News & Views

Photo-electrocatalysis under alternating polarity allows enantioselective redox-neutral cross-coupling through β-scission of alcohols to afford optically pure chiral α-arylated amines.

Post-synthetic modification of olefin moieties to form coumarin linkages within covalent organic frameworks enhances their stability.

Design of anomeric leaving groups with pendant H-bond acceptors results in a stereospecific chemical O-glycosylation with broad scope and applicability to automated synthesis.

Light-driven chemical reactivity enables a synthetic system to give rise to protocells with dynamic, life-like behaviour.

Crystalline 2D mechanically interlocked polymers synthesized through supramolecular templating demonstrate 47-fold stiffness enhancement upon exfoliation with preserved structural order.

Combining cathodic oxygen reduction with anodic glycerol oxidation results in simultaneous chemical synthesis and renewable electricity production.

Highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells are fabricated by introducing a molecular sieve which finely controls the 2D/3D heterointerface reactions.

A catalytic asymmetric intramolecular reaction is developed for the [5+2] cycloaddition of oxidopyrylium ylides, enabled by chiral phosphoric acid organocatalysts, providing access to bridged bicyclic scaffolds.

Single molecule chemistry leveraging scanning probe tip-based atom manipulation is used to create cyclic C6, a previously elusive carbon nanoring, shedding new light on the stability, structure and electronic properties of low-dimensional carbon allotropes.

Reconstruction of the late enzymatic steps of the yew Taxol biosynthetic pathway in yeast enables the bioproduction of Taxol.

Forming halide perovskites inside carbon nanotubes chemically protects them, enabling their application as highly efficient X-ray detectors with low dark current.

A two-dimensional metal halide perovskite with spontaneous twisted stacking is synthesized through high-throughput experimentation and counterintuitive chemical design, demonstrating the potential of this approach for regulating metal halide perovskite photophysical properties.

Organosodium reagents have long been considered too reactive for application in organic synthesis. Now, sodium-based nucleophiles can be used with iron catalysis to enable C(sp²) homo-coupling and C(sp²)–C(sp³) cross-coupling reactions.

A platform for the rapid and high-throughput preparation of polymer nanoparticles from polymers in flow is developed, allowing for the scalable synthesis of precision polymer nanoparticles.

One-dimensional quantum magnets hosting correlated π-spins and collective quantum behaviour are synthesized through a combination of elegant precursor design and on-surface synthesis, highlighting the potential of designing π-electron-based quantum spin systems for future quantum technologies.

Homogeneous hydrogenolysis of organohalides using cobalt- and rhodium-catalysis under photocatalytic conditions facilitates the synthesis of deuterium- or tritium-labelled compounds with high selectivity and functional group tolerance.

Synthetic small molecules possessing both self-assembling properties and protein-binding capabilities can regulate the formation of protein nanotubes.

The electrochemical oxidation of transition metal dichalcogenides generates 2D transition metal oxychalcogenides, offering enhanced stability and activity for electrochemical water oxidation.

Manipulating the crystal plane via a recrystallization strategy confers lithium metal anodes with much improved diffusion kinetics and mechanical properties, achieving high-energy-density batteries.

Direct visualization of a solid-state transformation between two extra-large pore siliceous zeolites reveals a discrete sequence of bond breakage and formation steps at the atomic scale.