Phosphine-Built-in Porous Organic Cage for Stabilization and Boosting the Catalytic Performance of Palladium Nanoparticles in Cross-Coupling of Aryl Halides

Herein, we report first a novel phosphine-containing porous organic cage (PPOC) from a [2 + 3] self-assembly of triphenyl phosphine-based trialdehyde and (S,S)-1,2-diaminocyclohexane via dynamic imine chemistry, which was employed as a porous material for the controlled growth of palladium nanoparticles (NPs) due to the strong affinity of Pd to the phosphine ligand based on the principle of hard and soft acids and bases. Comprehensive characterizations including X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, NMR, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveal that ultrafine Pd NPs with narrow size distribution (1.7 ± 0.3 nm) and enhanced surface electronic density via a strong interaction between NPs and phosphine were homogeneously dispersed in the PPOC. The resultant catalyst Pd@PPOC exhibits remarkably superior catalytic activities for various cross-coupling reactions of aryl halides, for example, Sonogashira, Suzuki, Heck, and carbonylation. The catalytic activity of Pd@PPOC outperforms the state-of-the-art Pd complexes and other Pd NPs supported on N-containing porous cages under identical conditions, owing to the enhanced surface electronic density of Pd NPs and their high stability and dispersibility in solution. More importantly, Pd@PPOC is highly stable and easily recycled and reused without loss of their catalytic activity. This work provides a new functional POC with extended potentials in catalysis and material science.

A pincer ligand enabled ruthenium catalyzed highly selective N-monomethylation of nitroarenes with methanol as the C1 source

A straightforward and highly selective N-monomethylation of nitroarenes with methanol as the C1 source was developed.

An NNN-Pincer-Cobalt Complex Catalyzed Highly Markovnikov-Selective Alkyne Hydrosilylation

A new NNN pincer (amine-pyridine-imine, API) cobalt complex, which is bench-stable and is applicable for the highly efficient and regioselective hydrosilylation of terminal alkynes, is developed. A broad set of α-vinylsilanes was successfully synthesized in good to high yields with up to 98/2 Markovnikov regioselectivity. This protocol can be readily scaled up for gram-scale synthesis and demonstrates the most efficient cobalt-catalyzed hydrosilylation of alkynes with turnover frequencies as high as 126 720 h^-1 to date.

Contamination of anaesthetic tubing--a real hazard?

This study aimed to find whether a patient placed on an anaesthetic machine could contaminate the tubing resulting in possible cross-infection to subsequent patients. Twenty randomly chosen anaesthetic circuits were collected after use during operations and cultured for bacteria and fungi. These were compared with ten circuits which had been washed and dried. Another ten washed circuits were attached to an anaesthetic machine and each circulated with air for four hours before similar cultures were performed. No accepted respiratory pathogens were found contaminating the tubing in any of the above situations. Cleaned circuits purposely seeded with either 'viridans streptococci' or staphylococcal bacteriophage were attached to an anaesthetic machine, the other end being held over an air sampler to collect organisms which might be blown out. Seeded tubing did not contaminate the air passing through it, demonstrating that dry anaesthetic gases do not facilitate pick-up and carriage of microorganisms.