This work presents ionic liquid based variable focus lenses using electrowetting, which exhibit excellent performance over a conventional saline based lens such as good tolerance of sharp temperature variation, wide operating temperature range (which is up to 100 ℃) and in particular high stability at high temperatures.

★★★☆☆ Hu XD,Zhang SG,Qu C,et al. Ionic Liquid Based Variable Focus Lenses[J]. Soft Matter,2011,7:5941–5943.

Quinolizinium ionic liquids (salts) featuring an unbranched cation core have been prepared, characterized and found to show extremely high fluorescence quantum yields in solution (Ff > 99%, lem near 334 nm) and bright cyan fluorescence in molten state (lem near 465 nm).

★★★☆☆ J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 8979

A new class of liquid fluorescent organic salts was designed and prepared through via a strategy of ionic liquidization. These new ionic liquid materials exhibited strong green fluorescence and remarkable solvent-dependent photoluminescence under UV irradiation. Their physicochemical properties, especially the fluorescent behaviour, were studied intensively.

★★★☆☆ Zhang QH,Yang BQ,Zhang SG,et al. Ionic Liquidized-naphthalenesulfonamide: Successful Fabrication Of Liquid Fluorescent Materials[J]. J. Mater. Chem.,2011,21:16335-16338.

One kind of novel ionic liquids (ILs) with a tertiary amino moiety and a quaternary ammonium group were synthesized and identified by FT-IR, 1H and 13C NMR. The elemental chemical state and basicity of ILs were determined by XPS and Hammett indicator method, respectively. Then the catalytic performance of these bifunctional catalysts was investigated in one-step synthesis of dimethyl carbonate (DMC) from ethylene oxide (EO), carbon dioxide and methanol. The best catalytic performance with 99% EO conversion and a maximum of 74% DMC selectivity was obtained using [N111,6N11]I as catalyst under optimized reaction conditions. And the catalyst could be reused for several times. Normally, stronger basicity could be obtained by altering the anions with different nucleophilicity in ILs and a better catalytic activity could be achieved correspondingly. A mechanism that both the ring opening of epoxide through nucleophilic attacks and the transesterification play an important role in the reaction was proposed based on experimental results.

Keywords Ionic liquid  Bi-functional  One-step synthesis  Dimethyl carbonate  Carbon dioxide

★★★☆☆ Catal Lett (2011) 141:339–346

An iron oxide immobilized palladium catalyst was prepared for the N-alkylation of amines with alcohols under base and organic ligand free conditions. Applying the optimized reaction conditions, the coupling reactions of amines and alcohols with various structures could be realized with up to 99% isolated yields. The catalysts were studied by XRD, BET, and XPS and the mechanism was studied by DFT calculations.

Keywords: Palladium; Alkylation; Alcohol; Amine

★★★★☆ Zhang Y,Qi XJ,Cui XJ,et al. Palladium Catalyzed N-alkylation Of Amines With Alcohols[J]. Tetrahedron Letters,2011,52:1334-1338.

Complicated and expensive organic ligands are normally essential in fine chemical synthesis at preparative or industrial levels. The synthesis of fine chemicals by using heterogeneous catalyst systems without additive organic ligand is highly desirable but severely limited due to their poor generality and rigorous reaction conditions. Here, we show the results of carbon–nitrogen or carbon–carbonbond formation catalyzed by an Ag/Mo hybrid material with specific Ag6Mo10O33 crystal structure. 48 nitrogen-or oxygen-containing compounds, that is, amines, carboxamides, sulfonamides, and ketones, were successfully synthesized through a borrowing-hydrogen mechanism. Up to 99% isolated yields were obtained under relatively mild conditions without additive organic ligand. The catalytic process shows promise for the efficient and economic synthesis of amine, carboxamide, sulfonamide, and ketone derivatives because of the simplicity of the system and ease of operation.

Keywords: Ag/Mo · amines · carboxamides · ketones · sulfonamides

★★★★☆ Cui XJ,Zhang Y,Shi F,et al. Organic Ligand-free Alkylation Of Amines, Carboxamides, Sulfonamides,and Ketones By Using Alcohols Catalyzed By Heterogeneous Ag/mo Oxides[J]. Chem. Eur. J.,2011,17:1021-1028.

★★★★☆ Cui XJ,Zhang Y,Shi F,et al. Ruthenium-catalyzed Nitro And Nitrile Compounds Coupling With Alcohols: Alternative Route For N-substituted Amine Synthesis[J]. Chem. Eur. J.,2011,17:2587-2591.

Six ionic liquid (IL)-modified dyes were synthesized and characterized. Compared to the methyl red and methyl orange, these IL-modified [MR]
- or [MO]
-based dyes exhibit lower melting points and enhanced solubility, and can be used as sensitive indicators towards free proton in both aqueous and non-aqueous solutions. This work also supplies a new concept of developing novel modified materials with the ILs.

★★★☆☆ Analyst, 2011, 136, 1302–1304

A practical method for the synthesis of carbamates from ureas and organic carbonates was developed with 100% atom economy using La2O3/SiO2 as catalyst without any additional solvent. The scope of the protocol is demonstrated in the synthesis of 14 carbamates with various functional groups in excellent yields (76–95%).

Keywords Atom economy; carbamates; carbonates; clean synthesis; lanthana; urea derivatives

Guo XG,Shang JP,Li J,et al. Green And Practical Synthesis Of Carbamates From Ureas And Organic Carbonates[J]. Synthetic Communications,2011,41:1102-1111.

Nine 1-allyl-3-alkylimidazolium ([ACnIm]) or 1-vinyl-3-alkylimidazolium ([VCnIm]) dicyanamides (DCA) were prepared and characterized, and their physicochemical properties were studied in detail. Except for [AVIm]DCA and [AC4Im]DCA, the other dicyanamides with hexyl or longer alkyl chains on the cation exhibited the characteristic of hydrophobicity. Among them, [AC8Im]DCA and [AC10Im] DCA were found to possess similar densities to water, i.e. 1.007 g cm
3 and 0.988 g cm
3 at 25 C, respectively. Interestingly, a reversible phase reversion of a [AC8Im]DCA/H2O mixture was observed as the temperature varied. These environmentally-friendly liquid materials have potential applications as precursors for syntheses of conducting polymeric materials.

★★★☆☆ J. Mater. Chem., 2011, 21, 6864–6868