Nature Chemistry, Published online: 30 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01131-8 X-ray diffraction is crucial for the phase elucidation of polycrystalline materials but remains challenging for complex multiphase systems. Now serial rotation electron diffraction has been shown to enable rapid, reliable and semiquantitative phase analysis of such systems, facilitating high-throughput screening of complex synthesis systems and providing new opportunities for materials development ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 30 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01123-8 2+2-cycloaddition reactions have long been considered key transformations in the biosynthesis of cyclobutane-containing natural products, but enzymes for these reactions have not yet been identified. Now, a 2+2 cyclase has been discovered, characterized and bioengineered to catalyse cycloadditions with different selectivity ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 30 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01132-7 Methane hydrate clogs pipelines, is difficult to extract profitably, and exists in quantities sufficient to screw up Earth’s climate. Brett Thornton and Christian Stranne consider this confounding cage compound ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 26 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01124-7 Current strategies for photoinduced olefin metathesis lack wavelength tunability. Now, plasmonic nanoparticles have been used to activate latent ruthenium catalysts, enabling light-induced olefin metathesis in the infrared range with several advantages when compared with conventional heating. Implementing this approach in ring-opening metathesis polymerization resulted in photoresponsive polymer–nanoparticle composites with enhanced mechanical properties ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 26 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01121-w Neutral homoaromatic hydrocarbons—which possess an interrupted π-system yet display aromatic properties owing to through-space or through-bond interactions—have remained rare as they are typically unstable. Now a class of stable neutral homoaromatic homoannulenes has been synthesized, including one that acts as a photoswitch through a reversible [1, 11] sigmatropic rearrangement ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 26 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01130-9 Interlocking macrocyclic carbon nanomaterials is an exciting way to tune their molecular properties, but all-conjugated catenanes and rotaxanes are extremely challenging to make. Now, fully π-conjugated [2]- and [3]catenanes as well as a [3]rotaxane have been prepared through an ‘active metal template’ approach ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 26 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01125-6 Amilra Prasanna (AP) de Silva talks to Nature Chemistry about his path in chemistry, from photochemistry to sodium sensors to logic gates, through connections between people and between two places that share more than it may seem, Sri Lanka and Northern Ireland ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 26 January 2023; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01122-9 The selective removal of one oxygen atom from sulfones, without over-reduction to sulfide, is a challenging task. Now, through organocatalysis and incorporation of a cyano group into the sulfone, an asymmetric deoxygenation strategy has been developed, providing an efficient method for the synthesis of chiral sulfinyl compounds ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 12 September 2022; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-01036-6 Noyori-type hydrogenation catalysts consist of an N–H moiety coordinated to a metal centre. Now, a metal-hydride amidate complex (HMn–NLi) has been isolated and found to have superior reactivity and catalytic performance compared with the corresponding HMn–NH complex, highlighting the superiority of M/NM′ bifunctional catalysis over the classic M/NH bifunctional catalysis for hydrogenation reactions ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 20 June 2022; doi:10.1038/s41557-022-00945-w Cytoskeletons are essential components of cells that perform a variety of tasks, and artificial cytoskeletons that perform these functions are required for the bottom-up assembly of synthetic cells. Now, a multi-functional cytoskeleton mimic has been engineered from DNA, consisting of confined DNA filaments that are capable of reversible self-assembly and transport of gold nanoparticles and vesicular cargo ..read more