The cover picture shows Two efficient intermolecular oxidative coupling reactions of (Z)-enamines with isocyanides via palladium catalysis have been developed. In these transformations, the β-C(sp²)-H and/or C ＝ C bond were cut off selectively by using different anionic ligands, leading to controllable chemodivergent and stereoselective construction of a wide range of (E)β-carbamoylenamine derivatives with intramolecular hydrogen bonds. More details are discussed in the article by Jiang et al. on page 712–715.

The inside cover picture shows Metal-organic layer (MOL), the two-dimensional analog of metal-organic framework (MOF), is a new member of two-dimensional materials. This tutorial review summarizes current synthetic approaches for MOL preparation. More details are discussed in the article by Wang et al. on page 754–764.

The simpler, the better! In the present work, we firstly reported a series of simple and soft salicylaldehyde hydrazide materials (41 samples) that exhibit multiple intramolecular and intermolecular hydrogen bonds promoted ESIPT and AIE properties with large Stokes shifts and can be used as multiple-stimuli-responsive smart materials for many applications in mechanochromism, universal probes, chiral recognition, and living cell imaging.

We report a palladium-catalyzed formal intermolecular [4+2] cycloaddition of benzoic and acrylic acids with 1,3-dienes including the stock chemicals 1,3-butadiene and isoprene leading to synthetically useful 3,4-dihydroisocoumarin and 5,6-dihydrocoumalins. Stepwise C—H bond cleavage and annulation are likely involved in the reaction pathway. The synthetic potential of the methodology was demonstrated by two short derivatizations and total synthesis of natural product Clausamine B.

Herein, two efficient palladium-catalyzed intermolecular oxidative coupling reactions of (Z)-enamines with isocyanides via selective β-C(sp²)-H and/or C=C bond cleavage have been developed. A wide range of (E)-β-carbamoylenamine derivatives containing strong intramolecular hydrogen bonds were constructed in a chemodivergent manner.

Enantioselective α-photoalkylation of β-ketocarbonyls without any external photosensitizer was described, which provided convenient constructions of all-carbon quaternary stereocenters by a chiral primary amine catalyst

Facile transformations of aldehydes with CF₃CHN₂ to CF₃-alkenes and CF₃-hydrazones have been achieved via phosphine-relay strategy.

The novel 3,4-dichloroisothiazole based 1,2,4-trizaole derivatives were designed, synthesized and their in vitro antifungical activities and in vivo anti-TMV activity were evaluated. The bioassay results indicated that compound 6b, namely 1-(3,4-dichloroisothiazol-5-yl)-1-(4-fluorophenyl)-2- (1H-1,2,4-triazol-1-yl)ethanol exhibited both excellent fungicidal activity against B. cinerea, C. arachidicola and P. piricola with EC₅₀ values of 6.98, 2.73 and 3.07 μg/mL, respectively, and more than 60% inactivation and induction anti-TMV activity at 100 μg/mL. Therefore, compound 6b could be a promising fungicidal and anti-TMV candidate worthy of further studies.

In the presence of 5 mol% TfOH and 5 mol% Fe(OTf)₃, a range of arylallenes undergo carbocation initiated cyclization reaction with alcohols to give structurally diverse polysubstituted indenes in good to excellent yields with extremely high regioselectivity.

The palladium catalyzed annulation of 1-bromo-2-vinylbenzene derivatives with internal alkynes was realized for the efficient synthesis of substituted naphthalenes. A controllable aryl to vinylic 1,4-palladium migration process is the key for success.

This tutorial level review focuses on summarizing synthetic strategies for constructing two-dimenisonal metal-organic layers.

The back cover picture shows Two new and rare bioactive indoles named dalesindoloids A (1) and B (3), along with 3-(1H-indole-3ylmethyl)-2-oxindole (2), were characterized from the indole-3-carbinol (I3C)-exposed culture of Daldinia eschscholzii. Dalesindoloids A and B were cytotoxic against the leukemia HL-60 cell line with the IC50 values of 1.0 and 7.4 mol/L, respectively, with the former being inhibitory on Staphylococcus aureus (MIC: 9.1 μmol/L). The simultaneous characterization of the alkaloids from the I3C-exposed fungal culture highlighted that the 2,3-epoxyindoline motif can be transformed into both lactam and indolin-3-one moieties. This is the first-time description of the 2,3-epoxyindoline chemical versatility and Wagner-Meerwein rearrangement (WMR) reaction in the microbial culture. More details are discussed in the article by Tan et al. on page 749–753.