As a “purist”, I never really like to see any 2-ethylhexyl substituent in my molecules, as it usually has a undefined stereogenic center at the 2 position.  Materials incorperating such a functionality thus are random mixtures(!) of (R)- and (S)- stereoisomers, not to mention molecules possessing multiple 2-ethylhexyl substituents.

Materials scientists, especially aromatic polymer chemists, use 2-ethylhexyl to enhance the solubility, as such a bulky subsitutent distrupts pi-stacking/aggregation.  Outside of the research labs, as it turns out, molecules with 2-ethylhexyl are actually ubiquitous in our daily life; I wonder if those 2-ethylhexyls were implemented also for modulating the aggregation properties.

Just to name a few, 2-ethylhexyl nitrate (2-EHN) is a cetane improver added to diesel fuels, bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, which is produced approx. 3 biilion kg/year, is a plasticizer for PVC, and octocrylene and octyl methoxylcinnamate are ingredients in sunscreen products that absorb UVB and UVA.  Without a doubt, I should have given ethylhexyl much more credits!

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Understanding the Kinetics and Spectroscopy of Photoredox Catalysis  and Transition-Metal-Free Alternatives  Spencer P. Pitre, Christopher D. McTiernan, and Juan C. Scaiano*   Acc. Chem. Res., Article ASAP  DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.6b00012

Tracing Single Electrons in a Disordered Polymer Film at Room Temperature  Kevin Wilma†, Abey Issac†, Zhijian Chen‡, Frank Würthner‡, Richard Hildner†, and Jürgen Köhler*†  J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2016, 7, pp 1478–1483

Carbon–Carbon Bond Forming Reactions via Photogenerated Intermediates  Davide Ravelli, Stefano Protti, and Maurizio Fagnoni*  Chem. Rev., Article ASAP DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.5b00662

Small Angle X-ray Scattering for Nanoparticle Research Tao Li, Andrew J. Senesi, and Byeongdu Lee  Chem. Rev., Article ASAP

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Synthesis of Biaryls through Nickel-Catalyzed Suzuki–Miyaura Coupling of Amides by Carbon–Nitrogen Bond Cleavage  Shicheng Shi, Guangrong Meng and Prof. Dr. Michal Szostak  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. doi: 10.1002/anie.201601914

A Macrocyclic Fluorophore Dimer with Flexible Linkers: Bright Excimer Emission with a Long Fluorescence Lifetime  Hiroshi Osaki, Dr. Chih-Ming Chou, Prof. Dr. Masayasu Taki, Dr. Kai Welke, Prof. Dr. Daisuke Yokogawa, Prof. Dr. Stephan Irle, Prof. Dr. Yoshikatsu Sato, Prof. Dr. Tetsuya Higashiyama, Dr. Shohei Saito, Prof. Dr. Aiko Fukazawa and Prof. Dr. Shigehiro Yamaguchi  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.. doi: 10.1002/anie.201602239

Quantum Mechanical Studies on the Photophysics and the Photochemistry of Nucleic Acids and Nucleobases  Roberto Improta, Fabrizio Santoro, and Lluís Blancafort  Chem. Rev., 2016, 116 (6), pp 3540–3593

Unprecedented J-Aggregated Dyes in Pure Organic Solvents  Advanced Functional Materialsby Hegoi Manzano, Ixone Esnal, Tamara Marqués-Matesanz, Jorge Bañuelos, Iñigo López-Arbeloa, María J. Ortiz, Luis Cerdán, Angel Costela, Inmaculada García-Moreno, Jose Luis Chiara  Adv. Funct. Mater., 26: 2756–2769

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Anthraphane: An Anthracene-Based, Propeller-Shaped D3h-Symmetric Hydrocarbon Cyclophane and Its Layered Single Crystal Structures  Marco Servalli*†, Nils Trapp‡, Michael Wörle‡, and Frank-Gerrit Klärner  J. Org. Chem., 2016, 81 (6), pp 2572–2580

