https://www.selleckchem.com/products/tegatrabetan.html Nitrile hydration provides access to amides that are important structural elements in organic chemistry. Here we report catalytic nitrile hydration using ruthenium catalysts based on a pincer scaffold with a dearomatized pyridine backbone. These complexes catalyze the nucleophilic addition of H2O to a wide variety of aliphatic and (hetero)aromatic nitriles in t BuOH as solvent. Reactions occur under mild conditions (room temperature) in the absence of additives. A mechanism for nitrile hydration is proposed that is initiated by metal-ligand cooperative binding of the nitrile. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019.Currently, ethanol is produced via hydration of ethene or fermentation of foods. Lignin and CO2 are abundant, cheap and renewable feedstocks. Synthesis of ethanol using the lignin or its derivatives is of great importance, but is a great challenge and has rarely been reported. Herein, we propose a route to synthesize ethanol from CO2, H2, and lignin or various aryl methyl ethers, which can be derived from lignin. The reaction could be effectively conducted using Ru-Co bimetallic catalyst and the TON of ethanol could reach 145. Interestingly, ethanol was the only liquid product when lignin was used. A series of control experiments indicate that ethanol was formed via cleavage of aryl ether bond, reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction, and C-C bond formation. This protocol opens a way to produce ethanol using abundant renewable resources. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2019.The promise of lead halide hybrid perovskites for optoelectronic applications makes finding less-toxic alternatives a priority. The double perovskite Cs2AgBiBr6 (1) represents one such alternative, offering long carrier lifetimes and greater stability under ambient conditions. However, the large and indirect 1.95 eV bandgap hinders its potential as a solar absorber. Here we report that alloying crysta