Volume 3 Issue 12, December 2019

Neutral and anionic 20-valence-electron heteroatomic tetrahedra are well known. There now exists a synthetic pathway for isoelectronic cationic derivatives.

Pesticides assure control over the disease vectors; however, most pests have developed resistance to the major classes of pesticides. Synergistic approaches in which pesticides are combined with inhibitors of the specific resistance-mediating enzymes have been now identified as promising solutions.

Cycloparaphenylenes are highly tunable molecular scaffolds. This Review highlights how their cyclic topologies endow them with novel properties amenable to diverse applications.

Enzyme designers can exploit catalytic promiscuity to unlock activities unknown to nature. This Review discusses how repurposing versatile reaction intermediates and creating new ones installs abiological activities into existing, designed and hybrid enzymes, and how directed-evolution strategies readily improve catalysts for these new-to-nature activities.

Achieving precise control over when and where a chemical reaction takes place can open the way to a plethora of new applications. This Review gives an overview of progress made in this quest for high spatial and temporal molecular control.

In this Perspective, recent advances in measuring rates of elementary reactions at model catalyst surfaces are presented. A recent ion-imaging-based technique — velocity-resolved kinetics — is discussed in the context of a typical surface reaction, CO oxidation on Pt.