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Photoinduced Electron Transfer within Supramolecular Donor–Acceptor Peptide Nanostructures under Aqueous Conditions  Allix M. Sanders, Timothy J. Magnanelli, Arthur E. Bragg, and John D. Tovar  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (10), pp 3362–3370

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Photochemical hydrogen production and cobaloximes: the influence of the cobalt axial N-ligand on the system stability  Athanassios Panagiotopoulosa, Kalliopi Ladomenoua, Dongyue Sunb, Vincent Artero*b and Athanassios G. Coutsolelos  Dalton Trans., 2016,45, 6732-6738

Organophotocatalysis: Insights into the Mechanistic Aspects of Thiourea-Mediated Intermolecular [2+2] Photocycloadditions  Nandini Vallavoju, Dr. Sermadurai Selvakumar, Dr. Barry C. Pemberton, Dr. Steffen Jockusch, Prof. Dr. Mukund P. Sibi and Prof. Dr. Jayaraman Sivaguru   Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 5446.

The Impact of Interlayer Electronic Coupling on Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors: A Case Study on Titanylphthalocyanine Single Crystals  Zongpeng Zhang, Dr. Lang Jiang, Changli Cheng, Prof. Yonggang Zhen, Dr. Guangyao Zhao, Prof. Hua Geng, Prof. Yuanping Yi, Prof. Liqiang Li, Prof. Huanli Dong, Prof. Zhigang Shuai and Prof. Wenping Hu  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 5206.

Understanding Charge Transport in Molecular Blend Films in Terms of Structural Order and Connectivity of Conductive Pathways  Christopher M. Proctor, Abhishek S. Kher, John A. Love, Ye Huang, Alexander Sharenko, Guillermo C. Bazan and Thuc-Quyen Nguyen  . Adv. Energy Mater.. doi: 10.1002/aenm.201502285

Local Intermolecular Order Controls Photoinduced Charge Separation at Donor/Acceptor Interfaces in Organic Semiconductors  Hilary M. Feier, Obadiah G. Reid, Natalie A. Pace, Jaehong Park, Jesse J. Bergkamp, Alan Sellinger, Devens Gust and Garry Rumbles  Adv. Energy Mater., 6: . doi: 10.1002/aenm.201502176

Molecular Packing Determines Charge Separation in a Liquid Crystalline Bisthiophene–Perylene Diimide Donor–Acceptor Material  Matthias Polkehn†, Hiroyuki Tamura‡, Pierre Eisenbrandt†, Stefan Haacke§, Stéphane Méry§, and Irene Burghardt*  J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2016, 7, pp 1327–1334

Direct Visualization of Excited-State Symmetry Breaking Using Ultrafast Time-Resolved Infrared Spectroscopy  Bogdan Dereka, Arnulf Rosspeintner, Zhiquan Li, Robert Liska, and Eric Vauthey  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (13), pp 4643–4649

Distinguishing the roles of energy funnelling and delocalization in photosynthetic light harvesting  Sima Baghbanzadeh, Ivan Kassal    Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 7459-7467

Fundamental Aspects in Surface Self-Assembly: A Theoretical Study of Polarity and Shape  Emilian Tuca, Irina Paci  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 6498-6508

Electron-Transfer Kinetics within Supramolecular Assemblies of Donor Tetrapyrrolytic Dyes and an Acceptor Palladium Cluster  Peng Luo, Paul-Ludovic Karsenti, Gessie Brisard, Benoit Marsan, and Pierre D. Harvey  Inorg. Chem., 2016, 55 (4), pp 1894–1904

Hexasubstituted Benzenes with Ultrastrong Dipole Moments  Jakob Wudarczyk, Dr. George Papamokos, Vasilis Margaritis, Dr. Dieter Schollmeyer, Dr. Felix Hinkel, Prof. Dr. Martin Baumgarten, Prof. Dr. George Floudas and Prof. Dr. Klaus Müllen  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 3220.

