Chemistry articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Controlling the electronic states of molecules is a fundamental challenge for future sub-nanoscale device technologies but the external dynamical control of these states still awaits experimental realization. Here, via quantum chemical calculations, the authors demonstrate that in-plane uniaxial strain of 2D covalently linked arrays of radical units induces controlled pairing of π-conjugated electrons in a reversible way.

    • Isaac Alcón
    • , Raúl Santiago
    •  & Stefan T. Bromley

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Long-distance extracellular electron transfer has been observed in Gram-negative bacteria. Here, Yang et al. show that a filamentous, unicellular Gram-positive bacterium is capable of bidirectional extracellular electron transfer, and forms centimetre-range conductive networks consisting of 1mm-long cells and conductive appendages.

    • Yonggang Yang
    • , Zegao Wang
    •  & Mingdong Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Predicting the conversion and selectivity of a photochemical reactions is challenging. Here, the authors introduce a framework for the quantitative prediction of the time-dependent progress of a photoligation reaction and predict LED-light induced conversion through a wavelength-resolved numerical simulation.

    • Jan P. Menzel
    • , Benjamin B. Noble
    •  & Christopher Barner-Kowollik

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The methods for investigation of DNA-binding proteins require site-selective chemical modifications to be introduced into oligonucleotides. Here, the authors report a chemo- and regioselective method for the modification of unpaired guanosines in single- and double-stranded oligonucleotides, based on Rh(I)-carbene catalysis.

    • Yang-Ha Lee
    • , Eunsoo Yu
    •  & Cheol-Min Park

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Machine learning algorithms offer new possibilities for automating reaction procedures. The present paper investigates automated reaction’s prediction with Molecular Transformer, the state-of-the-art model for reaction prediction, proposing a new debiased dataset for a realistic assessment of the model’s performance.

    • Dávid Péter Kovács
    • , William McCorkindale
    •  & Alpha A. Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bio-mimetic motion has been hard to achieve due to a lack of biocompatible conditions. Here, the authors report the creation of a liposome-stabilised aqueous PEG/dextran Pickering-like emulsion system with motion induced by the Marangoni effect and characterised by negative chemotaxis.

    • Shaobin Zhang
    • , Claudia Contini
    •  & Oscar Ces

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Bicyclo[1.1.1]pentanes (BCPs) are important motifs in contemporary drug design, however, approaches to BCPs featuring adjacent stereocenters are rather limited. Here, the authors report a photo- and organocatalyzed asymmetric addition of simple aldehydes to [1.1.1]propellane to generate enantioenriched α-chiral BCPs.

    • Marie L. J. Wong
    • , Alistair J. Sterling
    •  & Edward A. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Connecting conformational dynamics and epistasis has so far been limited to a few proteins and a single fitness trait. Here, the authors provide evidence of positive epistasis on multiple catalytic traits in the evolution and dynamics of engineered cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, offering insights for in silico protein design.

    • Carlos G. Acevedo-Rocha
    • , Aitao Li
    •  & Manfred T. Reetz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The preparation of lanthanide-transition metal clusters containing multiple lanthanide atoms remains challenging. Here, the authors present the controlled on-surface formation of ligand-stabilized heterometallic Ce/Au clusters containing two, three and four Ce atoms bridged by Au adatoms.

    • Jing Liu
    • , Jie Li
    •  & Yongfeng Wang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anoxic marine zones are expanding and intensifying with climate change. Here the authors show that microbial dark carbon fixation influences the carbonate system and the stable isotope composition in waters off Chile, contributing up to 35% of the organic carbon reaching the mesopelagic region.

    • Cristian A. Vargas
    • , Sebastian I. Cantarero
    •  & Joe Salisbury

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studies of metabolites in neurodegeneration have not yet used sebum as a source fluid. Here the authors demonstrate the potential of metabolomics of sebum samples from individuals with Parkinson’s disease and controls.

    • Eleanor Sinclair
    • , Drupad K. Trivedi
    •  & Perdita Barran

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Incommensurate pairing is a type of stereoisomerism, observed in carbon bilayers, that arises from the twisted orientations of the graphitic layers. Here, the authors create a finite molecular version of an incommensurate carbon bilayer in the form of two concentrically assembled cylindrical molecules.

    • Taisuke Matsuno
    • , Yutaro Ohtomo
    •  & Hiroyuki Isobe

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Iron is an essential plant nutrient that is poorly bioavailable in alkaline soils, resulting in reduced agricultural productivity. Here, the authors report the synthesis of stable and cheap iron-chelator, proline-2’-deoxymugineic acid (PDMA), and demonstrate its utility as potential fertilizer.

