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As the field of exfoliated van der Waals electronics grows to include complex heterostructures, the variety of available in-plane symmetries and geometries becomes increasingly valuable. In this work, we present an efficient chemical vapor transport synthesis of NbSe2I2 with the triclinic space group P1̅. This material contains Nb–Nb dimers and an in-plane crystallographic angle γ = 61.3°. We show that NbSe2I2 can be exfoliated down to few-layer and monolayer structures and use Raman spectroscopy to test the preservation of the crystal structure of exfoliated thin films. The crystal structure was verified by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction methods. Density functional theory calculations show triclinic NbSe2I2 to be a semiconductor with a band gap of around 1 eV, with similar band structure features for bulk and monolayer crystals. The physical properties of NbSe2I2 have been characterized by transport, thermal, optical, and magnetic measurements, demonstrating triclinic NbSe2I2 to be a diamagnetic semiconductor that does not exhibit any phase transformation below room temperature. 

An isolated Ni( ii )-nitrosyl complex supported by the bulky tridentate 1,4,7-triisopropyl-1,4,7-triazacyclononane (iPr 3 TACN) ligand was obtained from the reaction of a Ni( ii ) dimethyl complex with NOPF 6 , suggesting the in situ formation of a Ni( i ) species that reacts with the resulting NO product. Use of a π-acceptor ancillary isocyanide ligand led to the isolation and characterization of an uncommon 5-coordinate Ni( i ) complex supported by the iPr 3 TACN ligand and tert -butylisocyanide. 

This work presents the first transition metal-free synthesis of oxygen-linked aromatic polymers by integrating iterative exponential polymer growth (IEG) with nucleophilic aromatic substitution (S N Ar) reactions. Our approach applies methyl sulfones as the leaving groups, which eliminate the need for a transition metal catalyst, while also providing flexibility in functionality and configuration of the building blocks used. As indicated by 1) 1 H- 1 H NOESY NMR spectroscopy, 2) single-crystal X-ray crystallography, and 3) density functional theory (DFT) calculations, the unimolecular polymers obtained are folded by nonclassical hydrogen bonds formed between the oxygens of the electron-rich aromatic rings and the positively polarized C–H bonds of the electron-poor pyrimidine functions. Our results not only introduce a transition metal-free synthetic methodology to access precision polymers but also demonstrate how interactions between relatively small, neutral aromatic units in the polymers can be utilized as new supramolecular interaction pairs to control the folding of precision macromolecules. 

The crystal structure of the title compound, [Hf(C 5 HF 6 O 2 ) 4 ], has been determined. The asymmetric unit contains two Hf(hfac) 4 molecules (hfac = 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoroacetylacetonate); both are located on general positions and have identical structures apart from the disorder involving three CF 3 groups in one of the two molecules. The molecules of Hf(hfac) 4 are arranged in layers that are parallel to the ab plane, and the coordination geometry of each hafnium(IV) center is a distorted square antiprism. An interesting aspect of the structure is that the hfac ligands are arranged so that the Hf(hfac) 4 molecules have idealized 2 point symmetry, in which two of the hfac groups bridge between the two squares. Although all other M (β-diketonate) 4 compounds of Hf (and Zr) also have square-antiprismatic geometries; in almost all of them the ligands are arranged so that the molecules have 222 point symmetry (in which none of the hfac ligands bridges between the two squares). The factors that favor one structure over another are not clear.