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Radical chain initiation strategies are fundamental to the synthesis of small molecule drugs and macromolecular materials. Here a general, thermally driven and scalable method for reductive initiation is reported, in which inexpensive azo initiators are reacted with formate salts to form a carbon dioxide radical anion.

Covalency in actinide–­ligand bonding is poorly understood compared to that in other parts of the periodic table due to the lack of experimental data. Here, pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance methods are used to directly measure the electron spin densities at coordinated ligands in molecular thorium and uranium complexes.

The magnetocaloric effect is well understood in spin-frustrated low-dimensional systems, and should be observable in certain high-symmetry molecular structures. Here, the authors report the experimental observation of sub-Kelvin cooling with a molecular magnet, and probe the low-temperature spin behaviour.

Nitrogen oxides are major air pollutants; capture and abatement technologies exist but they typically involve toxic species or precious-metal catalysts. Now, a metal–organic framework has been shown to store NO₂ dimers selectively, and to separate NO₂ from other gases under wet conditions. Treatment with water in air leads to conversion of NO₂ into HNO₃—an important feedstock for fertilizer production—with full recovery of the host.

The ability to assemble weakly-interacting subsystems is a prerequisite for implementing quantum-information processing. In recent years, molecular nanomagnets have been proposed as suitable candidates for qubit encoding and manipulation, with antiferromagnetic Cr₇Ni rings of particular interest. It has now been shown that such rings can be chemically linked to each other and the coupling between their spins tuned through the choice of chemical linker.

Molecular spin qubits show great promise for quantum information processing, but loss of phase information due to noise interference hinders their applicability. Here the authors engineer the electronic configurations of the metal centres in a series of divalent rare-earth complexes and succeed in prolonging their phase memory times.

Actinide electronic structure determination is fundamentally challenging. Here, the authors assemble a family of uranium(V)-nitrides and quantify the electronic structure of the molecules, defining the relative importance of spin orbit coupling and crystal field interactions.

Modelling magnetic data for lanthanide clusters is challenging due to spin–orbit coupling and crystal field effects. Here, the authors use multi-frequency electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy to measure directly the interaction between two dysprosium(III) ions in a dimeric system.

A case–control study investigating the causes of recent cases of acute hepatitis of unknown aetiology in 32 children identifies an association between adeno-associated virus infection and host genetics in disease susceptibility.

Dysprosium alkoxides and dysprosium-doped yttrium alkoxides show very large energy barriers, greater than 800 K, to magnetic relaxation. These barriers arise from the presence of a strongly axial pseudo-octahedral crystal field, which switches off relaxation through the first excited state that typically occurs in single-molecule magnets, and favours a competitive pathway through higher-energy states.

Electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide is a highly attractive strategy for the production of organic products of economic value. Here, the authors report the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide to formic acid over a copper-based metal–organic framework decorated electrode at low over-potential.

The partial oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is challenging to perform in artificial systems due to ready over-oxidation to CO and CO₂. Here by confining mono-iron hydroxyl sites in a metal–organic framework, photo-oxidation of CH₄ to CH₃OH is achieved with high selectivity and time yield.

The construction of C-C bonds via reductive coupling carbonyl compounds is a huge challenge in organic transformations. Here, the authors develop a highly efficient system for the photoreductive coupling of aldehydes and ketones to the corresponding 1,2-diols under mild conditions.

Ligand design contributes to dictating the magnetic properties of lanthanide-based single-molecule magnets. Here, the authors report a series of phosphorus-ligated dysprosium complexes, and show that the dynamic magnetic properties change as the ligand is varied from phosphine to phosphide to phosphinidene.

Gaining molecular-level insight into host–guest binding interactions is fundamentally important, but experimentally challenging. Here, Schröder and co-workers study CO₂–host hydrogen bonding interactions in a pair of isostructural redox-active V^III/V^IVMOFs using neutron scattering and diffraction techniques.

Molecular electron spins are promising qubit candidates, however physical implementation of quantum gates is challenging. Little et al. explore the implementation of two-qubit entangling gates between nitroxide spin centres by pulsed electron paramagnetic resonance, building on NMR quantum computing protocols.

