Volume 3 Issue 9, September 2020

The activity and the stability of an electrocatalyst are equally important, but the reasons behind deactivation processes still remain unresolved. Achieving a deeper understanding of the process will help to inhibit deactivation and improve revivification protocols.

Peroxygenases are promising enzymes to contribute to more environmentally friendly and sustainable oxidation reactions in industry. This Review Article gives a comprehensive overview about enzymes with peroxygenase activity and strategies to engineer them for desired reactions and enhanced performances.

Alkali metals have been traditionally used to promote heterogeneous catalysts, albeit their mode of action remains controversial. Now, the authors demonstrate the multifaceted role of sodium ions in promoting atomically dispersed Ru(iii) on Al₂O₃, resulting in a superior hydrogenation catalyst.

The Mackay crystal is a proposed—but synthetically unachieved—nanocarbon molecule that is anticipated to have many desirable properties. Now, a strategy based on annulative coupling of chlorophenanthrene derivatives is reported, allowing streamlined access to an important substructure.

The reductive deuteration of unsaturated hydrocarbons is a promising deuterium-labelling strategy, although it requires expensive gaseous D₂ or other stoichiometric reagents. Here, an electrocatalytic palladium membrane reactor is employed to selectively generate C(sp³)–D bonds via reduction of unsaturated compounds using D₂O.

Axial chirality is found in many important compounds, such as bioactive molecules and catalytic components. Now palladium and chiral norbornene cooperative catalysis is reported for the construction of atropisomeric biaryls and chiral fluorenols.

Site-selective installation of fluorine (¹⁹F) and its radioisotope (¹⁸F) in aromatic molecules can lead to high-value products, but methods for this purpose are not without limitations. Now, using photochemistry, a ¹⁹F- and ¹⁸F- labelling strategy is reported that complements traditional approaches.

Achieving long-term stability of water oxidation electrocatalysts remains a formidable challenge. Now, an in situ electrochemical reduction strategy to revivify mixed Ni–Fe hydroxide catalysts by reversible phase segregation is presented.

Platinum dissolution and restructuring due to surface oxidation are primary degradation mechanisms of platinum-based electrocatalysts. Now, stark differences are reported in the mechanism for the oxidative extraction of platinum atoms on (111) and (100) single crystals, providing a detailed explanation for the enhanced dissolution on the latter surface.

The fundamental kinetics of the electrocatalytic sulfur reduction reaction, a complex 16-electron conversion process in lithium–sulfur batteries, is a topic that remains largely unexplored. Here, by directly profiling the activation energies in the multi-step reaction, the authors establish how the conversion kinetics differ for each step.