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A practical realization of selective IR-driven reaction-rate control has been hampered by competing processes leading to sample heating. Now, the acceleration of a bimolecular ground-state reaction in solution using the IR excitation of a vibration connected to the reaction coordinate is demonstrated. The behaviour is monitored and understood using a combination of femtosecond IR-pump IR-probe spectroscopy and theoretical calculations.
Aminopalladation is a key step in a number of carbon–nitrogen bond-forming processes, but carrying out this step with intermolecular anti-Markovnikov selectivity has remained difficult. Such a process has now been developed by using an anionic palladium catalyst to generate terminal carbon–nitrogen bonds from alkenes.
