Chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many best-performing perovskite photovoltaics use 2D/3D interfaces to improve efficiency and stability, yet the mechanism of interface assembly is unclear. Here, Proppe et al. use in-situ GIWAXS to resolve this transformation, observing progressive dimensional reduction from 3D to 2D perovskites.

    • Andrew H. Proppe
    • , Andrew Johnston
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    SERS assays have potential for multiplexed detection of biomarkers but differentiation of SERS tags remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the creation of 14 distinct geometrically controlled metal carbonyl tags and demonstrate multiplexed detection of nasopharyngeal carcinoma biomarkers from patient blood.

    • Duo Lin
    • , Chang-Lin Hsieh
    •  & Kien Voon Kong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bioorthogonal diversification of peptides is generally dependent on impractical prefunctionalization methods. Here, the authors develop a manganese(I)-catalyzed C–H fluorescent labeling with BODIPY probes, which enables the development of activatable fluorophores to image cell function.

    • Nikolaos Kaplaneris
    • , Jongwoo Son
    •  & Lutz Ackermann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realizing ultra-high work functions (UHWFs) in hole-doped polymer semiconductors remains a challenge due to water-oxidation reactions. Here, the authors determine the role of water-anion complexes in limiting the work function and develop a design strategy for realizing UHWF polymers.

    • Qi-Mian Koh
    • , Cindy Guanyu Tang
    •  & Peter K. H. Ho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Precisely controlling the spatial intimacy of multiple active sites in heterogeneous catalysts can significantly affect the selectivity and activity. Here the authors show a binary active site of single atom Pt and Lewis acidic B with spatial intimacy enables a highly selective nitrile-to-secondary imine transformation.

    • Sai Zhang
    • , Zhaoming Xia
    •  & Yongquan Qu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The technological development requires the future advanced combustion engines be designed to operate at low temperature. Here, the authors show that partially oxide Pt-[O]x-Bi interface catalyzes CO oxidation at ~ 50 °C via providing moderate CO adsorption and activating CO molecules with electron transformation.

    • Bing Nan
    • , Qiang Fu
    •  & Rui Si

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silver (Ag) has been used as an antimicrobial agent since a long time, but its molecular mechanism of action was not elucidated due to technical challenges. Here, the authors develop a mass spectrometric approach to identify the Ag-proteome in Staphylococcus aureus, and capture a molecular snapshot of the dynamic bactericidal mode of action of Ag through targeting multiple biological pathways.

    • Haibo Wang
    • , Minji Wang
    •  & Hongzhe Sun

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors present a method for quantifying molecular interactions on a glass surface, based on measuring surface refractive index changes via the reflectivity near the critical angle. They demonstrate tunable sensitivity and dynamic range, deep vertical sensing range, also for intracellular signals.

    • Guangzhong Ma
    • , Runli Liang
    •  & Shaopeng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The subtle connections between water’s supercooled liquid and glassy states are difficult to characterize. Gartner et al. suggest with MD simulations that the long-range structure of glassy water may reflect signatures of water’s debated second critical point in the supercooled liquid.

    • Thomas E. Gartner III
    • , Salvatore Torquato
    •  & Pablo G. Debenedetti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chemical doping of low dimensional materials by surface adsorbed molecules has proven to be a source of electrical energy. Here, the authors find that asymmetric particles consisting of carbon nanotubes can drive electrochemical reactions by electrical potential generated from solvent adsorption.

    • Albert Tianxiang Liu
    • , Yuichiro Kunai
    •  & Michael S. Strano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electroreduction of CO2 offers a promising approach to produce carbon-neutral methane using renewable electricity. This study shows that the introduction of Au in Cu enables selective methane production from CO2 by regulating *CO availability.

