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This study represents the first assessment of beach litter on an island of the west African archipelagic state of Cape Verde. On five beaches of São Vicente, litter was collected along transects and classified according to the OSPAR protocol, with the Matrix Scoring Technique used to allocate it to four sources. Beach litter on São Vicente is highly variable in both amount and composition, while land- and sea-based sources contribute to litter loads to different extents depending on the use and geographic orientation of the beach. Four of the five surveyed beaches exhibited litter loads that were similar to pollution levels previously described for other oceanic islands, while a north-eastern-facing beach featured exceptionally high loads. This was presumably because it receives litter from distant sources due to its exposure to a major ocean surface current.

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Despite an increasing understanding of the issue of marine pollution, humanity continues on a largely unsustainable trajectory. This study aimed to identify and classify the range of scientific studies and interventions to address coastal and marine pollution. We reviewed 2417 scientific papers published between 2000 and 2018, 741 of which we analysed in depth. To classify pollution interventions, we applied the systems-oriented concept of leverage points, which focuses on places to intervene in complex systems to bring about systemic change. We found that pollution is largely studied as a technical problem and fewer studies engage with pollution as a systemic social-ecological issue. While recognising the importance of technical solutions, we highlight the need to focus on under-researched areas pertaining to the deeper drivers of pollution (e.g. institutions, values) which are needed to fundamentally alter system trajectories.

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9,10-Dihydro-9,10-diboraanthracene (DBA) provides a versatile scaffold for the development of boron-doped organic luminophores. Symmetrically C-halogenated DBAs are obtained through the condensation of 4-bromo-1,2-bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene or 4,5-dichloro-1,2-bis(trimethylsilyl)benzene with BBr3 in hexane. Unsymmetrically C-halogenated DBAs are formed via an electrophilic solvent activation reaction if the synthesis is carried out in o-xylene. Mechanistic insight has been achieved by in situ NMR spectroscopy, which revealed C-halogenated 1,2-bis(dibromoboryl)benzenes to be the key intermediates. Treatment of the primary 9,10-dibromo-DBAs with MesMgBr yields air- and water-stable C-halogenated 9,10-dimesityl-DBAs (2-Br-6,7-Me2-DBA(Mes)2; 2,6-Br2-DBA(Mes)2; 2,3-Cl2-6,7-Me2-DBA(Mes)2; 2,3,6,7-Cl4-DBA(Mes)2). Subsequent Stille-type C-C-coupling reactions give access to corresponding phenyl, 2-thienyl, and p-N,N-diphenylaminophenyl derivatives, which act as highly emissive donor-acceptor dyads or donor-acceptor-donor triads both in solution and in the solid state. 2-Thienyl was chosen as a model substituent to show that already a variation of the number and/or the positional distribution of the donor groups suffices to tune the emission wavelength of the resulting benchtop stable compounds from 469 nm (blue) to 540 nm (green). A further shift of the fluorescence maximum to 594 nm (red) can be achieved by switching from 2-thienyl to p-aminophenyl groups. A comparison of the optoelectronic properties of selected C-substituted DBA(Mes)2 derivatives with those of the isostructural anthracene analogues unveiled the following: (i) The DBA core is a much better electron acceptor. (ii) The emission colors of DBAs fall in the visible range of the spectrum (blue to orange), while anthracenes emit exclusively in the near-ultraviolet to blue wavelength regime. (iii) DBAs show significantly higher solid-state quantum yields.