Chemical synthesis articles within Nature Communications

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Late-stage diversification of natural products is an important starting point for drug discovery. Here, the authors use chiral reagents to perform the regiocontrolled ring expansion of steroid precursors and achieve more than 100 isomerically pure analogs with spatial and functional diversity.

    • Manwika Charaschanya
    •  & Jeffrey Aubé

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic methodologies that incorporate commodity chemicals ethylene and ethyne into fine chemicals are quite limited. Here, the authors show a cobalt-catalyzed electrochemical C-H/N–H [4+2] annulation of aryl/vinyl amides with ethylene or ethyne to produce N-heterocycles in absence of oxidants.

    • Shan Tang
    • , Dan Wang
    •  & Aiwen Lei

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Saturated N-heterocycle rings are common structural motifs of many FDA-approved drugs. Here, the authors show that a metal-free amphoteric diamination of allenes produces valuable six-, seven- and eight-membered N-heterocycles with high diversity and tolerance of functional groups on the ring.

    • Zhishi Ye
    • , Sarju Adhikari
    •  & Mingji Dai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Metal coordination of multitopic ligands is a powerful approach to building complex, functional architectures. Here, the authors construct three generations of fluorescent supramolecular rosettes by coordination of aggregation-induced emissive ligands, including a 2nd-generation macrocycle that emits pure white light.

    • Guang-Qiang Yin
    • , Heng Wang
    •  & Xiaopeng Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The complexity of rotaxane dendrimers poses a great synthetic challenge and the synthesis of higher generation rotaxane dendrimers has therefore rarely been reported. Here the authors report the synthesis of acid-base switchable rotaxane dendrimers up to generation 4 and demonstrate the uptake and release of guest molecules.

    • Chak-Shing Kwan
    • , Rundong Zhao
    •  & Ken Cham-Fai Leung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral vicinal amino alcohols are found in many bioactive compounds and may serve as chiral ligands. Here, the authors report a photocatalytic enantioselective cross-coupling of nitrones with aromatic aldehydes with a chiral ligand-coordinated rare earth ion synergistically producing enantiopure vicinal amino alcohols.

    • Chen-Xi Ye
    • , Yared Yohannes Melcamu
    •  & Pei-Qiang Huang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Although near-infrared light makes up a large portion of the solar spectrum, harvesting it for photocatalytic applications remains challenging. Here the authors deposit unidirectional Au@Nb core-shell nanoparticles into tubular H x K1–xNbO3 nanoscrolls and report cooperative full solar spectrum absorption.

    • Ying-Chu Chen
    • , Yu-Kuei Hsu
    •  & Claus Feldmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Radicals of heavy main-group elements represent important intermediates in chemical synthesis, yet few have been isolated. Here the authors stabilize neutral stibinyl and bismuthinyl radicals using gallium-based ligands, and reduce the former to afford a Ga=Sb double bond-containing complex.

    • Chelladurai Ganesamoorthy
    • , Christoph Helling
    •  & Stephan Schulz

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite intensive research on photoexcited molecules, stereocontrol of direct bond formation upon photoexcitation remains limited. Here the authors expand the research on stereocontrolled bond forming photochemistry and introduce the catalytic asymmetric synthesis of chiral nitrogen heterocycles.

    • Xiaoqiang Huang
    • , Xinyao Li
    •  & Eric Meggers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Catalytic acceptorless dehydrogenation reactions provide a sustainable route to valuable products and hydrogen fuel. Here, the authors show a recyclable iron catalyst that is highly active in the acceptorless dehydrogenation of a wide range of N-heterocycles and alcohols.

    • Garima Jaiswal
    • , Vinod G. Landge
    •  & Ekambaram Balaraman

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polycyclic meroterpenoids show a wide range of biological activities. Here, the authors report a modular approach to synthesize a number of natural and non-natural tetracyclic meroterpenoids, which display antibiotic activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.

    • Raphael Wildermuth
    • , Klaus Speck
    •  & Thomas Magauer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthesis of chiral molecules mostly relies on asymmetric catalysis. Here, the authors developed a pulsed electrochemical method to convert a prochiral ketone into the corresponding chiral alcohols with very high enantioselectivity on chiral-imprinted mesoporous platinum.