    • Xue Wang
    • , Pengfei Ou
    •  & Edward H. Sargent

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) with enzyme-like activities are useful glucose oxidase mimics, but the insights into the mechanism of this reaction are limited. Here, the authors show that the process of glucose oxidation by Au NPs is analogous to the one catalysed by glucose oxidase, involving dehydrogenation and oxygen reduction to H2O2; and that other noble metal NPs also catalyse glucose dehydrogenation, but oxygen is preferably reduced to water.

    • Jinxing Chen
    • , Qian Ma
    •  & Shaojun Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Charge dynamics in perovskite is not well-understood, limited by the knowledge of defect physics and charge recombination mechanism, yet the ABC and SRH models are widely used. Here, the authors introduce advanced PLQY mapping as function of excitation pulse energy and repetition frequency to examine the validity of these models.

    • Alexander Kiligaridis
    • , Pavel A. Frantsuzov
    •  & Ivan G. Scheblykin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-assembling peptides (SAPs) can be used to build biomaterials, but genetically encoded SAPs have rarely been used as building blocks in cells. Here, the authors design a SAP that can be genetically fused to target proteins to induce their intracellular clustering and modulate their signaling functions.

    • Takayuki Miki
    • , Taichi Nakai
    •  & Hisakazu Mihara

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains a challenge to achieve a balance between performance and stability, as well as addressing the environmental impact of perovskite solar cells. Here, the authors propose a multimodal host-guest complexation strategy enabling these shortcomings to be addressed simultaneously.

    • Hong Zhang
    • , Felix Thomas Eickemeyer
    •  & Michael Grätzel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cyclic peptides are of particular interest due to their pharmacological properties, but their design for binding to a target protein is challenging. Here, the authors present a computational “anchor extension” methodology for de novo design of cyclic peptides that bind to the target protein with high affinity, and validate the approach by developing cyclic peptides that inhibit histone deacetylases 2 and 6.

    • Parisa Hosseinzadeh
    • , Paris R. Watson
    •  & David Baker

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Arene-fused siloles have attracted interest due to their promising applications in electronic and optoelectronic devices. Here, the authors report Ir(III)-catalyzed cycloaromatization of ortho-alkynylaryl vinylsilanes with arylsulfonyl azides via α-silyl radical Smiles rearrangement for accessing naphthyl-fused benzosiloles under visible-light photoredox conditions.

    • Fengjuan Chen
    • , Youxiang Shao
    •  & Wei Zeng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compounds bearing a carbonyl group, such as aldehydes and ketones, are important industrial chemicals and widespread in pharmaceuticals and natural products. Here, the authors report a strategy for visible-light photoredox-catalyzed umpolung carboxylation of diverse carbonyl compounds with CO2, to generate valuable α-hydroxycarboxylic acids.

    • Guang-Mei Cao
    • , Xin-Long Hu
    •  & Da-Gang Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), such as methylglyoxal-derived hydroimidazolone isomer (MGH-1), are associated with disease and age-related disorders, and occur spontaneously, so it is unclear why specific protein sites become modified with specific AGEs. Here, the authors use a combinatorial peptide library to determine the chemical features that favour MGH-1 formation for short peptides and demonstrate a key role of tyrosine in this process.

    • Joseph M. McEwen
    • , Sasha Fraser
    •  & Rebecca A. Scheck

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Electrocatalytic nanocarbon (EN) is a class of materials receiving intense interest as next generation electrocatalysts. Although impressive platforms, work is still required to develop our mechanistic understanding of them to that of molecular electrocatalysts.

    • Erik J. Askins
    • , Marija R. Zoric
    •  & Ksenija D. Glusac

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Vibrational energy transfer (VET) is essential for protein function as it is responsible for efficient energy dissipation in reaction sites and is linked to pathways of allosteric communication. Here authors equipped a tryptophan zipper with a VET injector and a VET sensor for femtosecond pump probe experiments to map the VET.

