Reviews & Analysis

White phosphorus is a prominent source of P atoms but has remained difficult to activate without using transition metals. Now, a bidentate ligand based on silicon(ii) donors has successfully stabilized a P₂ moiety, and the resulting complex acts as a transfer reagent for P^– anions.

An approach to design artificial intrinsically disordered proteins using a short peptide as a repeating unit has been reported. This design enables the phase behaviour of the protein to be finely tuned inside cells and enabled the formation of phase-separated condensates that can modulate chemical reactions.

Tailor-made reverse transcriptases are used in molecular biology and synthetic genetics. However, re-engineering these enzymes to work with non-natural nucleic acids is difficult and requires powerful directed evolution strategies. Now, an adaptable selection approach has been demonstrated for the evolution of new reverse transcriptases.

Spin-1/2 kagome lattice antiferromagnets are geometrically frustrated materials poised to host yet-unobserved behaviours. Now, such a lattice has been prepared that shows no structural distortions and hosts its spin in the d_xy orbital of d¹ Ti³⁺ centres, rather than the more-widely investigated d⁹ Cu²⁺ ions.

It’s not known how life’s essential properties of replication, metabolism and compartmentalization were first integrated. Two recent articles now shed light on how metabolic characteristics may be incorporated into replicating systems, harnessing an external energy source to increase their rate of replication and acquiring catalytic activity.

The potential applications of smart photoswitchable porous materials are currently limited by incomplete switching. Now, efficient bulk switching has been achieved by embedding a photoisomerizable overcrowded alkene in a highly porous aromatic framework, creating a material capable of photomodulated gas uptake.

Is a nanoscale hydrophobic bowl wet or dry when dissolved in water? It turns out that the answer depends on the architecture of its rim. A molecular host decorated with four methyl groups around its rim pointing inward, rather than up, has now been shown to expel water from the bowl, making it dry and sticky.

Identifying chromatin modifications and their interactomes is imperative to understand how chromatin functions and is regulated. Now, two new studies report on chemical tools that enable characterization of the biological interactions within native chromatin.

Three versatile and mutually orthogonal tRNA/aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase pairs have been developed. Collectively, these pairs enable the site-specific incorporation of three different non-canonical amino acids into a protein that can still be terminated faithfully by a natural stop codon.

The direct conversion of lead compounds into potentially more potent derivatives, through selective functionalization, could help to speed up the discovery of drug candidates. Now, a method has been reported that enables the late-stage C–H methylation of complex drug-like molecules, using a sustainable cobalt-based catalyst.

The use of automation for chemical research and reaction discovery has seen significant advances in recent years, but there are still problems that need to be solved. Ella M. Gale and Derek J. Durand discuss limitations in the field and how researchers are working to address these issues.

Single-molecule magnets are able to store information through their magnetic anisotropy, making them very promising systems for memory applications. Now, femtosecond-laser-initiated molecular dynamics that modulate magnetic anisotropy have been observed, paving the way for operation on ultrafast timescales.

A series of mesoscale supramolecular hexagonal grids have been constructed in solution through stepwise intra- then intermolecular coordination-driven self-assembly, and characterized with atomic resolution by scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy.

A balance between order and disorder provides living materials with just the right amount of disorder needed to sustain life. This feature is currently not found in synthetic materials. Now, a route to the production of composite membranes that are simultaneously stiff and reconfigurable upon contact has been developed.

Cyclic polymers have a ring-like architecture and one of the most important consequences of this topology is the absence of any chain ends, which typically have a substantial impact on the physical properties of macromolecules. This Review Article discusses advances in the synthesis, purification and characterization of cyclic polymers and the potential applications they may prove useful for.

Hydrogels that can respond to multiple external stimuli are typically prepared as a single or interpenetrated polymer network material. Now, water-in-oil droplet networks have been used to precisely pattern different stimuli-responsive materials into well-ordered, continuous hydrogel structures.

A heterodinuclear MgCo catalyst has been shown to be highly active for the copolymerization of CO₂ and epoxides under low (atmospheric) CO₂ pressures. Its performance arises from the intramolecular synergy between the two metals, which adopt distinct roles and mediate each other’s reactivity during catalysis.

The widespread application of quinone methides — reactive intermediates in a variety of reactions — is limited by their tedious synthesis. Now, hypoiodite catalysis allows the efficient generation and use of these species in a plethora of tandem processes for the functionalization and synthesis of biologically active compounds.

Luminescent metal complexes play key roles in lighting, solar energy conversion, and photocatalysis. Now, a robust zirconium complex with spectacular photophysical properties has been synthesized that could inspire the design of fundamentally new types of photoactive coordination compounds.

Many current methods to prepare 2-hydroxybiaryls require the prefunctionalization of phenol groups or show limited substrate scope. Now, use of a pentavalent sulfone-bridged bismacycle, formed in situ by telescoped boron-to-bismuth transmetallation and oxidation, allows the direct and regioselective ortho-arylation of unprotected phenols.