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Developing new transformations of bulky chemicals is an important approach to expand the horizons of current chemistry. Instead of traditional hydroarylation of dienes, the authors herein demonstrate a nickel-catalyzed arylative telomerization of isoprene with high chemo- and regioselectivities.

Primary alcohols are known for their broad application in life sciences and the chemical industry. Now, Beller and colleagues present a regioselective, iron-catalysed hydrogenation of aliphatic and aromatic epoxides as a general route to primary alcohols under mild conditions

Access to green space has been a critical, and contentious, issue for neighbourhood inequality and health outcomes. This Analysis looks at how the COVID-19 pandemic interacts with availability of nature for urban residents.

The authors report an experimental study of the Hall effect measuring electrical quantities in ultracold fermionic quantum simulators. This provides a way forward in measuring transport properties in these platforms and verifying long-standing theoretical predictions.

Cyclotelomerization of isoprene can lead to many isomers and controlling the selectivity in this reaction has been challenging for chemical methods. Now, Ni-catalysed nucleophilic cyclotelomerization of isoprene with heterocycles provides cyclic monoterpene derivatives with high selectivity.

Synthesizing complex structures of high enantiomeric excess from racemic feedstock is an enduring challenge. Here, the authors couple racemic secondary alcohols with pyrroles to form enantioenriched 2-substituted heteroarenes, via a borrowing hydrogen mechanism using the combination of an iridium catalyst and chiral phosphoric acid.

Manganese-based hydrogenation catalysts are sensitive to high temperatures and may degrade under industrially relevant conditions. Here, the authors report a highly efficient manganese pincer pre-catalyst displaying high TOF values (up to 41 000 h⁻¹) and stability (TON up to 200 000) at loadings as low as 5-200 ppm.

Single-atom catalysts are a promising class of catalytic materials, but general synthetic methods are limited. Here, the authors develop a ligand-mediated strategy that allows the large-scale synthesis of diverse transition metal single atom catalysts supported on carbon.

Synthesis of primary amines via operationally simple, inexpensive and environmentally friendly methodologies has high impact in industrial settings. Here, the authors show a reductive amination process involving a ruthenium catalyst, aldehydes/ketones, ammonia, and hydrogen that displays a remarkable scope of primary amine products.

Sustainable synthesis of valuable organic compounds like lactams relies on efficient catalysts. Here, the authors report a bimetallic silver–rhenium catalyst that selectively converts cyclic imides to lactams with high efficiency, with close silver–rhenium contact being key to its performance.

Hydrogen isotope exchange is essential for the synthesis of deuterium-labeled compounds but remains challenging under mild conditions. This study demonstrates the selective deuteration of alkylarenes at room temperature using atomically dispersed surface barium hydride.

Difluorocarbenes are versatile synthetic intermediates, used for both generating fluorinated products as well as modulating organometallic catalytic reaction pathways. Here, the authors introduce a palladium/chiral ligand system that applies the metal–difluorocarbene intermediate toward a carbonylative spirocyclization.

Hydrogen borrowing is an attractive method for C-N bond formation - avoiding multiple alkylation products and reducing waste - but often is carried out with noble metals. Here the authors show that a manganese catalyst allows the selective N-alkylation of amines with alcohols.

Aromatic and aliphatic nitriles are important precursors required for many important compounds. Here, the authors report the relatively environmentally benign synthesis of a range of nitriles from alcohols treated with ammonia and oxygen in the presence of graphene supported non-noble metal oxide catalysts.

Conversion of one-carbon feedstocks to more complex structures is vital for the production of bulk chemicals. Here, the authors report a highly selective method for the conversion of carbon monoxide to ethylene glycol by means of an oxamide intermediate.

In order to use early, non-noble transition metals in homogeneous catalysis, complex ligands are typically needed, offsetting the benefits of inexpensive metals. Here the authors show that a simple manganese complex can be used in the hydrogenation of N-heteroarenes, without the need for additional ligands.

The carbonylation of alkenes is tremendously important industrial process, but many substrates are highly challenging. Here the authors report a highly active catalytic system for the alkoxycarbonylation of alkenes that is also general across the range of alkene substitution patterns.

Triacylglycerols (TG) are synthesized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) bilayer and packaged into monolayer lipid droplets (LDs), but how proteins partition between ER and LDs is poorly understood. Here authors use synthetic model systems and find that proteins containing hydrophobic membrane association domains strongly prefer monolayers and that returning to the bilayer is unfavorable.

An efficient, low-temperature, aqueous-phase method of producing hydrogen gas from methanol using ruthenium complexes is described, which could make the transport of hydrogen — and hence its use for clean-energy generation — feasible.

This study demonstrates a sustainable photocatalytic route for the production of ethylene glycol and H₂ using methyl tert-butyl ether as the substrate, offering a greener alternative to energy-intensive, petroleum-based industrial processes.

