Reviews & Analysis

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  • 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.

    Research Briefing
  • 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.

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

    • Marco Colella
    • Renzo Luisi
    News & Views
  • A nanodroplet sequential fusion strategy is presented that can be used to precisely synthesize branched silica nanotrees, creating complex and functional inorganic superstructures.

    • Hong-Bo Cui
    • Guijian Guan
    • Ming-Yong Han
    News & Views
  • 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.

    • Jan-Benedikt Weiß
    • Sebastian Henke
    News & Views
  • Triaryloxonium salts are used as aryne precursors under mild and operationally simple conditions, allowing high functional-group tolerance, and cycloaddition reactions are used to trap the arynes generated.

    • Joanna Wencel-Delord
    News & Views
  • Enantioselective synthesis of medium-sized rings by organocatalytic cycloadditions offers opportunities that are complementary to metal-catalysed cycloadditions. This Review discusses the ability of organocatalytic cycloadditions to synthesize stereodefined medium-sized ring architectures, critically evaluates current synthetic strategies, and highlights avenues for further development.

    • Jan Otevrel
    • Macarena Eugui
    • Karl Anker Jørgensen
    Review Article
  • A β-lactone compound — globilactone A — has been discovered through genome mining and heterologous expression of a biosynthetic gene cluster. Biosynthetic investigations unveiled the mechanism of the formation of the cyclopentane-β-lactone core.

    Research Briefing
  • A macroscale scaffolding strategy for building arches and curved surfaces is translated to the molecular level for the face-selective design of zeolitic metal–organic frameworks (ZMOFs).

    • Nathaniel L. Rosi
    • Prasenjit Das
    News & Views
  • Direct conversion of air to nitric acid occurs under ambient conditions using a cathodic hetero-homogeneous electrocatalysis strategy.

    • Tieliang Li
    • Yifu Yu
    News & Views
  • 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.

    Research Briefing
  • Catalytic enantioselective synthesis of all-carbon quaternary stereocentres is a long-term challenge in organic synthesis because of substantial steric repulsion and dissimilarities between the substituents around the stereocentre. This Review presents how the desymmetrization strategy plays an important role in constructing these types of motifs.

    • Pengwei Xu
    • Feng Zhou
    • Jian Zhou
    Review Article
  • Palladium-catalysed dicarbonylation using two different nucleophiles enables the selective synthesis of unsymmetrical diamides and amido esters in a single step.

    • José Zgheib
    • Bruce A. Arndtsen
    News & Views
  • A chemoenzymatic strategy is introduced whereby a glycan backbone is assembled enzymatically to give a core oligosaccharide that is subjected to chemical manipulations to install terminal epitopes. A library of oligosaccharides containing the human natural killer-1 epitope was synthesized, enabling evaluation of the binding specificities of serum antibodies of patients with anti-myelin-associated glycoprotein neuropathy.

    Research Briefing
  • Performing enantioselective photocatalytic reactions with visible light is a challenging task that has seen substantial advances with the development of new catalysts. Although many approaches utilize dual-catalytic systems in which the photocatalyst is separate from the chirality-inducing moiety, in this Review bifunctional photocatalysts that perform both roles are discussed.

    • Alessa B. Rolka
    • Burkhard König
    Review Article
  • Combined N-heterocyclic carbene and photoredox-catalysed strategies for the acylation of arenes offer regiocontrol that is complementary to Lewis-acid-mediated Friedel–Crafts approaches.

    • Runjiang Song
    • Shichao Ren
    • Yonggui Robin Chi
    News & Views
  • A kinetically controlled solution-phase synthesis produces nanoparticles of defined shape and multimetallic surface composition for catalytic applications.

    • Chansol Kim
    • Joel W. Ager
    News & Views
  • A hybrid carbon nanotube/molecular catalyst achieves highly selective electrochemical conversion of CO to methanol via mechanistic-guided optimizations.

    • Cyrille Costentin
    News & Views