Role of Defects on Regioselectivity of Nano Pristine Graphene.

Here analytical Fukui functions based on density functional theory are applied to investigate the redox reactivity of pristine and defected graphene lattices. A carbon H-terminated graphene structure (with 96 carbon atoms) and a graphene defected surface with Stone-Wales rearrangement and double vacancy defects are used as models. Pristine sp2-hybridized, hexagonal arranged carbon atoms exhibit a symmetric reactivity. In contrast, common carbon atoms at reconstructed polygons in Stone-Wales and double vacancy graphene display large reactivity variations. The improved reactivity and the regioselectivity at defected graphene is correlated to structural changes that caused carbon-carbon bond length variations at defected zones.

Synthesis and electrochemical reactivity of molybdenum dicarbonyl supported by a redox-active α-diimine ligand.

Low-valent molybdenum dicarbonyl complexes with a diazabutadiene [(mes)DAB(R); [ArN═C(R)C(R)═NAr]; Ar = 2,4,6-trimethylphenyl (mes), R = H or CH3] ligand have been synthesized and fully characterized. The title complexes exhibit elongated DAB C-N and shortened C-C bond lengths over the free ligand and other zerovalent molybdenum complexes of DAB. Compared to known examples theoretically described as iminato π-radicals (L(•-)), the oxidation state assignment fits a molybdenum(II) description. However, Mo K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy indicates that the complexes are best described as molybdenum(0). This example demonstrates that caution should be exercised in assigning the oxidation state based on structural parameters alone. Cyclic voltammetry studies reveal an electrochemical-chemical process that has been identified by in situ Fourier transform infrared spectroelectrochemistry as cis-to-trans isomerization.