Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain
the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in
Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles
and JavaScript.
Lee and co-workers discuss metabolically engineered microbial cells to produce chemicals of interest from renewable feedstocks. Biological routes in combination with chemical routes are presented in a bio-based chemicals map — serving as a blueprint for the future design of chemical biosynthesis strategies.
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.
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 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.
Predicting highly enantioselective ligands for a given asymmetric catalytic reaction is very challenging, but could greatly reduce the need for high-throughput, trial-and-error experimentation. Here, the authors report a freely available, automated tool to identify appropriate chiral ligands for given substrates in asymmetric catalysis.
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.
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.
One of the major routes for the use of CO2 in chemical production is the formation of carbonates via cycloaddition of CO2 to epoxides. This work uses a range of experimental and computational techniques to map out the elusive key intermediates in this 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.
Catalysts are dynamic species, whose structure can change over the course of a reaction. Here, structural changes are mapped for cobalt–palladium nanoparticles during CO oxidation, showing a reconstruction to CoOx on palladium surfaces. Furthermore, the composition-dependent reconstruction can be correlated with the trend in catalytic activity.
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.