Catalysis articles within Nature

Featured

  • News & Views |

    The movement of electric charges in light-activated catalyst particles is key to the water-splitting reaction, which could be used to generate hydrogen as a renewable fuel. Such movement has now been observed in exquisite detail.

    • Ulrich Aschauer

  • News & Views |

    Truly general chemical reactions work well regardless of the structural features and functional groups in the starting molecule. A new screening protocol speeds up the identification of such reactions in the field of asymmetric catalysis.

    • Manuel J. Scharf
    •  & Benjamin List

  • Article |

    Triplet photoenzymes developed through genetic encoding and directed evolution result in excited-state photocatalysts that provide a valuable approach to enantioselective photochemical synthesis.

    • Ningning Sun
    • , Jianjian Huang
    •  & Yuzhou Wu

  • Article |

    A genetically encoded triplet photosensitizer is used to develop an efficient photoenzyme that can promote enantioselective intramolecular and bimolecular [2+2] cycloadditions by means of triplet energy transfer.

    • Jonathan S. Trimble
    • , Rebecca Crawshaw
    •  & Anthony P. Green

  • News & Views |

    A solid catalyst has been prepared in which pairs of active sites work synergistically to promote an industrial chemical reaction, and the mechanism has been determined — a breakthrough for ‘pair site’ catalysis.

    • Tiefeng Wang

  • Article |

    Catalysts consisting of oxide-supported pair sites can enable bifunctional reaction mechanisms with high activity and selectivity for reactions and so overcome the limitations in industry imposed by the use of homogeneous catalysts.

    • Insoo Ro
    • , Ji Qi
    •  & Phillip Christopher

  • Article |

     The analytical workflow outlined in this study allows multiple crude reaction mixtures to be analysed simultaneously, with substantial reductions in method development and analysis time, and maximizes the chances of finding catalytic systems with broad substrate scope.

    • Corin C. Wagen
    • , Spencer E. McMinn
    •  & Eric N. Jacobsen

  • Article |

    Using a molecular catalyst and a proton–electron transfer mediator in tandem delivers efficient electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia at modest potentials, an approach that could be used to improve other important reactions.

    • Pablo Garrido-Barros
    • , Joseph Derosa
    •  & Jonas C. Peters

  • Article |

    A highly chemoselective and enantioselective cross-electrophile coupling using ‘ene’-reductases is reported, and photoexcited enzymes demonstrate the ability to carry out reactions between electrophiles that are not known for small-molecule catalysis.

    • Haigen Fu
    • , Jingzhe Cao
    •  & Todd K. Hyster

  • Article |

    Concerted proton–electron transfer mediators enable facile electrochemical metal hydride formation and thus improve CO2 reduction to useful chemicals, and could benefit a range of catalytic reactions involving metal hydride intermediates.

    • Subal Dey
    • , Fabio Masero
    •  & Victor Mougel

  • Review Article |

    Recent progress in computational enzyme design, active site engineering and directed evolution are reviewed, highlighting methodological innovations needed to deliver improved designer biocatalysts.

    • Sarah L. Lovelock
    • , Rebecca Crawshaw
    •  & Anthony P. Green

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of confined organocatalysts for the enantioselective cyanosilylation of small, unbiased substrates, including 2-butanone, is shown to lead to catalysts that are as selective as enzymes, with excellent levels of control.

    • Hui Zhou
    • , Yu Zhou
    •  & Benjamin List

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A study demonstrates that nitrous oxide can act as the source of O in a catalytic conversion of aryl halides to phenols, releasing N2 as by-product.

    • Franck Le Vaillant
    • , Ana Mateos Calbet
    •  & Josep Cornella

  • Article |

    A biocatalytic enzyme originating from bacteria, EneIRED, facilitates amine-activated conjugate alkene reduction followed by reductive amination, efficiently preparing chiral amine diastereomers, which are commonly used in pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. 

    • Thomas W. Thorpe
    • , James R. Marshall
    •  & Nicholas J. Turner

  • News & Views |

    The options for controlling molecular self-assembly processes have been limited. A fresh approach uses electrons to facilitate self-assembly, and thereby provides precise external control over the process.

    • Robert Francke

  • Article |

    A simple and versatile strategy is established to facilitate molecular recognition by extending electron catalysis for use in supramolecular non-covalent chemistry.

