Articles in 2023

Suppressing the formation of oxide encapsulation layers on the active metal during pretreatment would lead to increased catalytic activity in supported catalysts, but controlling the strong metal-support interactions is challenging. Now it is shown that cleverly introducing TiO_x patches onto Ru/MnO allows engineering effective oxide–oxide interface channels and avoids oxide overlayer formation, thus improving the performance of CO₂ hydrogenation to produce CO.

Diverse cytochrome P450s (CYPs) in nature can modify terpenoid scaffolds toward products with higher structural complexity and chemical diversity, but their discovery remains challenging. Now, an Escherichia coli -based gene screening platform enables high-throughput bacterial CYP screening, leading to efficient and diverse terpenoid biosynthesis.

Anion-exchange membrane fuel cells are promising devices to produce electricity from green hydrogen, but the development of suitable cathode catalysts is required for their successful deployment. Now, Co(CN)₃ microcrystals with cyanide linkages and well-defined coordination structures are shown to exhibit high oxygen reduction reaction performance in alkaline conditions.

Terpenoids are natural products with high value in the chemical industry; however, their expression in different hosts is limited by the availability of cytochrome P450. Here the authors show the engineering of recombinant Escherichia coli that can easily produce terpenoids from different classes and species.

Asymmetric catalytic photoelectrochemical reactions for the construction of complex compounds are underdeveloped. Now, merging photoelectrochemistry with asymmetric catalysis has enabled the dehydrogenative [2 + 2] photocycloaddition between alkyl ketones and alkenes affording enantioenriched cyclobutanes.

Different locations have been proposed for the catalytic centre of particulate methane monooxygenase for methane oxidation to methanol. Now, cryoelectron microscopy structures and electron nuclear double resonance spectroscopic measurements of the enzyme with a product analogue identify Cu_D as the active site and provide insights into substrate binding.

Enantioconvergent cross-electrophile coupling of non-redox-active alcohol derivatives is challenging. Now, taking advantage of Ni–C bond homolysis, enantioconvergent coupling of non-redox-active propargylic esters with chlorogermanes enables the synthesis of chiral propargyl germylation products.

A better understanding of the mechanism of electrochemical CO₂ reduction should enable development of electrocatalysts that are more active and selective. Now, through an isotopic labelling strategy, it has been discovered that there are at least two types of active sites on Cu electrocatalysts, one responsible for converting CO₂ to CO and another for further converting CO to useful C₂₊ products.

Selective electrochemical oxidation of ammonia provides an ideal pathway to synthesize hydrazine, but this process is outcompeted by a more favourable overoxidation to N₂. A molecular ruthenium catalyst has now flipped the script, circumventing the thermodynamic challenges to selectively generate hydrazine.

CRISPR-Cas9 is a major gene-editing tool that has attracted tremendous interdisciplinary efforts to ameliorate precise genome manipulation. Now, the pivotal structural features behind concerted double-stranded DNA cleavages by the Cas9 endonuclease have been captured through cryo-electron microscopy, laying the groundwork for improved Cas9 engineering.

The selective oxidation of methane to methanol using O₂ under mild conditions has been a challenge for decades. Now, this transformation is selectively achieved at ambient temperature with productivity as high as 67.4 μmol g_cat⁻¹ h⁻¹ on a reduced phosphomolybdate catalyst, where H₂ is required to keep the catalyst surface in a reduced state.

The development of innovative strategies for the capture and biodegradation of nanoplastics is sought after. Now, artificial hydrolytic active sites are incorporated into non-catalytic membrane nanopores generating pore-based biocatalytic nanoreactors that depolymerize polyethylene terephthalate plastic nanoparticles.