Research Highlights

Convenient synthesis of planar-chiral rhodium catalysts enables asymmetrical C–H activation.

Protein structure and interactions can be characterized in cells using ¹⁹F NMR.

Polyarylenes are now afforded through the cycloaromatization of isopropyl-substituted arenes on Au surfaces. The reaction mechanism is elucidated through computational and in situ scanning probe microscopy investigations.

Drying DNA with crystalline calcium phosphate can help boost its stability.

Integrating bio- and chemocatalysis in one-pot enabled new reaction pathways to amides with broad substrate scope and enantioselectivity under mild conditions, building towards more sustainable chemistry.

A simple processing procedure enables the fabrication of biodegradable protein-based plastics with tunable properties.

By understanding the magnetic properties of purely organic thin films, opportunities are presented to employ new characteristics in myriad applications.

Glycosylation of proteins can stabilize folding intermediates and thus enable the total synthesis of correctly folded disulfide-rich proteins.

Advanced ¹⁷O NMR methods can help distinguish oxygen atoms from different hydrogen-bonding environments in glucose.

A rearrangement reaction — a classic of traditional organic synthesis — has been applied to a polymer, enabling conversion of a polyester to a vinyl polymer.

Cyanuric acid (CA) derivatives can co-assemble with polyadenine sequences to form a triple helical DNA-based structure bearing functional groups able to guide higher ordered architectures.

Using ammonium bicarbonate as an additive can boost the reactivity of amines with carbon dioxide in microdroplet reactions.

Rapidly alternating the polarity of electrodes offers a new opportunity for synthetic chemists to obtain selective reaction outcomes in organic electrosynthesis.

A silicon-linker that tethers a diyne and a diynophile provides new mechanistic insight and control of hexadehydro-Diels–Alder (HDDA) reactions.

Synthetic siderophore-antibiotic conjugates can afford promising antibiotic profiles against ESKAPE pathogens and unique resistant mechanisms.

The combination of mass spectroscopy-based proteomics with molecular dynamics enables the in-depth study of metallothioneine-Zn(II) binding mechanisms, critical to cell homeostasis and Zn(II) ion buffering.

A geometrically constrained phosphine bearing a tridentate NNS pincer ligand can afford thermoneutral activation of N−H in ammonia.

The kinetics of proton-coupled electron transfer during electrocatalytic oxygen reduction are optimized when hydrogen bonding between reaction intermediates and ionic liquids coating the catalyst is maximized.

Hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks can be employed to encapsulate protein therapeutics for enhanced cell uptake and intracellular biocatalysis.

Homochiral porous cage-in-cage structures that self-assemble from lanthanide cations and chiral amino acid-derived ligands have been prepared and shown to be highly effective in enantioselective separations of small-molecule guests.