    • Chularat Wattanakit
    • , Thittaya Yutthalekha
    •  & Alexander Kuhn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Chiral pyridines are valuable building blocks in medicinal chemistry applications. Here, the authors report the copper-catalysed Lewis acid-assisted asymmetric alkylation of β-substituted alkenyl pyridines with Grignard reagents affording chiral pyridines with excellent enantioselectivity.

    • Ravindra P. Jumde
    • , Francesco Lanza
    •  & Syuzanna R. Harutyunyan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Little is understood about the chemical evolution of precursors to quantum dots. Here, the authors find that under the high temperature conditions typical of CdSe quantum dot synthesis, precursors decompose into highly reactive species in a critical first step before forming monomers and finally nanocrystals.

    • Leah C. Frenette
    •  & Todd D. Krauss

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doping metal nanoclusters at specific sites is a powerful strategy for tuning their properties. Here, the authors precisely control the alloying sites of bimetallic nanoclusters by replacing entire surface motifs with structurally similar heteroatom motifs, tuning the surface composition motif-by-motif rather than atom-by-atom.

    • Qiaofeng Yao
    • , Yan Feng
    •  & Jianping Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Control over nanoparticle atomicity has not yet been extended to metal oxides. Here, the authors present the synthesis and X-ray crystal structures of a family of atomically precise ceria nanoclusters, a pivotal step for understanding the relationship between their atomic structure and reactivity.

    • Kylie J. Mitchell
    • , Khalil A. Abboud
    •  & George Christou

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Owing to their unique properties, hollow metal nanocrystals demonstrate greater catalytic promise than their solid counterparts. Here the authors produce hollow and inflated palladium nanocrystals with thin shells via a repeated Kirkendall cavitation process, and demonstrate their activity for formic acid oxidation.

    • He Tianou
    • , Weicong Wang
    •  & Yadong Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Hollow nanoparticles can be synthesized by galvanic replacement or the Kirkendall effect, which are generally regarded as two separate processes. Here, the authors use liquid TEM to follow the entire galvanic replacement of Ag nanocubes, finding experimental evidence that the Kirkendall effect is a key intermediate stage during hollowing.

    • See Wee Chee
    • , Shu Fen Tan
    •  & Utkur Mirsaidov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Oligosaccharide synthesis is encumbered by multiple protection and deprotection steps. Here, the authors report a protection-free yet stereoselective and regioselective glycosylation strategy using boron-masked glycosyl donors, and demonstrate efficient synthesis of oligosaccharides over a wide substrate scope.

    • Kim Le Mai Hoang
    • , Jing-xi He
    •  & Xue-Wei Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Synthetic nanochemistry currently lacks the molecular step-by-step routes afforded to organic chemistry by total synthesis. Here, the authors track the seeded growth of atom-precise gold nanoclusters using mass spectrometry, revealing that the clusters evolve through a series of intermediates in two-electron steps.

    • Qiaofeng Yao
    • , Xun Yuan
    •  & Jianping Xie

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Doping a metal nanocluster with heteroatoms dramatically changes its properties, but it remains difficult to dope with single-atom control. Here, the authors devise a strategy to dope single atoms of Ag or Cu into hollow Au nanoclusters, creating precise alloy nanoparticles atom-by-atom.

    • Shuxin Wang
    • , Hadi Abroshan
    •  & Rongchao Jin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reduction of allenes poses several challenges in terms of chemo-, regio- and enantio-selectivity. Here, the authors report a rhodium-Josiphos catalytic system that reduces a variety of aryl allenes to chiral benzylic compounds with excellent selectivity and functional group tolerance.

    • Zhiwei Chen
    •  & Vy M. Dong

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Polypropionates are present in many natural products possessing high bioactivity and therapeutic value. Here the authors show a strategy for the stereoselective assembly of polypropionates with three or four stereocentres through a process that includes a Diels–Alder reaction, silylenol ether hydrolysis and Baeyer–Villiger oxidation.

