Homogeneous catalysis articles from across Nature Portfolio

Deuterated compounds are used in many applications such as mass-spectrometry standards, drugs or in organic light-emitting diodes. Now, hydrogen-activated homogeneous pincer complex catalysts can be used to perform selective alkene deuteration with the cheapest available deuterium source, D₂O.

Aryl ethers are useful intermediates in organic synthesis and are found in countless biologically active compounds. Now, through palladium/norbornene cooperative catalysis and incorporation of a polarity-reversed N–O reagent as the O-electrophile, an efficient arene methoxylation approach has been successfully developed.

The reversible N–H activation and catalytic transformations of ammonia are a challenge. Now, a hidden frustrated Lewis pair is shown to activate non-aqueous ammonia thermoneutrally and split the N–H bond reversibly at ambient temperature. The N–H-activated ammonia was also utilized as an atom-economical nitrogen source for catalytic NH₃ transfer reactions.

CO₂ conversion to valuable chemicals is of great interest in sustainable chemistry. Now, β-amino acids are synthesized by a dual catalytic strategy that enables the aminocarboxylation of alkenes using CO₂, proceeding via alkene radical anion intermediates that are generated using a designed binaphthol-derived photoredox catalyst.

The electrochemical synthesis of hydrazine is a very attractive yet challenging process. Now, the direct electrochemical oxidation of ammonia to hydrazine on a Ru complex catalyst, involving a bimolecular N‒N coupling mechanism, is reported.

The reversible deactivation process in polymerization using chain-end hydrogen atoms remains underexplored and difficult to control. Now, deprotonation–protonation equilibrium-driven C(sp³)–H alkylation polymerization of cyclopropanes is reported using the cooperative catalysis of an organic base and a metal salt to control the polymerization.

Ligands enable alcohol-directed arylation of δ-C(sp³)–H bonds by stabilizing hydroxyl coordination to palladium through charge balance and hydrogen bonding.

Deuterogenation methods typically introduce only two deuterium atoms per unsaturation. Now the single-step hydrogenative perdeuteration of alkenes has been achieved using H₂ and D₂O, with incorporation of up to 4.9 D atoms per C=C double bond. The reaction is catalysed by a ruthenium pincer complex with a catalytic amount of thiol, which serves as a transient cooperative ligand.

Deuterated compounds are used in many applications such as mass-spectrometry standards, drugs or in organic light-emitting diodes. Now, hydrogen-activated homogeneous pincer complex catalysts can be used to perform selective alkene deuteration with the cheapest available deuterium source, D₂O.

Aryl ethers are useful intermediates in organic synthesis and are found in countless biologically active compounds. Now, through palladium/norbornene cooperative catalysis and incorporation of a polarity-reversed N–O reagent as the O-electrophile, an efficient arene methoxylation approach has been successfully developed.

The combination of photocatalysis and nickel catalysis enables the multicomponent synthesis of N-alkyl anilines through tandem C–N transposition and C–H alkylation of alkylamines.

A strategy for the cobalt-catalysed allylic fluoroalkylation of terpenes can provide site-selective access to various fluorine-containing motifs under mild conditions. The extension of the protocol to a 2-mol-scale synthesis indicates the scalability of this method.