LB films of three amphiphilic tris(phthalocyaninato) rare earth triple-decker complexes with crown-ethers as hydrophilic heads and long alkyl chains as hydrophobic tails have been prepared and found to display very well ordered layer structures, as proved by pi-A isotherms, UV-vis and polarized absorption spectra, X-ray diffraction experiments, and microscopic morphology characterization. These LB films have been fabricated into field-effect transistor (FET) devices, which show carrier mobilities as high as 0.24-0.60 cm2 V-1 s-1, among the highest mobilities achieved thus far for all LB film-based OFETs.

New carbon–carbon bond formation reactions expand our horizon of retrosynthetic analysis for the synthesis of complex organic molecules. Although many methods are now available for the formation of C(sp2)–C(sp3) and C(sp3)–C(sp3) bonds via transition metal-catalyzed cross-coupling of alkyl organometallic reagents, direct use of readily available olefins in a formal fashion of hydrocarbonation to make C(sp2)–C(sp3) and C(sp3)–C(sp3) bonds remains to be developed. Here we report the discovery of a general process for the intermolecular reductive coupling of unactivated olefins with alkyl or aryl electrophiles under the promotion of a simple nickel catalyst system. This new reaction presents a conceptually unique and practical strategy for the construction of C(sp2)–C(sp3) and C(sp3)–C(sp3) bonds without using any organometallic reagent. The reductive olefin hydrocarbonation also exhibits excellent compatibility with varieties of synthetically important functional groups and therefore, provides a straightforward approach for modification of complex organic molecules containing olefin groups.