Nature Chemistry, Published online: 25 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01591-0 Singlet fission produces two molecular excitations from one photon and has the potential to boost solar cell efficiencies. Now it has been shown that magnetic fields can reveal the spectral signatures of the multi-excitonic intermediates in this process ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 25 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01583-0 The ligand–nanoparticle interface helps to control nanoparticle synthesis and functional properties, but determining its structure and dynamics is challenging owing to the lack of high-resolution direct imaging methods. Now, liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy has uncovered the micellar packing and surface adsorption dynamics of a surfactant ligand on gold nanorods ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 24 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01581-2 Hydroxyl radicals (·OH) are important reactive oxygen species in environmental chemistry. The most efficient way to generate them is through a single-electron water-oxidation step, but this light-driven process is inefficient over inorganic semiconductor materials. Now, a judiciously designed polymeric carbon nitride has demonstrated high photocatalytic efficiency ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 24 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01588-9 Hydrogenation catalysis is commonly associated with (noble) transition metals that undergo oxidative addition of H2 and subsequently transfer hydrogen atoms to unsaturated substrates. Now, a geometrically constrained phosphenium cation can facilitate both of these challenging transformations ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01562-5 Although natural terpenoid cyclases generate polycyclic structures through cationic intermediates, alternative radical cyclization pathways are underexplored. Now an artificial radical cyclase has been prepared by anchoring a biotinylated cobalt Schiff-base complex within a chimeric streptavidin scaffold. Chemogenetic optimization of the catalytic performance affords enantioenriched terpenoids via a metal-catalysed H-atom transfer mechanism ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01576-z Lysine ubiquitination, catalysed by E3 ubiquitin ligases, is pivotal for regulating protein stability and cell signalling. Using protein semisynthesis, the roles of the C-terminal carboxylate and conformational interconversion in HECT-domain E3 catalysis are now characterized, revealing evolutionary plasticity in side chain versus backbone utilization ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01590-1 Molecular geometry can influence chemical reactivity through several opposing effects. By selecting individual conformers of hydroquinone in the chemi-ionization reaction with metastable neon, it is now shown that reaction pathways can be governed by molecular alignment due to geometry-dependent forces that are, however, countered by molecular rotation ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 18 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01580-3 Weaving purely organic molecular threads into two-dimensional patterns remains a formidable challenge. Now, driven by the formation of dative B–N bonds, a purely organic, two-dimensional and flawless woven polymer network has been prepared. In addition, free-standing monolayers of woven polymer nanosheets have been obtained through mechanical exfoliation ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 16 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01570-5 Selection mechanisms were critical at the emergence of life and will also be important for the synthesis of life. Now, it has been shown that template-based copying controls the selection of unstable molecules in a chemically fuelled dynamic combinatorial library. Moreover, when encapsulated inside coacervate droplets, these mechanisms change the coacervate’s physical properties ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 15 July 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01584-z Most lipid nanoparticles are structurally simplistic, existing as single-compartment assemblies. Now, a microfluidic technology to create liposomes-in-liposomes—with full control over particle features, such as the composition of each membrane, the intermembrane distance and payload of each compartment—has been developed. These particles are exploited for multi-stage release and in situ enzymatic synthesis within the particle’s attolitre volume ..read more