By applying water as the reaction medium, the one-pot synthesis of 1,2-disubstituted benzimidazoles has been achieved in excellent efficiency and selectivity at room temperature viatrimethylsilyl chloride promoted reaction of o-phenylenediamine with aldehyde. This green catalyst system has also been successfully extended to the synthesis of quinoxalines via the reaction of o-phenylenediamine with α-bromoketone. Water displayed a specific functionality in mediating the selectivity, and remarkable advantages over organic solvents in terms of yields as well as in the work up procedure of the reactions.

An efficient method for the direct coupling of thiol/thiophenol with H-phosphine oxides or H-phosphinate esters is reported. Without using any metallic catalyst, the direct sulfur–phosphorus bond coupling reaction was promoted using tert-butyl peroxybenzoate in the presence of KI at room temperature. Consequently, thiophosphinate/phosphonothioate was produced in moderate to excellent yields.

The oxygen-containing functional groups in disordered carbon anodes have been widely reported to influence the Na storage performance. However, the effect of original oxygen-containing groups in the precursors on the final structures and electrochemical performance is rarely studied. Herein, we used the anthraquinone derivatives with different oxygen-containing functional groups as precursors to make the disordered carbon anodes for Na-ion batteries (NIBs). Through comprehensive structural and electrochemical analyses, we found that the different types of functional groups in carbon precursors directly affect the cross-linking process during carbonization. The original precursors containing enough inter-chain oxygen or oxygen-containing functional groups with unsaturated bonds unattached to the ring are beneficial for the oxygen atoms to remain or cross-link in structure to result in more C–O–C group, forming nanovoids and disordered structure, which then determine the high performance of the carbon anodes in NIBs. This work highlights the importance of the type/content of functional groups in precursor and provides guidance for the future design of carbon anodes in NIBs from the perspective of precursor selection.

A novel and facile cascade Biginelli-like assembly employing enaminone, aldehyde and urea/thiourea has been developed, which provides a highly chemo- and regioselective synthesis of new dihydropyrimidinones, 1,3-thiazines and chromones by altering particular functional groups in the reactants.