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Reactive carbanions are typically formed by deprotonating relatively acidic C–H bonds. Here, the authors demonstrate that combining sodium tris(pyrazolyl)borate with mesityllithium in the presence of a donor ligand generates a reactive organometallic mixture that deprotonates benzylic C–H bonds, enabling the isolation of cationic sodium benzyl species.

The parent diphosphene molecule is of fundamental interest, but its reactive nature renders it challenging to isolate, and current metal-stabilized derivatives are limited to complexes of p-/d-metals. Here, the authors introduce f-element diphosphene complexes, adding to f-element diazenes that were first reported over thirty years ago.

The isolation of compounds featuring an actinide–actinide bond is challenging. Now a well-defined Th(III) dimer with a Th–Th two-centre one-electron (2c-1e) σ bond and a 2c-1e π bond is synthesized. Theoretical and magnetic studies show that the open-shell singlet ground state and the two formal Th(III) centres exhibit strong antiferromagnetic coupling.

Degradation of carbon-backbone polymers, which make up most plastics, remains a formidable challenge owing to their strong and inert main-chain C–C bonds. Now it has been shown that aromatization-driven C–C bond cleavage is a viable strategy to endow full degradability into carbon backbones under mild conditions.

The synthesis of a tricoordinate antimony cation is reported by the removal of two chlorides from Tp^Me2SbCl₂, where Tp^Me2 is tris(3,5-dimethylpyrazolyl)borate. The multiple binding sites present in [Tp^Me2Sb]²⁺ bring an amine and an olefinic bond in proximity to enable an intermolecular hydroamination reaction.

Benzene reduction by molecular complexes remains a considerable synthetic challenge, and typically requires harsh reaction conditions involving group I metals. Now it has been shown that a highly polar organometallic samarium alkyl complex enables the reduction of benzene to its tetra-anion without the need for a group I metal.

The synthesis and isolation of uranium(VI) nitride complexes remains challenging. Here, the authors report an example of transition metal (TM) stabilized U(VI) nitride complexes, generated via photolysis of azide-bridged U(IV)-TM precursors.