There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

Catalysis by transition metal complexes of alkene silylation – recent progress and mechanistic implications

Bromination is one of the most important transformations in organic synthesis and can be carried out using bromine and many other bromo compounds. Use of molecular bromine in organic synthesis is well-known. However, due to the hazardous nature of bromine, enormous growth has been witnessed in the past several decades for the development of solid bromine carriers. This review outlines the use of bromine and different bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis. The applications of bromine, a total of 107 bromo-organic compounds, 11 other brominating agents, and a few natural bromine sources were incorporated. The scope of these reagents for various organic transformations such as bromination, cohalogenation, oxidation, cyclization, ring-opening reactions, substitution, rearrangement, hydrolysis, catalysis, etc. has been described briefly to highlight important aspects of the bromo-organic compounds in organic synthesis.

Use of Bromine and Bromo-Organic Compounds in Organic Synthesis

Graphene oxide-based materials for efficient removal of heavy metal ions from aqueous solution: A review.

The palladium catalysed cross-coupling of organosilicon reagents with organo halides and pseudo-halides has developed over the past 30 years into an efficient and attractive carbon–carbon bond forming strategy. Extensive research within this field to expand and diversify on the scope of the organosilicon coupling reaction will continue to promote its use in the synthesis of biologically and pharmaceutically important organic molecules. The recent advances made within this area are explored in this critical review (199 references).

Palladium-catalysed cross-coupling of organosilicon reagents

Comprehensive studies on platinum-catalyzed hydrosilylation of a wide range of terminal and internal alkynes with spherosilicate (HSiMe2 O)8 Si8 O12 (1 a) were performed. The influence of the reaction parameters and the types of reagents and catalysts on the efficiency of the process, which enabled the creation of a versatile and selective method to synthesize olefin octafunctionalized octaspherosilicates, was studied in detail. Within this work, twenty novel 1,2-(E)-disubstituted and 1,1,2-(E)-trisubstituted alkenyl-octaspherosilicates (3 a-m, 6 n-t) were selectively obtained with high yields, and fully characterized (1 H, 13 C, 29 Si NMR, FTIR, MALDI TOF or TOF MS ES+ analysis). Moreover, the molecular structure of the compound (Me3 Si(H)C=C(H)SiMe2 O)8 Si8 O12 (3 a) was determined by X-ray crystallography for the first time. The developed procedures are the first that allow selective hydrosilylation of terminal silyl, germyl, aryl, and alkyl alkynes with 1 a, as well as the direct introduction of sixteen functional groups into the 1 a structure by the hydrosilylation of internal alkynes. This method constituted a powerful tool for the synthesis of hyperbranched compounds with a Si-O based cubic core. The resulting products, owing to their unique structure and physicochemical properties, are considered novel, multifunctional, hybrid, and nanometric building blocks, intended for the synthesis of star-shaped molecules or macromolecules, as well as nanofillers and polymer modifiers. In the presented syntheses, commercially available reagents and catalysts were used, so these methods can be easily repeated, rapidly scaled up, and widely applied.

Selective Hydrosilylation of Alkynes with Octaspherosilicate (HSiMe2O)8Si8O12

New organoplatinum (IV) complex with quaterpyridine ligand: Synthesis, structure and its catalytic activity in the hydrosilylation of styrene and terminal alkynes

Ruthenium-catalyzed silylation of 1,3-butadienes with vinylsilanes.

New phenylene–silylene–ethylene polymers have been successfully synthesized using platinum–divinylsiloxane or rhodium and iridium siloxide complex-catalysed polyhydrosilylation of divinylsubstituted carbosilanes with dihydrocarbosilanes or intermolecular hydrosilylation of new hydrovinylcarbosilane. Polycarbosilanes have been obtained with high molecular weights. They seem to be potential parent substances for future applications as preceramic and membrane materials. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Piotr Pawluć

Papers

Selective Hydrosilylation of Alkynes with Octaspherosilicate (HSiMe2O)8Si8O12

New organoplatinum (IV) complex with quaterpyridine ligand: Synthesis, structure and its catalytic activity in the hydrosilylation of styrene and terminal alkynes

Ruthenium-catalyzed silylation of 1,3-butadienes with vinylsilanes.

Synthesis of phenylene–silylene–ethylene polymers via transition metal complex catalyzed hydrosilylation polymerization

Manganese-Catalyzed C(sp2)‒H Borylation of Furan and Thiophene Derivatives