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.
Silylium ions are highly reactive, strongly Lewis acidic and have historically been tricky to isolate. This Perspective highlights the range of methods available for their preparation and the latest examples of their use as catalysts or reagents in organic synthesis.
In this Perspective, recent advances in measuring rates of elementary reactions at model catalyst surfaces are presented. A recent ion-imaging-based technique — velocity-resolved kinetics — is discussed in the context of a typical surface reaction, CO oxidation on Pt.
Intracellular phase separation is a major regulatory mechanism in several biochemical processes. This Perspective describes the contribution of H2O and biomolecules to this phenomenon in the framework of two well-known models.
Water oxidation catalysts are key components in water-splitting devices that synthesize fuels by using energy, including that from sunlight. This Perspective presents historical developments in molecular water oxidation catalysis, emphasizing studies of ruthenium complexes that have taught us how to design optimal catalysts.
The selective conjugation of two or more molecules is readily achieved using covalent click chemistry or non-covalent click chemistry. The latter approach makes use of complementary molecular recognition partners, and its speed and reversibility are advantageous for many biological applications.
Automation can help in performing routine tasks quickly and consistently. Algorithms facilitate the searching of current knowledge. Combining the two could lead to a chemically intelligent approach to the discovery of not only new molecules but also novel and unpredictable reactivity.
Lewis’ shared electron-pair model was a stroke of genius, describing the structure and reactivity of molecules purely on the basis of his tremendous knowledge of empirical chemistry without any quantum chemistry. Unprecedented in simplicity, its success unfortunately concealed some misleading interpretations of the physical origin of chemical bonding.
This Perspective introduces energy decomposition analysis as a means of providing a quantum chemically derived bonding model that we can use to rationalize molecular geometries and bonding. The model serves as a bridge between the simple Lewis electron-pair bond and the complicated quantum theoretical nature of the chemical bond.
