Volume 4 Issue 4, April 2021

Tuning the selectivity of CO₂ electrohydrogenation to value-added products poses a challenge in CO₂ mitigation and electrified chemical manufacturing. Now, a strategy to design and synthesize CO₂ reduction electrocatalysts highly selective to either CO or CH₄ for proton-conducting ceramic electrochemical cells is presented.

The catalytic mechanism of oxygen activation employed by particulate methane monooxygenase for the oxidation of methane has remained elusive. Now, computational simulations suggest an important role of the phenol co-substrate and a catalytic cycle is proposed.

Coupled thermal–electrochemical catalysis offers an attractive approach to upgrading CO₂ into value-added products. Now, Ir–ceria-based catalysts in a protonic ceramic CO₂ electrolyser are shown to selectively produce either CO or CH₄ by tuning the Ir–O orbital hybridization.

A major drive in current chemistry research is to develop asymmetric versions of widely used carbon–carbon bond-forming reactions, such as Suzuki-Miyaura cross-couplings. Now, the origins of diastereo- and enantioselectivity in a Rh-catalysed cross-coupling of boronic acid and racemic allyl halides have been established.

The standard Mizoroki–Heck reaction of aryl halides usually makes electron-poor alkenes react exclusively on the β-carbon. Now, α-selective intramolecular and intermolecular versions of this reaction with electron-deficient alkenes are reported, giving access to otherwise difficult-to-synthesize products.

Transformations in organic chemistry are mainly limited to the incorporation of only one equivalent of the greenhouse gas CO₂ per substrate. Now, a visible-light photoredox-catalysed dicarboxylation of alkenes, allenes and arenes allows the incorporation of two CO₂ molecules into organic compounds.

The cleavage of the C(sp²)–OH bond in phenols remains a challenging reaction, despite its relevance for the production of bio-based chemicals. Here, the authors introduce a Al(PO₃)₃-supported platinum catalyst capable of facilitating such a transformation under mild conditions thanks to the synergy between the metal and support.

The simultaneous achievement of both high ammonia yield and Faradaic efficiency in electrochemical nitrogen reduction is a challenging goal. Now, the diffusion of reactants to the catalyst surface is controlled using a covalent organic framework, which results in high-performance electrochemical ammonia synthesis.

Nitrous-oxide-mediated oxidation reactions can be effectively promoted by iron-containing zeolites, although structural information on the interaction between oxidant and metal centre is limited. Here, the authors report the characterization of the N₂O-ligated Fe(ii) active site in iron-exchanged zeolite beta.