A novel series of chiral tetradentate N4 ligands together with their manganese complexes have been designed and synthesized. With 1 mol % manganese catalyst loading, the enantioselective epoxidation of olefins proceeds with nearly full conversion and enantiomeric excess values of up to 89 % for the first time.

The imitative synthesis of the ionic liquid [bmim][Co(CO)4], carried out in organic solvents instead of water, produced an unexpected liquid complex with partial crystallization. The resulting solid was confirmed to be the novel hetero-cation salt, [bmim]K[Co(CO)4]2 (1) and a crystallographic investigation revealed an extremely unusual (CO)7–K coordination mode. When the organic cation was replaced by [C4Py]+, similar crystallization was also obtained, forming [C4Py]K[Co(CO)4]2 (2), which has an analogous structure. Both of these cases indicate an interesting influence that these organic cations have on the crystallization of organometallic structures that yields new structural examples.

Through an optimized synthetic strategy, a series of novel alkylpyridinium cobalt tetracarbonyl salts, [C1Py][Co(CO)4] (2a), [C4Py][Co(CO)4] (2b) and [C16Py][Co(CO)4] (2c) (CnPy = N-CnH2n+1-pyridinium), were successfully prepared in good yields, using a water–organic biphasic system. All the three compounds melt well below 100 °C and could be classified as ionic liquids. The compounds were fully characterized using IR, UV-Vis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, ESI-MS and elemental analysis, and 2c was structurally characterized by X-ray single crystal analysis. Compound 2b has been found to be an efficient and reusable catalyst for the alkoxycarbonylation of propylene oxide without the aid of a base additive.

The imitative synthesis of the ionic liquid [bmim][Co(CO)4], carried out in organic solvents instead of water, produced an unexpected liquid complex with partial crystallization. The resulting solid was confirmed to be the novel hetero-cation salt, [bmim]K[Co(CO)4]2 (1) and a crystallographic investigation revealed an extremely unusual (CO)7–K coordination mode. When the organic cation was replaced by [C4Py]+, similar crystallization was also obtained, forming [C4Py]K[Co(CO)4]2 (2), which has an analogous structure. Both of these cases indicate an interesting influence that these organic cations have on the crystallization of organometallic structures that yields new structural examples.

Through an optimized synthetic strategy, a series of novel alkylpyridinium cobalt tetracarbonyl salts, [C1Py][Co(CO)4] (2a), [C4Py][Co(CO)4] (2b) and [C16Py][Co(CO)4] (2c) (CnPy = N-CnH2n+1-pyridinium), were successfully prepared in good yields, using a water–organic biphasic system. All the three compounds melt well below 100 °C and could be classified as ionic liquids. The compounds were fully characterized using IR, UV-Vis, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, ESI-MS and elemental analysis, and 2c was structurally characterized by X-ray single crystal analysis. Compound 2b has been found to be an efficient and reusable catalyst for the alkoxycarbonylation of propylene oxide without the aid of a base additive.