Urea derivatives are obtained in mild to good yield from the reactions of primary aliphatic amines with CO₂ in the absence of any catalysts, organic solvents or other additives. To optimize reaction conditions, experimental variables including temperature, pressure, the concentration of amine, reaction time etc. were studied. Satisfactory yields were obtained at the optimized conditions that are comparable to the presence of catalyst and solvent. The preliminary investigation of the reaction mechanism showed that alkyl ammonium alkyl carbamate was quickly formed as the intermediate, and then the final product was formed by the intramolecular dehydration.

Uniform flowerlike Ni₇S₆ nanostructures composed of nanopetals with sharp tips have been synthesized by a mild hydrothermal method. On the basis of a series of contrast experiments, a probable growth mechanism and fabrication process of the flowerlike products was proposed. The catalytic performances of the as-synthesized samples were tested in selective hydrogenation of chloronitrobezene. Compared with other nickel sulfide samples with different morphologies and structures, flowerlike Ni₇S₆ samples show much higher activity and selectivity in the hydrogenations of nitrobenzene and chloronitrobenzenes with different chlorine substituent site. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that uniform flower-like Ni₇S₆ with high selectivity to nitro group have been synthesized in solution.

The CO-releasing materials (CORMats) are used as substances for producing CO molecules for therapeutic purposes. Carbon monoxide (CO) imparts toxic effects to biological organisms at higher concentration. If this characteristic is utilized in a controlled manner, it can act as a cell-signaling agent for important pathological and pharmacokinetic functions; hence offering many new applications and treatments. Recently, research on therapeutic applications using the CO treatment has gained much attention due to its nontoxic nature, and its injection into the human body using several conjugate systems. Mainly, there are two types of CO insertion techniques into the human body, i.e., direct and indirect CO insertion. Indirect CO insertion offers an advantage of avoiding toxicity as compared to direct CO insertion. For the indirect CO inhalation method, developers are facing certain problems, such as its inability to achieve the specific cellular targets and how to control the dosage of CO. To address these issues, researchers have adopted alternative strategies regarded as CO-releasing molecules (CORMs). CO is covalently attached with metal carbonyl complexes (MCCs), which generate various CORMs such as CORM-1, CORM-2, CORM-3, ALF492, CORM-A1 and ALF186. When these molecules are inserted into the human body, CO is released from these compounds at a controlled rate under certain conditions or/and triggers. Such reactions are helpful in achieving cellular level targets with a controlled release of the CO amount. However on the other hand, CORMs also produce a metal residue (termed as i-CORMs) upon degradation that can initiate harmful toxic activity inside the body. To improve the performance of the CO precursor with the restricted development of i-CORMs, several new CORMats have been developed such as micellization, peptide, vitamins, MOFs, polymerization, nanoparticles, protein, metallodendrimer, nanosheet and nanodiamond, etc. In this review article, we shall describe modern ways of CO administration; focusing primarily on exclusive features of CORM’s tissue accumulations and their toxicities. This report also elaborates on the kinetic profile of the CO gas. The comprehension of developmental phases of CORMats shall be useful for exploring the ideal CO therapeutic drugs in the future of medical sciences.