Volume 1 Issue 2, February 2018

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.