Benzamides are widely found structural motifs, but their syntheses are largely derived from petrochemical-based feedstocks. Here the authors present the concept of “lignin to amides” with a one-pot, multi-step oxidation process utilizing molecular oxygen and a 3d-metal catalyst with highly dispersed and stable cobalt species (Co-SACs), supported on nitrogen-doped carbon in water as solvent.

Deuterated amines play a crucial role as building blocks in drug synthesis and in identifying metabolites of novel pharmaceuticals. This study introduces a dual-functional phosphorus-doped iron single-atom catalyst that efficiently enables both reductive amination and deuteration in a one-pot process, utilizing H₂ as the reducing agent and cost-effective D₂O as the deuterium source.

Surface engineering of Fe sites was used to improve the carbonylation reaction of aryl halides and amines/alcohols with CO. The elementary steps of phenyl iodide activation, CO insertion and C-N/C-O coupling were catalyzed respectively, leading to improved catalytic activity.

It is challenging to integrate multi-single metal atoms into one support. In this work, the authors demonstrate the production of high-entropy single-atom catalysts via a movable typing method, which enables the anchor up to eleven metals as highly dispersed single-atom active centers on the carbon support for the oxygen reduction reaction.

Organic compounds possessing two isoprene units play important roles in chemical industry. Herein, the authors use bulk C5 chemical—isoprene to synthesise various monoterpenoids via a nucleophilic aromatization of monoterpenes under cascade catalysis of nickel and iodine

The development of stable and efficient ligands is of vital significance to enhance the catalytic performance of carbonylation reactions of alkenes. Here, the authors develop an aryldiphosphine ligand, used in palladium-catalyzed regioselective carbonylation of alkenes, exhibiting high catalytic performance and strong oxygen-resistance stability.

Song et al. identify two protein-targeting pathways from the endoplasmic reticulum to (1) early lipid droplets (LDs) and (2) mature lipid droplets. They define key factors mediating the second, late pathway and its many cargoes.

Skatole is a bacterial metabolite responsible for boar taint and the objectionable smell of manure. Here, the authors elucidate the final step of skatole biosynthesis, describing the discovery and biochemical characterization of the enzyme catalysing the conversion of indoleacetate into skatole.

Liquid (organic) hydrogen carriers form a toolbox for the storage and transport of green hydrogen but organic salts have been scarcely investigated. Here, the authors present a potassium formate/potassium bicarbonate hydrogen storage and release energy system, that is applicable and shows stability over months.

Over half the world’s rivers dry periodically, yet little is known about the biological communities in dry riverbeds. This study examines biodiversity across 84 non-perennial rivers in 19 countries using DNA metabarcoding. It finds that nutrient availability, climate and biotic interactions influence the biodiversity of these dry environments.

The selective synthesis of non-symmetrical diamides and amido-esters is a challenge. Now a Pd-catalysed dicarbonylation method is reported that generates non-symmetrical diamides and amido-esters through diamino- and amino-alkoxy carbonylations of propargylic acetates using two different nucleophiles. Mechanistic studies reveal that the process occurs through a sequential carbonylation process.

The synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles from biomass is scarcely known. Here, the authors report a strategy for the N-heterocyclic piperidines synthesis by one-pot amination of the bio-based furfural utilizing a Ru₁Co_NP/HAP surface single-atom alloy catalyst.

Combined patch clamp recording, biocytin staining and single-cell RNA-sequencing of human neurocortical neurons shows an expansion of glutamatergic neuron types relative to mouse that characterizes the greater complexity of the human neocortex.

The search for new carbon-based hydrogen storage materials attracts scientists from various disciplines. Now, carbon-neutral hydrogen storage-release is reported based on dual-functional roles of formamides and uses non-noble, Fe-based catalyst.

The synthesis of amides is a key technology for the preparation of fine and bulk chemicals in industry. Here, the authors present the reductive amidation of esters with nitro compounds under additivesfree conditions as a robust methodology for amide synthesis.

A method for the selective deuteration of anilines, indoles, phenols and heterocyclic compounds, including natural products and other bioactive molecules, has been developed. The nanostructured iron catalyst that underpins this process is prepared by combining cellulose with iron salts and has been used for the preparation of deuterated compounds on up to a kilogram scale.

Application of synthetic glycan (SG) preparations in gnotobiotic mice colonized with a defined bacterial community composed of members of the human gut microbiota identified a SG preparation that selectively altered the fitness of multiple bacteria.

The selective formation of Markovnikov products in carbonylation reactions is a challenging problem, especially from unactivated substrates. Now, a highly Markovnikov-selective alkoxycarbonylation reaction is described using a catalyst system based on palladium and the cataCXium ligand POMeCy(Ph). The resulting branched carboxylates are important structural components in many flavour and fragrance products.

RNA-sequencing analysis of cells in the human cortex enabled identification of diverse cell types, revealing well-conserved architecture and homologous cell types as well as extensive differences when compared with datasets covering the analogous region of the mouse brain.