Molecular Dissociation on the SiC(0001) 3×3 Surface.

In the framework of density functional theory, the adsorption of the halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon 2,11-diiodohexabenzocoronene (HBC-I ) on the SiC(0001) 3×3 surface has been investigated. Nondissociative and dissociative molecular adsorption is considered, and simulated scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images are compared with the corresponding experimental observations. Calculations show that dissociative adsorption is favorable and reveal the crucial importance of the extended flat carbon core on molecule-surface interactions in dissociative adsorption; the iodine atom-surface interaction is of minor importance.

Fully Borylated Methane and Ethane by Ruthenium-Mediated Cleavage and Coupling of CO.

Many transition-metal complexes and some metal-free compounds are able to bind carbon monoxide, a molecule which has the strongest chemical bond in nature. However, very few of them have been shown to induce the cleavage of its C-O bond and even fewer are those that are able to transform CO into organic reagents with potential in organic synthesis. This work shows that bis(pinacolato)diboron, B2pin2, reacts with ruthenium carbonyl to give metallic complexes containing borylmethylidyne (CBpin) and diborylethyne (pinBC≡CBpin) ligands and also metal-free perborylated C1 and C2 products, such as C(Bpin)4 and C2 (Bpin)6, respectively, which have great potential as building blocks for Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling and other reactions.