    • Erhan Deniz
    • , Luis Valiño-Borau
    •  & Jens Bredenbeck

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic enantioselective halocyclization of alkenes is an important bond forming tool and a key step in natural product biosynthesis, but so far no examples of the enzymatic counterpart of this reaction on simple achiral olefins have been reported. Here, the authors describe examples of engineered flavin-dependent halogenases that catalyze halolactonization of olefins with high enantioselectivity and near-native catalytic activity.

    • Dibyendu Mondal
    • , Brian F. Fisher
    •  & Jared C. Lewis

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Compounds that contain alkyl-difluoromethyl moieties are of interest for medicinal chemistry, but their synthesis is challenging. Here, the authors report a copper-catalyzed radical relay approach for the carbodifluoromethylation of alkenes that simultaneously introduces CF2H groups and complex alkyl or aryl groups into alkenes.

    • Aijie Cai
    • , Wenhao Yan
    •  & Wei Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The use of room temperature exciton–polariton Bose–Einstein condensation is limited by the need for external high-finesse microcavities. The authors generate room temperature EPs with single-crystal microribbons as waveguide Fabry–Pérot microcavities, and demonstrate controllable output of coherent light.

    • Ji Tang
    • , Jian Zhang
    •  & Yong Sheng Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesis of fluorinated organic molecules is of high interest for agrochemistry and pharmaceutics, but efficient and general reagents for introducing -CF2- groups are lacking. Here, the authors report the synthesis of 3,3-difluoropropen-1-yl ammonium salts as stable and scalable gem-difluoromethylation reagents, which react with a range of nucleophiles under mild conditions and high regioselectivity.

    • Fei Ye
    • , Yao Ge
    •  & Matthias Beller

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Improving catalyst performance for ring-opening (co)polymerisation (RO(CO)P) reactions by using heterometallic cooperativity is a promising yet underexplored strategy. Here the authors review advances in heterometallic RO(CO)P catalyst design, highlighting the overarching structure-activity trends and reactivity patterns to inform future catalyst design.

    • Weronika Gruszka
    •  & Jennifer A. Garden

  • Review Article
    | Open Access

    Water scarcity is a rapidly spreading global challenge but water purification technologies are often not sustainable. Here, the authors review the research on water purification technologies based on protein nanofibrils as a green and affordable solution to alleviate a water crisis.

    • Mohammad Peydayesh
    •  & Raffaele Mezzenga

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-oscillating systems that enable autonomous motions driven by a constant stimulus find applications in numerous fields but these systems are plagued with problems that restrict their practical applicability. Here, the authors create a photoactive self-winding fiber actuator that possesses a broad range of oscillation modes, controllable evolution between diverse modes, and loading capability.

    • Zhiming Hu
    • , Yunlong Li
    •  & Jiu-an Lv

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current genome mining methods predict many putative non-ribosomal peptides (NRPs) from their corresponding biosynthetic gene clusters, but it remains unclear which of those exist in nature and how to identify their post-assembly modifications. Here, the authors develop NRPminer, a modification-tolerant tool for the discovery of NRPs from large genomic and mass spectrometry datasets, and use it to find 180 NRPs from different environments.

    • Bahar Behsaz
    • , Edna Bode
    •  & Hosein Mohimani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Organic electrodes are promising energy storage materials owing to their chemical diversity and electrochemical specificity. Here, the authors report synthesis of phosphorous containing organopolysulfide 1,4-bis(diphenylphosphanyl)tetrasulfide material showing excellent performance in a rechargeable Li battery.

    • Dan-Yang Wang
    • , Yubing Si
    •  & Yongzhu Fu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The electroreduction of nitrogen to ammonia offers a promising alternative to the Haber–Bosch process but suffers from low activity and selectivity. Here, authors demonstrate that triggering a salting-out effect in a highly concentrated electrolyte can achieve highly efficient ammonia synthesis.

    • Mengfan Wang
    • , Sisi Liu
    •  & Chenglin Yan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fragment-based drug discovery employs screening of small polar compounds typically exhibiting low affinity towards protein targets. Here, the authors combine the use of protein-based binding pharmacophores with the theory of protein hotspots to develop a design protocol for fragment libraries, called SpotXplorer, and validate their approach on common and emerging drug targets.

