Volume 4 Issue 7, July 2021

Thermocatalytic hydrogenation is used industrially to produce ethylene at a reasonable purity, but at the cost of expensive catalysts, moderate selectivity, and potentially dangerous process conditions. Now, an electrochemical approach based on copper-based electrodes is suggested as a viable sustainable alternative.

Plastics are invaluable materials for modern society, although they result in the generation of large amounts of litter at the end of their life cycle. This Review explores the challenges and opportunities associated with the catalytic transformation of waste plastics, looking at both chemical and biological approaches to transforming such spent materials into a resource.

Acetylene semihydrogenation is important for polyethylene production, but the current thermocatalytic process is not free of shortcomings, such as the use of excessive hydrogen. Now, an electrocatalytic strategy is reported for selectively reducing acetylene to ethylene under ambient conditions

The selective semihydrogenation of acetylene in ethylene-rich gas streams is an important process in the manufacture of polyethylene, which is traditionally performed thermocatalytically. Now, a room-temperature electrochemical acetylene reduction system with excellent performance is presented.

Despite its biocidal properties, the use of hydrogen peroxide is still limited in the context of water disinfection. Here an approach is disclosed based on the generation of H₂O₂ in situ by means of an AuPd catalyst, which can compete with chlorination methods by generating a highly reactive radical flux.

Deuterated compounds are of high interest to the pharmaceutical industry; however, modular creation of differently deuterated methyl and methylene groups in organic skeletons is challenging. Now, this has been achieved by introducing the concept of transition-metal-mediated 1,4-H or D delivery.

Molecular imprinting can facilitate size- and shape-selective reactions beyond traditional approaches based on porous materials, but is still not fully established for heterogeneous catalysts. Here a molecular imprinting approach is introduced to generate a supported palladium catalyst for the selective hydrogenation of benzene from mixtures of aromatic molecules.

Zeolites are promising materials to prevent serious blood loss and death from haemorrhagic shocks, but their mode of action to initiate blood clotting remained vague. Now, this is investigated at the molecular level, revealing the formation of a prothrombinase complex on the surface of Ca-zeolites.

Single-atom catalysts containing Fe–N₄ active sites have been developed as effective noble-metal-free catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction. Here the authors untangle the effects of active site density and cooperativity between neighbouring single-atom sites at well-defined distances.

The S_N2 reaction is essential in organic chemistry, but its substrate scope is limited. Now, a strategy based on halogen-atom transfer using α-aminoalkyl radicals and copper catalysis enables coupling of secondary alkyl iodides with N-nucleophiles with S_N2-like programmability.

The coupling of substituted thiophenes is central to the synthesis of conducting polymers but relies on costly Pd-catalysed cross-couplings. Here, Earth-abundant iron and aluminium are shown to catalyse a regioselective thienyl C–H/C–H dimerization, enabling the synthesis of an array of π-conjugated polythiophenes.