Volume 2 Issue 12, December 2019

Simple methods to incorporate deuterium into organic compounds are highly sought after as deuteration can enable mechanistic studies or improve the metabolic stability of pharmaceuticals. Now, a catalytic hydrogen–deuterium exchange reaction using deuterated water allows convenient access to deuterated aldehyde building blocks.

Because of the high strength of N≡N bonds, N₂ is often employed as an inert gas. Now it has been shown that it can partly react to yield surface nitrogen species that facilitate C–O hydrogenolysis reactions on supported Ru catalysts.

Carbon monoxide can be electrochemically transformed to multi-carbon products selectively at high rates, raising the prospect of a two-step pathway to transform CO₂ into value-added chemical products. This Perspective highlights recent progress complemented by a techno-economic analysis of the two-step conversion process and cradle-to-gate lifecycle assessment.

Deuterated molecules are important both as labelled probes and as targets in their own right. Here the authors report a very simple and general deuteration of aldehydes, by the use of an N-heterocyclic carbene catalyst in the presence of D₂O.

Due to its stability nitrogen is often employed as an inert gas during catalytic reactions. Now, a study shows that N₂ can act as promoter for the catalytic hydrodeoxygenation of p-cresol on supported ruthenium catalysts through the formation of hydrogenated nitrogen species acting as a source of protic hydrogen.

The synthesis of chiral amines is of crucial importance for the pharmaceutical industry, but it remains a challenging task and is often inefficient. Now, a heterogeneous iridium complex is developed for the asymmetric hydrogenation of imines and the asymmetric reductive amination of carbonyl compounds in continuous flow with high yields and enantioselectivities.

The asymmetric hydrogenation of alkenes is a common route to optically active compounds, but alkene synthesis is often atom-inefficient, and the formation of isomers further complicates the procedure. Now the Ir-catalysed deoxygenation of racemic alcohols is shown to be a simple route to enantioenriched products.

The synthesis of organophosphorus compounds from elemental phosphorus is an inefficient process, using multiple steps, stoichiometric metal complexes and/or hazardous reagents such as chlorine gas. Here, a direct photocatalytic route to convert white phosphorus (P₄) into phosphines and phosphonium salts is reported.

To achieve large-scale application of water electrolysers we need to find optimal cathode and anode catalysts. This work reports an engineered silver catalyst with high density of stacking faults that exhibits high activity and stability for the hydrogen evolution reaction, outperforming commercial platinum on carbon.

The sugar d-apiose is important in plant cell wall polysaccharides. Here the authors elucidate the complex, multistep biosynthetic pathway for its production using enzyme crystal structures and computational analysis.

The electrocatalytic upgrading of CO to higher-value feedstocks provides a promising route to multicarbon products. Here, the authors show that high ethylene selectivity can be achieved by constraining CO availability on copper, with an ethylene Faradaic efficiency of 72% and a partial current density of >800 mA cm⁻².