A team of chemists from Finland and Canada has been able to identify the mechanism that enables some non-metal compounds to mimic the reactivity of their metal-based counterparts. Left: activation of molecular hydrogen with non-metal boroles. Right: molecular structure of a pentaaryl borole (Suomen Akatemia) “These results could be dubbed a kind of ‘modern alchemy’ in which chemical compounds are made to react in a way totally atypical to them....
