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Ligands promoting copper-catalysed coupling reactions have received increasing attention because of their ability to enhance the catalytic activity of copper, making these reactions applicable in different fields such as drugs, pharmaceutically interesting molecules, and organic materials. Herein, we reported the synthesis and characterization of different selective 2-arylquinoline-based acyl hydrazones toward copper(I) salts. We explored the scope of the catalytic system based on copper/acyl hydrazones in the catalysis of C–N bond formation between N-heterocycles, specifically indoles, pyrroles and carbazoles, and aryl iodides as well as redox-A3 coupling of tetrahydroisoquinolines, terminal alkynes, and aldehydes.

The copper-catalyzed Ullmann type coupling reaction is one of the most investigated methodologies in organic chemistry, due to its easily accessible catalyst systems, wide number of substrates, and broad scope of applications for large-scale production of molecules in different fields, including optoelectronics, molecular materials, and pharmaceuticals. Ligands promoting C N bond formation by Cu-catalyzed Ullmann coupling have received increasing attention in the last two decades because of their ability to enhance the catalytic activity of copper, which increases the reaction yields with lower amounts of wasted copper and more environmentally friendly reaction conditions. This chapter offers an overview of the evolution of the use of different coordination ligands in the Ullmann reaction for the synthesis of N-arylated heterocycles and amines. It also provides brief insight into the use of these ligands in the synthesis of relevant molecules with industrial applications.

We report an optimized synthesis of neutral heteroleptic cyclometalated iridium complexes based on bidentate ligands (C^N) of 2-phenylpyridine and 2-phenylquinoline derivatives and an ancillary ligand (L^X) of acetylacetone via microwave (MW) irradiation. The developed methodology increases yields up to 85% with significantly lower reaction times and solvent consumption in comparison with conventional heating. The robustness of our methodology is demonstrated through the high-yield synthesis of bulky 2-phenylquinoline derivatives leading to three new complexes, which show desirable optical properties with absorption tails extending up to 650 nm and relative quantum yields of up to 0.210. In addition, the spin-allowed transitions for these complexes exhibit solvatochromism and are, therefore, characterized experimentally and computationally.

The design of nanomaterials for application in diverse fields ranging from photovoltaic to fluorescence sensing is a research area of increasing interest. Recently, Quantum Dots (QDs), which are classified as semiconductor quantum dots (SQDs) and Carbon dots (CDs), have become a hot topic of investigation, owing to their extraordinary tunable fluorescence emission properties that render them excellent candidates for sensing metal ions. The detection of metal ions in aqueous solutions with high sensitivity is very important as these ions have toxicological and environmental impacts. In this short review, we have described the fluorescence emission properties of CDs and their application for the detection of different metal ions, such as Hg2+, Pb2+, Cu2+, Fe3+, Cd2+, and Cr6+.