6) -C6 H5 F)][BAr(F) 4 ]. DFT calculations demonstrate that the amino-borane interacts with the Rh centers through strong Rh-H and Rh-B interactions. Mechanistic investigations show that these dimers can form by a boronium-me...

In the mol-ecular structure of the title compound, [CaNa(C10H20Cl3N3O2P)3(H2O)], the Ca2+ ion has a slightly distorted octa-hedral coordination environment defined by six O atoms which belong to the carbonyl and phosphoryl groups of the three coordinating ligands. Two Cl atoms of CCl3 groups and four O atoms form the coordination environment of the Na+ ion: three from the carbonyl groups of lig...

A review of the limited literature concerned with theoretical ways to predict experimentally measured redox potentials of ligands and complexes is presented. Electrochemical and related DFT studies involving series of para-substituted nitrobenzenes and -diketone bidentate ligands are discussed. New studies involving ferrocenes and bimetallic complexes (containing both rhodium and iron) are addi...

Zn(salen) complexes have been employed as active catalysts for the formation of cyclic carbonates from epoxides and CO2. A series of kinetic experiments was carried out to obtain information about the mechanism for this process catalyzed by these complexes and in particular about the order-dependence in catalyst. A comparative analysis was done between the binary catalyst system Zn(salphen)/NBu...

The fluorescence of photosystem I (PSI) trimers in proximity to bimetallic plasmonic nanostructures have been explored by single-molecule spectroscopy (SMS) at cryogenic temperature (1.6 K). PSI serves as a model for biological multichromophore-coupled systems with high potential for biotechnological applications. Plasmonic nanostructures are fabricated by thermal annealing of thin metallic fil...