Reviews & Analysis

A homologative process that enables vinylene insertions into organoboronates stereoselectively forms alkenyl boronates.

Collaboration between synthesis laboratories requires procedures that are reproducible despite differences in equipment. Now, a digital standard for automated chemical synthesis reproduces results between distinct laboratory systems almost half a world apart.

Molecular knots and links retrofitted with iminopyrrole units make these assemblies intrinsically flexible, strengthening their potential application in molecular machinery.

A general strategy for synthesizing high-nuclearity Cu(i) alkynide nanoclusters is developed, involving a tripodal polydentate phosphoramide ligand to stabilize the nanoclusters and an alkynol ligand for the facile in situ generation of the ethynediide (C₂^2–) dianion to template nanocluster formation. The Cu(i) alkynide nanocluster Cu62 exhibits good stability and activity as a catalyst for photobleaching.

The direct carbonylation of alkanes with CO suffers from low conversion owing to equilibrium constraints. Now, a strategy is presented that combines reversible alkane carbonylation with an asymmetric transformation to overcome the equilibrium limitations, enabling the synthesis of chiral β- and α-amino ketones from alkanes, CO and anilines.

The visible-light-driven thiolate-catalysed carboxylation of C(sp²)–H bonds in azines using CO₂ is demonstrated. This procedure can be applied to various azine substrates to obtain a range of N-heteroaromatic carboxylic acids with different functionalities, including bioactive molecules and carboxylated N-ligands.

Acid triggers the formation of radicals by Flory autoinitiation of acrylic monomers and enhances polymerization rates.

The discovery of immunosuppressive natural products and synthetic strategies to make these compounds have impacted biology and ultimately human health. This Review highlights synthetic examples of such compounds, which have the potential to discover immunological mechanisms.

Traditionally, enzymes were not commonly used as catalysts by organic and pharmaceutical chemists owing to insufficient stereoselectivity. However, this changed with the onset of directed evolution. This Review introduces mutagenesis methods, describes the enzyme-catalysed production of specific pharmaceuticals and presents further examples.

Tailoring of the short-range microenvironment surrounding the active site in ruthenium-based catalyst systems can lead to enhanced overall water splitting.

Using a fully automated closed-loop system, a robotic chemist synthesizes an oxygen-evolution catalyst from Martian meteorites, with implications for the production of catalysts that may underpin human survival on Mars in the future.

Palladium-catalysed enantioselective α-arylation of azlactones and 5H-oxazol-4-ones with aryl halides using Sadphos ligands enables the synthesis of α-aryl quaternary amino acids and glycolic acid derivatives.

Since the isolation of a Mg–Mg complex, research on low-oxidation-state s-block chemistry has flourished. An approach to forming metal–metal bonds between Mg and the heavier alkaline earth metals (Ca, Sr and Ba) is now demonstrated. The unusual electronic nature of these compounds could stimulate further discussions of metal–metal bonding.

Modular access to nimbolide could provide the opportunity to develop agents that target poly-ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) for the treatment of BRCA-deficient cancers. Now, a convergent strategy is reported, in which late-stage coupling of a pharmacophore-containing building block and a diversifiable hydrazone unit enables the preparation of nimbolide and various analogues.

Flow chemistry enables efficient generation and improved reactivity of sulfuryl fluoride for sulfur fluoride exchange click chemistry.

Rapid, long-distance transport of an ultrathin and uniform palladium film on a two-dimensional (2D) crystal of tungsten ditelluride at accessible temperatures is reported. The surprising effect is generalizable and offers possibilities for exploring chemical synthesis in nanoconfined spaces and access to not yet synthesized 2D materials.

Incorporation of the plant-derived jasmonate biosynthetic pathway into yeast enables the de novo biosynthesis of natural and unnatural jasmonates.

Strained allenes in piperidines and tetrahydropyrans are used to generate highly-decorated heterocycles.

An engineered ‘carbene transferase’ is shown to convert both Z and E isomers of silyl enol ethers in a stereoconvergent manner, yielding chiral α-branched ketones with high efficiency and excellent selectivity. This biocatalyst offers an efficient and high-yield method to functionalize these alkene mixtures.

A preactivation-based one-pot glycosylation strategy was used to synthesize RN1 — a polysaccharide comprising 140 monosaccharide units isolated from Panax notoginseng, as well as a glycan fragment library. Evaluation of the biological activity of the glycans in vitro revealed that a decasaccharide fragment shows anti-pancreatic cancer activity.