Themed collection ChemComm 60th Anniversary Historic Papers from Japan and South Korea

This review highlights the recent advances in chemistry of cleaving carbon–carbon bonds by means of transition metals by extracting the notable examples from literature of the past decade.

C–C bond formation, Pd catalysts, ligands, bases.

The rise of N-doped graphitic carbons has renewed research interest in carbon based composites, particularly in their grand prospects for energy and catalytic applications.

Drawing inspiration from the self-assembly of hollow structures found in nature, a family of roughly spherical coordination polyhedra with general formula M_nL_2n can be easily synthesised. The introduction of functional side chains into the ligands is straightforward, resulting in the synthesis of exo- and endohedrally functionalised complexes with wide ranging applications.

Recent transition-metal catalyzed carbon–carbon bond forming reactions of carbon dioxide with various substrates are reviewed.

The recent progress and future perspective of carbon coating techniques in Li-ion batteries are discussed with typical examples of both cathodes and anodes.

The reaction-based approach has demonstrated to be valuable in the development of turn-on type fluorescent probes for various target analytes with high selectivity and sensitivity.

This feature article reviews advances of porous MOFs in the functional applications of sorption and separation, heterogeneous catalysis, as supports/host matrices for metal nanoparticles, and as templates/nanoreactors for new material preparation.

The structure-directing potential of boronic acids complexation with diols and their congeners has led to the development of a variety of self-organisation. Structure controls as well as remarkable synthesis are highlighted in this feature article.

Recent developments in the construction of self-assembled supramolecular donor–acceptor conjugates with porphyrins/naphthalocyanines as the donor and fullerenes/nanotubes as the electron acceptors by adopting different self-assembly protocols are discussed.

In this feature article, we focus on the design of hypervalent iodine catalysts and review the discovery and development of the oxidation of alcohols with the stoichiometric or catalytic use of hypervalent iodine compounds.

The catalytic utilization of hypervalent iodine reagents is now available for performing many representative types of oxidative bond-forming reactions and alcohol oxidations. This feature article highlights the historical background and the efforts made to realize the catalytic utilization of these reagents, especially with focus on iodine(III).

This article summarizes recent progress in the synthetic technologies leading to organic carbonates using CO₂, which is nontoxic, abundant and economical, as a raw material.

Structure–two-photon absorption property relationships are briefly reviewed to provide a guideline for the design of efficient two-photon materials.

Binaphthol-derived monophosphoric acids have been designed as novel chiral Brønsted-acid catalysts. The chiral phosphoric acids thus developed functioned as efficient enantioselective catalysts for a variety of carbon–carbon bond forming reactions affording enantioenriched products in excellent selectivites.

Host-stabilized charge-transfer (CT) interactions and supramolecular assemblies built with these interactions are described.

Task-specifically functionalized imidazolium salts, which can be used for catalysis, organic synthesis and extraction as well as for the construction of nanostructures and other novel materials, have been reviewed.

Pore surface properties of microporous coordination polymers are easily modified using metalloligands, which introduce coordinatively unsaturated metal centers onto the channel surface.

A highly efficient and versatile synthetic method for amines was established by using nitrobenzenesulfonamides (Ns-amides) as a protecting–activating group. Acyclic as well as macrocyclic polyamines can be efficiently synthesized by means of this methodology.

Aqueous H₂O₂ is an ideal oxidant, when coupled with a tungstate complex and a quaternary ammonium hydrogensulfate as an acidic phase-transfer catalyst. It oxidizes alcohols, olefins, and sulfides under organic solvent- and halide-free conditions in an economically, technically, and environmentally satisfying manner.

This Feature Article reviews recent advances in the synthesis of various magnetic nanoparticles using colloidal chemical approaches.

This article mainly deals with the recent serendipity of novel porphyrin analogs such as N-confused porphyrin; the important aspect of dynamic flipping (inversion), induced either by confusion or expansion of the macrocyclic core, that leads to the generation of new porphyrinoids, is emphasized.

Low-cost supercapacitors have the ability to rapidly store a large amount of charge, which makes them the best alternative to batteries in portable electronics.

A simple and reproducible halide ion exchange method is reported, which can tune the optical properties in CsPbX₃ (X = Cl, Br, and I) nanocrystals. CSPbI₃ nanocrystals exhibit promising application in photodetectors.

A collaborative sensitization by silyl-anchor and carboxy-anchor dyes (ADEKA-1 + LEG4) in dye-sensitized solar cells realized a high light-to-electric energy conversion efficiency of over 14% under one sun illumination.

The intercalation of zinc into 2 × 2 tunnel of an α-MnO₂ leads to reversible transition to a layered polymorph with an interlayer spacing of 11 Å.

Nanoporous carbon particles with different particle sizes are synthesized by simple carbonization of monodispersed zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 (ZIF-8) crystals.

Efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence was developed in a material based on phenoxazine donor and 2,4,6-triphenyl-1,3,5-triazine acceptor units.

An organic light emitting diode based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) has been produced using a spirobifluorene derivative (Spiro-CN) having the donor–acceptor moieties as an emitter.

Nanoporous carbons with high surface area are achieved through direct carbonization of a commercially available zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) without any additional carbon sources.

Graphene oxide was chemically reduced into reduced graphene oxide at temperatures below 0 °C.

Reduced graphene oxide/α-Ni(OH)₂hybrid composites were synthesized by a one-step procedure, and showed ultrahigh capacitance (1215 F g⁻¹ at 5 mV s⁻¹) compared to pure α-Ni(OH)₂.

The polypyrrole–reduced graphene oxide composite shows a highly selective adsorption capacity for Hg²⁺, which is of practical utility for waste water treatment.

Tunable, visible and stable carbon quantum dots were prepared by laser rapid passivation of nanoparticles in solvent.

Well-defined m-BiVO₄ nanoplates with exposed highly active (001) faces were synthesized by a facile hydrothermal route, which exhibits greatly enhanced activity in the visible-light photocatalysis.

In the presence of a small amount of CuI and 1,10-phenanthroline (phen), the cross-coupling reactions of iodoarenes with trifluoromethylsilanes proceeded smoothly to afford trifluoromethylated aromatics in good yields.

Layer-by-layer films comprised of alternating graphene and gold nanoparticle layers are readily produced by the vacuum filtration of a reduced graphene oxide solution and the spontaneous reduction of gold ions on the graphene films.

Action spectrum analyses showed that oxidation of organics under visible-light irradiation is initiated by excitation of gold surface plasmon, and reaction rate depends strongly on properties of titania and gold.

High quality MOF-5 crystals of 5–25 μm in size were prepared for the first time using a sonochemical method in substantially reduced synthesis time (ca. 30 min) compared with conventional solvothermal synthesis (24 h).

Biocompatible, cell-permeable shell cross-linked polymer micelles bearing glutathione-cleavable shell cross-links have been developed for highly effective intracellular delivery of an anticancer drug.

Solar cells sensitized by an organic dye (D205) on nanocrystalline-TiO₂ electrodes exhibited a high open-circuit photovoltage at 710 mV with the use of chenodeoxycholic acid; the resulting conversion efficiency was 9.52% under 1 sun irradiation.

Specific binding of Ag(I) cations significantly stabilizes the cytosine–cytosine base pair mismatches in DNA duplexes.

The authors report, for the first time, a ZnO nanonails based hydrazine electrochemical sensor which showed a high and reproducible sensitivity of 8.56 µA cm^–2 µM^–1 with a response time < 5 s, a linear range from 0.1–1.2 µM and a correlation coefficient of R = 0.999. The limit of detection was estimated to be 0.2 µM.

A π-conjugated dye with donor–acceptor moieties exhibited high efficiency for a dye-sensitized solar cell.

Mesoporous carbons with ordered channel structure (COU-1) have been successfully fabricated via a direct carbonization of an organic–organic nanocomposite using a thermally-decomposable triblock copolymer and a thermosetting polymer.

Nanoporous TiO₂ films loaded with commercially available or photocatalytically deposited gold and silver nanoparticles exhibit negative potential changes and anodic currents in response to visible light irradiation.

A solar-to-electric conversion efficiency of 6.1% is achieved with this new indoline dye. Furthermore, indoline dyes are shown to be highly stable to photoredox processes by cyclic voltammogram

A new synthesis route to high-quality large mesoporous cubic Ia3d silica is reported, utilizing a triblock copolymer (EO₂₀PO₇₀EO₂₀)–butanol mixture for the structure direction in aqueous solution, with systematic tuning of pore diameters from 4 to 12 nm. TEM imaging of Pt nanowires and inverse carbon replications ascertain pore shape and connectivity.

A novel ZnIn₂S₄ catalyst synthesized by hydrothermal method shows high and stable photocatalytic activity for water reduction under visible light illumination.

Novel Brønsted acid–base ionic liquids, are electroactive for H₂ oxidation and O₂ reduction at a Pt electrode and have the prospect of use for anhydrous proton conductors at elevated temperatures.

The propylene carbonate synthesis by CO₂ fixation under supercritical conditions in the presence of ionic liquid was achieved in nearly 100% yield and 100% selectivity within 5 minutes.

Under visible light irradiation (λ = 420–500 nm), TaON functions as a stable and very efficient photocatalyst for oxidation of water into O₂ with a sacrificial electron acceptor (Ag⁺).

A dye-sensitized solar cell fabricated using imidazolium iodide, iodine and a gelator as a solvent-free quasi-solid-state electrolyte showed a 5.0% conversion efficiency and high-temperature stability.