Volume 3 Issue 2, February 2024

Francesca Paradisi, Professor of Sustainable Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Bern, talks to Nature Synthesis about the reactivity of biocatalysts in flow.

Anna Slater, Professor of Chemistry and Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool, talks to Nature Synthesis about developing supramolecular and materials synthesis in flow chemistry.

Gabriela Oksdath-Mansilla, an INFIQC-CONICET researcher and Professor of Chemistry in the Facultad de Ciencias Químicas at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, talks to Nature Synthesis about performing photochemistry in flow.

David Ford, Senior Director of Chemistry at Snapdragon Chemistry, talks to Nature Synthesis about using flow chemistry in process development and reaction scale-up.

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

Regio- and stereoselective boryllithiation and borylsodiation of alkynes in a flow microreactor yields functionalized borylated alkenes.

Palladium-catalysed dicarbonylation using two different nucleophiles enables the selective synthesis of unsymmetrical diamides and amido esters in a single step.

By removing water from crystalline molecular complexes, microporous metal–organic framework glasses are formed. The glasses can be obtained in monolithic shapes by melt-quenching.

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

A nanodroplet sequential fusion strategy is presented that can be used to precisely synthesize branched silica nanotrees, creating complex and functional inorganic superstructures.

Design principles are established for the colloidal synthesis of core–shell nanoparticles, which serve as precursors for the general and predictable synthesis of high-entropy alloy nanoparticles as monodisperse samples.

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.

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.

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.

High-entropy alloys (HEAs) have interesting properties, but the synthesis of uniform HEAs is challenging. Here design principles are established for the synthesis of core–shell nanoparticles, which can be thermally annealed to produce uniform HEA nanoparticles in a predictable manner.

The use of gaseous sulfuryl fluoride in sulfur(VI) fluoride exchange reactions is a challenge. Now, a flow set-up for the on-demand generation and onward reaction of sulfuryl fluoride, from sulfuryl chloride, is reported. The process produces fluorosulfate and sulfamoyl fluoride analogues of small molecules, peptides and proteins.

A flow microreactor-enabled method is reported for the stereo- and regioselective synthesis of multisubstituted alkenes by reductive syn-boryllithiation and syn-borylsodiation of arylacetylenes. Reaction of the alkyne substrate with a naphthalenide reductant and a boron electrophile generates a syn-β-borylalkenyl alkali metal intermediate, which can react with a range of electrophiles.

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.

In this approach, metal–organic framework (MOF) glasses are synthesized by the desolvation of mononuclear metal complexes. The MOF glasses are composed of transition metals and either carboxylate, pyridyl or azolate ligands. Their porous structures and formation of monoliths are regulated in this process.

The chemical synthesis of jasmonates is typically low yielding and can be laborious, whereas their extraction can be costly or environmentally hazardous. Now a de novo biosynthesis of jasmonic acid and its derivatives, methyl jasmonate and jasmonoyl isoleucine, is reported, using an engineered baker’s yeast.

Mathematical functions can be found throughout nature and have importance for studying the assembly of single particles into branched superstructures. Here, Wedderburn–Etherington number patterns are produced in branched mesoporous silica nanotrees.

Arabinogalactan RN1 displays potent anti-pancreatic-cancer activity; however, the structure–activity relationship of RN1 is unclear. Now the synthesis of RN1 and a library of glycans are reported, using an iterative preactivation-based one-pot glycosylation strategy. Biological analysis reveals that a decasaccharide is the active structural domain of RN1.

Biocatalytic strategies typically transform only one alkene isomer into products, limiting the yield. Now a biocatalyst is reported to convert both isomeric silyl enol ethers into chiral α-branched ketones with high efficiency and excellent selectivity.

Synthesizing phase-pure, higher-quantum-well thickness (n) 2D halide perovskites is challenging. Now, a general method, termed kinetically controlled space confinement, to synthesize 2D perovskites is reported. Transformation from low n-values to high n-values is achieved by tuning the temperature or time of crystallization.