Homogeneous earth-abundant metal catalysis based on well-defined molecular complexes has achieved great advance in synthetic methodologies. However, sophisticated ligand, hazardous activator and multistep synthesis starting from base metal salts are generally required for the generation of active molecular catalysts, which may hinder their broad application in large scale organic synthesis. Therefore, the development of metal cluster catalysts formed in situ from simple earth-abundant metal salts is of importance for the practical utilization of base metal resource, yet it is still in its infancy. Herein, a mixture of catalytic amounts of cobalt (II) iodide and potassium tert-butoxide is discovered to be highly active for selective hydroboration of vinylarenes and dihydroboration of nitriles, affording a good yield of diversified hydroboration products that without isolation can readily undergo further one pot transformations. It should be highlighted that the alkoxide-pinacolborane combination acts as an efficient activation strategy to activate cobalt (II) iodide for the generation of metastable heterotopic cobalt catalysts in situ, which is proposed to be catalytically active species.
With high capacity and suitable working plateau, silicon oxide (SiO x ) has become a promising lithium-ion battery (LIB) anode material. However, bare SiO x usually suffers from sluggish electron transport and unsatisfactory cyclability. Composting SiO x with a second phase has become an efficient strategy to tackle the current drawbacks. Herein, a P/ SiO x /C ternary composite, featuring sub-5 nm red phosphorus (P) clusters uniformly dispersed in a dense SiO x /C matrix has been constructed through an "inside−out" synthesis strategy. The nanosizing of bulk red P sealed in an organosilica matrix is realized by the hightemperature treatment-driven sublimation/diffusion. With the red P amount of ∼7.53 wt %, the P/SiO x /C ternary composite provides a stable discharge capacity of ∼950 mAh g −1 and also manifests a decent rate capability (510 mAh g −1 at 5 A g −1 ). This study affords a ternary compositing strategy for designing SiO x -based anode materials with desirable electrochemical performance for the next-generation LIBs.
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