Stability is a key property for any catalyst. The description of stability, however, varies in the literature depending on the subfield. In this Review the authors present a systematic literature analysis aimed at identifying generalized deactivation modes and their prevalence in different areas of catalysis to offer a comprehensive descriptive framework of catalyst deactivation.

Metabolic engineering of microbes constitutes a promising strategy to make the industrial production of chemicals more sustainable. This Review discusses recent advances of targeted high-throughput genome editing to construct next-generation cell factories for bioproduction.

Single-atom, small cluster and nanoparticle catalysts feature intriguing reactivity for a variety of transformations, which is often attributed to the properties of specific atomic species. This Review critically revisits the reactivity of such catalysts in term of the ensemble effects that arise from the interaction of multiple metal atoms or single atomic species with neighbouring atoms from supports, additives or surface ligands.

The 27th United Nations Climate Change Conference placed the risks of greenwashing under the spotlight. In this Editorial, we reflect on the implications of this phenomenon for science and peer review.

Design of artificial photosynthetic systems that mimic the complex supramolecular structures in natural systems remains a grand challenge. Here self-assembled nanomicelles containing Zn porphyrins and Co porphyrins as photosensitizer and catalyst achieve selective photocatalytic CO₂-to-CH₄ conversion in water.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae can be engineered to slowly use methanol; however, a co-carbon source is usually required to support its growth. Now, a Saccharomyces cerevisiae strain that can use methanol as the sole carbon source for growth, and produce value-added bioproducts, is developed.

Electrocatalytic processes involving gas molecules are generally limited by low solubility in aqueous solutions. Here water endowed with permanent microporosity by silicalite-1 nanocrystals is used to concentrate O₂, allowing the measurement of the intrinsic activity of a Pt/C catalyst in the oxygen reduction reaction.

Nitrogenases are of high interest due to their ability to form NH₄⁺ by reduction of atmospheric dinitrogen. However, the detailed architecture of the Fe-only isoform remained unknown. Now, a high-resolution crystal structure of Fe-nitrogenase is solved, deepening the understanding of nitrogenase catalysis.

Charge transfer and chemical kinetics both contribute to the overall overpotential that is observed in a typical electrocatalytic experiment, but it remains difficult to resolve the individual contributions. Here a Pd membrane double cell is used to separate the charge transfer and chemical steps in the hydrogen evolution reaction to evaluate how experimental conditions affect the individual steps.

Electrocatalytic nitrate reduction represents an opportunity to generate ammonia under ambient conditions, yet the efficiency has been limited by the large overpotential required. Here, a Ru–Co alloy demonstrates a three-step relay mechanism involving a spontaneous redox step that reduces the overpotential for the process.