N-Heterocyclic carbene (NHC) ligands have found widespread application in transition-metal catalysis and organometallic chemistry, as they offer an extraordinarily wide range of stereoelectronic possibilities. These may be further increased by combining NHCs with themselves or other donor moieties to form bi- or multidentate ligands. This work shows that one of the most commonly employed NHC ligands, 1,3- bis(2,4,6-trimethylphenyl)imidazol-2-ylidene (IMes), is susceptible to double cyclometalation at the coordination sphere of iridium to form the k3-C fac-coordinating ligand IMes. In addition to this stabilizing coordination mode, the new ligand offers strong trans-labilizing capabilities and can be demetalated in a stepwise fashion or functionalized using a variety of reagents.

Quantum computers are expected to enormously simplify currently inaccessible tasks such as the simulation of materials, the information search in large databases, and the decoding of secret messages. Finding suitable materials to fabricate the bits and gates of such quantum computers is one of the outstanding goals for today’s Materials Science. The present study, carried out by an interdisciplinary team of scientists from Zaragoza and Barcelona, shows that molecules containing two magnetic terbium atoms might act as CNOT and SWAP quantum gates. Chemically engineered molecular quantum gates can open promising avenues for the realization of scalable quantum computing architectures.

New and more efficient energy conversion systems are required in the near future, due in part to the increase of oil prices and demand and also in addition due to global warming. Fuel cells and hybrid systems present a promising future but in order to cover the demand, high amounts of hydrogen will be required. Probably, the cleanest method when combined with a renewable energy source to produce hydrogen up to date is water electrolysis. In this field, Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOEC) have attracted a great interest in the last few years, as they offer significant power and higher efficiencies in comparison with conventional low temperature electrolysers. Their applications, performances and material issues will be reviewed.