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Abstract: Traditional gilding craft embodies the ancient technical wisdom and contains abundant systematic chemical knowledge, which can be utilized as a high-quality teaching resource for integrating traditional culture into chemistry education. At present, most studies concerning gilding technology focus on cultural relic research and procedural sorting, while the exploration of its essential chemical principles is relatively scattered. Nevertheless, systematic thermodynamic and kinetic analyses of gilding reactions remain insufficient, and research regarding the educational adaptability of this traditional craft is still lacking. To address these shortcomings, this work investigates the conventional mercury amalgam gilding technique, systematically examining its underlying chemical mechanisms and educational applicability. Combined with literature investigation, chemical principle analysis and theoretical inference, this study explores the key operational steps of traditional gilding based on basic inorganic metal reaction rules, including gold-mercury amalgam formation, high-temperature mercury volatilization and final gold coating consolidation. The thermodynamic characteristics of spontaneous gold-mercury reaction are analyzed, and the effects of temperature and processing duration on reaction process and coating quality are discussed from the perspective of chemical kinetics. This work further validates the scientific basis of traditional operational controls and elucidates the inherent chemical factors responsible for the dense structure, favorable stability and superior corrosion resistance of gilded layers. The research results demonstrate that the core scientific connotations of gilding craft, including metal properties, alloy formation laws and reaction condition regulation, are highly compatible with mainstream chemistry teaching content. The integration of traditional craftsmanship and classroom teaching can visualize abstract chemical theories and effectively lower students’ learning barriers. This study optimizes the chemical theoretical interpretation system of traditional gilding technology and establishes a feasible implementation path for integrating cultural relic crafts into chemistry classrooms, providing solid theoretical support and practical references for the innovative development of interdisciplinary chemistry education and the inheritance of traditional technological culture.Abstract: Traditional gilding craft embodies the ancient technical wisdom and contains abundant systematic chemical knowledge, which can be utilized as a high-quality teaching resource for integrating traditional culture into chemistry education. At present, most studies concerning gilding technology focus on cultural relic research and procedural sorting, w...Learn More
Abstract: The dearomatization reaction of heterocyclic compounds serves as a pivotal strategy for constructing complex cyclic frameworks, demonstrating significant application potential in pharmaceutical chemistry and functional materials science. Particularly, the dearomatization-enabled [3+2] cycloaddition strategy has emerged as a research hotspot for efficiently building multi-substituted heterocyclic architectures, owing to its inherent advantages of high atom economy and synthetic step-efficiency. This review systematically summarizes recent important advances in this field, with a particular focus on the applicability of novel catalytic systems—including transition-metal catalysis and organocatalysis—to representative heterocyclic substrates such as indoles, pyrroles, furans, and quinolines. It places special emphasis on analyzing the effects of catalyst structure, ligand effects, solvents, and additives on reaction selectivity, encompassing chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity, and also summarizes the breakthrough achievements recently made in asymmetric dearomative [3+2] cycloadditions. Looking forward, the development of novel activation modes, precise regulation of electronic effects aided by theoretical calculations, design of multicomponent cascade reactions, and the integration of artificial intelligence to accelerate catalyst screening and condition optimization will represent key directions for future breakthroughs. These efforts are expected to promote the practical application of this strategy in the total synthesis of natural products and the creation of high‑value‑added functional molecules.Abstract: The dearomatization reaction of heterocyclic compounds serves as a pivotal strategy for constructing complex cyclic frameworks, demonstrating significant application potential in pharmaceutical chemistry and functional materials science. Particularly, the dearomatization-enabled [3+2] cycloaddition strategy has emerged as a research hotspot for eff...Learn More
