Methane oxidation to methanol over copper-containing zeolite

Direct oxidation of methane to methanol is a highly attractive route for upgrading methane into valued-added product. In June’s issue of Chem, Landong Li and colleagues reported a state-of-art Cu/CHA catalyst, which exhibited outstanding methanol space-time yield of 543 mmol/molCu/h with selectivity up to 91%.

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Myths of high-throughput experimentation and automation in chemistry

High-throughput experimentation (HTE) can be a powerful tool in chemical research, and the large datasets it generates could play a role in applying machine-learning methods to chemical predictions. But high-throughput experimentation can sometimes be viewed as inaccessible to the academic chemist. This Voices, in conjunction with our recent panel (https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/16651/499811),...

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The legacy of Ei-ichi Negishi: Eternal optimism and excellence

Ei-ichi Negishi will remain known for pioneering and promoting the development of transition-metal catalyzed reactions in organic synthesis as well as fostering excellence and critical thinking among his collaborators. During his lifetime, with his wife Sumire by his side, he conquered many continents: in the chemical world, his name is associated with...

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Visualization of the intermediates in organic catalytic reaction by single-molecule electrical spectroscopy

The capture and characterization of highly reactive and short-lived intermediates in organic catalytic reactions are challenging yet are very important for mechanism elucidation. Recently in Matter, Guo and co-workers employed single-molecule electrical spectroscopy (SMES) to detect the key intermediate and analyze the mechanism of N-heterocyclic carbene...

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In this issue

In This Issue highlights the most exciting articles of the current issue with short editorial pieces written by the corresponding handling editors.

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Radial hexadehydro-Diels-Alder reactions

Polycyclic, highly fused/conjugated aromatic organic compounds (PACs) have intrigued chemists since the discovery of naphthalene in 1821. Given the unabated interest in such molecules, the development of new methods and strategies for the practical synthesis of PACs having new structural motifs is important. Here, we describe one-pot, purely thermal...

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Communicating through hydrogen bonds

The design of molecular-level communication tools engages the field of nanobiotechnology. In this issue of Chem, Clayden and co-workers report a novel mechanism of spatial molecular communication through a single strand of hydrogen-bonded oligomers. These “minimalistic” polarity switches distinguish themselves from conventional strategies by not employing...

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Revealing phase evolution mechanism for stabilizing formamidinium-based lead halide perovskites by a key intermediate phase

Molecular-level understanding of the phase stabilization mechanism of formamidinium lead halide (FAPbX3) perovskites is critical to realizing highly efficient and stable perovskite solar cells. In this work, a key phase transition intermediate single crystal (8H phase) with unique structure was isolated and identified, which provides the complete phase...

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Dynamic multiligand catalysis: A polar to radical crossover strategy expands alkyne carboboration to unactivated secondary alkyl halides

This report describes a dynamic multiligand approach that enables cooperative closed/open-shell pathways. This strategy has been applied to solve restricting limitations in Cu-catalyzed carboboration of alkynes, opening chemical space to unactivated secondary alkyl halides in the formation of richly substituted, stereodefined tetrasubstituted vinylboronates....

Aug 2021

Dynamic enzymatic synthesis of γ-cyclodextrin using a photoremovable hydrazone template

A photoremovable hydrazone template is used to control the dynamic enzymatic synthesis of cyclodextrins (CDs). Because of the higher binding affinity of γ-CD (compared with α-CD and β-CD) for the Z form of the template, it is produced preferentially, leading to a 6-fold increase in yield. The low affinity of the E isomer of the template for γ-CD allows...

Aug 2021