News & Views in 2023

Plasmonic heating by nanoparticles has been used to promote a range of chemical reactions. Now, thermoplasmonic activation has been applied to latent ruthenium catalysts, enabling olefin metathesis initiated by visible and infrared light.

Therapies that destroy senescent cells could be used to alleviate age-related disease, yet conventional drugs often suffer from low selectivity and unwanted side effects. Now, a photosensitive agent has been developed that is activated in situ in senescent cells, enabling their selective elimination.

Charge-transfer emission of any type is extremely rare for coordination complexes of iron. Now, an Fe(iii) complex has been devised that shows two-colour luminescence arising from dual metal-to-ligand and ligand-to-metal charge-transfer emission.

The adiabatic approximation is often applied to describe the scattering of molecules or atoms from solid surfaces. Now, unusual energy loss has been observed during the scattering of hyperthermal hydrogen atoms from a single crystalline Ge(111) surface — suggesting the existence of a non-adiabatic mechanism involving electronic interband transitions in the Ge that are induced by the hydrogen atoms.

Organolithium reagents are characterized by their high reactivity towards air and moisture, traditionally requiring strict inert conditions for their handling and utilization. Now, these reagents can be encapsulated within an organogel, enhancing their stability and allowing their use and storage under ambient conditions.

Mechanical force has recently become a new tool for chemists to create colours, trigger reactions, and develop advanced fabrication techniques not possible using other methods. Force-induced multiple colouring has now been developed as a printing technique in soft lithography, enabling the colouring of polymeric materials without inks.

Post-translational modification of proteins is widely used for studying biological processes; however, competing reactions can provide numerous challenges. Now, a visible-light photocatalytic diselenide contraction enables the highly chemoselective functionalization of selenopeptides and proteins under mild conditions.

2+2-cycloaddition reactions have long been considered key transformations in the biosynthesis of cyclobutane-containing natural products, but enzymes for these reactions have not yet been identified. Now, a 2+2 cyclase has been discovered, characterized and bioengineered to catalyse cycloadditions with different selectivity.

The selective removal of one oxygen atom from sulfones, without over-reduction to sulfide, is a challenging task. Now, through organocatalysis and incorporation of a cyano group into the sulfone, an asymmetric deoxygenation strategy has been developed, providing an efficient method for the synthesis of chiral sulfinyl compounds.

Interlocking macrocyclic carbon nanomaterials is an exciting way to tune their molecular properties, but all-conjugated catenanes and rotaxanes are extremely challenging to make. Now, fully π-conjugated [2]- and [3]catenanes as well as a [3]rotaxane have been prepared through an ‘active metal template’ approach.

Ribosomes cannot synthesize peptides using hydroxy acids to replace canonical amino acids as no codons encode hydroxy acid building blocks. Now, this challenge has been addressed by rewriting the genetic code, enabling the direct cellular biosynthesis of non-natural depsipeptides containing non-canonical amino acids.

Molecular computing programmed with complementary nucleic acid strands allows the construction of sophisticated biomolecular circuits. Now, systems with partially complementary strands have been shown to enable more compact and faster molecular circuits, and may illuminate biological processes.

Interactions between proteins and non-proteinaceous biopolymers are essential for life; however, many methods used to characterize these interactions lack precision and display significant biases. Now, a genetically encoded method employing sulfur(vi) fluoride exchange (SuFEx)-based chemical crosslinking has been developed for capturing and analysing protein–RNA and protein–carbohydrate interactions in vivo.