Mechano-induced phase transitions in organic crystalline materials, which can alter their properties, have received much attention. However, most mechano-responsive molecular crystals exhibit crystal-to-amorphous phase transitions, and the intermolecular interaction patterns in the daughter phase are difficult to characterize. We have investigated phenyl(phenylisocyanide)gold(I) (1) and phenyl(3,5-dimethylphenylisocyanide)gold(I) (2) complexes, which exhibit a mechano-triggered single-crystal-to-single-crystal phase transition. Previous reports of complexes 1 and 2 have focused on the relationships between the crystalline structures and photoluminescence properties; in this work we have focused on other aspects. The face index measurements of complexes 1 and 2 before and after the mechano-induced phase transitions have indicated that they undergo non-epitaxial phase transitions without a rigorous orientational relationship between the mother and daughter phases. Differential scanning calorimetry analyses revealed the phase transition of complex 1 to be enthalpically driven by the formation of new aurophilic interactions. In contrast, the phase transition of complex 2 was found to be entropically driven, with the closure of an empty void in the mother phase. Scanning electron microscopy observation showed that the degree of the charging effect of both complexes 1 and 2 was changed by the phase transitions, which suggests that the formation of the aurophilic interactions affords more effective conductive pathways. Moreover, flash-photolysis time-resolved microwave conductivity measurements revealed that complex 1 increased in conductivity after the phase change, whereas the conductivity of complex 2 decreased. These contrasting results were explained by the different patterns in the aurophilic interactions. Finally, an intriguing disappearing polymorphism of complex 2 has been reported, in which a polymorph form could not be obtained again after some period of time, even with repeated trials. The present studies provide us with a variety of hitherto unknown insights into mechano-responsive molecular crystals, which help us to understand the phase transition behaviors upon mechanical stimulation and establish rational design principles.

Structural changes to molecular crystals upon mechanical stimulation have attracted attention for sensing, recording, and microactuation. Comprehensive structure information is required to understand relationships between the mechanical force applied, the crystal structure, and the bulk property changes in order to develop general design concepts for mechanoresponsive compounds. Unfortunately, mechanical stimulation of organic crystals typically deteriorates their integrity, preventing detailed structure analyses by single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods. However, in the past three years, several interesting studies have been reported in which molecular crystals retain their integrity even after a mechanically induced crystalline structure change. These materials have allowed us to investigate how macroscopic mechanical forces affect the microscopic structures of molecular crystals by single-crystal XRD analyses. This Minireview summarizes current knowledge of mechanically induced structure changes in molecular crystals, which will facilitate research in this field.

The enantioselective borylative dearomatization of a heteroaromatic compound has been achieved using a copper(I) catalyst and a diboron reagent. This reaction involves the regio- and enantioselective addition of active borylcopper(I) species to indole-2-carboxylates, followed by the diastereoselective protonation of the resulting copper(I) enolate to give the corresponding chiral indolines, which bear consecutive stereogenic centers.

The enantioselective borylative dearomatization of a heteroaromatic compound has been achieved using a copper(I) catalyst and a diboron reagent. This reaction involves the regio- and enantioselective addition of active borylcopper(I) species to indole-2-carboxylates, followed by the diastereoselective protonation of the resulting copper(I) enolate to give the corresponding chiral indolines, which bear consecutive stereogenic centers.

The regiodivergent CH borylation of 2,5-disubstituted heteroarenes with bis(pinacolato)diboron was achieved by using iridium catalysts formed in situ from [Ir(OMe)(cod)]₂/dtbpy (cod=1,5-cyclooctadiene, dtbpy: 4,4′-di-tert-butyl-2,2′-bipyridine) or [Ir(OMe)(cod)]₂/2 AsPh₃. When [Ir(OMe)(cod)]₂/dtbpy was used as the catalyst, borylation at the 4-position proceeded selectively to afford 4-borylated products in high yields (dtbpy system A). The regioselectivity changed when the [Ir(OMe)(cod)]₂/2 AsPh₃ catalyst was used; 3-borylated products were obtained in high yields with high regioselectivity (AsPh₃ system B). The regioselectivity of borylation was easily controlled by changing the ligands. This reaction was used in the syntheses of two different bioactive compound analogues by using the same starting material.

We report the luminescent color tuning of a new complex, 2-benzothiophenyl(4-methoxyphenyl isocyanide)gold(I) (1), by using a new “polymorph doping” approach. The slow crystallization of the complex 1 afforded three different pure polymorphic crystals with blue, green, and orange emission under UV-light irradiation. The crystal structures of pure polymorphs of 1 were investigated in detail by means of single-crystal X-ray analyses. Theoretical calculations based on the single-crystal structures provided qualitative explanation of the difference in the excited energy-levels of the three polymorphs of 1. In sharp contrast, the rapid precipitation of 1, with the optimized conditions reproducibly afforded homogeneous powder materials showing solid-state white-emission with Commission Internationale de l’Éclairage (CIE) 1931 chromaticity coordinates of (0.33, 0.35), which is similar to pure white. New “polymorphic doping” has been revealed to be critical to this white emission through spectroscopic and X-ray diffraction analyses. The coexistence of the multiple polymorphs of 1 within the homogeneous powder materials and the ideal mixing of multiple luminescent colors gave its white emission accompanied with energy transfer from the predominant green-emitting polymorph to the minor orange-emitting polymorph.

We report the first copper(I)-catalyzed reaction between a disilane and allylic carbonates to produce allylsilanes. The silyl nucleophilic substitution proceeded primarily in a S_N2 fashion whereas S_N2′ products were also obtained through σ-π-σ isomerization of the copper(III) intermediate depending on the substrate’s steric bulk.