Review Articles in 2021

The activity of proteins can be controlled with azobenzene-based photoswitches. This Review describes the design of such artificial protein constructs and how their phototriggered, non-equilibrium response is studied using transient infrared spectroscopy, with an emphasis on ligand binding and unbinding processes as well as allosteric signalling.

This Review describes the de novo design of metalloproteins, which perform numerous functions essential to life. By understanding the relationship between the symmetry of the protein structure and the metal active site, we can design novel, functional metalloproteins from scratch.

The study of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) using time-resolved techniques is relatively unexplored, despite being key to an understanding of their chemical and physical properties. This Review summarizes the applicable techniques and how they can be used to probe MOF dynamics.

This Review establishes a unifying structure–property relationship among chemical composition, centrosymmetry breaking, lattice anharmonicity, ferroelectricity, dielectric screening and the Rashba effect in metal halide perovskites from the perspective of stereochemical expression of ns² electron pairs on group IV metal cations.

Over the past decade, advances in azobenzenes have revolutionized their application potential, going beyond traditional uses as dyes and ultraviolet photoswitches. This Review describes breakthroughs in the development of red-light-photoswitchable azobenzenes and emerging applications in photopharmacology, photoswitchable adhesives and biodegradable systems for drug delivery.

The current scope and limitations, path to the clinic and therapeutic applications of long-wavelength-responsive, light-activated drugs are discussed in this Review.

The exploitation of non-covalent interactions in carbohydrate chemistry is gaining traction. This Review summarizes recent developments in harnessing non-covalent interactions in selective carbohydrate synthesis, and highlights future directions.

This Review describes bioinspired biomimetic polymers that recapitulate macro-scale to atomic-scale features of naturally occurring materials. Particular attention is paid to biobased concepts, with an eye to having renewable supplies of self-healing, stimuli-responsive and/or antimicrobial materials.

Uncontrolled bleeding is a major cause of death, incentivizing the development of biomaterials that aid haemostasis and wound healing. This Review highlights the active components and forms of haemostatic materials, with a focus on their chemical design, and considers future trends in their development.

N-Heterocyclic carbenes continue to mesmerize scientists and open up new research avenues for academia and industry. Here, we provide a concise and up-to-date overview of N-heterocyclic carbenes, encompassing their history, properties and applications in transition metal catalysis, main group chemistry, on-surface chemistry and organocatalysis.

This Review describes recent work where scanning probe techniques are used to effect the formation and cleavage of chemical bonds. We contextualize this progress in terms of single-molecule manipulation and summarize implications for synthetic chemistry and future studies.

Solid-state NMR is useful to study the local structure, dynamics and dopant speciation in metal halide perovskites. This Perspective describes the practical aspects of the method that make it broadly applicable to optoelectronic materials.

Interrupting a reaction reroutes the outcome of a known chemical process. This Review highlights advances that enable the redirection of common intermediates in organic chemistry to new outcomes.

Transient directing groups enable selective metal-catalysed C–H functionalization reactions to give diverse products. These directing groups form and dissociate in situ, such that their use is an efficient route to complex organics, examples of which are summarized in this Review.

Lipid membranes were likely critical in the transition from matter to life and are key to the bottom-up development of artificial cells. This Review highlights prebiotic, synthetic and biochemical strategies to construct lipid membranes that facilitate life-like cellular functions.

Late-stage C–H functionalization of complex molecules has emerged as a powerful tool in drug discovery. This Review classifies significant examples by reaction manifold and assesses the benefits and challenges of each approach. Avenues for future improvements of this fast-expanding field are proposed.

Enantioselective transition-metal-catalysed nitrene transfer is a powerful approach to access valuable amines. This Review describes recent catalyst designs for asymmetric aziridinations of C=C groups and aminations of C–H bonds.

What do a rock in a river, a red blood cell in our body and the electrodes inside a car battery have in common? Charged surfaces in contact with water. Although a unified approach to study such a variety of systems is not available yet, the current understanding — even with its limitations — paves the road to the development of new concepts and techniques.

This Review identifies competitive advantages and drawbacks of heterogeneous and homogeneous catalytic hydrogenation, as well as enzymatic catalysis, photocatalysis and electrocatalysis, for CO₂ reduction to methanol.

State-of-the-art synthetic methods regularly encounter challenges associated with cost, safety and/or efficiency when proposed for large-scale applications. This Review highlights recent applications of novel reactions/technologies (e.g. photoredox, electrochemistry, C–H activation, reductive coupling and flow chemistry) on the process scale.