State Key Laboratory of Oxo Synthesis and Selective Oxidation

Transition-metal catalysed C-N bond activation has attracted much attention and become one of the most promising bond disconnection and formation strategies that encompass a broad spectrum of applications in many reactions. In this tutorial review, efficient strategies for catalytic cleavage of C(sp)-N, C(sp(2))-N and C(sp(3))-N bonds and their applications in new C-C and C-N bond formation reactions are summarized.

The urgent need for clean and renewable energy drives the exploration of effective strategies to produce hydrogen. Semiconductor-based photocatalytic hydrogen production technology is one of the ideal processes for direct solar energy conversion and storage that has been widely studied. The development of highly efficient photocatalysts is essential for the cost-effective and large-scale production of hydrogen. CdS-based semiconductor photocatalysts have attracted significant attention due to their unique advantages, including strong visible light absorption capacity, suitable band edge levels and excellent electronic charge transfer. However, unlike TiO2 with good photostability, the intrinsic drawback of photocorrosion of CdS-based semiconductors significantly challenges their durable application in photocatalysis. This review focuses on recent advances in material design and strategies for improving the anti-photocorrosion of CdS-based photocatalysts for applications in photocatalytic overall water splitting to produce hydrogen. Moreover, brief prospective development and challenges in the synthesis of anti-corrosion CdS-based photocatalysts are also presented.

The roles of silanes and silicones in forming superhydrophobic and superoleophobic materials are summarized, and the challenges are also listed.

This review presents a comprehensive understanding of recent advances in Li–CO₂ electrochemistry and aims to develop advanced Li–CO₂ batteries.

A novel, highly active catalyst Ni@MOF-5 showed unexpected activity at low temperature for CO2 methanation. The characterization results indicated that Ni was uniformly and highly dispersed over MOF-5. This catalyst showed high stability and almost no deactivation in long term stability tests up to 100 h.

Low-overpotential water oxidation catalyzed by copper(<sc>ii</sc>) porphyrin to produce O₂ in neutral aqueous solution and H₂O₂ in acidic solution.

The Mn-catalyzed C-H alkenylation reactions of indole with terminal- and internal-alkynes have been developed. In the presence of a catalytic amount of acid, the procedure efficiently affords bis/trisubstituted indolyl-alkenes in a highly regio- and stereo-selective manner. Without the addition of acid, the reaction undergoes a [2+2+2] cyclization process to give carbazoles with release of hydrogen gas. Notably, the directing pyrimidyl group can be readily removed. Experimental studies reveal that the reaction is initiated by a C-H activation step and the acid is the selectivity controller via a hydrogen transfer process.

Different morphologies ceria (nanocubes, nanorods and nanoparticles) were synthesized and exhibited significant support-morphology-dependent catalytic activity towards ammonia synthesis.

Carbon aerogels feature ultralow density (1–2 mg cm⁻³), high compressibility, high electrical conductivity (0.1 S cm⁻¹), excellent fire-resistance and very high absorption capacity (147–292 g g⁻¹) for organic liquids are prepared. Furthermore, the carbon aerogels can be easily endowed with various other functions, <italic>e.g.</italic>, magnetic responsivity and superhydrophobicity.

Pomelo peel as biomass-derived porous activated carbon is used for the preparation of a high energy density symmetric supercapacitor.

The asymmetric catalytic 1,6-addition of p-QMs with racemic oxindoles under the bifunctional catalysis of C2-symmetric dimeric Cinchona-derived squaramide is described. This tertiary amine-squaramide catalyzed reaction provides a diastereoselective and enantioselective approach to the effective assembly of diverse diarylmethine-substituted oxindoles having vicinal tertiary and quaternary stereocenters.

A practical and efficient Rh(III)-catalyzed aerobic C-H activation has been developed for the facile synthesis of a broad range of indoles from simple anilines and alkynes. The protocol could be conducted under mild conditions and used environmentally friendly oxygen as the sole clear oxidant.

Various difunctionalizations of acrylamide can not only provide a simple approach to form a wide scope of functionalized oxindoles, but can also be applied and generated easily. This review concludes different difunctionalizations of acrylamide to synthesize oxindoles based on the mechanistic aspects. The goal is to encourage further mechanistic studies hopefully leading to an in-depth understanding of this strategy.

Hydrogenolysis of biomass-derived furfuryl alcohol to 1,2-pentanediol and 1,5-pentanediol with high yield (~80%) could be achieved over a simple but efficient non-precious Cu–Mg₃AlO_4.5 bifunctional catalyst at mild conditions.

Esterification is a fundamental transformation in chemistry. Traditional esterification only largely occurs between carboxylic acid derivatives and alcohols, and often involves multistep processes. Developments in the transition-metal-catalysed and metal-free direct esterification of alcohols under oxidative conditions has opened a door to the efficient, sustainable and environmentally friendly synthesis of esters from readily available materials. This Perspective gives an overview which covers the recent development of this emerging field.

Cu/Cu₂O/Cu/TiO₂ catalyst was fabricated by <italic>in-situ</italic> photoreduction from Cu₂O/TiO₂, and it showed an excellent photocatalytic performance and high stability for H₂ evolution. The interlayer metallic Cu provided a bridge for electrons fast transfer from TiO₂ to Cu₂O.

The first Cu(i)-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction by hydrogen (H2) removal for the stereoselective synthesis of 3-phosphoindoles is reported. Going beyond the oxidative dehydrogenative coupling reactions reported recently, this reaction completely omits the oxidant and base, producing hydrogen (H2) as the only byproduct.

Herein, we demonstrate for the first time the fabrication of one-dimensional (1D) Bi2MoO6 inter-crossed nanosheet-built frameworks by using MoO3 nanobelts as the growth templates and molybdate source. Especially, this novel Bi2MoO6 framework structure exhibits remarkably enhanced photocatalytic activity toward the degradation of organic dyes under visible-light irradiation, far exceeding that of conventional Bi2MoO6 nanoplates and nanoparticles. The photoelectrochemical study suggests that the hierarchical framework structure could facilitate the photoinduced charge separation and transfer from the inter-crossed Bi2MoO6 nanosheets, which may make a significant contribution to the enhanced photocatalytic activity.

Ni–MgO nanoparticles (NPs) encapsulated by porous silica shell for CO₂ methanation were synthesized.

Nitrogen modified cobalt catalysts supported on carbon were prepared by pyrolysis of the mixture generated from cobalt(ii) acetate in aqueous solution of melamine or waste melamine resins, which are widely used as industrial polymers. The obtained nanostructured materials catalyze the transfer hydrogenation of N-heteroarenes with formic acid in the absence of base. The optimal Co/Melamine-2@C-700 catalyst exhibits high activity and selectivity for the dehydrogenation of formic acid into molecular hydrogen and carbon dioxide and allows for the reduction of diverse N-heteroarenes including substrates featuring sensitive functional groups.