Data Mining - Concepts and Techniques.

How to Do Things With Words

Global energy consumption is projected to increase, even in the face of substantial declines in energy intensity, at least 2-fold by midcentury relative to the present because of population and economic growth. This demand could be met, in principle, from fossil energy resources, particularly coal. However, the cumulative nature of CO2 emissions in the atmosphere demands that holding atmospheric CO2 levels to even twice their preanthropogenic values by midcentury will require invention, development, and deployment of schemes for carbon-neutral energy production on a scale commensurate with, or larger than, the entire present-day energy supply from all sources combined. Among renewable energy resources, solar energy is by far the largest exploitable resource, providing more energy in 1 hour to the earth than all of the energy consumed by humans in an entire year. In view of the intermittency of insolation, if solar energy is to be a major primary energy source, it must be stored and dispatched on demand to the end user. An especially attractive approach is to store solar-converted energy in the form of chemical bonds, i.e., in a photosynthetic process at a year-round average efficiency significantly higher than current plants or algae, to reduce land-area requirements. Scientific challenges involved with this process include schemes to capture and convert solar energy and then store the energy in the form of chemical bonds, producing oxygen from water and a reduced fuel such as hydrogen, methane, methanol, or other hydrocarbon species.

/pdf/powering-the-planet-chemical-challenges-in-solar-energy-1kb0jbsg7k.pdf

Powering the planet: Chemical challenges in solar energy utilization

語用論(Pragmatics)を考える

The site-selective formation of carbon-carbon bonds through direct functionalizations of otherwise unreactive carbon-hydrogen bonds constitutes an economically attractive strategy for an overall streamlining of sustainable syntheses. In recent decades, intensive research efforts have led to the development of various reaction conditions for challenging C-H bond functionalizations, among which transition-metal-catalyzed transformations arguably constitute thus far the most valuable tool. For instance, the use of inter alia palladium, ruthenium, rhodium, copper, or iron complexes set the stage for chemo-, site-, diastereo-, and/or enantioselective C-H bond functionalizations. Key to success was generally a detailed mechanistic understanding of the elementary C-H bond metalation step, which depending on the nature of the metal fragment can proceed via several distinct reaction pathways. Traditionally, three different modes of action were primarily considered for CH bond metalations, namely, (i) oxidative addition with electronrich late transition metals, (ii) σ-bond metathesis with early transition metals, and (iii) electrophilic activation with electrondeficient late transition metals (Scheme 1). However, more recent mechanistic studies indicated the existence of a continuum of electrophilic, ambiphilic, and nucleophilic interactions. Within this continuum, detailed experimental and computational analysis provided strong evidence for novel C-H bond metalationmechanisms relying on the assistance of a bifunctional ligand bearing an additional Lewis-basic heteroatom, such as that found in (heteroatom-substituted) secondary phosphine oxides or most prominently carboxylates (Scheme 1, iv). This novel insight into the nature of stoichiometric metalations has served as stimulus for the development of novel transformations based on cocatalytic amounts of carboxylates, which significantly broadened the scope of C-H bond functionalizations in recent years, with most remarkable progress being made in palladiumor ruthenium-catalyzed direct arylations and direct alkylations. These carboxylate-assisted C-H bond transformations were mostly proposed to proceed via a mechanism in which metalation takes place via a concerted base-assisted deprotonation. To mechanistically differentiate these intramolecular metalations new acronyms have recently been introduced into the literature, such as CMD (concerted metalationdeprotonation), IES (internal electrophilic substitution), or AMLA (ambiphilic metal ligand activation), which describe related mechanisms and will be used below where appropriate. This review summarizes the development and scope of carboxylates as cocatalysts in transition-metal-catalyzed C-H functionalizations until autumn 2010. Moreover, experimental and computational studies on stoichiometric metalation reactions being of relevance to the mechanism of these catalytic processes are discussed as well. Mechanistically related C-H bond cleavage reactions with ruthenium or iridium complexes bearing monodentate ligands are, however, only covered with respect to their working mode, and transformations with stoichiometric amounts of simple acetate bases are solely included when their mechanism was suggested to proceed by acetate-assisted metalation.

