Chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Communication of chirality at a molecular level is the fundamental for transmitting chirality information but one-step communication modes in many artificial systems limits further processing the chirality information. Here, the authors report chirality communication of aromatic oligoamide sequences within interpenetrated helicate architecture in a hierarchical manner.

    • Jiajia Zhang
    • , Dan Luo
    •  & Quan Gan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The structure of water around Brønsted acid sites in zeolites is shown to influence their catalytic activity. Here the authors shed light on confinement effects in different pores zeolites/water interfaces acidic strength by means of ab-initio molecular dynamics and enhanced sampling metadynamics techniques.

    • Emanuele Grifoni
    • , GiovanniMaria Piccini
    •  & Michele Parrinello

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing molecules that emulate the properties of naturally occurring ice-binding proteins (IBPs) is a daunting challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate the use of phage display for the identification of short peptide mimics of IBPs, which resulted in the identification of a cyclic ice-binding peptide containing just 14 amino acids.

    • Corey A. Stevens
    • , Fabienne Bachtiger
    •  & Harm-Anton Klok

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors here propose a chemical reaction that forms ammoniated phyllosilicates on Ceres. This process could trigger at a very low temperature, suggesting Ceres evolution in a region different from its current location.

    • Santosh K. Singh
    • , Alexandre Bergantini
    •  & Ralf I. Kaiser

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The degradation in silicon-graphite anodes is originated from Li ion crosstalk between silicon and graphite, and the pressure-induced staging transition of the graphite. Here, the authors demonstrate a prismatic cell with improved volumetric energy density and cycle stability by targeted solving above issues.

    • Junhyuk Moon
    • , Heung Chan Lee
    •  & In Taek Han

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Semi-conducting two-dimensional polymer nanoobjects are promising materials but examples of self-assembled 2D nanosheets with controlled dimensions has not been shown before. Here, the authors precisely tune the length of 2D sheets of conjugated polymers by using blending, heating, and seeded-growth strategies.

    • Sanghee Yang
    • , Sung-Yun Kang
    •  & Tae-Lim Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, authors demonstrate the ferromagnetic catalyst to facilitate spin polarization in water oxidation reaction. They find the ferromagnetic-exchange-like behaviour between the ferromagnetic catalyst and the adsorbed oxygen species.

    • Xiao Ren
    • , Tianze Wu
    •  & Zhichuan J. Xu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In situ vibrational spectroscopy affords a powerful tool for probing elementary chemical processes on catalytic surfaces. Using surface enhanced Raman scattering, authors identify an array of multicarbon species formed on a Ag nanoparticle catalyst in plasmon-driven reduction of CO2 in water.

    • Dinumol Devasia
    • , Andrew J. Wilson
    •  & Prashant K. Jain

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Realizing overtemperature protection with a molecular device is challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate an overtemperature protection function by integrating thermo- and photoresponsive functions into a pillar[6]arene based pseudocatanene.

    • Jiabin Yao
    • , Wanhua Wu
    •  & Cheng Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Borates offer extended structural diversity and promise in diverse applications. Here the authors report a borate with linear BO2 units as well as NMR spectroscopy characterization that provides a quantitative basis for identification of BO2 units in polycrystalline and non-crystalline samples.

    • Chunmei Huang
    • , Miriding Mutailipu
    •  & Shilie Pan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In organic chemistry, synthetic routes for new molecules are often specified in terms of reacting molecules only. The current work reports an artificial intelligence model to predict the full sequence of experimental operations for an arbitrary chemical equation.

    • Alain C. Vaucher
    • , Philippe Schwaller
    •  & Teodoro Laino

  • Comment
    | Open Access

    Photocatalytic air purification is a promising technology that mimics nature’s photochemical process, but its practical applications are still limited despite considerable research efforts in recent decades. Here, we briefly discuss the progress and challenges associated with this technology.

    • Fei He
    • , Woojung Jeon
    •  & Wonyong Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Optical matter consisting of nanoparticle constituents in solution is of key interest due to the exhibited self-assembling mechanisms. The authors propose a principal components analysis based data-driven approach to determine the collective modes of colloidal clusters mimicking optical binding used in colloidal self-assembly.

