ChemSusChem

It’s a triflate with zinc: The hydrogenation of imines and the reductive hydro- amination of alkynes with hydrogen and amines have been achieved by applying zinc triflate as a catalyst. This methodology is a convenient alternative to the use of precious metal-based catalysts and expensive silanes and Hantzsch ester dihydropyridines.

Cobalt crowds crack it up: The catalytic activity of a cobalt-oxido film for water oxidation may be inversely proportional to atomic order, determined by the size of contiguous Co_xO_y clusters in the amorphous material. The redox-inert cations and anions in CoCat modulate redox properties and catalytic activity without modifying the basic structural motif of Co-oxido clusters.

Let’s twist the fork: Perylene diimides (PDIs) and its derivatives are active n-type semiconducting materials widely used in organic electronic devices. This work elucidates different influences on electron-transfer mobility by substitution of PDIs in three different positions (bay-, ortho- and imide-positions) with chlorine. A fork-like structure is reported to be responsible for the large electron mobility of octachloro-PDIs with a twisted system.