Browse Articles

Prenylation is a common step in the synthesis of many natural products, and enantioselective variants require the use of enzymatic catalysts. Now, You and co-workers report a palladium phosphoramidite catalyst capable of enantioselective, dearomative prenylations across a broad range of starting materials, and demonstrate its power in a number of natural product syntheses.

High activity and stability of enzyme cascades are key to their biotechnological application. Here, Willner and co-workers demonstrate that encapsulation in metal–organic framework nanoparticles can improve these features for two- and three-enzyme, as well as NAD⁺-dependent, cascades.

The bioenergetic metabolism of all life today depends on proton gradients; however, it remains unclear how such gradients developed in early life. Here, Mansy and co-workers establish a possible prebiotic mechanism in which iron–sulfur peptide redox networks generate a trans-membrane pH gradient.

The synthesis of complex terpene compounds in the laboratory using man-made catalysts has proven to be much more complicated than in nature. Now, Tiefenbacher and co-workers report the use of an enzyme-mimicking supramolecular catalyst for the efficient and short synthesis of tricyclic sesquiterpenes.

The synthesis of nanocatalysts with small dimensions and high surface-to-volume ratios is of great interest to lower catalyst costs and exploit catalytic performance enhancements through size effects. Now, Prinz and colleagues show that two-dimensional growth of platinum nanoparticles with suppressed thicknesses can be promoted with passivation-gas-incorporated atomic layer deposition.

Though pentamethylcyclopentadienyl rhodium(iii) complexes have been successfully employed for C–H functionalizations, stereocontrol can be difficult due to the lack of vacant coordination sites on the metal centre. Here, Yoshino, Matsunaga and co-workers show that chiral anions can be used alongside the achiral rhodium complex to catalyse C–H activation and subsequent asymmetric conjugate addition.

The efficient design of electrochemical CO₂ reduction catalysts requires high CO₂ concentrations on the catalyst surface. Here, Cui and co-workers make use of flexible, hydrophobic, nanoporous polyethylene membranes with good gas permeability to design a catalytic set-up that mimics the alveolus structure in mammalian lungs, achieving high activity and selectivity to CO.

A haem–carbenoid has been proposed to be involved in abiological enzymatic reactions. Now, Hilvert and co-workers provide crystallographic evidence for a haem–carbenoid intermediate as the reactive species in an olefin cyclopropanation reaction catalysed by an artificial metalloenzyme.

Industrial publications are a very valuable and multifaceted tool for the wider catalysis community; they can foster the productive collaboration of university and corporate research laboratories, an essential partnership for the solution of important societal problems

The identification of organic structure-directing agents capable of tailoring the physicochemical properties of microporous materials has remained a challenge. Now, a unique methodology to design organic mimics of reaction intermediates provides a route to optimize the selectivity of zeolite catalysts.

Control over the length and composition of polymers is key to controlling their properties. Now, a photoswitchable catalyst is shown to allow external control over reaction rates, chain lengths and even polymer composition in ring-opening polymerizations.

Pairing electrosynthetic anode and cathode processes (either convergent or divergent) is essential to maximize energy usage/sustainability and to minimize waste. New approaches to pairing in electrosynthesis are needed and the use of a palladium film membrane by Berlinguette and co-workers represents an effective paired reactor prototype that couples electrosynthesis with chemical catalysis.

Methanol-to-olefins (MTO) conversion over zeolites is a promising route for the production of light olefins. Now, Corma and co-workers show that using mimics of reaction intermediates as structure-directing agents allows the synthesis of highly selective zeolite MTO-catalysts.

The preparation of functionalized amino acids from inexpensive aldehydes is challenging. This work describes the biocatalytic synthesis of l-methionine by applying gaseous CO₂ pressure and a coupled amination step to drive the unfavoured equilibrium of a reverse carboxylation reaction.

The artificial synthesis of ammonia remains one of the most important catalytic processes worldwide, over 100 years after its development. In this Review, recent developments in enzymatic, homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis towards the conversion of nitrogen to ammonia are discussed, with a particular focus on how mechanistic understanding informs catalyst design.