Synthesis of volatile, reactive coinage metal 5,5-bicyclic amidinates with enhanced thermal stability for chemical vapor deposition.

Many microelectronic devices require thin films of silver or gold as wiring layers. We report silver(i) and gold(i) bicyclic amidinate complexes, wherein the constrained ligand geometry lessens the propensity for thermal decomposition. These new volatile compounds provide metallic films of silver and gold during CVD with hydrogen below 230 °C.

Extending the Lifetime of Organic Flow Batteries via Redox State Management.

Redox flow batteries based on quinone-bearing aqueous electrolytes have emerged as promising systems for energy storage from intermittent renewable sources. The lifetime of these batteries is limited by quinone stability. Here, we confirm that 2,6-dihydroxyanthrahydroquinone tends to form an anthrone intermediate that is vulnerable to subsequent irreversible dimerization. We demonstrate quantitatively that this decomposition pathway is responsible for the loss of battery capacity. Computational studies indicate that the driving force for anthrone formation is greater for anthraquinones with lower reduction potentials. We show that the decomposition can be substantially mitigated. We demonstrate that conditions minimizing anthrone formation and avoiding anthrone dimerization slow the capacity loss rate by over an order of magnitude. We anticipate that this mitigation strategy readily extends to other anthraquinone-based flow batteries and is thus an important step toward realizing renewable electricity storage through long-lived organic flow batteries.

UV-Vis spectrophotometry of quinone flow battery electrolyte for in situ monitoring and improved electrochemical modeling of potential and quinhydrone formation.

Quinone-based aqueous flow batteries provide a potential opportunity for large-scale, low-cost energy storage due to their composition from earth abundant elements, high aqueous solubility, reversible redox kinetics and their chemical tunability such as reduction potential. In an operating flow battery utilizing 9,10-anthraquinone-2,7-disulfonic acid, the aggregation of an oxidized quinone and a reduced hydroquinone to form a quinhydrone dimer causes significant variations from ideal solution behavior and of optical absorption from the Beer-Lambert law. We utilize in situ UV-Vis spectrophotometry to establish (a), quinone, hydroquinone and quinhydrone molar attenuation profiles and (b), an equilibrium constant for formation of the quinhydrone dimer (KQHQ) ∼ 80 M-1. We use the molar optical attenuation profiles to identify the total molecular concentration and state of charge at arbitrary mixtures of quinone and hydroquinone. We report density functional theory calculations to support the quinhydrone UV-Vis measurements and to provide insight into the dimerization conformations. We instrument a quinone-bromine flow battery with a Pd-H reference electrode in order to demonstrate how complexation in both the negative (quinone) and positive (bromine) electrolytes directly impacts measured half-cell and full-cell voltages. This work shows how accounting for electrolyte complexation improves the accuracy of electrochemical modeling of flow battery electrolytes.

Alkaline quinone flow battery.

Storage of photovoltaic and wind electricity in batteries could solve the mismatch problem between the intermittent supply of these renewable resources and variable demand. Flow batteries permit more economical long-duration discharge than solid-electrode batteries by using liquid electrolytes stored outside of the battery. We report an alkaline flow battery based on redox-active organic molecules that are composed entirely of Earth-abundant elements and are nontoxic, nonflammable, and safe for use in residential and commercial environments. The battery operates efficiently with high power density near room temperature. These results demonstrate the stability and performance of redox-active organic molecules in alkaline flow batteries, potentially enabling cost-effective stationary storage of renewable energy.

A biocompatible alkene hydrogenation merges organic synthesis with microbial metabolism.

Organic chemists and metabolic engineers use orthogonal technologies to construct essential small molecules such as pharmaceuticals and commodity chemicals. While chemists have leveraged the unique capabilities of biological catalysts for small-molecule production, metabolic engineers have not likewise integrated reactions from organic synthesis with the metabolism of living organisms. Reported herein is a method for alkene hydrogenation which utilizes a palladium catalyst and hydrogen gas generated directly by a living microorganism. This biocompatible transformation, which requires both catalyst and microbe, and can be used on a preparative scale, represents a new strategy for chemical synthesis that combines organic chemistry and metabolic engineering.

Total synthesis of the Isodon diterpene sculponeatin†N.

The total synthesis of sculponeatin N, a bioactive polycyclic diterpene isolated from Isodon sculponeatus, is reported. Key features of the synthesis include diastereoselective Nazarov and ring-closing metathesis reactions, and a highly efficient formation of the bicyclo[3.2.1]octane ring system by a reductive radical cyclization.