    • Motofumi Suzuki
    • , Atsumi Urabe
    •  & Kosuke Namba

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Kondo effect can serve as a powerful paradigm to understand strongly correlated many-body processes in physics. Here, Guo et al. utilize single molecule transistor devices as a testbed to study multi-level Kondo correlation and show electrical gate evolution and the universality of the two-stage Kondo effect.

    • Xiao Guo
    • , Qiuhao Zhu
    •  & Wenjie Liang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Macrocycles are molecular structures extensively used in the design of catalysts, therapeutics and supramolecular assemblies but synthesis procedures that can produce macrocycles in high yield under high reaction concentrations are rare. Here the authors report the use of dynamic hindered urea bond for the construction of urea macrocycles with high efficiency.

    • Yingfeng Yang
    • , Hanze Ying
    •  & Jianjun Cheng

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spin-triplet energy transfer in molecular systems underlies important applications for chemistry and devices. Here, the authors investigate the triplet energy transfer in CdSe quantum dots with varying ZnS shell thicknesses to surface-anchored anthracene molecules and identify a stepwise mechanism mediated by endothermic charge-transfer states.

    • Runchen Lai
    • , Yangyi Liu
    •  & Kaifeng Wu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    So far most of the de novo designed proteins are for single states only. Here, the authors present the de novo design and crystal structure determination of a coiled-coil peptide that assembles into multiple, distinct conformational states under the same conditions and further characterise its properties with biophysical experiments, NMR and MD simulations.

    • William M. Dawson
    • , Eric J. M. Lang
    •  & Derek N. Woolfson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Survivin’s dual function as apoptosis inhibitor and regulator of cell proliferation is mediated via its interaction with the export receptor CRM1. Here authors report a strategy addressing its dimer interface overlapping with the nuclear export signal, the binding site of CRM1, with advanced supramolecular tweezers for lysine and arginine.

    • Annika Meiners
    • , Sandra Bäcker
    •  & Shirley K. Knauer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Geometric E to Z double C=C bond isomerization is challenging as it requires kinetic trapping of the Z-isomer with injection of chemical energy. Here, the authors report a dinuclear Pd(I)−Pd(I) complex that mediates selective isomerization of E-1,3-dienes to the Z-isomers without photoirradiation.

    • Eiji Kudo
    • , Kota Sasaki
    •  & Tetsuro Murahashi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Monitoring the activity of the processive motor protein kinesin-1 in live cells is currently difficult. Here the authors report the fluorogenic small molecule QPD-OTf, a kinesin-1 substrate that causes activity-dependent dye precipitation.

    • Simona Angerani
    • , Eric Lindberg
    •  & Nicolas Winssinger

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Rubromycin family of natural products belongs to aromatic polyketides with diverse bioactivities, but details of their biosynthesis are limited. Here, the authors report the complete in vitro reconstitution of enzymatic formation of the spiroketal moiety of rubromycin polyketides, driven by flavin-dependent enzymes, and characterize reaction intermediates.

    • Britta Frensch
    • , Thorsten Lechtenberg
    •  & Robin Teufel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The understanding of catalytic reactions at the atomic interface is vital; however, the characterization and mechanism studies of atomically dispersed catalysts remain challenging. Here, the authors demonstrate Cu–Sn surface alloys with isolated Sn atoms on a Cu host to achieve efficient CO2 to CO conversion.

    • Wenhao Ren
    • , Xin Tan
    •  & Chuan Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Anode-free lithium metal battery is one of the most promising candidates for next-generation high energy density battery but suffer from poor cycle life. Here the authors present an integrated protocol to dissect and quantify the irreversible coulombic efficiencies for better understanding of the battery.

    • Chen-Jui Huang
    • , Balamurugan Thirumalraj
    •  & Bing Joe Hwang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blue phases are spatially ordered yet fragile liquid crystalline structures, bearing applications in optoelectronics and photonics. Hu et al. show that self-assembly within a mixture of different mesogens may significantly broaden the temperature range over which they are stable.

    • Wei Hu
    • , Ling Wang
    •  & Huai Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Designing ultra small metal nanoclusters or single atoms with metallic state is a challenge. Here, the authors demonstrate the stabilization of ultra small silver clusters in the nearly-metallic state by oxygen adsorption at high temperature, using in situ spectroscopy and microscope technologies.