    • Guo-Ming Ho
    • , Medel Manuel L. Zulueta
    •  & Shang-Cheng Hung

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Photoelectrochemical water splitting is a promising method for H2 fuel production, but the O2 by-product generated has little economic value. Here, Berlinguette and colleagues demonstrate that BiVO4 photoanodes immersed in organic media can instead perform valuable alcohol oxidation and C–H functionalization reactions.

    • Tengfei Li
    • , Takahito Kasahara
    •  & Curtis P. Berlinguette

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The specific metabolism of cancer cells may allow for selective tumor therapeutics. Here, the authors show that a suitable combination of an enzyme and iron nanoparticles loaded on dendritic silica induces apoptosis of cancer cells in response to the glucose-reliant and mild acidic microenvironment.

    • Minfeng Huo
    • , Liying Wang
    •  & Jianlin Shi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Orthosilicic acid is essential to many natural and synthetic materials but notoriously difficult to isolate, limiting its use in materials synthesis. Here, the authors successfully synthesize and stabilize orthosilicic acid and its oligomers, making available a new family of building blocks for silicon oxide-based materials.

    • Masayasu Igarashi
    • , Tomohiro Matsumoto
    •  & Shigeru Shimada

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Amino and trifluoromethyl groups are ubiquitous within medicinal chemistry, but synthesis of fluoroalkylamines normally requires harsh conditions or sensitive reagents. Here the authors report an operationally simple, catalyst-free procedure for the trifluoroethylation of primary and secondary amines.

    • Keith G. Andrews
    • , Radmila Faizova
    •  & Ross M. Denton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    While automated reaction systems typically work for the synthesis of pre-defined molecules, automated systems to discover reactivity are more challenging. Here the authors report an autonomous organic reaction search engine that allows discovery of the most reactive pathways in a multi-reagent, multistep reaction system.

    • Vincenza Dragone
    • , Victor Sans
    •  & Leroy Cronin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Advanced diagnostic probes are required for monitoring disease progression. Here Galanzhaet al. demonstrate a 22 nm plasmonic nanolaser to serve as a super-bright, biocompatible probe capable of generating stimulated emission directly inside living cells and animal tissue, while targeting cancer cells.

    • Ekaterina I. Galanzha
    • , Robert Weingold
    •  & Vladimir P. Zharov

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Due to the synthetic utility of the products, stereoselective halogenation is a powerful method for the synthesis of chiral compounds. Here the authors report an enantioselective decarboxylative chlorination, giving access to a range of α-chloroketones.

    • Kazutaka Shibatomi
    • , Kazumasa Kitahara
    •  & Seiji Iwasa

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Kinetic resolution of alcohols by silylation is an attractive method to produce enantiopure compounds, but known systems often display limited substrate scope. Here the authors report a copper catalysed enantioselective dehydrogenative silylation of alcohols that have high selectivity across a broad range of substrates.

    • Xichang Dong
    • , Andreas Weickgenannt
    •  & Martin Oestreich

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Axially chiral arylquinazolinones are structural motifs in several natural products and can also act as chiral ligands. Here, the authors show a chiral phosphoric acid-catalysed strategy to access enantiomerically pure arylquinazolinones by efficient transfer of central chirality into axial chirality.

    • Yong-Bin Wang
    • , Sheng-Cai Zheng
    •  & Bin Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Blatter’s radicals are highly valuable stable organic free radicals, comprising a heterocyclic ring system functionalized with a heteroaryl or alkyl group at the C-3 position. Here, the authors report a synthetic strategy to obtain Blatter’s radical substituted with an amine and amide group.

    • Jacob A. Grant
    • , Zhou Lu
    •  & AnnMarie C. O’Donoghue

  • Article
    | Open Access

    CdSe/CdS tetrapods exhibit the unusual trait of two-colour multiexcitonic emission. Here Mishraet al. study this type of dual emission at the single-nanocrystal level. By tuning arm diameter and length they seek to understand shape-dependent evolution of the emission and of blinking behaviour.

    • Nimai Mishra
    • , Noah J. Orfield
    •  & Jennifer A. Hollingsworth

Browse broader subjects

Browse narrower subjects

Browse Chemical synthesis across other nature.com journals