The Human Microbiome Project Consortium has established a population-scale framework to study a variety of microbial communities that exist throughout the human body, enabling the generation of a range of quality-controlled data as well as community resources.

Lower olefins are mainly produced from fossil resources and the methanol-to-olefins process offers a new sustainable pathway. Here, the authors show a new zeolite containing tantalum and aluminium centres which shows simultaneously high propene selectivity, catalytic activity, and stability for the synthesis of propene.

Understanding the spin dynamics in magnetic nanostructures is important for spintronics, but so far it has been impossible to probe the spin dynamics directly. A neutron-scattering technique providing direct information about dynamical two-spin correlations in a molecular nanomagnet has now been demonstrated.

Understanding the anisotropic electronic structure of lanthanide complexes is useful for a range of advanced applications. Here, the authors present a simple electrostatic method, capable of predicting the magnetic anisotropy of low-symmetry mononuclear and polynuclear dysprosium(III) complexes.

Electron spin relaxation, important in quantum information science, can be slowed down at clock transitions — which are insensitive to magnetic noise. It has now been shown that such transitions can be tuned, to high frequency, in rare-earth coordination complexes through control of s- and d-orbital mixing.

The physical implementation of quantum information processing requires individual qubits and entangling gates. Here, the authors demonstrate a modular implementation through chemistry, assembling molecular {Cr₇Ni} rings acting as qubits, with supramolecular structures realizing gates by choice of the linker.

The inverse-trans-influence has been shown to operate in high oxidation state actinide complexes. Here, the authors report tetravalent cerium, uranium and thorium bis(carbene) complexes with trans C=M=C cores where experimental and theoretical data also suggest the presence of an inverse-trans-effect.

Owing to the propensity for uranium(III) compounds to undergo disproportionation, uranium-element multiple bonds involving uranium(III) oxidation states remain rare. Here the authors report hexauranium-methanediide rings that formally contain uranium(III)- and uranium(IV)-methanediides supported by alternating halide and arene bridges.

Production of olefins from biomass-derived γ-valerolactone could lead to sustainable chemical processes, but catalysts suffer from deactivation due to water. Here, a MFI-type zeolite doped with Nb(v) and Al(iii) shows >99% yield at 320 °C and catalyst stability over 180 hours.

Polymetallic rings are formed via the collision-induced dissociation of larger complexes. Ion mobility mass spectrometry can be used to determine whether the formed polymetallic complexes are cyclic or acyclic.

The Human Microbiome Project Consortium reports the first results of their analysis of microbial communities from distinct, clinically relevant body habitats in a human cohort; the insights into the microbial communities of a healthy population lay foundations for future exploration of the epidemiology, ecology and translational applications of the human microbiome.

The reactivity of f-block complexes is primarily defined by single-electron oxidations and σ-bond metathesis. Here, Liddle and co-workers provide evidence that a uranium complex can undergo reversible oxidative addition and reductive elimination, demonstrating transition metal-like reactivity within f-block chemistry.

The nature of actinide–ligand bonding is attracting attention, in particular in the context of nuclear waste separations. Structurally authenticated one-, two- and threefold uranium–arsenic bonding interactions are now reported. Computational analysis suggests the presence of polarized σ², σ²π², and σ²π⁴ in the arsenide, terminal arsinidene, and arsenido complexes, respectively.

A terminal uranium(VI)–nitride has been shown to be accessible and isolable by a redox strategy whereas a photochemical approach resulted in decomposition. Computational analyses suggest that the U≡N triple bonds are surprisingly comparable to analogous group 6 transition metal nitrides, with a covalent character dominated by 5f rather than 6d contributions.

High and reversible nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) uptake, and low-concentration NO₂ removal from gas mixtures, is observed in a metal–organic framework. The NO₂ is bound within the pores by cooperative supramolecular interactions.

Producing ammonia is challenging and requires efficient and selective catalysts to drive the reaction. Here, a series of single-atom catalysts derived from UiO-66 containing structural defects show efficient electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonia.

Polymer beads are used in the core of magnetic particles, and beads functionalised with paramagnetic molecules are promising as agents for dynamic nuclear polarization. Here, the authors use conventional click chemistry to decorate a polymer bead with 10¹⁴ [2]rotaxanes containing paramagnetic {Cr₇Ni} rings.