Ultrafast and fast charge separation processes in real dye-sensitized solar cells  Cristina Martín, Marcin Ziółek, Abderrazzak Douhal

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Singlet Fission in a Covalently Linked Cofacial Alkynyltetracene Dimer  Nadezhda V. Korovina, Saptaparna Das, Zachary Nett, Xintian Feng, Jimmy Joy, Ralf Haiges, Anna I. Krylov,Stephen E. Bradforth, and Mark E Thompson  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (2), pp 617–627

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Activating a Low Overpotential CO₂ Reduction Mechanism by a Strategic Ligand Modification on a Ruthenium Polypyridyl Catalyst Ben A. Johnson, Dr. Somnath Maji, Dr. Hemlata Agarwala, Dr. Travis A. White, Dr. Edgar Mijangos and Prof. Dr. Sascha Ott  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 1825

Electrically Conductive Porous Metal–Organic Frameworks  Lei Sun, Dr. Michael G. Campbell and Prof. Mircea Dincă  Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 3566

Experimental investigation of anion–π interactions – applications and biochemical relevance  M. Giese, M. Albrecht and K. Rissanen  Chem. Commun., 2016,52, 1778-1795

Retaining individualities: the photodynamics of self-ordering porphyrin assemblies  Wen-Dong Quan, Anaïs Pitto-Barry, Lewis A. Baker, Eugen Stulz, Richard Napier, Rachel K. O’Reilly and Vasilios G. Stavros  Chem. Commun., 2016,52, 1938-1941

Rapid removal of organic micropollutants from water by a porous ฆย-cyclodextrin polymer  Alaaeddin Alsbaiee, Brian J. Smith, Leilei Xiao, Yuhan Ling, Damian E. Helbling  & William R. Dichtel  Nature529,190–194

Iron-catalysed tritiation of pharmaceuticals  Renyuan Pony Yu, David Hesk, Nelo Rivera, Istvan Pelczer & Paul J. Chirik  Nature529,195–199

The direct observation of charge separation dynamics in CdSe quantum dots/cobaloxime hybrids  J. Huang, Y. Tang, K. L. Mulfort , X. Zhang  Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016,18, 4300-4303

Assembly of photo-bioelectrochemical cells using photosystem I-functionalized electrodes  Ariel Efrati, Chun-Hua Lu, Dorit Michaeli, Rachel Nechushtai, Sabine Alsoub, Wolfgang Schuhmann & Itamar Willner   Nature Energy 1, Article number: 15021 (2016)

Electrical conductivity and electroluminescence of a new anthracene-based metal–organic framework with π-conjugated zigzag chains  Dashu Chen, Hongzhu Xing, Zhongmin Su and Chungang Wang   Chem. Commun., 2016,52, 2019-2022

Substrate-Induced and Thin-Film Phases: Polymorphism of Organic Materials on Surfaces  Andrew O. F. Jones, Basab Chattopadhyay, Yves H. Geerts, Roland Resel  Adv. Funct. Mater., 26: 2233–2255

Attempts To Catalyze the Electrochemical CO2-to-Methanol Conversion by Biomimetic 2e– + 2H+ Transferring Molecules  Jean-Michel Saveant and Cédric Tard  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (3), pp 1017–1021

Graphite-Conjugated Rhenium Catalysts for Carbon Dioxide Reduction  Seokjoon Oh, James R. Gallagher, Jeffrey T. Miller, and Yogesh Surendranath  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (6), pp 1820–1823

Side-Chain-Induced Rigid Backbone Organization of Polymer Semiconductors through Semifluoroalkyl Side Chains  Boseok Kang, Ran Kim, Seon Baek Lee, Soon-Ki Kwon, Yun-Hi Kim, and Kilwon Cho  J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2016, 138 (11), pp 3679–3686