Lattice nitrogen within the catalyst Co₃Mo₃N is both reactive and likely highly mobile, enabling potential novel nitrogen transfer pathways; evidence suggests that loss and subsequent regain of lattice nitrogen in the system reversibly cycles through the previously unknown nitride, Co₆Mo₆N.

Cobalt-Tetraamide-Phthalocyanine (CoTaPc) immobilized onto magnetic Fe₃O₄ chitosan microspheres (Fe₃O₄/CTO) was synthesized via a simple immersion method, which is an efficient catalyst for the oxidation of cyclic ketones to lactones with O₂/benzaldehyde as the oxidant. The CoTaPc-Fe₃O₄/CTO catalyst was applied for the first time in the Baeyer–Villiger (B–V) oxidation reaction. Characterization results obtained from X-ray diffraction, UV–vis, Fourier transform infrared, and scanning electron microscopy showed that the combination of CoTaPc and magnetic Fe₃O₄/CTO microspheres was achieved. The catalyst could be easily separated from the reaction system with an external magnet and reused several times without the remarkable loss of activity. In addition, a possible radical mechanism for the B–V oxidation in this catalytic system is proposed and verified by controlled experiments.

Triphenylphosphine oxide (TPPO) and oxalyl chloride ((COCl) ₂ ) are used as novel and high-efficiency coupling reagents for the esterification of alcohols with carboxylic acids via the TPPO/(COCl) ₂ system at room temperature for 1 h. The reaction represents the first TPPO-promoted esterification under mild and neutral conditions with excellent yields. Furthermore, we proposed a plausible mechanism with the help of ³¹ P NMR spectroscopy.