Volume 2 Issue 9, September 2018

Threshold concepts are the tricky ideas that underpin so much knowledge. In teaching them, it is important to recognize that a correct answer is not necessarily evidence of understanding.

A total synthesis of xishacorene B starts from a chiral pool molecule and exploits a C–C activation reaction to form the core structure.

Water–surface interactions are strongly influenced by the polar or non-polar nature of the chemical groups on the surface. Jacob Monroe and Scott Shell used molecular dynamics simulations and genetic algorithms to show that the specific patterns of such functionalities effect water dynamics.

Iridium chelates are attractive catalysts for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. The mode through which a chelating ligand binds iridium turns out to have a striking effect on catalytic activity and enantioselectivity.

Click chemistry enables efficient chemical labelling of small molecules in cells, providing a powerful method to visualize almost any biologically active compound. This versatile methodology can provide valuable information about the mechanisms of action of small molecules in various biological settings.

Surface plasmons can redistribute photoenergy over different time, space and energy scales and have been exploited in new spectroscopic techniques. This Review reports on how surface plasmons can also drive chemical reactions by localizing photon, electronic and/or thermal energies.

The study of [FeFe]-hydrogenases exemplifies how one can manipulate even sophisticated metal clusters to afford insights into structure–function relationships of biological catalysts. This Perspective describes developments in designing artificial proteins and catalytically active nucleic acids towards minimalistic and robust semi-biological catalysts for chemical synthesis.

This Perspective describes how reversible catalysis — a hallmark of enzymes — can be reproduced in synthetic catalysts by rationally designing first and second coordination spheres, as well as amino acid-based outer coordination spheres. We describe this in the context of Ni prototypes for efficient H₂ oxidation and evolution.