Carboxylate-assisted transition-metal-catalyzed C-H bond functionalizations: mechanism and scope.

Cleavage of the relatively inert dinitrogen (N(2)) molecule, with its extremely strong N identical withN triple bond, has represented a major challenge to the development of N(2) chemistry. This report describes the reductive cleavage of N(2) to two nitrido (N(3-)) ligands in its reaction with Mo(NRAr)(3), where R is C(CD(3))(2)CH(3) and Ar is 3,5-C(6)H(3)(CH(3))(2'), a synthetic three-coordinate molybdenum(III) complex of known structure. The formation of an intermediate complex was observed spectroscopically, and its conversion (with N identical withN bond cleavage) to the nitrido molybdenum(VI) product N identical withMo(NRAr)(3) followed first-order kinetics at 30 degrees C. It is proposed that the cleavage reaction proceeds by way of an intermediate complex in which N(2) bridges two molybdenum centers.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/268/5212/861.full.pdf

Dinitrogen Cleavage by a Three-Coordinate Molybdenum(III) Complex

Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters.

/pdf/early-transition-metal-mediated-activation-and-1bt9d85leo.pdf

Early-Transition-Metal-Mediated Activation and Transformation of White Phosphorus

The forefront of research into the complexes of uranium reveals chemical transformations that challenge and expand our view of this unique element. Certain ligands form multiple bonds to uranium, and small, inert molecules such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide become reactive when in complex with the metal. Such complexes provide clues to the catalytic future of uranium, in which the applications of the element extend far beyond the nuclear industry. Most excitingly, the ability of uranium to use its outermost f electrons for binding ligands might enable the element to catalyse reactions that are impossible with conventional, transition-metal catalysts.

/pdf/towards-uranium-catalysts-g0ip07bt9l.pdf

Towards uranium catalysts.

The synthesis and characterization of the complexes Mo[N(R)Ar]3 (R = C(CD3)2CH3, Ar = 3,5-C6H3Me2), (μ-N2){Mo[N(R)Ar]3}2, (μ-15N2){Mo[N(R)Ar]3}2, NMo[N(R)Ar]3, 15NMo[N(R)Ar]3, Mo[N(t-Bu)Ph]3, (μ-N2){Mo[N(t-Bu)Ph]3}2, and NMo[N(t-Bu)Ph]3 are described. Temperature-dependent magnetic susceptibility data indicate a quartet ground state for Mo[N(R)Ar]3. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies for Mo[N(R)Ar]3 and NMo[N(t-Bu)Ph]3 are described. Extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) structural studies for Mo[N(R)Ar]3, (μ-N2){Mo[N(R)Ar]3}2, and NMo[N(R)Ar]3 are reported. Temperature-dependent kinetic data are given for the unimolecular fragmentation of (μ-N2){Mo[N(R)Ar]3}2 to 2 equiv of NMo[N(R)Ar]3 and for the fragmentation of (μ-15N2){Mo[N(R)Ar]3}2 to 2 equiv of 15NMo[N(R)Ar]3. The temperature dependence of the 15N2 isotope effect for the latter N2 cleavage process was fitted to a simple harmonic model, leading to a prediction for the difference in NN stretching frequencies for the two isotopomers. ...

Christopher C. Cummins

Papers

Dinitrogen Cleavage by a Three-Coordinate Molybdenum(III) Complex

Early-Transition-Metal-Mediated Activation and Transformation of White Phosphorus

Towards uranium catalysts.

Dinitrogen cleavage by three-coordinate molybdenum(III) complexes: Mechanistic and structural data

Methane and benzene activation via transient (tert-Bu3SiNH)2Zr:NSi-tert-Bu3