Photoreduction of Anthracenes Catalyzed by peri-Xanthenoxanthene: a Scalable and Sustainable Birch-Type Alternative.

The typical Birch reduction transforms arenes into cyclohexa-1,4-dienes by using alkali metals, an alcohol as a proton source, and an amine as solvent. Capitalizing on the strong photoreductive properties of peri-xanthenoxanthene (PXX), herein we report the photocatalyzed "Birch-type" reduction of acenes by employing visible blue light irradiation at room temperature in the presence of air. Upon excitation at 405 or 460 nm in the presence of a mixture of N,N-diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA) and trifluoromethanesulfonimide (HNTf ) in DMSO, PXX photocatalyzes the selective reduction of full-carbon acene derivatives (24-75 %).

Rapid Fabrication of Membrane-Integrated Thermoplastic Elastomer Microfluidic Devices.

Leveraging the advantageous material properties of recently developed soft thermoplastic elastomer materials, this work presents the facile and rapid fabrication of composite membrane-integrated microfluidic devices consisting of Flexdym polymer and commercially available porous polycarbonate membranes. The three-layer devices can be fabricated in under 2.5 h, consisting of a 2-min hot embossing cycle, conformal contact between device layers and a low-temperature baking step.