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As we celebrate our first birthday, we thank everyone involved and look back on an exciting 12 months.

Developing catalytic reactions for organic synthesis is the central goal of countless research groups worldwide. High-throughput experimentation is invaluable for this pursuit, with the requisite tools becoming increasingly available to both industrial and academic research labs.

Optimization of catalytic stereoselectivity for new substrates often requires a time consuming experimental process, and high-accuracy molecular modelling remains intractable for comprehensive virtual screening. Now, highly enantioselective rhodium hydrogenation catalysts have been identified using a rapid computational transition-state analysis protocol and then experimentally verified.

MOFs have found limited application in catalysis so far, as the result of their limited thermal and hydrolytic stability. Now, non-thermal plasma is shown to be able to promote and sustain the activity of HKUST-1 and other MOFs towards the water–gas shift reaction despite the presence of water. [In a previous version of the graphical abstract, CO conversion was incorrectly labelled CO₂ conversion.]

Amide bond formation is a hugely important reaction in organic synthesis. This Perspective examines the factors that influence the choice of reaction conditions for this process, comparing widely used stoichiometric reagents with catalysts. The authors draw on both academic and industrial data and focus on the efficiency, scope and sustainability of the various approaches.

Production of industrial chemicals from renewable biomass feedstock plays an important role in addressing limited fossil fuel resources, climate change and environmental problems. This Review provides a comprehensive overview of biological and chemical routes for the synthesis of industrial chemicals derived from key precursor metabolites of central carbon metabolic pathways, and visualizes the results in a global bio-based chemicals map.

The ability to functionalize normally unreactive sites in molecules opens up tremendous flexibility in synthesis design and structural modification, in addition to reducing the need for multiple steps or highly reactive reagents. Now, a dual-catalytic strategy, demonstrated with the methods for the β-arylation of aliphatic alcohols and for the enantioselective γ-hydroarylation of allylic alcohols, is reported for such reactions.

Despite the many recent developments in iron-catalysed cross-couplings, the mechanistic understanding of these reactions is lacking compared to the more studied palladium and nickel variants. Here, the authors find that during iron-catalysed Negishi reactions the diphosphine ligand predominately binds to the zinc—rather than the iron—centre.

Carbon-based single-atom catalysts usually rely on nitrogen co-doping to stabilize the single metal atoms as metal–N₄ moieties. Now, Wei, Yao and colleagues make use of operando techniques to show that under alkaline hydrogen evolution reaction conditions the Co–N₄ active site undergoes structural distortion to a HO–Co–N₂ configuration.

Silicon–hydride materials are attractive candidates for the photoreduction of carbon dioxide into fuels, although they have only worked stoichiometrically so far. Now, Ozin and co-workers show how decorating silicon nanosheets with palladium nanoparticles renders the process catalytic.

Single-atom catalysts are receiving much attention, but insights into their active sites or the differences in reactivity with conventional nanoparticles are still controversial. Now, operando studies on CO oxidation with Ir/MgAl₂O₄ accompanied by computational investigations reveal important features of this class of catalyst.

The use of electrochemistry in asymmetric catalysis can prove challenging, not least due to the difficulty of achieving chemo- and stereoselectivity in combination with very reactive electrochemically generated intermediates. Here, catalytic asymmetric electrosynthesis is reported for the synthesis of 1,4-dicarbonyl compounds with high enantiomeric excess, including compounds with all-carbon quaternary stereocentres. The chiral-at-metal catalyst activates the substrate towards anodic oxidation in addition to controlling the enantioselectivity of the process.

Reusable catalysts based on earth-abundant metals could offer inexpensive and sustainable routes in organic synthesis. Here a nickel catalyst—formed by pyrolysis of a nickel complex on a γ-Al₂O₃ support—is shown to be highly active for synthesis of primary amines via reductive amination. The catalyst operates with aqueous ammonia and either aldehydes or ketones, tolerating a wide range of functional groups.

The electroreduction of carbon dioxide to formate represents a desirable strategy for the production of fuels and commodity chemicals. Now, guided by density functional theory, Cui and colleagues report CuSn₃ alloys that exhibit high activity and selectivity for formate production from CO₂ electroreduction at potentials as low as −0.5 V versus RHE.

Copper-based catalysts, especially the so-called oxide-derived copper, are capable of producing multicarbon species from electrochemical CO₂ reduction. However, little is known about their active sites despite intensive research efforts. Now, Lum and Ager show that oxide-derived copper catalysts have three distinct product-specific sites for the formation of C₂₊ chemicals, unlike polycrystalline copper or (111)- and (100)-oriented copper films which show no evidence of product specific sites.

Nanoscale texture of electrocatalysts, enabled by the tools of nanoscience, is emerging as an important lever for the control of electrochemical reaction pathways.