Reviews & Analysis

The behaviour of di-selenol enzyme mimics indicates that a halogen bond between selenium and iodine, and a chalcogen interaction between the two selenium atoms, play an important role in the activation of thyroid hormones.

Previous approaches to the development of self-repairing polymeric materials have required either the input of external energy or the use of a healing agent. Now, a new type of elastomer, in which hard/soft phase-separation occurs at the nanoscale, displays efficient and entirely autonomic self-repair through reversible hydrogen bonding.

Supramolecular catalysts that combine an anionic chiral scaffold, a cationic coordinating structure and a metal centre have been shown to be highly effective for asymmetric synthesis. The success opens a new avenue for the design of new catalysts with a wide variety of chiral environments.

Proton conduction in both water and other hydrogen-bonded liquids occurs through successive proton transfers along the hydrogen-bond network. But first-principles simulations have revealed that the mechanism by which this occurs in orthophosphoric acid has some unusual features.

Thiolate-protected gold surfaces and interfaces are archetypal systems in various fields of current research in nanoscience, materials science, inorganic chemistry and surface science. Examples include self-assembled monolayers of organic molecules on gold, passivated gold nanoclusters and molecule–gold junctions. This Review discusses recent experimental and theoretical breakthroughs that highlight common features of gold-sulfur bonding in these systems.

Recent syntheses of the natural product 3-hydroxy-N-methylwelwitindolinone C isothiocyanate are taken as examples to answer an oft-raised question about the value of total synthesis.

A protein is modified to assemble with metal ions through judiciously designed coordination and dimerization sites. This elegantly controlled process arranges the protein into crystalline arrays — a useful form for exploring and exploiting protein properties.

A detailed magnetic, structural and luminescence characterization unveils that what may have looked like mere details have a significant influence on the magnetic properties of a dysprosium complex.

Recognizing that an analogy can be drawn between steric effects in drug discovery and asymmetric catalysis has led to a powerful technique that can explain and potentially predict the outcome of asymmetric reactions.

Obtaining detailed structural information about the interactions between amyloid-forming proteins and inhibitors can be extremely difficult. Two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy has now risen to this challenge to show the mapping of protein–protein contact sites in real time.

The cost, time and expertise needed for custom fabrication is a limiting factor when it comes to the development and production of new labware. With an increase in the popularity and accessibility of three-dimensional printing techniques, that may be about to change.

The first heavier main-group-14-element analogue of a ketone, which contains a three-coordinate germanium atom multiply bonded to oxygen, has been prepared and characterized.

Two-dimensional polymers can serve to organize chemical functionality periodically over large areas, but their rational synthesis has remained limited. Now, a free-standing, single-layer polymer sheet has been prepared and isolated through a two-step procedure — a photochemical reaction within a layered organic crystal followed by exfoliation.

Fluorescent labels can now be attached to a specific protein on the surface of live cells using a two-step method that reacts a norbornene — introduced using genetic encoding — with a variety of dyes.

The splitting of water molecules into protons and hydroxide ions, and their recombination, occurs by proton transfer along hydrogen-bond wires. Now, first principle simulations of the recombination reaction reveal new atomic-scale details of the process showing that compression of the wire plays an important role.

The technological relevance of zeolites, the desire to improve their efficiency and the inexhaustible synthetic options to tailor their properties have triggered a permanent evolution of this superclass of materials. Two zeolite nanosystems prepared by distinct approaches reflect this and offer hope for new applications.

A simple aldehyde has been shown to catalyse an intermolecular hydroamination, not by activating either reaction partner, but simply by bringing them into close proximity.

Transparent, metallic conducting thin films are key for applications such as flatpanel displays and solar cells, and heavily electron-doped ionic oxide materials have been intensively studied for this purpose. A class of conductors that are transparent in the near-infrared region has now been developed using a topological insulator.

Polymer vesicles have been constructed that entrap platinum nanoparticles in their outer surface. These serve to break down a fuel of hydrogen peroxide, generating water and oxygen and in turn inducing a propulsive effect.

Redox sites can be incorporated within dendrimers — highly branched, well-defined macromolecules — at specific locations, such as their core, branching points, periphery or inner cavities. These dendrimers can serve to functionalize surfaces, and electron-transfer processes at their redox sites show promise for various applications ranging from metallo-protein modelling to sensing to catalysis.