The cover picture shows a simple and efficient method to utilize ZrO₂ as a catalytic assistant for the hydrolysis of cellulose to sugar in low acid aqueous system driven by synchronous cooling assisted microwave radiation. Results show the adsorption of ZrO₂ has an obvious influence on the efficiency of the hydrolysis of cellulose to sugar, which is impacted by the surface roughness and particle size. By the use of the ZrO₂ with suitable structure and size, the conversion of treated cellulose and the yield of total reducing sugar respectively reach 95.5% and 93.6%. More details are discussed in the article by Na et al. on page on page 399–405.

Here we report a Rh/Ag-cocatalyzed reaction of propargylic alcohols with organoboronic acids affording stereo-defined (E)-3-arylallylic alcohols via arylmetalation and protodemetalation with a high regio- and stereoselectivity under very mild conditions. The reaction exhibited a good substrate scope and the compatibility of synthetically useful functional groups with no racemization for optically active propargylic alcohols. Such a reaction may also be extended to homopropargylic alcohols with a remarkable regioselectivity and exclusive E-stereoselectivity.

Palladium-catalyzed regioselective 5-exo aminotrifluoromethoxylation of alkenes has been established, providing an efficient route towards the synthesis of OCF₃-containing pyrrolidines. The amino protecting group (Boc) plays a significant role in both the chemo- and regioselectivities. Preliminary mechanistic studies reveal that the amino protecting group of substrates and the counter anion of palladium catalyst play critical roles in reaction efficiency presumably due to an isomerization of alkyl-Pd(II) intermediates. Moreover, the asymmetric 5-exo aminotrifluoromethoxylation reaction has also been achieved by introducing a sterically bulky pyridinyl-oxazoline ligand.

A series of cationic silver(I)-diphosphene oligomers, which exhibit unusual zig-zag topologies with Ag[Al(OR_F)₄] (OR_F = OC(CF₃)₃) as the cationic silver source were reported. In addition, extensive spectroscopic studies, as well as DFT calculations, have been carried out to investigate their electronic structures.

We report a facile room-temperature approach to synthesize the high quality of PbS CQDs. Solar cells based on the as-synthesized PbS CQDs show a preliminary power conversion efficiency of 1.82%.

Pd/H⁺ co-catalyzed cross-coupling of propargylic alcohols with boronic acids has been established for the synthesis of tri- and tetra-substituted allenes with various useful functional groups.

Ir-catalyzed cascade dehydrogenative CH/BH and BH/OH cross-coupling of carboranyl carboxylic acid with readily available benzoic acid has been achieved, leading to the facile synthesis of previously unavailable carborano-coumarin in a simple one-pot process, in which two B—H, one C—H and one O—H bonds are broken, while two new B—C and B—O bonds are formed.

A new and efficient cyclization reaction has been developed to synthesize cyclic α,α-disubstituted β-amino esters via iron-catalyzed intramolecular aminomethyloxygenative cyclization of diazo compounds with N,O-aminal under mild reaction conditions. A broad range of hydroxy-α-diazoesters with different substituents and various N,O-aminals were compatible with this protocol, affording the corresponding α,α-disubstituted β-amino esters bearing a five- to eight-membered oxacycle in good yields.

An electrochemical synthesis of oxazol-2-ones and imidazol-2-ones has been developed via 5-exo-dig cyclization of amidyl radicals. The electrosynthesis relies on the dual functional of 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) as a redox mediator for amidyl radical formation and an oxygen atom donor.

Adjusting the adsorption of ZrO₂ in catalysts effectively achieves the improvement of the hydrolytic efficiency of cellulose to sugar.

Solution NMR methods provide various means for studying the structures, interactions and dynamics of chaperone-client complexes.