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Homogeneous catalysis

One electron is better than two

Electron transfer processes are almost ubiquitous, yet hard to understand thoroughly due to the variability of catalytic species involved. Now, a detailed mechanistic picture of the electron transfer associated with polypyridine nickel systems has been reported, offering an answer to the electron transfer puzzle of these complexes.

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Fig. 1: Illustration of unravelling the factors for electron transfer events in Ni catalysis.

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Correspondence to Aiwen Lei.

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Wang, S., Lei, A. One electron is better than two. Nat Catal 6, 220–221 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-023-00936-1

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