Volume 3 Issue 5, May 2020

A rapid and efficient electrochemical reaction requires active catalytic material, as well as proper electrode and cell design. Now, a gas diffusion electrode based on a stainless steel cloth successfully overcomes gas transport limitations for high-current ammonia electrosynthesis in non-aqueous solvents at ambient conditions.

Nonlinear effects in catalysis have been shown to allow for asymmetric amplification. Here the authors report a particularly intriguing case whereby a catalytic asymmetric reaction gives a significantly higher product e.e. when run with a non-enantiopure catalyst compared to the enantiopure version.

There has been a long-standing debate on whether heterogeneously catalysed Suzuki cross-couplings can occur homogeneously due to metal leaching. Here the authors show that while the palladium from the nanoparticle catalyst is mobile during the reaction, the active sites remain heterogeneous in nature.

Oxidative carbonylation using CO/O₂ is an attractive strategy to construct carbonyl compounds, but the explosive limit of the gas mixture hampers its application. Now, this safety issue is overcome in the aminocarbonylation of alkynes by replacing the external oxidant O₂ by electrochemistry facilitating a mild and safe reaction.

Reducible metal oxides selectively catalyse the hydrodeoxygenation of C–O bonds in bio-based aromatic molecules, although they show limited performance. Now, using TiO₂ as an example, a method is reported to enhance the activity of the oxide by surface doping with an ultralow loading of Pt.

Efficient hydrogen oxidation catalysts must maintain an oxide-free metal surface in a relatively high potential range. Now, a catalyst consisting of Ru clusters partially confined in the lattice of urchin-like TiO₂ crystals is shown to catalyse the reaction up to a potential of 0.9 V_RHE with high mass activity and CO tolerance under both acidic and basic conditions.

Non-polar gaseous reactants such as N₂ and H₂ exhibit low solubility and slow transport in non-aqueous solvents and conventional gas diffusion electrodes cannot avoid non-aqueous electrolyte penetration. Here, transport limitations and catalyst flooding in tetrahydrofuran are overcome by using a stainless steel cloth-based support for lithium-mediated ammonia synthesis paired with H₂ oxidation.