Highly porous foams based on graphene oxide functionalized with polyethylenimine are generated and used with unprecedented efficiency for adsorbing heavy metal ions. A multiscale analysis of the GO–BPEI nanocomposite provided evidence for the covalent grafting of BPEI on GO and the formation of low crystalline porous foams. The uptake experiments revealed that the GO–BPEI's adsorption of toxic cations is strongly dependent on the pH in range from 2 to 10, as a result of the different interactions at the supramolecular level between the metal ions and the GO–BPEI foam. The maximum uptake capacities for Cu(II), Cd(II) and Pb(II) are achieved at pH = 5 and exhibit values as high as 1096, 2051 and 3390 mg g⁻¹, respectively, being ca. over 20 times greater than standard sorbents like activated carbon. The GO–BPEI composite can be easily regenerated as proven by performing adsorption cycles. Also, the thermodynamic parameters including standard Gibbs free energy (ΔG^o), the enthalpy change (ΔH^o) and entropy change (ΔS^o) revealed the exothermic and spontaneous nature of the adsorption process.

Recent advances in ruthenium-catalysed hydrosilylation of C–C multiple bonds and its application to organic synthesis are highlighted.

Towards the introduction of fast faradaic pseudocapacitive behavior and the increase of the specific capacitance of carbon-based electrodes, we have covalently functionalized graphene oxide with a redox active thiourea-formaldehyde polymer yield-ing a multifunctional hybrid system. The multiscale physical and chemical characterization of the novel 3-dimensional hy-brid revealed high material’s porosity with high specific surface area (402 m2 g−1) and homogeneous element distribution. The presence of multiple functional groups comprising sulphur, nitrogen and oxygen, provide additional contribution of Faradic redox reaction in supercapacity performance, leading to a high effective electrochemical pseudocapacitance. Signifi-cantly, our graphene-based 3-dimensional thiourea-formaldehyde hybrid (G3DTF) exhibited specific capacitance as high as 400 F g−1, areal capacitance of 160 mF cm−2 and an energy density of 11.1 mWh cm−3 at scan rate of 1 mV s−1 with great capacitance retention (100%) after 5000 cycles at scan rate of 100 mV s−1.

A bench-stable cobalt(II) complex, with 3N-donor socket-type benzimidazole-imine-2H-imidazole ligand is reported as a precatalyst for regioselective hydrosilylation of terminal alkynes. Both aromatic and aliphatic alkynes could be effectively hydrosilylated with primary, secondary, and tertiary silane to give α-vinylsilanes in high yields with excellent Markovnikov selectivity and extensive functional-group tolerance. Catalyst loading varies within 0.5–0.05 mol %, which is one of the most efficient reported so far in the literature on cobalt-catalyzed alkyne hydrosilylation.