with details of the nature of the infringement. We will investigate the claim and if justified, we will take the appropriate steps.

W ith molecular hydrogen being one of the cleanest reducing agents, catalytic hydrogenation using the more noble transition metals is among the most studied of all chemical processes 1 . Increasing social pressure towards a sustainable society, however, dictates replacement of costly, and often harmful, precious metals by more abundant first-row transition metals or even biocompatible redox inactive main group metals [2][3][4][5][6] . The alkaline earth metal calcium does not possess partially filled d orbitals for substrate activation, but has recently shown catalytic activities in the hydrogenation of C= C double bonds with molecular H 2 (ref. 7 ). Although restricted to conjugated C= C bonds, this example strikingly broke the dogma that transition metals are needed for alkene hydrogenation. This was followed by the development of metal-free frustrated Lewis pair (FLP) catalysts [8][9][10][11] and, most recently, cationic calcium hydride catalysts that are also able to hydrogenate unactivated alkenes 12 . Figure 1a shows a working hypothesis for styrene hydrogenation with a dibenzylcalcium catalyst (CaBn 2 ) 7 . The first step is the generation of a calcium hydride species, for which ample precedence exists [13][14][15][16][17] . Further reaction with H 2 may cause precipitation of insoluble (CaH 2 ) n , but catalyst loss is partly prevented by aggregation to soluble but undefined Ca x Bn y H z species. Despite a lack of d orbitals, alkene activation proceeds through a weak electrostatic calciumalkene interaction, recently shown to be of importance in calcium catalysis 18 . The benzylic calcium intermediate formed after insertion may, after successive styrene insertions, form polystyrene 19 , but high H 2 pressure (20-100 bar) can prevent this side reaction by promoting σ-bond metathesis. The latter step in the cycle is, like the initiation reaction, formally a deprotonation of H 2 by a resonance-stabilized benzylic carbanion. Considering the high pK a of H 2 (≈ 49) 20 , this reaction seemed questionable. Stoichiometric conversions of model systems, however, underscored the feasibility of this pathway 7 . Independent theoretical calculations illustrate that the final σ-bond metathesis step is indeed highly endergonic: Gibbs free energy of activation Δ G ‡ (60 °C, 20 bar) = 25.7 kcal mol −1 (ref. 21 ).As the highly atom-efficient catalytic reduction of imines by H 2 received much less attention than alkene or ketone hydrogenation [22][23][24] , it remained an important question whether calcium-catalysed hydrogenation can be extended to imine reduction. Current stateof-the-art imine hydrogenation catalysts can be divided into four categories that vary in terms of substrate activation and nucleophilic power ( Fig. 2a-d). Figure 2a shows organometallic metal hydrides that rely on hydride nucleophilicity. Apart from few early transition metal catalysts (Ti 25 , lanthanides 26 ), these are generally based on late transition metals (Rh, Ir) 22 . The aluminium hydride compound (iso-butyl) 2 AlH is an odd example of a ...

Noncovalent interactions involving aromatic rings, such as π-stacking and CH/π interactions, are central to many areas of modern chemistry. However, recent studies proved that aromaticity is not required for stacking interactions, since similar interaction energies were computed for several aromatic and aliphatic dimers. Herein, the nature and origin of π/π, σ/σ, and σ/π dispersion interactions has been investigated by using dispersion-corrected density functional theory, energy decomposition analysis, and the recently developed noncovalent interaction (NCI) method. Our analysis shows that π/π and σ/σ stacking interactions are equally important for the benzene and cyclohexane dimers, explaining why both compounds have similar boiling points. Also, similar dispersion forces are found in the benzene⋅⋅⋅methane and cyclohexane⋅⋅⋅methane complexes. However, for systems larger than naphthalene, there are enhanced stacking interactions in the aromatic dimers adopting a parallel-displaced configuration compared to the analogous saturated systems. Although dispersion plays a decisive role in stabilizing all the complexes, the origin of the π/π, σ/σ, and σ/π interactions is different. The NCI method reveals that the dispersion interactions between the hydrogen atoms are responsible for the surprisingly strong aliphatic interactions. Moreover, whereas σ/σ and σ/π interactions are local, the π/π stacking are inherently delocalized, which give rise to a non-additive effect. These new types of dispersion interactions between saturated groups can be exploited in the rational design of novel carbon materials.

In recent years, a considerable interest has grown in the design of molecular nanowires with an increasing conductance with length. The development of such nanowires is highly desirable because they could play an important role in future molecular-scale circuitry. Whereas the first experimental observation of this nonclassical behavior still has to be realized, a growing number of candidate wires have been proposed theoretically. In this Letter, we point out that all the wires with an anti-Ohmic increasing conductance with length proposed so far share a common characteristic: their diradical character increases with length. The conceptual connection between diradical character and conductance enables a systematic design of such anti-Ohmic wires and explains the difficulty in their syntheses. A strategy is proposed to balance the stability and conductance so that this nonclassical phenomenon can be observed.

We show in this work that conjugated π-electron molecular chains can, in quite specific and understood circumstances, become more conductive the longer they get, in contradiction to what would be expected intuitively. The analysis, done in the framework of the source and sink potential method, and supported by detailed transmission calculations, begins by defining "relative transmission," an inherent measure of molecular conduction. This, in turn, for conjugated hydrocarbons, is related to a simple molecular orbital expression-the ratio of secular determinants of a molecule and one where the electrode contacts are deleted-and a valence bond idea, since these secular determinants can alternatively be expressed in terms of Kekulé structures. A plausible argument is given for relating the relative transmission to the weight of the diradical resonance structures in the resonance hybrid for a molecule. Chemical intuition can then be used to tune the conductivity of molecules by "pushing" them towards more or less diradical character. The relationship between relative transmission (which can rise indefinitely) and molecular transmission is carefully analyzed-there is a sweet spot here for engineering molecular devices. These new insights enable the rationalization of a wide variety of experimental and theoretical results for π-conjugated alternant hydrocarbons, especially the striking difference between extended oligophenylenes and related quinoid chains. In this context, oligo-p-phenylene macrocycles emerge as a potential molecular switch.