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A new approach in which a low symmetry cluster meets a low symmetry ligand to sharply boost the thermal stability of a MOF via additional inter-linker interactions is presented for the first time, leading to the successful synthesis of a novel binuclear Co-based MOF, {[Co2(L1)2DMF]·1.5DMF·0.75MeOH·1.5H2O}∞ (H2L1 = 5-(pyridin-3-yl) isophthalic acid, NJU-Bai62: NJU-Bai for Nanjing University Bai group), with exceptional thermal stability of up to 450 °C. This work may open up a new avenue for constructing robust MOFs from abundant, unstable, and low symmetry binuclear clusters, which have usually been ignored by most MOF chemists.

The recently developed UiO-66(Ce) was firstly endowed with greatly improved redox photocatalytic activity based on titanium incorporation, which for the first time induced the formation of oxygen vacancies in Ce-MOFs, and then promoted the generation of oxidative ˙OH/˙O2- and reductive electrons.

The first metal-free nitroxyl-radical-mediated β-amination of saturated ketones by using heteroaryl halides as amide precursors has been developed. This reaction proceeds through a cascade α-aminoxylation/Cope-like elimination/aza-Michael addition sequence to afford β-amino ketone derivatives with excellent yields. TEMPO plays multiple roles in the current β-amination process, including those of an oxidant, an α-aminoxylation reagent, a β-hydrogen acceptor, an in situ base, and an oxygen source.

Aiming to improve the acetylene (C2H2) storage capability of MOFs, we successfully designed NJU-Bai 17, a new analogue of MOF-505 with an inserted amide functional group which exhibits almost record high C2H2 uptakes of 222.4 cm(3) g(-1) at 296 K and 296 cm(3) g(-1) at 273 K under 1 bar. This result has been further supported by the determination of the heat of C2H2 adsorption and Grand Canonical Monte Carlo (GCMC) and first-principle calculations.

A fluorescent responsive BMP32C10-based cryptand host was successfully synthesized by introducing a 4-methylcoumarin group to the third arm of the cryptand. The cryptand was able to undergo [2+2] photodimerization on UV irradiation (λ = 365 nm) and, based on the photodimerization and host-guest interaction, a new supramolecular polymer was constructed in a convenient manner.

An iridium complex with a newly prepared chiral spiro amino-phosphine ligand efficiently catalyzed the hydrogenation of both β-aryl-β-methyl-nitroalkenes and β-alkyl-β-methyl-nitroalkenes to the corresponding saturated nitroalkanes, which represents the first report of a chiral catalyst that exhibits high enantioselectivity for the challenging hydrogenation of β,β-dialkyl-nitroalkenes.

Two types of cryptand-based host-guest complexes were constructed successfully, in which P=O functional groups were located at the different positions of the third arms. Consequently, supramolecular poly[2]pseudorotaxanes with almost linear and zigzag shapes were formed in the solid state.

A pillar[5]arene-fused cryptand with two different cavities was synthesized successfully. It was found that the novel tricyclic host could associate with two different guest species in an orthogonal manner. And based on this orthogonal self-assembly of two host-guest interactions, a novel type of supramolecular polymer was constructed easily and conveniently.

An oxidative C(sp(3))-H bond functionalization of alkanes and alkylation-initiated radical 1,2-aryl migration in α,α-diaryl allylic alcohols using di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP) as the oxidant was established, which tolerates a wide range of simple alkane substrates and α,α-diaryl allylic alcohols for direct preparation of α-aryl-β-alkylated carbonyl ketones.

Efficient asymmetric detrifluoroacetylative Mannich addition reactions between 2-fluoro-1,3-di-ketones/hydrates and chiral N-sulfinyl-imines via C-C bond cleavage were reported, which afforded C-F quaternary α-fluoro-β-keto-amines with excellent yields and high diastereoselectivity.

Novel linear supramolecular polymers were constructed by the orthogonal self-assembly of a heteroditopic monomer and a homoditopic monomer. The polymerization is driven by a combination of quadruple hydrogen bonding and benzo-21-crown-7 based host-guest complexation. The disassembly-assembly of these novel polymers could be reversibly switched by addition/removal of K(+).

The desymmetrization ring opening of meso epoxides using trimethylsilyl cyanide catalyzed by organogallium and indium complexes with binaphthol monoether derivatives as chiral ligands gave β-isocyanohydrins with moderate to excellent enantioselectivities of up to 95% ee.

A bis-urea-functionalized pillar[5]arene has been synthesized and shown to form [2]pseudorotaxanes spontaneously with linear alkyl dicarboxylates in highly polar solvent DMSO, in which the hydrogen bonding interactions between the bis-urea hydrogens and dicarboxylate oxygens play an important role in stabilizing the novel [2]pseudorotaxanes alongside C–H⋯π interactions.

We report a simple and facile solid-state approach to large-scale synthesis of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MCNTs), for the first time, by one-step direct thermolysis of a metal-organic framework [Ni(3)(btc)(2).12H(2)O] (btc = benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylato) in a one-end closed conventional horizontal tube furnace under relatively low temperature without using any additional carrier gas or catalyst.