Volume 1 Issue 3, March 2018

Ammonia synthesis is an energy-intensive process due to the high activation barrier for N₂ dissociation, which is the rate-determining step on conventional catalysts. Now, a ternary intermetallic catalyst is reported to be capable of catalysing this reaction through an alternative pathway.

Lyases are enzymes that catalyse the breaking of chemical bonds. Now, reversing this reaction towards carbon–nitrogen bond formation allows for the synthesis of various chiral aminocarboxylic acids such as the potential antibiotic co-drug aspergillomarasmine A.

Fluctuations in the composition of reactant gas mixtures often lead to activity and selectivity variations in automotive catalysts. Now, time-resolved operando spectroscopy sheds light on the transient changes of surface species for a commercially applied catalyst and leads to process optimization.

Solvents are used pervasively in catalytic studies to enhance kinetics and selectivities. Now, the analysis of biomass upgrading has been remarkably simplified by elucidating the solvation effects of dehydration for key compounds with solvent-enabled control of reactivity.

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.

Aminocarboxylic acids are used in a broad range of domestic products and industrial applications. Here, Poelarends and co-workers report a chemoenzymatic route for the asymmetric synthesis of the antibiotic co-drug candidate aspergillomarasmine A and related aminocarboxylic acids by exploiting the broad substrate promiscuity of ethylenediamine-N,N′-disuccinic acid (EDDS) lyase.

Single-atom catalysts are of growing importance, but the nature of their structure and reactivity remains under debate. Here, Sykes and co-workers show that single Pt atoms on a well-defined Cu₂O surface are capable of performing low-temperature CO oxidation, and provide data on the binding site and electronic structure of the Pt atoms.

The choice of solvent system has important implications regarding the catalytic upgrading of carbohydrate-containing biomass. Here, Dumesic and co-workers study solvation effects in organic solvent/water mixtures and employ the obtained information to control the rate and selectivity of the acid-catalysed dehydration of fructose.

For practical applications, water-oxidation catalysts should be inexpensive, active and stable. Here, Cronin and co-workers dope molybdenum into the Weakley sandwich-type polyoxometalate, showing that this dramatically lowers the overpotential for the oxygen evolution reaction while maintaining the stability against oxidation.

Small metal nanoclusters often display high catalytic activity, but also low stability due to aggregation. Here, Xu and co-workers show that subnanometre Pd clusters can be contained within porous organic cages. Not only do the particles retain high catalytic activity, they also show excellent solubility and stability.

Selective catalytic reduction is employed at the exhaust of diesel vehicles to abate nitrogen oxide emissions. Now, guided by time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy and transient experiments using Cu-SSZ-13 as the catalyst, the authors unravel important features of the reaction mechanism that allow the performance of the catalyst to be improved.