Breaking point: An effective reductive cleavage of inert aryl CO bonds with an inexpensive iron catalyst has been developed. During this process, the reduction of the arene rings was not observed. This catalytic system also enabled the selective cleavage of the β‐O‐4 linkage of lignin model compounds under an atmosphere of hydrogen, thus offering an opportunity for the depolymerization of lignin.

Constructing s-tetrazine-embedded HCP photocatalysts for the green synthesis of benzimidazoles.

The first Pd-catalyzed direct phosphonation of azoles with dialkyl phosphites has been achieved without addition of base or acid. This method involves the oxidative cleavage of C-H and P(O)-H bonds and represents an atom-efficiency alternative to the classical phosphonation of Ar-X. A Pd(II)/Pd(IV) mechanism has been studied and proposed.

Advanced electrocatalysts for complete oxidation of ethylene glycol (EG) in direct EG fuel cells are strongly desired owing to the higher energy efficiency. Herein, Pd-PdSe heterostructural nanosheets (Pd-PdSe HNSs) have been successfully fabricated via a one-step approach. These Pd-PdSe HNSs feature unique electronic and geometrical structures, in which unconventional p-d hybridization interactions and tensile strain effect co-exist. Compared with commercial Pd/C and Pd NSs catalysts, Pd-PdSe HNSs display 5.5 (6.6) and 2.5 (2.6) fold enhancement of specific (mass) activity for the EG oxidation reaction (EGOR). Especially, the optimum C1 pathway selectivity of Pd-PdSe HNSs reaches 44.3 %, illustrating the superior CÀ C bond cleavage ability. Electrochemical in situ FTIR spectroscopy and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the extraordinary p-d hybridization interaction and tensile strain effect could effectively reduce the activation energy of CÀ C bond breaking and accelerate CO* oxidation, boosting the complete oxidation of EG and improving the catalytic performance.

A theoretical study was carried out on the binding of hydrogen on small bimetallic Ag(m)Au(n) (m + n < or = 5) and pure Au(n) (n < or = 5) clusters with neutral, negative, and positive charge state. It is found that the composition and charge state of clusters have strong influence on the most favorable binding site. The adiabatic ionization potentials, electron affinities, and hydrogen binding energies of cluster hydrides increase with the Au content increasing for the given cluster size. The cationic silver-gold cluster hydrides prefer ejection of Au-containing products whereas the anionic silver-gold cluster hydrides prefer ejection of Ag-containing products. The magnitude of metal-H frequency in combination with the metal-H bond length indicates that, with the same type of the binding site, the Au-H interaction is stronger than the Ag-H interaction.