Solvothermal reactions of Cu(NO 3 ) 2 with azoxybenzene-3,3′,5,5′-tetracarboxylic acid (H 4 aobtc) or transstilbene-3,3′,5,5′-tetracarboxylic acid (H 4 sbtc) give rise to two isostructural microporous metal-organic frameworks, Cu 2 (abtc)(H 2 O) 2 • 3DMA (PCN-10, abtc ) azobenzene-3,3′,5,5′-tetracarboxylate) and Cu 2 (sbtc)-(H 2 O) 2 • 3DMA (PCN-11, sbtc ) trans-stilbene-3,3′,5,5′-tetracarboxylate), respectively. Both PCN-10 and PCN-11 possess significant enduring porosity with Langmuir surface areas of 1779 and 2442 m 2 /g (corresponding to BET surface areas of 1407 or 1931 m 2 /g, respectively) and contain nanoscopic cages and coordinatively unsaturated metal centers. At 77 K, 760 Torr, the excess gravimetric (volumetric) hydrogen uptake of PCN-10 is 2.34 wt % (18.0 g/L) and that of PCN-11 can reach 2.55 wt % (19.1 g/L). Gas-adsorption studies also suggest that MOFs containing CdC double bonds are more favorable than those with NdN double bond in retaining enduring porosity after thermal activation, although NdN has slightly higher H 2 affinity. The excess gravimetric (volumetric) adsorption at 77 K saturates around 20 atm and reaches values of 4.33% (33.2 g/L) and 5.05% (37.8 g/L) for PCN-10 and PCN-11, respectively. In addition to its appreciable hydrogen uptake, PCN-11 has an excess methane uptake of 171 cm 3 (STP)/ cm 3 at 298 K and 35 bar, approaching the DOE target of 180 v(STP)/v for methane storage at ambient temperature. Thus, PCN-11 represents one of the few materials that is applicable to both hydrogen and methane storage applications.

An inexpensive cationic ruthenium(II) catalyst enabled the expedient synthesis of isocoumarins through oxidative annulations of alkynes by benzoic acids. This C-H/O-H bond functionalization process also proved applicable to the preparation of α-pyrones and was shown to proceed by rate-limiting C-H bond ruthenation.

Versatile ruthenium(II) complexes allow for siteselective C À H oxygenations with weakly-coordinating aldehydes. The challenging C À H functionalizations proceed with high chemoselectivity by rate-determining C À H metalation. The new method features an ample substrate scope, which sets the stage for the step-economical preparation of various bioactive heterocycles.

A new class of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons--oligoindenopyrenes--has been synthesized featuring a Pd-catalyzed Suzuki-Heck coupling cascade. The oligoindenopyrenes are robust, highly colored substructures of C(70) and have properties that might prove useful in new organic materials or devices. After excitation, the tetraindenopyrene derivative 3d undergoes efficient deactivation (99%) by internal conversion to the ground state. The small fluorescence quantum yield (0.004) is in accordance with the short (0.6 ns) fluorescence decay time.

The enthalpies of formation [Delta(g)] of tricyclo[8.2.2.2(4,7)]hexadeca-1(13),2,4(16),5,7(15),10(14),11-heptaene (2, 1,2-dehydro[2.2]paracyclophane or [2.2]paracyclophane-1-ene) and tricyclo[8.2.2.2(4,7)]hexadeca-1(13),2,4(16),5,7(15),8,10(14),11-octaene (3, 1,2,9,10-dehydro[2.2]paracyclophane or [2.2]paracyclophane-1,9-diene) have been determined by measuring their heats of combustion in a microcalorimeter and their heats of sublimation by the transpiration method. Values of the strain energies (SE) [SE(2) = 34.7 kcal mol(-)(1), SE(3) = 42.0 kcal mol(-)(1)] have been derived from the gas-phase heats of formation and are compared with those from MM3 and PM3 calculations and with the corresponding value SE(1) = 30.1 kcal mol(-)(1) for the parent tricyclo[8.2.2.2(4,7)]hexadeca-1(13),4(16),5,7(15),10(14),11-hexaene (1, [2.2]paracyclophane). The higher strain energies of 2 and 3 (by 4.6 and 11.9 kcal mol(-)(1)) are in accord with the well-known increased reactivities of their aromatic rings as a consequence of their increased bending. As revealed by an X-ray crystal structure analysis, the bending in the monoene 2 corresponds to that of 1 and 3 at one of two bridging corners.

Palladium-catalyzed sixfold coupling of hexabromobenzene (20) with a variety of alkenylboronates and alkenylstannanes provided hexaalkenylbenzenes 1 in up to 73 % and 16 to 41 % yields, respectively. In some cases pentaalkenylbenzenes 21 were isolated as the main products (up to 75 %). Some functionally substituted hexaalkenylbenzene derivatives containing oxygen or sulfur atoms in each of their six arms have also been prepared (16 to 24 % yield). The sixfold coupling of the less sterically encumbered 2,3,6,7,10,11-hexabromotriphenylene (24) gave the desired hexakis(3,3-dimethyl-1-butenyl)triphenylene (25) in 93 % yield. The first successful cross-coupling reaction of octabromonaphthalene (26) gave octakis-(3,3-dimethyl-1-butenyl)naphthalene (27) in 21 % yield. Crystal structure analyses disclose that, depending on the nature of the substituents, the six arms are positioned either all on the same side of the central benzene ring as in 1 a and 1 i, making them nicely cup-shaped molecules, or alternatingly above and below the central plane as in 1 h and 23. In 27, the four arms at C-1,4,6,7 are down, while the others are up, or vice versa. Upon catalytic hydrogenation, 1 a yielded 89 % of hexakis(tert-butylethyl)benzene (23). Some efficient accesses to alkynes with sterically demanding substituents are also described. Elimination of phosphoric acid from the enol phosphate derived from the corresponding methyl ketones gave 1-ethynyladamantane (3 b, 62 % yield), 1-ethynyl-1-methylcyclohexane (3 c, 85 %) and 3,3-dimethylpentyne (3 e, 65 %). 1-(Trimethylsilyl)ethynylcyclopropane (7) was used to prepare 1-ethynyl-1-methylcyclopropane (3 d) (two steps, 64 % overall yield). The functionally substituted alkynes 3 f-h were synthesized in multistep sequences starting from the propargyl chloride 11, which was prepared in high yields from the dimethylpropargyl alcohol 10 (94 %). The alkenylstannanes 19 were prepared by hydrostannation of the corresponding alkynes in moderate to high yields (42-97 %), and the alkenylboronates 2 and 4 by hydroboration with catecholborane (27-96 % yield) or pinacolborane (26-69 % yield).

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The ruthenium(II)-catalyzed intermolecular C−H imidation with weakly coordinating ketones provided step-economical access to synthetically useful primary aminophenones. The azide-free C−H imidation strategy occurred with ample scope and excellent functional group tolerance to efficiently deliver densely substituted aminophenones.