The transition metal-catalyzed “cut and sew” transformation has recently emerged as a useful strategy for preparing complex molecular structures. After oxidative addition of a transition metal into a carbon–carbon bond, the resulting two carbon termini can be both functionalized in one step via the following migratory insertion and reductive elimination with unsaturated units, such as alkenes, alkynes, allenes, CO and polar multiple bonds. Three- or four-membered rings are often employed as reaction partners due to their high ring strains. The participation of non-strained structures generally relies on cleavage of a polar carbon–CN bond or assistance of a directing group.

The copper(II)-catalyzed aerobic oxidative coupling reaction between aryl boronic acids and aniline derivatives was found to be improved significantly under visible-light-mediated photoredox catalysis. The substrate scope of this oxidative Chan-Lam reaction was thus expanded to include electron-deficient aryl boronic acids as viable starting materials.

The combined use of an iridium-based photocatalyst and a copper salt under blue light emitting diode irradiation enables the Ullmann-type C-N cross-coupling reaction between carbazole derivatives and aryl iodides to proceed under mild conditions.

Water-soluble anthraquinones (AQs) hold great promise serving as redox-active species in aqueous organic flow batteries. Systematic investigations into how the properties of redox molecules depend on the water-solubilizing groups (WSGs) and the way in which they are bound to the redox core are, however, still lacking. We introduce WSGs linked to anthraquinone by CC bonds via a cross-coupling reaction and convert CC to C−C bonds through hydrogenation. The anthraquinone and the WSGs are connected via (un)branched chains with (un)saturated bonds. We investigate the influence of chains and ionic ending groups on the redox potentials of the molecules and identify three important trends: (1) The electron-withdrawing ending groups can affect the redox potentials of AQs with two unsaturated hydrocarbons on the chains through π-conjugation. (2) For chains with two (un)saturated straight hydrocarbons, WSGs increase the redox potentials of the AQs in the order PO 3 2− < CO 2 − < SO 3 − . (3) AQs with (un)saturated chains at high pH possess desirably low redox potentials, high solubilities, and high stability. Disproportionation leads to the formation of anthrone, which can be regenerated to anthraquinone. Tautomerization results in the saturation of alkene chains, stabilizing the structure. We utilize these observations to identify a potentially low-cost and long-lifetime negative electrolyte that demonstrates a temporal fade rate as low as 0.0128%/day when paired with a potassium ferrocyanide positive electrolyte.

An extremely stable, energy-dense (53.6 Ah L −1 , 2 m transferrable electrons), low crossover (permeability of <1 × 10 −13 cm 2 s −1 using Nafion 212 (Nafion is a trademark polymer from DuPont)), and potentially inexpensive anthraquinone with 2-2-propionate ether anthraquinone structure (abbreviated 2-2PEAQ) is synthesized and extensively evaluated under practically relevant conditions for use in the negolyte of an aqueous redox flow battery. 2-2PEAQ shows a high stability with a fade rate of 0.03-0.05% per day at different applied current densities, cut-off voltage windows, and concentrations (0.1 and 1.0 m) in both a full cell paired with a ferro/ferricyanide posolyte as well as a symmetric cell. 2-2PEAQ is further shown to have extreme long-term stability, losing only ≈0.01% per day when an electrochemical rejuvenation strategy is employed. From post-mortem analysis (nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), and cyclic voltammetry (CV)) two degradation mechanisms are deduced: side chain loss and anthrone formation. 2-2PEAQ with the ether linkages attached on carbons non-adjacent to the central ring is found to have three times lower fade rate compared to its isomer with ether linkages on the carbon adjacent to the central quinone ring. The present study introduces a viable negolyte candidate for grid-scale aqueous organic redox flow batteries.