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The Meerwein-Ponndorf-Verley (MPV) reaction is an important chemoselective route for carbonyl group hydrogenation, and thus designing new and effective catalysts for this transformation remains important and challenging. In this work, a new sulfonate coordinated Zr(IV) catalyst was prepared by the coordination of Zr(IV) onto the sulfonate groups of Amberlyst-15, which can effectively catalyze the MPV reaction and quantitatively convert carbonyl compounds to the corresponding alcohols with high reactivity and stability. Detailed mechanistic investigations reveal that the catalytic performance of Zr-AIER can be attributed to the synergetic effect between Zr

Cobalt nanoparticles supported on microporous nitrogen-doped carbon (Co/mNC) were prepared for catalytic hydrogen transfer between nitroarenes and N-heterocycles.

The cleavage and functionalization of recalcitrant carbon─carbon bonds is highly challenging but represents a very powerful tool for value-added transformation of feedstock chemicals. Here, an enzyme-mimic iron single-atom catalyst (SAC) bearing iron (III) nitride (FeN 3 ) motifs was prepared and found to be robust for cleavage and cyanation of carbon–carbon bonds in secondary alcohols and ketones. High nitrile yields are obtained with a wide variety of functional groups. The prepared FeN 3 -SAC exhibits high enzyme-like activity and is capable of generating a dioxygen-to-superoxide radical at room temperature, while the commonly reported FeN 4 -SAC bearing FeN 4 motifs was inactive. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation reveals that the activation energy of dioxygen activation and the activation energy of the rate-determining step of nitrile formation are lower over FeN 3 -SAC than FeN 4 -SAC. In addition, DFT calculation also explains the catalyst’s high selectivity for nitriles.

N-heteroarenes represents one of the most important chemicals in pharmaceuticals and other bio-active molecules, which can be easily accessed from the oxidation of N-heterocycles over metal catalysts. Herein, the metal-free oxidative dehydrogenation of N-heterocycles into N-heteroarenes was developed using molecular oxygen as the terminal oxidant. The nitrogen-doped carbon materials were facilely prepared via the simple pyrolysis process using biomass (carboxymethyl cellulose sodium) and dicyandiamide as the carbon and nitrogen source, respectively, and they were discovered to be robust for the oxidative dehydrogenation of N-heterocycles into N-heteroarenes under mild conditions (80 °C under 1 bar O