Nature Chemistry, Published online: 04 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01648-0Understanding how photoswitchable chiral dopants can control the helical pitch of host liquid crystals will aid the development of smart and adaptive soft materials. Now the molecular-level mechanisms that control the chirality transfer in chiral triptycene-containing...

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 04 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01592-zMalononitriles are widely used precursors for the synthesis of diverse enantioenriched nitrogen-containing molecules, but controlling the stereochemistry of their asymmetric transformations is challenging. Now, the desymmetric reduction of disubstituted malononitriles...

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 04 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01650-6Although molecular complexes can serve as well-defined model catalysts for CO2 electroreduction, few compounds reduce CO2 beyond two electrons. Now, hydrophobic molecular cobalt terpyridine complexes, containing perfluorinated alkyl side chains, have been shown to assemble...

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 03 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01636-4Adam Noble discusses the diverse uses of eosin Y over its 150-year history, from its origin as a dye and pigment used by post-impressionist masters to its versatile reactivity as a catalyst in visible light photochemistry.

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 01 October 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01639-1Determining the ligandability of the human proteome can provide key insights to characterize biological processes and promote drug discovery. Now, multi-tiered activity-based protein profiling provides comprehensive proteomic maps of chiral small-molecule interactions....

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 30 September 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01635-5The enzymatic conversion of NH4+ and NO2– to N2 catalysed by bacteria is critical to maintain nitrogen balance in the environment and for wastewater treatment. Now, a simple abiotic catalyst, the naturally occurring mineral, covellite, shows a remarkable mimicry for...