Heteroatom insertions into chemically inert carbon–carbon single bonds are rare compared to their unsaturated analogues. Now, ligand-to-metal charge transfer offers a promising entry point for oxygen ...

Radical chain initiation strategies are fundamental to the synthesis of small molecule drugs and macromolecular materials. Here a general, thermally driven and scalable method for reductive initiation...

Palladium–olefin catalysis is utilized to overcome the ‘ortho constraint’ in the Catellani reaction of para-substituted iodoarenes. Using a methyl-modified thio-cycloolefin ligand, this method enables...

Covalently tethered borane–oxyanion organocatalysts enable highly efficient ring-opening copolymerization of epoxides and cyclic anhydrides via intramolecular cooperation, achieving turnover frequenci...

Direct regioselective C-3 halogenation of pyridines is achieved using ether solvents, and interactions between the pyridine substrate, ether solvent and haleniums play a dominant role in the reactivit...

Vapour-phase methods are promising for nanomaterial synthesis but the vaporization of different precursors for the synthesis of a broad nanomaterial space is challenging. Here electrified vapour depos...

Planar oxygen-doped carbon quantum rings (OD-CQRs) are prepared through one-pot solid-state reactions. The synthesized OD-CQRs exhibit a fluorescence peak centre at 393 nm, a full-width at half-maximu...

A [2]catenane comprising two intertwined aromatic (34π) octaphyrinoid rings with entangled magnetic shielding interactions is synthesized. Upon four-electron oxidation, the system converts to a tetrac...

Inspired by nature’s spatially organized catalytic systems, multiscale confinement emerges as a powerful strategy for programmable biocatalysis. This Review highlights recent advances in designing art...

A radical-mediated dynamic remedial strategy based on bio-inspired disulfide metathesis has been developed to construct metal–organic frameworks with crystalline dynamicity. The disulfide exchange-bas...

The low natural abundance of heavy water makes high-purity extraction challenging. Here, a porous molecularly woven fabric is constructed that features adaptive pores enabling the efficient dynamic se...

Living supramolecular polymerization (LSP) is a promising strategy to construct well-defined supramolecular nanostructures but precise control over polymerization remains challenging. Here, a cation−π...

A chiral mesostructured copper-doped In2S3 photocatalyst is reported for photocatalytic CO2 reduction to ethanol. Chirality-induced spin polarization stabilizes key intermediates, which are converted ...

Helical polythiophene and polypyrrole are synthesized using a chiral iron-based metal–organic framework template. Single-handed helices are formed within the framework’s narrow channels, enhancing the...

A network is developed that immobilizes perovskite colloids during printing. This enables uniform deposition of high-quality films, resulting in flexible solar cells that offer power conversion effici...

Rotenoids are natural insecticides from Fabaceae plants. Here the complete biosynthetic pathway to make rotenoids is elucidated in Amorpha fruticosa and Tephrosia vogelii, revealing a unique Fe(II)-de...

Selective C–H amination of electronically diverse (hetero)arene substrates is reported using an electrochemical strategy. Two convergent mechanistic pathways enable the tolerance of both electron-rich...

Pyrrole and 2-pyrrolone derivatives are often prepared using transition metal catalysis. Now, a metal-free strategy is reported whereby alkynyl O-silylimidates or alkynyl aldimines react with electrop...

Model thiophene-decorated nickel porphyrins are synthesized to examine how sulfur promotes CO2-to-CO conversion and tandem CO2-to-C2 product conversion in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. Combined theoretical and experimental analyses show that thiophene substituents generate a ligand hole character that modulates the nickel-centred electronic structure, enhancing overall catalytic performance.

Nature Synthesis - Palladium makes agostic C–H bonds more acidic

Photo-electrocatalysis under alternating polarity allows enantioselective redox-neutral cross-coupling through β-scission of alcohols to afford optically pure chiral α-arylated amines.

Thianthrene, long used in materials science, has recently emerged as a powerful reagent in organic synthesis. Its unique electronic structure enables access to diverse aryl, alkenyl and alkyl thianthrenium salts, which exhibit reactivity beyond conventional (pseudo)halides. This Review highlights the fundamental properties, distinctive reactivity and synthetic applications of these thianthrenium salts.

Molecular engineering has increased the power conversion efficiency of inverted perovskite solar cells (PSCs), surpassing that of regular PSCs. Here, the symmetric molecule (2-(pyren-2-yl)ethyl)phosphonic acid (pPy) enables long-range-ordered π–π stacking, enhancing charge transport. pPy films show face-on orientation and uniform distribution, yielding PSCs with power conversion efficiencies of 26.6%.

An alternating current paired photo-electrocatalysis approach, integrating electrochemistry, ligand-to-metal charge transfer photocatalysis and asymmetric nickel catalysis, enables enantioselective C(sp3)–C(sp2) cross-coupling of alcohols. This approach has high catalytic efficiency and stability, achieving up to 99% enantiomeric excess with broad substrate compatibility, and is suitable for late-stage functionalization of complex molecules.