    • Shiqi Chen
    • , Curtis W. Peterson
    •  & Norbert F. Scherer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic kinetic resolution of amines is a longstanding challenge in chemical synthesis. Here, the authors report on titanium‐catalysed asymmetric oxygenation with hydrogen peroxide for kinetic resolution of secondary amines through oxygenation to produce enantiopure hydroxylamines involving N–O bond formation.

    • Gang Wang
    • , Ran Lu
    •  & Lei Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The efficiency of chemical reactions in biological systems is often connected to the properties of confined water, but the developments and applications of artificial mimicking systems are impeded by the complexity of the biological systems. Here, the authors show how surface bound water in nanoporous cellulosic fibers can increase the reaction rate of surface acetylation reactions and enable regioselectivity of the reaction

    • Marco Beaumont
    • , Paul Jusner
    •  & Thomas Rosenau

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient methods to calculate magnetically induced currents in metallic nanostructures are currently lacking. Here, the authors propose a theoretical method to compute and analyze magnetically induced currents in nanostructures validated for experimentally synthesized gold-based, hydrogen-containing ligand-protected clusters.

    • Omar López-Estrada
    • , Bernardo Zuniga-Gutierrez
    •  & Hannu Häkkinen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Three-body dissociation of water, producing one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms, has been difficult to investigate due to the lack of intense vacuum ultraviolet sources. Here, using a tunable free-electron laser, the authors obtain quantum yields for this channel showing that it is a possible route to prebiotic oxygen formation in interstellar environments.

    • Yao Chang
    • , Yong Yu
    •  & Xueming Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Self-healing hydrogels can mimic the damage repair behaviour of living tissues, but such hydrogels have only been processed via extrusion-based additive manufacturing technology. Here, the authors demonstrate a rapidly self-healing hydrogel which can be processed by DLP printing.

    • Matteo Caprioli
    • , Ignazio Roppolo
    •  & Shlomo Magdassi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Existing methods for organic semiconductor computational screening are limited by the computational demand of the process, leading to the identification of non-optimal material candidates. Here, the authors report machine learning method to guide the discovery of organic semiconductors.

    • Christian Kunkel
    • , Johannes T. Margraf
    •  & Karsten Reuter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    1-(Isoquinolin-1-yl)naphthalen-2-ol (QUINOL) is an atropisomeric heterobiaryl that serves as a platform for the synthesis of other biaryl ligands useful in asymmetric catalysis. Here, the authors report a straightforward oxidative cross-coupling reaction between isoquinolines and 2-naphthols to efficiently access the QUINOL scaffolds in a metal-free manner.

    • Peng-Ying Jiang
    • , Kai-Fang Fan
    •  & Bin Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The direct and selective C(sp3)-H functionalization of cycloalkanes and alkanes is useful in organic synthesis but its application to asymmetric catalysis has been less explored. Here, the authors demonstrate the incorporation of a dual asymmetric photocatalyst which leads to the development of asymmetric sulfonylation involving direct functionalization of cycloalkanes, alkanes, toluene derivatives or ethers.

    • Shi Cao
    • , Wei Hong
    •  & Lei Gong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metabolites can distinguish pathogenic from healthy cells, but they are hard to couple to current photosensitizers without altering their biological activity. Here the authors design a new family of photosensitizers that retain metabolite function to target pathogenic cells and ablate them by photodynamic therapy.

    • Sam Benson
    • , Fabio de Moliner
    •  & Marc Vendrell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aluminium ion batteries have been developed based on the storage of monovalent complex ions, impairing their original motivation of storing multivalent ions. Here, the authors demonstrate the divalent ion storage of tetradiketone macrocycles by tuning the relative stability of discharged states.

    • Dong-Joo Yoo
    • , Martin Heeney
    •  & Jang Wook Choi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    J-aggregation has been proved to be an efficient strategy for the development of fluorescent imaging agents in the NIR-II spectral region but the design of appropriate J-aggregates is challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate J-aggregation of a BODIPY dye with NIR-II emission and demonstrate lymph node imaging for fluorescence guided surgery.

