News & Views in 2024

An electrochemical Li⁺ intercalation-based exfoliation strategy achieves phase-switchable exfoliation of 2H- and 1T′-WS₂ nanosheets.

Mechanoluminescence allows controlled generation and synthetic exploitation of organic radicals in milled bulk solids.

Monodisperse perovskite nanocrystals are formed by using a diffusion-mediated growth mechanism that controls converted monomer concentration such that premature termination or secondary growth processes are prevented.

Grain boundary engineering, by electrodeposition and demoulding of elemental metal from a van der Waals gap, gives rise to nanosheets with high electrical anisotropy.

Enzymatic cascades enable the synthesis of sugar-modified nucleosides from bulk chemicals.

Inspired by pharmaceutical capsules, an extended-release shell to regulate catalyst surface reconstruction is developed, generating highly active sites and leading to enhanced CO₂ electroreduction performance.

Two catalysts working together under light irradiation selectively dehydrogenate proteinogenic amino acids to yield intermediates that can be diversified into non-canonical amino acids.

Thermodynamically-stable layered cation-ordered 2D-like nitrides can be synthesized using kinetically-limited thin-film deposition methods.

Supramolecular peptide complexes with interlocking heterochiral linkers showcase a route for self-assembled nanostructures with exceptional mechanical stability.

Anisotropic gels made from supramolecular nanofibres are formed from mechanical or magnetic forces applied with orchestrated enzymatically-triggered pH changes.

Enantioenriched alkyl–alkyl bonds are produced from abundant alkenes in one step via Ni-catalysed asymmetric cross-hydrodimerization. This technique overcomes the reactivity and selectivity challenges associated with coupling between two similar nucleophiles.

Aryl thianthrenium salts participate in Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions with boronic acids. Notably, the reactions occur at low pH, facilitating the use of base-sensitive boronic acids or Lewis basic substrates.

Diarylated cyclooctenes encode head-to-head styrene dyads that form precision polyolefins after ring-opening metathesis polymerization and hydrogenation.

Monodisperse HgSe nanocrystals are synthesized via Ag⁺ catalysed complete cation exchange with CdSe template nanocrystals.

Iron-catalysed C–H activation enables the aza-annulation of extended π-conjugated systems to access N-doped polycyclic aromatics with outstanding optoelectronic properties.

Strategic modification of molecular catalysts has led to efficient CO₂ reduction in strong acid while suppressing the competing hydrogen evolution reaction.

The iterative operation of certain polyketide synthase modules is demonstrated in vitro using a combination of protein biochemistry, synthesis of biosynthetic intermediates, and mass spectrometric analysis.

Enantioselective hydrogenation is a stalwart reaction in synthetic chemistry. Now, hydrogenation of tetrasubstituted 1,2-dihydronaphthalene esters gives access to more than 30 cyclolignan natural products.

Amine–borane adducts activate alkyl halides via halogen-atom transfer through boryl radical intermediates, enabling the formation of C(sp²)–C(sp³) bonds using either organometallic reagents or organic halides.

The energy efficiency and product selectivity of ethylene electrosynthesis from CO is improved by accelerating water dissociation.