Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01468-6Shifting both ways on ceria

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01469-5Shining light using the dark

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01467-7Deracemization by recombination

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01458-8Energy transfer photocatalysis typically requires expensive metal complexes or specific synthetic photosensitizers with particular triplet energies. Nitroarenes now emerge as powerful, sustainable alternatives, with their catalytic efficiency governed by excited-state geometry rather than only by energy matching, enabling efficient alkene isomerizations and cycloadditions.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01459-7Direct conversion of carboxylic acids to nitriles is desirable but thermodynamically uphill. Here, a bioinspired process utilizes magnesium and palladium co-catalysts and urea as a nitrogen source.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01455-xElectrocatalytic CO2 reduction on Cu is typically studied at room temperature and pressure, producing mostly C1 and C2 products (short carbon chains). High-temperature experiments above 125 °C now reveal a carbon-chain growth mechanism akin to the thermally driven Fischer–Tropsch reaction, resulting in the production of C1–C5 hydrocarbons.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01460-0Deuterated compounds find applications in a variety of fields including catalysis optimization, mass spectrometry standards, pharmaceutical development and organic light emitting diodes. A recent study indicates that the choice of deuterium source significantly affects both the outcomes and mechanistic pathways in catalytic cycles.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 22 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01461-zElectrocatalysts enable the efficient interconversion of electrical and chemical energy for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals. Here we highlight the importance of developing electrochemical adsorption isotherms to demystify complex reaction mechanisms and rationalize catalytic activity.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 18 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01454-ySelective oxidation of biomass-derived precursors has been reported but requires elevated temperatures and pressures of O2 and strongly alkaline conditions. This study develops an antenna–reactor plasmonic photocatalyst (RuPt on TiN) for the selective conversion of HMF to FDCA using near-infrared irradiation in the absence of base.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 17 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01453-zPhotoexcited nitroarenes are traditionally consumed as reactive intermediates in transformations. Now, it is shown that simple and cheap nitroarenes can be used as energy transfer photocatalysts in reactions such as E-to-Z alkene isomerization and [2 + 2] intramolecular cycloadditions.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 12 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01451-1Electrocatalytic CO2 reduction is typically studied at laboratory scale under ambient conditions; however, temperature and pressure may have a profound impact on the mechanism of this reaction and on its relevance to industrial applications. This study uses a custom temperature- and pressure-adjustable cell to reveal a chain growth mechanism emerging on copper electrodes at elevated temperatures and pressures.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 05 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01452-0Catalytic asymmetric all-carbon-based inverse-electron-demand Diels–Alder reactions are challenging. Now, transition metal catalysts enable formal inverse-electron-demand [4+2] cycloaddition reactions of Morita–Baylis–Hillman carbonates with 1,3-unsaturated compounds to afford chiral cyclohexene derivatives.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 01 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01450-2Cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) allows the efficient construction of C−C and C−heteroatom bonds. Now, single-platinum-atom-decorated graphitic carbon nitride is applied as a heterogeneous photocatalyst for CDC reactions between (hetero)arenes and nucleophiles without external oxidants.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 25 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01447-xDirected hydrogen exchange is one of the main strategies for accessing isotopically labelled organic scaffolds, but the rationale for deuterium source selection has not been fully explored yet. Now the authors reveal the influence of the deuterium source in base-assisted site-selective C–H deuteration reactions across substrates in cobalt catalysis.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01444-0Bioactive piperidines are among the most common motifs in pharmaceuticals, yet accessing their chiral, highly substituted forms remains challenging. Now, a copper-catalysed reaction of amino-acid-derived cyclopropanols with aldehydes unites catalyst design with the natural chirality of reagents to access a broad family of stereodefined cis-2,6-disubstituted piperidines, expanding opportunities in drug discovery and natural product synthesis.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01442-2The rational design of electrocatalysts for hydrogen-involving transformations requires a detailed understanding of surface metal-hydrogen intermediates at the single-site level. Now, single-molecule fluorescence microscopy enables the direct visualization of these intermediates and reveals inter- and intra-particle heterogeneity during the hydrogen evolution reaction on Pd nanocubes.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 21 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01443-1Engineering protein catalysts represents an attractive approach for enantioselective energy-transfer photochemistry. By combining a genetically encoded photosensitizer in the protein catalyst and a judiciously selected triplet quencher to suppress the racemic background reaction in the solution, photobiocatalytic [2+2] cycloaddition offers improved enantiocontrol in a triplet sensitization catalysis.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 20 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01431-5This Review covers the recent advances in the field of hydrogen atom transfer catalysis mediated by photoexcited transition metals without the use of external photosensitizers.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 18 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01446-yThere is growing interest in the direct conversion of carboxylic acids into nitriles. Now the authors report a mild Mg- and Pd-cocatalysed method compatible with multiple functional groups, using urea as the nitrogen source.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 18 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01449-9The notion that catalysts are static entities that barely change under operation is still prevalent although it is often not true. Here, a range of operando and in situ techniques reveals the dynamic nature of Co3O4 during the oxidation of 2-propanol to acetone, unveiling a network of interconnected solid-state processes, such as exsolution, diffusion or void formation, that govern the catalytic performance.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 18 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01445-zThe T4 td-PIE system is a promising platform for circular RNA synthesis, but the dynamic mechanism of the T4 td group I intron during circularization remains unclear. Now, cryo-EM structures of both the linear and circular forms of the T4 td intron are solved, revealing key conformational shifts essential for RNA circularization.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 07 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01440-4Thermodynamically disfavoured substituted cyclohexane compounds often display superior physical and bioactive properties to their isomeric counterparts. Now their synthesis is achieved by Ni-catalysed coupling of substituted methylenecyclohexanes with electrophiles under kinetic control.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 05 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01430-6The rise of artificial intelligence together with advances in robotics is leading a surge of interest in self-driving laboratories. This Perspective discusses self-driving laboratories for catalysis while arguing that, to achieve their full potential, human oversight is required.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 03 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01435-1Radical repositioning to activate remote bonds is underdeveloped in synthetic biocatalysis. Now a photobiocatalytic system couples light-driven single-electron transfer and the relocation of unpaired electrons to activate remote C–C and C–H bonds for enzymatically controlled enantioselective acylation.

Nature Catalysis, Published online: 03 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s41929-025-01436-0The creation of artificial metalloenzymes compatible with complex biological settings could enable broad applications. Now a de novo-designed artificial metalloenzyme containing an abiological ruthenium cofactor is reported and optimized for ring-closing metathesis in the cytoplasm of whole cells.