Volume 2 Issue 4, April 2019

Given the fact that sodium is the most abundant alkali metal on Earth, the direct and indirect use of organosodium compounds in palladium-catalysed carbon–carbon bond forming reactions is an attractive alternative for sustainable organic synthesis.

Good durability and activity of single Ru atom catalysts is critical for their large-scale utilization in electrochemical water splitting. Now, both of these properties can be better controlled through compressive strain engineering.

High-yield production of a functionally active mimic of particulate methane monooxygenase in Escherichia coli has been presented. Investigation of its catalytic mode clarifies the role of duroquinol in biomimetic methanol production.

The diversity of engineered amine dehydrogenases for reductive amination remains limited. Now, native amino dehydrogenases offering a different sequence space and catalytic features are discovered — enhancing and broadening the biocatalysis toolbox.

The electrochemical reduction of nitrogen is being intensely investigated as the basis for future ammonia production. This Perspective critiques current steps and missteps towards this goal in terms of experimental methodology and catalyst selection, proposing a protocol for rigorous experimentation.

While organolithium and organomagnesium compounds have well developed methods in organic chemistry, organosodium compounds are much less widely used. Here a method to generate organosodium compounds from aryl chlorides and (hetero)arenes is reported, along with a demonstration of their use in cross-coupling reactions.

While Ru-based electrocatalysts are among the most active for acidic water oxidation, they suffer from severe deactivation. Now, Yuen Wu, Wei-Xue Li and co-workers report a core–shell Ru₁–Pt₃Cu catalyst with surface-dispersed Ru atoms for a highly active and stable oxygen evolution reaction in acid electrolyte.

Axially chiral biaryls have proven to have a wide variety of uses—perhaps most importantly as ligands in asymmetric catalysis—but their synthesis remains challenging. Here, Bin Tan and colleagues report a redox-neutral aryl–aryl coupling, providing a direct route to N,N and N,O axially chiral biaryls in high yields and enantioselectivities.

New enzymes for the efficient and stereoselective synthesis of chiral amines are of high interest for the pharmaceutical industry. Now, Grogan, Vergne-Vaxelaire and co-workers report the discovery, characterization, crystal structure and engineering of a family of native amine dehydrogenases for the preparation of chiral amines from ketones.

Copper on ceria is an excellent catalyst for the low-temperature water–gas shift reaction. Here the active sites are directly imaged by electron microscopy and probed with in situ spectroscopy, showing that the reaction proceeds via a cooperative mechanism whereby the Cu⁺ chemically adsorbs CO while an adjacent O_v–Ce³⁺ site dissociatively activates H₂O.

Methane monooxygenase (MMO)—a protein of high biotechnological interest for the selective and mild conversion of methane to methanol—lacks a high-throughput production system. Now, the authors report the efficient production of particulate MMO-mimics for catalysis in solution and hydrogels.

Immobilized molecular catalysts can be efficient for the electroreduction of CO₂, but their practical applicability is hampered by the continued use of rare metals. Here, a photoelectrode based on an earth-abundant molecular catalyst with high CO₂ reduction performance is introduced.

Photoelectrochemical cells have been widely used for the production of solar fuels, but have seen limited applications in organic synthesis. Here the authors demonstrate photoelectrocatalytic C–H amination of aromatics, using haematite as the photoanode.