The cover picture shows a protocol of a palladium-catalyzed arylation of vinylarenes with diaryliodonium salts with the assistance of visible light. A palladium-vinylarene complex may be excited via the visible light irradiation, where the kinetic isotope effect (k_H/k_D) was around 1.1. However under darkness, the reaction proceeded very slowly, and the kinetic isotope was found as 3.6, indicating the C—H bond cleavage step is the rate-determining step. This protocol avoided high reaction temperature and enabled us to access a series of ortho tetra-substituted vinylarene atropisomers with high enantiospecificity. More details are discussed in the article by Gu et al. on page 11–14.

Palladium-catalyzed vinyl C–H functionalization with diaryliodonium was promoted by the irradiation of visible light. Under darkness the C–H activation step is the rate determining step, and kinetic isotope effect (KIE) is around 3.6. With the aid of visible light, the C–H activation step was significantly accelerated and KIE was changed to 1.1.

A highly regio-, diastereo- and enantioselective addition of 2-acyl imidazoles or 2-acyl pyridines with allenes promoted by Rh/Lewis acid synergistically catalytic system is described which leads to the formation of the branched allylic alkylated products including acyclic quaternary all-carbon stereogenic centres in good yields with good to excellent diastereo- and enantioselectivities.

A polymeric nanocomposite probe for simultaneous fluorescence and ¹⁹F magnetic resonance dual-modality imaging has been fabricated by means of integrating the hydrophobic fluorescence organic core with the hydrophilic fluorinated copolymer shell, which demonstrates high water stability, good biocompatibility, strong fluorescence and excellent ¹⁹F MRI performance.

This manuscript describes a new kind of photocatalyst Cu/FTO prepared by electrodeposition method. The morphology of Cu on FTO can be nanoparticle, nanoslices or nanodendrites which varied with the depositing potential. Cu/FTO presented stable photocatalytic H₂ evolution ability. Electrodeposition potential and time have a significant effect on the amount of H₂ evolution.

A novel Pt/Cu-zeolite A/graphene based electrocatalyst was successfully prepared by chemical reduction method for methanol electrooxidation. The upper and lower left are SEMs of Cu-ZEA, RGO and Pt/Cu-ZEA/RGO, respectively. The lower right is CVs of Pt/RGO/GCE (a), Pt/ZEA/RGO (b) and Pt/Cu-ZEA/RGO/GCE (c) at 0.5 V in 0.10 mol/L H₂SO₄ + 0.50 mol/L CH₃OH solution.

Two rosamine-based pH probes 1a and 1b exhibit near OFF–ON fluorescence responses around 550–750 nm towards the hydrogen ions. Protonation and deprotonation processes between phenolate and phenol within rosamine were evaluated. The pK_a of the probe 1a is 8.29, while that of the probe 1b increases to 12.1 because of the hydrogen bond inside it. And probe 1a was found to be a mitochondria biomarker for HeLa and Ges-1 cells.

Copper catalyzed enantioselective [4 + 2] annulations of D-A cyclobutanes and aldehydes have been developed, leading to the corresponding products with various functional groups in 41%–99% yields with >99/1 dr and 90%–96% ee.

Zeolite antireflective (ZAR) coatings have been successfully prepared by LBL assembly method with silicalite-1 nano-crystals and polyelectrolyte, followed by calcination to eliminate the organic component. A superhydrophobic ZAR coating can be obtained by chemical modification. The present work demonstrates that zeolites are excellent materials for highly transparent superhydrophobic coatings.

Highly regiodivergent copper-catalyzed allylic/propargylic difluoromethylation reactions by employing different ligands are described. When 5,6-dimethyl-1,10-phenanthroline was used as the ligand, exclusively α-difluoromethylated products were obtained, while γ-selective difluoromethylated products were generated when N-heterocyclic carbene-SIPr was used as the ligand. Likewise, high α- vs. γ-selectivities were achieved in the presence of similar copper catalysts for the reactions of propargyl bromides.

The host−guest complexation between a water-soluble pillar[7]arene and a 2,7-diazapyrenium salt was studied. Based on this novel recognition motif, a pH-responsive supra-amphiphile was successfully fabricated. Its controllable self-assembly in water was also investigated.

Lanthanide borates containing Ga(III), Ge(IV), Sb(V) or Te(VI), and lanthanide oxyanions of lone pair cations, such as I(V), Se(IV) and Te(IV), were reviewed. The connectivity style of the Ln polyhedra is miscellaneous. Compounds with multifunction, such as magnetic, photoluminescent and SHG properties, were found in these systems.