Volume 6 Issue 10, October 2023

A better understanding of the mechanism of electrochemical CO₂ reduction should enable development of electrocatalysts that are more active and selective. Now, through an isotopic labelling strategy, it has been discovered that there are at least two types of active sites on Cu electrocatalysts, one responsible for converting CO₂ to CO and another for further converting CO to useful C₂₊ products.

The selective oxidation of methane to methanol using O₂ under mild conditions has been a challenge for decades. Now, this transformation is selectively achieved at ambient temperature with productivity as high as 67.4 μmol g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ on a reduced phosphomolybdate catalyst, where H₂ is required to keep the catalyst surface in a reduced state.

Selective electrochemical oxidation of ammonia provides an ideal pathway to synthesize hydrazine, but this process is outcompeted by a more favourable overoxidation to N₂. A molecular ruthenium catalyst has now flipped the script, circumventing the thermodynamic challenges to selectively generate hydrazine.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a major gene-editing tool that has attracted tremendous interdisciplinary efforts to ameliorate precise genome manipulation. Now, the pivotal structural features behind concerted double-stranded DNA cleavages by the Cas9 endonuclease have been captured through cryo-electron microscopy, laying the groundwork for improved Cas9 engineering.

Understanding the structure–performance relationships of heterogeneous catalysts is of fundamental importance for their deployment in industry. However, gaps exist between the conditions and catalytic materials commonly employed in laboratory studies and those encountered in practical reactors. This Perspective highlights the importance of recognizing such gaps, with the goal to inform the planning of academic research and maximize its impact.

Despite decades of intensive research, the precise mechanism and active sites involved in CO₂ electroreduction on copper catalysts remains unclear. Now, a combination of experimental techniques reveals distinct sites for CO₂-to-CO and CO conversion and shows that the presence of CO₂ promotes CO reduction.

The partial oxidation of methane to methanol is a very attractive yet challenging process. Now, a H₂-reduced Pd-containing phosphomolybdate catalyst is reported to convert methane and O₂ to methanol with nearly 100% selectivity at room temperature.

Electrochemistry holds great potential for the synthesis of complex and valuable compounds, but so far attempts to prepare amino acids have resulted in low yields. Now, the electrosynthesis of alanine and other amino acids from NO and α-keto acids is performed on a silver catalyst, and the amino acid yield is enhanced using two decoupled flow reactors.

Fuel cells rely on costly and scarce platinum-group metals to catalyse both anodic and cathodic reactions. Here a catalyst consisting of atomically dispersed iridium and phosphorus on carbon is presented, where adjacent iridium and phosphorus sites work as integrative catalytic pairs to synergically boost the performance for the hydrogen oxidation reaction.

Anthocyanins are used in the food and cosmetic industries. Due to the insufficient production in alternative hosts, they are still isolated from plants. Now, this study suggests an important catalytic role of glutathione transferases for the efficient biosynthesis of these natural products.

Urea electrosynthesis from nitrate and CO₂ is an attractive strategy to diminish pollutants and reduce emissions, but yields are generally low. Now, this process is performed on a Zn/Cu hybrid catalyst achieving high Faradaic efficiency for urea of 75% via a relay catalysis mechanism.

The electrochemical synthesis of hydrazine is a very attractive yet challenging process. Now, the direct electrochemical oxidation of ammonia to hydrazine on a Ru complex catalyst, involving a bimolecular N‒N coupling mechanism, is reported.

CO₂ conversion to valuable chemicals is of great interest in sustainable chemistry. Now, β-amino acids are synthesized by a dual catalytic strategy that enables the aminocarboxylation of alkenes using CO₂, proceeding via alkene radical anion intermediates that are generated using a designed binaphthol-derived photoredox catalyst.

Cas9 is a powerful genome-manipulation enzyme, although how its catalytic activity is controlled is not completely solved. Now, cryo-electron microscopy structures of Acidothermus cellulolyticus Cas9 provide atomic-level insights into its activation involving DNA binding, conformational changes and the formation of its two active sites.