The first transition metal-free catalyzed direct C–H arylation of a variety of heteroarenes at room temperature has been reported using a phenalenyl-based radical without employing any photoactivation step.

In recent years, merging different types of catalysis in a single pot has drawn considerable attention and these catalytic processes have mainly relied upon metals. However, development of a completely metal free approach integrating organic redox and organic Lewis acidic property into a single system has been missing in the current literature. This study establishes that a redox active phenalenyl cation can activate one of the substrates by single electron transfer process while the same can activate the other substrate by a donor-acceptor type interaction using its Lewis acidity. This approach has successfully achieved light and metal-free catalytic C-H functionalization of unactivated arenes at ambient temperature (39 entries, including core moiety of a top-selling molecule boscalid), an economically attractive alternative to the rare metal-based multicatalysts process. A tandem approach involving trapping of reaction intermediates, spectroscopy along with density functional theory calculations unravels the dual role of phenalenyl cation.

An abnormal N-heterocyclic carbene (aNHC) based potassium complex was used as a transition metal-free catalyst for reduction of primary amides to corresponding primary amines under ambient conditions.

As eries of boron-containing lipids werep repared by reactions of cyclic oxonium derivatives of polyhedron boranesa nd metallacarboranes (closo-dodecaborate anion, cobalt and iron bis(dicarbollides)) with amine and carboxylic acids which are derived from cholesterol. Stable liposomal formulations,o nt he basis of synthesized boron-containing lipids, hydrogenated soybean l-a-phosphatidylcholinea nd (HSPC) 1,2-distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine-N-[methoxy(polyethylene glycol)-2000] (DSPE-PEG) as excipients,w ere prepared and then characterizedb yd ynamic light scattering(DLS) that revealed the formation of particles to be smaller than 200 nm in diameter.T he resulting liposomal formulationss howed moderate to excellent loading and entrapmente fficiency, thus justifying the design of the compounds to fit in the lipid bilayer and ensuringease of in vivo use for futurea pplication. The liposomalf ormulations based on cobalt and iron bis(dicarbollide)-based lipids were found to be nontoxic against both human breast normale pithelial cells MCF-10A and human breast cancer cells MCF-7.

Herein we report the hydroheteroarylation of vinylarenes with benzoxazole in the presence of a free abnormal N-heterocyclic carbene and Ni­(COD)2, resulting in 1,1-diarylethane products exclusively. In an attempt to understand the mechanism of this catalytic reaction, two abnormal-NHC (aNHC)-coordinated Ni­(II) cyclooctenyl complexes were isolated and their solid-state structures were determined by X-ray crystallographic studies. These Ni­(II) cyclooctenyl complexes act as active catalyst precursors to generate in situ aNHC-Ni­(0) species, which undergo oxidative addition with heteroarene to form Ni­(II) hydride intermediates.