News & Views

Using liquid gallium as an atomically smooth substrate enables the deposition of single-crystal layers of conducting two-dimensional metal–organic frameworks.

Metal vacancies capable of generating magnetism can be created in 2D semiconductors by atomic-scale etching induced by electron-beam irradiation.

Selection principles for precursors are decoded from phase diagrams and applied to the synthesis of inorganic oxide materials.

d-cyclodextrins are naturally occurring macrocyclic oligosaccharides that act as hosts for hydrophobic guests and are produced on a multi-tonne scale. Now, using chemical synthesis, mirror-image cyclodextrins are produced from l- instead of d-glucose units.

Coupling an exergonic process with an orthogonal, endergonic one has opened the door to drive artificial systems away from equilibrium. Now, this concept is used to bias the outcome of an uphill chemical reaction.

By systematically exploring a large chemical space using automated experimentation, a high-performing organic photocatalyst for hydrogen evolution is discovered.

Artificial intelligence is used to automate the synthesis of single molecules using the tip of a scanning probe microscope, as well as to extract chemical information from these reactions.

Chemical selenylation of sulfur carrier proteins enables enzymatic incorporation of selenium into small molecules, thereby advancing a biocatalytic method for C–Se bond formation and chemoenzymatic selenometabolite synthesis.

A homologative process that enables vinylene insertions into organoboronates stereoselectively forms alkenyl boronates.

Collaboration between synthesis laboratories requires procedures that are reproducible despite differences in equipment. Now, a digital standard for automated chemical synthesis reproduces results between distinct laboratory systems almost half a world apart.

Molecular knots and links retrofitted with iminopyrrole units make these assemblies intrinsically flexible, strengthening their potential application in molecular machinery.

Acid triggers the formation of radicals by Flory autoinitiation of acrylic monomers and enhances polymerization rates.

Tailoring of the short-range microenvironment surrounding the active site in ruthenium-based catalyst systems can lead to enhanced overall water splitting.

Using a fully automated closed-loop system, a robotic chemist synthesizes an oxygen-evolution catalyst from Martian meteorites, with implications for the production of catalysts that may underpin human survival on Mars in the future.

Palladium-catalysed enantioselective α-arylation of azlactones and 5H-oxazol-4-ones with aryl halides using Sadphos ligands enables the synthesis of α-aryl quaternary amino acids and glycolic acid derivatives.

Flow chemistry enables efficient generation and improved reactivity of sulfuryl fluoride for sulfur fluoride exchange click chemistry.

Incorporation of the plant-derived jasmonate biosynthetic pathway into yeast enables the de novo biosynthesis of natural and unnatural jasmonates.

Strained allenes in piperidines and tetrahydropyrans are used to generate highly-decorated heterocycles.

Regio- and stereoselective boryllithiation and borylsodiation of alkynes in a flow microreactor yields functionalized borylated alkenes.

A nanodroplet sequential fusion strategy is presented that can be used to precisely synthesize branched silica nanotrees, creating complex and functional inorganic superstructures.