Photocatalytic Hydrogenation of Alkenes Using Water as Both the Reductant and the Proton Source.

Utilization of clean and low-cost water as the reductant to enable hydrogenation of alkenes is highly attractive in green chemistry. However, this research subject is considerably challenging due to the sluggish kinetics of the water oxidation half-reaction. It is also very difficult to avoid the undesired oxidation of alkenes because that this oxidation is far easier to occur than the desired oxidation of water from thermodynamic standpoint.

Coupling photocatalytic water oxidation with reductive transformations of organic molecules.

The utilization of readily available and non-toxic water by photocatalytic water splitting is highly attractive in green chemistry. Herein we report that light-induced oxidative half-reaction of water splitting is effectively coupled with reduction of organic compounds, which provides a light-induced avenue to use water as an electron donor to enable reductive transformations of organic substances. The present strategy allows various aryl bromides to undergo smoothly the reductive coupling with Pd/g-CN* as the photocatalyst, giving a pollutive reductant-free method for synthesizing biaryl skeletons.

Cu O-Catalyzed Conversion of Benzyl Alcohols Into Aromatic Nitriles via the Complete Cleavage of the C≡N Triple Bond in the Cyanide Anion.

Nitrogen transfer from cyanide anion to an aldehyde is emerging as a promising method for the synthesis of aromatic nitriles. However, this method still suffers from a disadvantage that a use of stoichiometric Cu(II) or Cu(I) salts is required to enable the reaction. As we report herein, we overcame this drawback and developed a catalytic method for nitrogen transfer from cyanide anion to an alcohol via the complete cleavage of the C≡N triple bond using phen/Cu O as the catalyst.

Density Functional Study of Trimetallic AuPdPt (x + y + z = 7) Clusters and Their Interactions with the O Molecule.

Density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate the structural and energetic properties of trimetallic AuPdPt clusters with x + y + z = 7. The possible stable geometrical configurations with their electronic states are determined. We analyze the chemical order, binding energies, vertical ionization potential, electron affinity, and HOMO-LUMO gaps as a function of the whole concentration range.

A theoretical investigation of the interactions between hydroxyl-functionalized ionic liquid and water/methanol/dimethyl sulfoxide.

Density functional calculations have been used to investigate the interactions of 1-(2-hydroxyethyl)-3-methylimidazolium ([C2OHmim](+))-based ionic liquids (hydroxyl ILs) with water (H2O), methanol (CH3OH), and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). It was found that the cosolvent molecules interact with the anion and cation of each ionic liquid through different atoms, i.e.

Density functional study of molecular nitrogen adsorption on gold-copper and gold-silver binary clusters.

Density functional theory calculations were performed to investigate the adsorption behaviors of nitrogen molecule on small bimetallic AunCum and AunAgm clusters, with n + m ≤ 5. In all cases the N2 forms a linear or quasi-linear M-N-N structure (M = Au, Cu or Ag). The adsorption energies of N2 on pure metal clusters follow the order CunN2 > AunN2 > AgnN2, which is due to the weaker orbital interaction between silver and N2.

Quantitative counting of single fluorescent molecules by combined electrochemical adsorption accumulation and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy.

We developed an ultrasensitive quantitative single-molecule imaging method for fluorescent molecules using a combination of electrochemical adsorption accumulation and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM). We chose rhodamine 6G (R6G, fluorescence dye) or goat anti-rat IgG(H+L) (IgG(H+L)-488), a protein labeled by Alexa Fluor 488 or DNA labeled by 6- CR6G (DNA-R6G) as the model molecules. The fluorescent molecules were accumulated on a light transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) conductive microscope coverslip using electrochemical adsorption in a stirred solution.