    • Kang Li
    • , Xingchen Duan
    •  & Zhipeng Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying the nature of actinide-actinide bonds is important for understanding the electronic structure of the 5f elements, but the synthesis of these chemical bonds remains extremely challenging. Here, the authors report a strong covalent Th-Th bond formed between two rarely accessible Th3+ ions, stabilized inside a fullerene cage.

    • Jiaxin Zhuang
    • , Roser Morales-Martínez
    •  & Ning Chen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The development of n-type conductive polymer inks is critical for the development of next-generation opto-electronic devices that rely on efficient hole and electron transport. Here, the authors report an alcohol-based, high performance and stable n-type conductive ink for printed electronics.

    • Chi-Yuan Yang
    • , Marc-Antoine Stoeckel
    •  & Simone Fabiano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing organic photoluminescent materials with high emission efficiencies in the solid state under a water atmosphere is important for practical applications. Here, the authors report the formation of intra- and intermolecular hydrogen bonds in a tautomerizable Schiff base and intercalation of water in the crystal lattice leading to a luminescent organic hydrate.

    • Feng Zhou
    • , Peiyang Gu
    •  & Jianmei Lu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Identifying optimal materials in multiobjective optimization problems represents a challenge for new materials design approaches. Here the authors develop an active-learning algorithm to optimize the Pareto-optimal solutions successfully applied to the in silico polymer design for a dispersant-based application.

    • Kevin Maik Jablonka
    • , Giriprasad Melpatti Jothiappan
    •  & Brian Yoo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Silica-supported, single site, main group Zn(II) and Ga(III) ions catalyze ethylene and propylene oligomerization. Here, experimental and theoretical evidence suggests a Cossee-Arlman reaction mechanism similar to that for transition metal catalysts.

    • Nicole J. LiBretto
    • , Yinan Xu
    •  & Jeffrey T. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Efficient stimulus-responsive phosphorescence organic materials are attractive, but are extremely rare because of unclear design principles and intrinsically spin-forbidden intersystem crossing. Here, the authors present a facile strategy to achieve ultraviolet irradiation-responsive ultralong room-temperature phosphorescence in several simple amorphous polymer materials.

    • Yongfeng Zhang
    • , Liang Gao
    •  & Yanli Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Methods for selective modification of the N-terminus of proteins are of high interest, but mostly require specific amino acid residues. Here, the authors report a selective and fast method for N-terminal modification of proteins based on quinone-mediated oxidation of the alpha-amine to aldehyde or ketone, and apply it to diverse proteins.

    • Siyao Wang
    • , Qingqing Zhou
    •  & Ping Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rationally designing and precisely constructing the dimensions, configurations and compositions of organic micro- and nanomaterials are key issues in material chemistry, but remain challenging. Here, the authors realize the fine synthesis of organic superstructure microwires via a hierarchical epitaxial-growth approach.

    • Ming-Peng Zhuo
    • , Guang-Peng He
    •  & Liang-Sheng Liao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is difficult to achieve high current density and long lifetime for micro generators owing to the common friction and wear. Here the authors invent a microscale Schottky superlubric generator to tackle this issue, reporting not only high current and power densities but also long lifetime of at least 5,000 cycles.

    • Xuanyu Huang
    • , Xiaojian Xiang
    •  & Quanshui Zheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin-ice physics in frustrated magnets is constrained by the energy scale of magnetic interactions, which typically translates to temperatures of a few Kelvin. Here, the authors demonstrate that similar physics can be observed in the system of frustrated electric dipoles in Cd(CN)2 even at room temperature.

    • Chloe S. Coates
    • , Mia Baise
    •  & Andrew L. Goodwin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Investigating biomembrane curvature formation is important for studying intracellular processes, but the instability of liposome models mimicking these membranes restricts exploration of membrane processes. Here, the authors demonstrate control over the curvature formation in polymersome membranes by insertion of PNIPAm as stimuli responsive polymer.

    • Jiawei Sun
    • , Sjoerd J. Rijpkema
    •  & Daniela A. Wilson

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