Reviews & Analysis

Artificial photosynthetic technologies could potentially contribute to limiting global warming while providing useful chemicals for society. This Review Article covers photosynthetic semiconductor biohybrids—electrodes/nanomaterials coupled with microorganisms—for light-driven catalytic conversion of CO₂ to fuels and other value-added chemicals.

Spatial organization of biocatalytic cascades can improve their performance. In this Review Article, Itamar Willner and colleagues discuss technologies to artificially confine and localize enzyme cascades, the origin of observed rate enhancements and potential applications of such designed systems.

Electrochemical reactions can provide necessary redox equivalents for biocatalysis. In this Review, Minteer and co-workers summarize the current status and challenges of enzymatic and microbial bioelectrocatalysis for the green and efficient production of target products using electricity.

Advances in enzyme performance and capabilities are making them increasingly attractive to synthetic chemists. In this Review Chen and Arnold outline the ways that enzymes have been engineered to achieve reactivities well beyond their original functions.

Bioelectrocatalysis provides access to sustainable and highly efficient technological applications, but several limitations still prevent the large-scale integration of such devices. This Review discusses the current status of hydrogenase-based biofuel cells and biophotoelectrodes for solar energy harvesting.

Methods to control the performance of heterogeneous catalysts are extremely relevant to the success of industrial processes. This review provides a rationalization of the effects that metal support interactions have on the reactivity of different catalytic systems, emphasizing strategies to tune such effects.

CO oxidation is an important reaction in automotive catalysis which has been extensively studied since the 1970s. In this Review, Higashi and Beniya examine the development of state-of-the-art catalysts, in particular focusing on CO oxidation pathways for single-atom and few-atom cluster catalysis.

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells can efficiently provide clean power for electric vehicles, although more efficient and economic cathode catalysts are still required. This Review highlights recent breakthroughs, challenges and future research directions for Pt group metal (PGM) and PGM-free oxygen reduction catalysts.

Catalysis has been crucial for the transportation sector, as it has enabled the treatment of automotive exhausts over the years in agreement with evolving environmental regulations. This review details the most important milestones in automotive catalysis, while looking at the future of the field.

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction is an attractive approach for obtaining fuels and chemical feedstocks using renewable energy. In this Review, the authors describe progress so far, identify mechanistic questions and performance metrics, and discuss design principles for improved activity and selectivity.

First-principles-based multiscale models provide mechanistic insight and allow screening of large materials spaces to find promising new catalysts. In this Review, Reuter and co-workers discuss methodological cornerstones of existing approaches and highlight successes and ongoing developments in the field.

Photocatalytic water splitting with particulate semiconductors represents a promising strategy for the generation of hydrogen as a solar fuel. This review covers recent advances in the development of reaction systems and photocatalysts towards the scale-up of this technology, emphasizing at the same time the challenges to overcome.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to fuels and feedstocks has received increased attention over the past few years. In this Review, Roldan Cuenya and co-workers discuss strategies to achieve high selectivity towards multicarbon products via rational catalyst and electrolyte design.

Production of industrial chemicals from renewable biomass feedstock plays an important role in addressing limited fossil fuel resources, climate change and environmental problems. This Review provides a comprehensive overview of biological and chemical routes for the synthesis of industrial chemicals derived from key precursor metabolites of central carbon metabolic pathways, and visualizes the results in a global bio-based chemicals map.

The electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide allows recycling of the greenhouse gas to produce chemicals and fuels. In this Review, Seh and co-workers discuss the progress in operando techniques applied to heterogeneous carbon dioxide electroreduction, highlighting the mechanistic insights that these techniques have provided.

Two-dimensional materials have been in the spotlight since the discovery of graphene, and over time an extensive library of other ultrathin layered structures have emerged. In this Review, Pumera and Chia gather and discuss the features of this class of materials and review their recent applications in electrocatalysis.

Plasmonic catalysis has recently revolutionized the field of catalysis, promising to achieve improved control over catalytic reactions by targeting specific electronic excitations. In this Review, Linic and co-workers discuss the recent advances in the field, focusing on the underlying physical mechanisms and their application in catalysis, as well as limitations and future perspectives.

The artificial synthesis of ammonia remains one of the most important catalytic processes worldwide, over 100 years after its development. In this Review, recent developments in enzymatic, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis towards the conversion of nitrogen to ammonia are discussed, with a particular focus on how mechanistic understanding informs catalyst design.

The conversion of methanol — which can be produced from non-fossil resources — to important chemical commodities such as olefins and aromatics allows for the diversification of organic feedstocks beyond petrochemicals. This Review covers recent discoveries about the mechanism of this process and discusses how these link to practical aspects in reaction engineering.

Single-atom catalysts have drawn increasing attention as methods for their preparation and characterization improve. Here, Beller and co-workers discuss the latest developments in the field of single-metal-site catalysts, discussing how this catalyst class bridges heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, and providing a perspective on how the field might continue to develop.