The Roles of Molecular Concavities in the Hierarchical Self-Assembly of Giant Tetrahedra for CO Uptake.

Giant tetrahedral molecules have sparked significant interest in the past decade due to their unique and diverse supramolecular nanostructures. The longer and bulkier peripheral substituents create deep molecular concavities and thus contribute to the different self-assembly behaviors compared to the conventional small tetrahedral molecules. In this study, a molecular giant tetrahedra, TetraNDI, was synthesized to investigate the important roles of the molecular concavities in the self-assembly mechanism.

One-Pot CuI/DBU-Catalyzed Carboxylative Cyclization toward Oxazolidinones Using Recyclable Molecular Sieves as Efficient Promoters for Fixation of CO in Water Medium.

An efficient one-pot synthesis of oxazolidinones was developed through CuI/DBU/MS joint system-catalyzed carboxylative cyclization of arylacetylene, arylaldehyde, and arylamine in water medium under a 1 atm carbon dioxide (CO) atmosphere. The 4 Å molecular sieves (MSs) were added to improve CO capture and facilitate carboxylation to give the products in high yields. The CuI/DBU/MS system is robust and highly effective for the reactions with different substrates, and some target products were obtained in an excellent yield of ∼96%, with no side products in the final step.