Novel N,O-chelated naphthyridine-BF(2) complexes with push-pull structures have been synthesized and characterized. Spectral investigations on these complexes reveal that photoinduced intramolecular charge transfer occurs and results in a large Stokes shift, which is further supported by density functional theory based theoretical calculations.

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Thermopsideae has 45 species and exhibits a series of interesting biogeographical distribution patterns, such as Madrean-Tethyan disjunction and East Asia-North America disjunction, with a center of endemism in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau (QTP) and Central Asia. Phylogenetic analysis in this paper employed maximum likelihood using ITS, rps16, psbA-trnH, and trnL-F sequence data; biogeographical approaches included BEAST molecular dating and Bayesian dispersal and vicariance analysis (S-DIVA). The results indicate that the core genistoides most likely originated in Africa during the Eocene to Oligocene, ca. 55-30 Ma, and dispersed eastward to Central Asia at ca. 33.47 Ma. The origin of Thermopsideae is inferred as Central Asian and dated to ca. 28.81 Ma. Ammopiptanthus is revealed to be a relic. Birth of the ancestor of Thermopsideae coincided with shrinkage of the Paratethys Sea at ca. 30 Ma in the Oligocene. The Himalayan motion of QTP uplift of ca. 20 Ma most likely drove the diversification between Central Asia and North America. Divergences in East Asia, Central Asia, the Mediterranean, and so forth, within Eurasia, except for Ammopiptanthus, are shown to be dispersals from the QTP. The onset of adaptive radiation at the center of the tribe, with diversification of most species in Thermopsis and Piptanthus at ca. 4-0.85 Ma in Tibet and adjacent regions, seems to have resulted from intense northern QTP uplift during the latter Miocene to Pleistocene.

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A novel structural pattern: two-dimensional, five-membered ring-like boron hydride system B(6)H(5)(+), which contains both planar tetra- and pentacoordinated boron (ptB and ppB) was designed and investigated at [B3LYP, MP2(Full) and CCSD(T,FC)]/6-311+G(d,p) theoretical levels. The results indicate that both degenerate ppB B(6)H(5)(+) configurations A (D(5H),(1)A(1)') and B (C(2nu),(1)A(1)) are energetically favorable, sharing the lowest energy comparison with other isomers considered in this work. The computed considerably large smallest vibrational frequencies [197.5 and 197.4 cm(-1), respectively at MP2 (full) level], HOMO-LUMO energy separations [10.99-11.03 eV computed at MP2 (full) level], and fairly large endothermic dissociation reaction energies suggest they are promising candidate molecules for experimental detection. The detailed molecular orbital analysis, natural bond orbital analysis, magnetic susceptibility anisotropy, and NMR chemical shift analyses confirmed that the two low-energy ppB molecules exhibit strong aromaticities.

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Many efforts have been devoted to preparing star polymers. Research into coordination polymerization, the most powerful stereoselective process to endow polymers with superb properties, lags far behind those achieved by radical polymerization and ionic polymerization. Herein, we propose a facile strategy to prepare star polymers with regular arms based on coordination polymerization via an insertion reaction between the carbon-heteroatom unsaturated bond and the metalalkyl species. Terminating a living cis-1,4-selective isoprene polymerization by using isocyanate as crosslinker (CL), a star polyisoprene with low polydispersity was obtained in high yield (91.8 %). A kinetic study showed the star polymer was formed via a step-growth procedure. The types of CL and the ratio of [CL] 0 : [Cat.] 0 are key factors to determine the arm number and the yield of star polymer. Finally, synthetic IR rubber with a green strength up to 1.99 MPa superior to natural rubber (1.43 MPa) was prepared for the first time.