Wan-Min Cheng

The development of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) that integrate robust chemical stability with efficient charge carrier dynamics remains a critical challenge for photocatalytic applications. Herein, we present a self-locking strategy to synthesize amide-like isoquinolone-linked COFs (IQO-COFs). By leveraging ortho-vinyl aromatic aldehyde and aromatic amine precursors, a tandem process involving thermal 6π-electrocyclization of imine intermediates and Cu(OAc)₂-catalyzed aerobic oxidation enables the irreversible formation of rigid, conjugated isoquinolone linkages. Four crystalline IQO-COFs are constructed with high conversion efficiency and gram-scale feasibility. Locking amide into isoquinolone synergizes enhanced π-electron delocalization with structural rigidity, significantly suppressing exciton recombination and boosting photogenerated charge separation. As a result, IQO-COFs achieve high photocatalytic performance in single-electron transfer (SET)-driven reactions, including the dehalogenation of α-bromoacetophenone and the decarboxylative Minisci reaction under harsh conditions, outperforming amide-linked counterparts. This work establishes a versatile platform to engineer COFs with tailored stability and electronic properties, unlocking new potential for high-performance photocatalytic systems.

The development of covalent organic frameworks (COFs) that integrate robust chemical stability with efficient charge carrier dynamics remains a critical challenge for photocatalytic applications. Herein, we present a groundbreaking self-locking strategy to synthesize amide-like isoquinolone-linked COFs (IQO-COFs) for the first time. By leveraging ortho -vinyl aromatic aldehyde and aromatic amine precursors, a tandem process involving thermal 6π-electrocyclization of imine intermediates and Cu(OAc)₂-catalyzed aerobic oxidation enables the irreversible formation of rigid, conjugated isoquinolone linkages. Four crystalline IQO-COFs were constructed with high conversion efficiency and gram-scale feasibility. Locking amide into isoquinolone synergizes enhanced π-electron delocalization with structural rigidity, significantly suppressing exciton recombination and boosting photogenerated charge separation. As a result, IQO-COFs achieve superior photocatalytic performance in single-electron transfer (SET)-driven reactions, including the dehalogenation of α-bromoacetophenone and the decarboxylative Minisci reaction under harsh conditions, outperforming amide-linked counterparts. This work establishes a versatile platform to engineer COFs with tailored stability and electronic properties, unlocking new potential for high-performance photocatalytic systems.

Simple and atom-economical hydrosulfonylation and arylsulfonylation of alkenes have been developed using sulfinic acid as both the sulfonyl group source and the hydrogen atom donor under light irradiation. These reactions feature catalyst-, oxidant-, and additive-free conditions, offering a highly practical approach for the synthesis of diversely functionalized sulfones. Preliminary mechanistic studies indicate that these reactions proceed via the photoactivation of sulfinic acid to generate a sulfonyl radical, followed by a radical chain process.

A photoinduced borylation of aryl halides catalyzed by 1-methylbenzimidazole is performed in an aqueous phase at room temperature.

By reacting carboxylic acids with dioxazolones in the presence of a base, a wide variety of amides, particularly acylated chiral amines, can be synthesized through decarboxylative amidation.

A convenient and sustainable method for synthesizing sulfonyl‐containing compounds through a catalyst‐free aqueous‐phase hydrosulfonylation of alkenes and alkynes with sulfonyl chlorides under visible light irradiation is presented. Unactivated alkenes, electron‐deficient alkenes, alkyl and aryl alkynes can be hydrosulfonylated with various sulfonyl chlorides at room temperature with excellent yields and geometric selectivities by using tris(trimethylsilyl)silane as a hydrogen atom donor and silyl radical precursor to activate sulfonyl chlorides. Mechanistic studies revealed that the photolysis of tris(trimethylsilyl)silane in aqueous solution to produce silyl radical is crucial for the success of this reaction.

Here we report a light‐induced FeCl₃‐catalyzed approach for benzyl C−H chlorination with remarkable regioselectivity, which enables alkylbenzenes to be converted into versatile benzyl chlorides under mild conditions using trifluoromethanesulfonyl chloride (TfCl) as the chlorine source. DFT calculations show that the dynamics preference of benzylic α−C−H chlorination is more pronounced by employing TfCl.

Salmonella enteritidis is one of the most common foodborne pathogens. Many methods have been developed to detect Salmonella, but most of them are expensive, time-consuming, and complex in experimental procedures. Developing a rapid, specific, cost-effective, and sensitive detection method is still demanded. In this work, a practical detection method is presented using salicylaldazine caprylate as the fluorescent probe, which could be hydrolyzed by caprylate esterase liberated from Salmonella lysed by phage, to form strong fluorescent salicylaldazine. The Salmonella could be detected accurately with a low limit of detection of 6 CFU/mL and a broad concentration range of 10–10⁶ CFU/mL. Moreover, this method was successfully used for the rapid detection of Salmonella in milk within 2 h through pre-enrichment by ampicillin-conjugated magnetic beads. The novel combination of fluorescent turn-on probe salicylaldazine caprylate and phage ensures this method has excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Graphical Abstract

Cross-coupling of aryl halides with nucleophiles is a synthetically attractive strategy to construct C–heteroatom bonds. Here we report a highly efficient photoinduced Ni-catalyzed method for the C–heteroatom cross-coupling of aryl halides. The reaction proceeds smoothly in the presence of 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene (DBU) under visible light irradiation and is distinct from that mediated by photoredox/nickel dual catalysis, requiring no external photosensitizers. A diverse range of nucleophiles, including amines, amides, sulfonamides, carboxylic acids, alcohols, thiophenols, phosphite and sodium sulfinate, are successfully coupled with electronically diverse aryl halides, presenting a universal approach for different C–heteroatom coupling reactions. Mechanistic studies suggest that a catalytically active Ni(I) species is generated via photoinduced ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) with DBU to access a Ni(I)/Ni(III) catalytic cycle.