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Converting carbon dioxide to more useful — and less harmful — chemicals is a key challenge of our time, and one in which catalysis needs to play a key role.

Understanding the fundamentals of a catalytic process remains an intellectual challenge. Now, a method has been developed that can discriminate mass transport phenomena from reaction kinetics at the single-molecule and single-particle levels.

While methods for arylation of amines are well established, alkylation is a less well-developed process. Here, Hu and co-workers report amine alkylation using redox-active esters, using a combination of photoredox catalysis to generate the active electrophile and copper catalysis for the cross-coupling.

Selective, electrochemical transformation of carbon dioxide into industrially relevant C₂₊ products has remained a challenge. Now, a copper-based ‘nanoneedle’ electrocatalyst has been used to selectively convert carbon dioxide to ethylene at extremely high current density.

Given the abundance of amines in pharmaceutical substances, new strategies for the formation of C–N bonds are highly sought after. Now, using a dual photoredox–copper catalysis system, a method for amine synthesis has been developed.

Zeolite-catalysed alkylations of phenolic compounds offer unique possibilities for the valorization of renewable aromatics into substituted arenes. Now, a mechanistic study reveals that the course of the reaction can be dramatically altered by changing the polarity of the solvent, which affects the nature of surface species and the pathway for the generation of the alkylating electrophile.

Understanding structure sensitivity—how the structural morphology of a surface influences a catalytic reaction—is important for rational catalyst design. Here, the synthesis and in-depth characterization of a range of size-defined nickel clusters shows the structure sensitivity of CO₂ hydrogenation, and also identifies two size-dependent reaction pathways.

Nanoconfinement effects are crucial in any process that involves porous materials. Here, the authors present a nanoporous catalyst platform that enables these effects to be studied in situ at the single-molecule and single-particle level with turnover resolution.

Ammonia synthesis is an energy-intensive process due to the high activation barrier for N₂ dissociation. Here, Hosono and co-workers show that the intermetallic compound LaCoSi can lower the energy requirement for N₂ activation and shift the rate-determining step of the process to NH _x formation under mild conditions.

Bifunctional heterogeneous catalysts are usually prepared by dispersion of a metal on an acidic or basic support. Now a method has been developed to post-functionalize a catalyst and introduce tunable acidity by coating an organic acid layer on the support, resulting in improved performance as showcased for selected hydrodeoxygenation reactions.

Electrocatalytic reduction of CO₂ to products containing multiple carbon atoms is useful for producing high-value chemicals and fuels. This work uses theory to predict the preferred copper surface for C–C coupling, and subsequent metal ion cycling to produce the desired facets results in a catalyst that is highly selective for C₂₊ products.

Catalysts that can selectively reduce carbon dioxide to C2+ products are attractive for the generation of more complex and useful chemicals. Here, an electro-redeposited copper catalyst is shown to provide excellent selectivity and high current density for ethylene formation. Detailed characterization and theory link the performance to the catalyst morphology.

The direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide via oxygen reduction is an attractive alternative to the anthraquinone process. Here, a general trend linking oxygenation of carbon surfaces with electrocatalytic performance in peroxide synthesis is demonstrated, and computational studies provide further insight into the nature of the active sites.

In nature, a manganese catalyst is used for photosynthetic water oxidation, but efforts to develop artificial manganese-based counterparts have been hampered by the lability of manganese complexes. By using a bulky and hydrophilic ligand, a water-soluble Mn₁₂ complex is found to be a stable and efficient water oxidation electrocatalyst.

Welcome to the first issue of Nature Catalysis. While the format of a Nature Research journal will probably be familiar to most of our readers, in this editorial we would like discuss the unique aspects of this journal and our aims for the future.

Most electrochemical CO₂ reduction research has been confined to fundamental studies that attempt to understand how to overcome low selectivity and energy efficiency for valuable oxygenated products. Now, a modular, scalable system generates multi-carbon oxygenates with a potential solar-to-alcohol efficiency of more than 8%.

Catalysis is a subject with a surprisingly long and rich history. It seems certain that it has an even brighter future as the challenges of our society require a focus on this discipline more than ever.

Electrophilic substitution of aromatics on zeolites is generally assumed to occur through the Wheland-type intermediate, although direct experimental evidence is lacking. Now, this carbenium ion has been identified as a stable intermediate in the alkylation of benzene with ethanol on an industrial zeolite catalyst.