    • Yang Jiao
    • , Yunyan Qiu
    •  & J. Fraser Stoddart

  • Article |

    A study presents a biocatalytic method for the formation of sterically hindered biaryl bonds, providing a tunable approach for assembling molecules with catalyst-controlled reactivity, site selectivity and atroposelectivity.

    • Lara E. Zetzsche
    • , Jessica A. Yazarians
    •  & Alison R. H. Narayan

  • Article |

    A synthetic strategy for the stereoselective preparation of sulfinate esters and related sulfur stereogenic centres via asymmetric condensation expands the drug discovery toolbox for these compounds.

    • Xin Zhang
    • , Esther Cai Xia Ang
    •  & Choon-Hong Tan

  • Article |

    Identification of a hyperstable boronate enables automated lego-like synthesis to access a wider range of three-dimensionally complex small organic molecules rich in Csp3–C bonds. 

    • Daniel J. Blair
    • , Sriyankari Chitti
    •  & Martin D. Burke

  • Article |

    ‘Cooperative redox enhancement (CORE) effects, which arise through the coupling of oxidative dehydrogenation and oxygen reduction reactions, can lead to increased rates of reaction over spatially separated bimetallic heterogeneous catalysts.

    • Xiaoyang Huang
    • , Ouardia Akdim
    •  & Graham J. Hutchings

  • News & Views |

    A technical feat reveals subtle changes in water structure that can accelerate hydrogen production at an electrode interface. The catalytic process could be developed to help boost supply of this clean fuel.

    • Matthias M. Waegele

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Propene is obtained through propane dehydrogenation using catalysts that are toxic, expensive or demanding to regenerate with ecologically harmful compounds, but the ZnO-based alternative reported here is cheap, clean and scalable.

    • Dan Zhao
    • , Xinxin Tian
    •  & Evgenii V. Kondratenko

  • News & Views |

    The distance between the surface atoms of noble metals, such as platinum, affects the catalytic activity of these elements. An experimental approach using nanoparticles enables this effect to be systematically controlled and measured.

    • Sylvain Brimaud

  • News & Views |

    Benzene rings are almost unbreakable in typical reaction conditions. Chemistry has now been developed that selectively breaks these rings open, highlighting their potential as building blocks for making open-chain molecules.

    • Mark R. Crimmin

  • Article |

    A metallaphotoredox-based cross-coupling platform is capable of activating a wide range of free alcohols using N-heterocyclic carbene salts, cleaving C–O bonds to form free carbon radicals that are then used to form new C–C bonds.

    • Zhe Dong
    •  & David W. C. MacMillan

  • Article |

    Common aromatic rings, such as anilines, arylboronic acids and aryl halides, can be opened up and converted to alkenyl nitriles through carbon–carbon bond cleavage using a copper catalyst.

    • Xu Qiu
    • , Yueqian Sang
    •  & Ning Jiao

  • Outlook |

    Start-up company HighT-Tech has developed a technique to make alloys that could improve catalysts or be used to build better batteries. The company is the winner of The Spinoff Prize 2021.

    • Neil Savage

  • Article |

    Selective borylation of azines—nitrogen-containing aromatic heterocycles used in the synthesis of many pharmaceuticals—is made possible by forming a radical from an aminoborane using a photocatalyst.

    • Ji Hye Kim
    • , Timothée Constantin
    •  & Daniele Leonori

  • Article |

    Spectroscopic studies and theoretical calculations of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction establish that reaction rates depend on the amount of charge stored in the electrocatalyst, and not on the applied potential.

    • Hong Nhan Nong
    • , Lorenz J. Falling
    •  & Travis E. Jones

  • Article |

    Metal-free borylation of C(sp3)–H bonds by violet-light-induced hydrogen atom transfer is reported, demonstrating high selectivity for the substitution of methyl C–H bonds over other weaker C–H bonds.

    • Chao Shu
    • , Adam Noble
    •  & Varinder K. Aggarwal

  • Article |

    A combination of spectroscopy, microscopy and theoretical calculations shows that the reactivity of titanium silicalite-1 as an epoxidation catalyst is due to the presence of dinuclear titanium sites.

    • Christopher P. Gordon
    • , Hauke Engler
    •  & Christophe Copéret

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