    • Dávid Bajusz
    • , Warren S. Wade
    •  & György M. Keserű

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The circadian clock is an internal mechanism that controls various physiological processes, such as the sleep-wake cycle, but its precise regulation is challenging. Here, the authors develop a visible light-responsive inhibitor of casein kinase I which controls the period and phase of cellular and tissue circadian rhythms in a reversible manner.

    • Dušan Kolarski
    • , Carla Miró-Vinyals
    •  & Ben L. Feringa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    China has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. Here the authors find a promising option to abate 1.0 Gt CO2-eq yr−1 of carbon emissions at a marginal cost of $69 (t CO2-eq)−1 by retrofitting 222 GW of coal power plants to co-fire with biomass and upgrading to CCS operation across 2836 counties in China.

    • Xiaofan Xing
    • , Rong Wang
    •  & Siqing Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Generating new sensible molecular structures is a key problem in computer aided drug discovery. Here the authors propose a graph-based molecular generative model that outperforms previously proposed graph-based generative models of molecules and performs comparably to several SMILES-based models.

    • Omar Mahmood
    • , Elman Mansimov
    •  & Kyunghyun Cho

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Water’s phase diagram exhibits several hydrogen-disordered phases which become ordered upon cooling, but the behavior of ice VI is still debated. The authors, using high-pressure neutron diffraction, identify structural distortions that transform ice VI into ice XIX, here identified as a hydrogen disordered phase.

    • Christoph G. Salzmann
    • , John S. Loveday
    •  & Craig L. Bull

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Caerulomycins and collismycins are two types of 2,2’-bipyridine natural products that are biosynthesized via a hybrid NRPS-PKS pathway, but the details of their biosynthesis were unknown. Here, the authors elucidate their biosynthetic pathways, validate the generality of 2,2’-bipyridine formation, and clarify the process for 2,2’-bipyridine furcation.

    • Bo Pang
    • , Rijing Liao
    •  & Wen Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The dynamics of water molecules at interfaces controls natural and artificial processes, but experimental investigations have been challenging. Here the authors investigate water molecules on a graphene surface using helium spin-echo spectroscopy, and reveal a regime where freely mobile molecules undergo strong repulsive mutual interactions which inhibit ice nucleation.

    • Anton Tamtögl
    • , Emanuel Bahn
    •  & William Allison

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Zirconium-based metal–organic frameworks have defective structures that are useful in catalysis and gas storage. Here, the authors study the interplay between cluster disorder and linker vacancies in PCN-221 and propose a new structure model with tilted Zr6O4(OH)4 clusters rather than Zr8O6 clusters.

    • Charlotte Koschnick
    • , Robert Stäglich
    •  & Bettina V. Lotsch

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Structural degradation in manganese oxides leads to unstable activity during long-term cycles. Herein, authors demonstrated that reduced unstable O 2p holes and the short interlayer distance of layered lithium manganese oxide are favorable for excellent electrocatalytic stability and activity.

    • Xuepeng Zhong
    • , M’hamed Oubla
    •  & Jiwei Ma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Techniques to alter the surface of materials to enable transport of fluids have advanced considerably, but dynamic microdroplet transport remains a challenge. Here, the authors report the fabrication of microtextured chemical gradients on elastomer films and their use in controlled microdroplet transport.

    • Ali J. Mazaltarim
    • , John J. Bowen
    •  & Stephen A. Morin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predictive computational approaches are fundamental to accelerating solid-state inorganic synthesis. This work demonstrates a computational tractable approach constructed from available thermochemistry data and based on a graph-based network model for predicting solid-state inorganic reaction pathways.

    • Matthew J. McDermott
    • , Shyam S. Dwaraknath
    •  & Kristin A. Persson

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