    • Rongtan Li
    • , Xiaoyan Xu
    •  & Xinhe Bao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Two-dimensional perovskite shows potential for optoelectronic applications due to its large exciton binding energy, yet the exciton-phonon interaction with the polar soft lattice is not well-understood. Here, the authors reveal the intermediate coupling regime where exciton polarons are momentarily trapped by lattice vibrations.

    • Weijian Tao
    • , Chi Zhang
    •  & Haiming Zhu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Trans-acyltransferase polyketide synthases are multimodular enzymes that synthesise diverse polyketides. Here, the authors present an algorithm for the global study of their diversity, showing exchange of conserved consecutive modules as a driver of diversification, and guiding the discovery of polyketides.

    • Eric J. N. Helfrich
    • , Reiko Ueoka
    •  & Marnix H. Medema

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Site-selective C–H functionalization still faces some challenges, such as the introduction and removal of an appropriate directing group. Here, the authors introduce a temporary directing group for selective meta-C–H functionalization of 2-arylbenzaldehydes via reversible imine formation.

    • Sukdev Bag
    • , Sadhan Jana
    •  & Debabrata Maiti

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While water-splitting electrocatalysis offers a renewable means for carbon-neutral energy production, it is a challenge to design efficient, active, and stable catalysts. Here, authors prepare multilayer composite nanosheet materials as bifunctional water-splitting electrocatalysts.

    • Xixi Ji
    • , Yanhong Lin
    •  & Jie Yu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) has proven to be a viable strategy to achieve highly efficient room temperature phosphorescence (RTP) in bulk by restricting molecular motions. Here, the authors present an RTP design strategy by combining the concept of AIE and donor-acceptor motif and demonstrate unusual thermochromic dual phosphorescence.

    • Tao Wang
    • , Zhubin Hu
    •  & Guoqing Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoluminescence printing is a widely applied anticounterfeiting technique but there are still challenges in developing new generation anticounterfeiting materials providing a high security level. Here, the authors demonstrate coordination dependent photochromic luminescence in a supramolecular coordination polyelectrolyte for multiple information authentication.

    • Zhiqiang Li
    • , Xiao Liu
    •  & Yanli Zhao

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Developing high-performance, neutral-media H2-evolution electrocatalysts is important for clean and sustainable hydrogen energy, yet rare, expensive elements are most active. Here, authors show that metal-organic frameworks modified with single ruthenium atoms as high-performances catalysts.

    • Yamei Sun
    • , Ziqian Xue
    •  & Cheng-Yong Su

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Switching mechanical properties in stiff bioinspired nanocomposites is challenging as they contain high fractions of hard reinforcements. Here, the authors demonstrate reversible electrical switching in highly-reinforced cellulose nanopapers using an applied low direct current.

    • Dejin Jiao
    • , Francisco Lossada
    •  & Andreas Walther

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spiroaromatic compounds are advantageous platforms for designing expanded aromatic systems. Herein, the authors present a tris‐spiro metalla‐aromatic Vanadium compound which forms a 40π Craig‐Möbius aromatic system.

    • Zhe Huang
    • , Yongliang Zhang
    •  & Zhenfeng Xi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Furanocembranoid-like natural products with the alkene-substituted furan scaffold display a range of biological activities, but are difficult to access. Here, the authors report a modular biomimetic strategy to synthesise diverse alkene-substituted furan-containing macrolactams via palladium-catalysed unactivated Csp3-H olefination.

    • Jiping Hao
    • , Xueying Guo
    •  & Weibo Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tremendous efforts have been made over the past decades regarding the development of materials with enantioselective properties. Here, the authors present a nanostructured chiral imprinted metal alloy that exhibits high enantioselectivity and stability for the electrosynthesis of chiral molecules.

    • Sopon Butcha
    • , Sunpet Assavapanumat
    •  & Alexander Kuhn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Understanding ice re-crystallization is key to improve the current cryopreservation technologies. Here, the authors bring together experiments and simulations to unravel the atomistic details of the ice re-crystallization inhibition (IRI) activity of poly(vinyl)alcohol—the most potent biomimetic IRI agent.

    • Fabienne Bachtiger
    • , Thomas R. Congdon
    •  & Gabriele C. Sosso

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Fiber-optics based on organic crystals could have potential for unique telecommunications applications but typically transmit visible wavelengths. Here the authors present mechanically robust organic crystals with favourable optical properties across the main telecommunication bands in the near-infrared.

    • Durga Prasad Karothu
    • , Ghada Dushaq
    •  & Panče Naumov

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