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The Paternò–Büchi reaction is a useful approach in organic synthesis to prepare oxetanes. Understanding the mechanism of this reaction is required for the prediction and control of the diastereoselectivity of the products.
A polymerization strategy — termed CAMMP — combines two types of olefin metathesis monomers to produce degradable copolymers without sacrificing the mechanical properties of the equivalent homopolymer.
Isolating 2D materials from non-van der Waals (non-vdW) layered structures by mechanical cleavage is challenging owing to strong electronic coupling between adjacent layers. We show that mechanically sliding the layers weakens interlayer interactions, enabling delamination of a wide range of non-vdW layered structures to produce 2D sheets with unusual thickness-dependent physical properties.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is challenging to recycle owing to the formation of hydrochloric acid during depolymerization at high temperatures. Now, a method for upcycling PVC that relies on its intrinsic reactivity in a low-intensity electrochemical process is reported, which can be exploited to chlorinate arenes.
1,4-Dicarbonyls are challenging targets owing to the natural-polarity mismatch of potential reaction partners. This Review discusses methods for 1,4-dicarbonyl synthesis based on the coupling of two carbonyl-containing fragments as well as methods that involve non-carbonyl precursors. A spotlight on 1,4-dicarbonyls in total synthesis underlines the diversity of approaches for this motif.
Controllable cleavage and conversion of strong C(sp3)–H bonds remains a challenging task in organic synthesis. Here, a reaction design combining hydrogen atom transfer and copper catalysis is developed which allows enantioselective alkene difunctionalization using aliphatic C–H bond activation.
Chiral tetrahedral carbon atoms bearing functional groups amenable to functionalization offer numerous synthetic opportunities. Catalysed by copper pyridine-bis(oxazoline) complexes, the developed alkynylallylic substitution provides 3-substituted 1,4-enynes with excellent regio- and stereocontrol.
Inverse vulcanization uses high temperatures to form sulfur-rich polymers. Now, using a photoinduced method, polymerization occurs at ambient conditions enabling a broader selection of viable comonomers compared with existing routes, as well as eliminating the formation of toxic gas.
Atomically thin materials have exciting physicochemical properties but multi-element and non-layered 2D materials are difficult to prepare by conventional methods. Now, a flux-assisted method is reported, enabling the synthesis of such 2D materials by confining reaction space.
Nucleophiles are versatile reagents that can engage in a plethora of C–C and C–heteroatom bond-forming reactions. This Review examines their increasing role in transition metal-catalysed directed C–H functionalization, with a focus on synthetic approaches involving organometallic nucleophiles and X-based (X = N, O and S) coupling partners.
A method for the kinetic resolution of diverse planar chiral multisubstituted metallocenes through Rh-catalysed asymmetric C–H arylation of pre-functionalized metallocenes is developed. This general strategy allows for the synthesis of planar chiral 1,2- and 1,3-disubstituted metallocenes bearing a wide range of functional groups.
Chemical reagents readily oxidize alkyl amines at sites adjacent to nitrogen. Achieving selective oxidation at specified non-adjacent sites is much more challenging. A computation-guided process is introduced that enables rapid optimization of enzymes for site-selective hydroxylation of a variety of cyclic amines.
Coordination of a photoswitchable chiral phosphate ligand to an achiral manganese(iii)-salen complex yields a catalyst that can produce either enantiomer of an epoxide from a single alkene substrate. This enantiodivergent catalysis is governed by the transfer of the chirality of the phosphate ligand to the manganese(iii)-salen complex.
Methods for electrochemical recycling of microplastic waste to value-added products are extremely sought-after. Here, a tandem photoelectrochemical-bioelectrocatalytic approach converts microplastics to chemical fuels and uses the microplastics as an electron source for electrochemical transformations.
β-Hydride and β-heteroatom eliminations are competitive processes in many Pd-catalysed reactions but general strategies for controlling this selectivity have not been established. Now, a mechanistic study of Pd-alkyl complexes demonstrates that the choice of phosphine ligands and leaving groups controls selectivity.
Bifunctional catalysts containing metal and acid sites are used industrially in alkane hydroconversion. Now, the nanoscale spatial separation of the two active sites is shown to promote hydroisomerization and inspires design principles for this type of catalyst.
Using anion-binding interactions to tackle challenging polymerizations is an ambitious goal and in its infancy. Seleno-cyclodiphosph(v)azanes are demonstrated to exert anion-binding interactions to precisely control the equilibrium between a dormant covalent precursor and active cationic species under mild conditions, thus enabling living cationic polymerization.
The construction of seven-membered carbocycles through cycloaddition reactions represents a longstanding challenge in organic synthesis. A study now reports a copper-catalysed enantioselective (4 + 3) cycloaddition between 2-aminoallyl cations and dienol silyl ethers that affords structurally diverse cycloheptanoids with high stereoselectivities and shows broad substrate scope.
Heteroepitaxial growth of single-crystal films typically requires stringent matching of the specific lattice ordering with the underlying substrate. Now, amorphous MoTe2 thin films are shown to transform into wafer-scale 2D single-crystals through seeded growth on the surface of any arbitrary substrate.
Dual-atom catalysts show potential for complex reactions, but their controllable preparation is challenging. A method to transform a Ni nanoparticle into a Ni2N6 dual-atom structure on a carbon support yields a catalyst with precisely controlled atomic site distances, giving excellent performance for CO2 electroreduction.
