Nature Chemistry, Published online: 23 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01509-w Advances in the development of cytoskeletal-like materials with modular structures and mechanics are pivotal for the engineering of synthetic cells. Now actin-mimetic supramolecular peptide networks have been designed using programmable peptide–DNA crosslinkers, giving rise to tunable tactoid-shaped bundles and mechanical properties that control spatial localization, the diffusion of payloads and shape changes within artificial cells ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 22 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01510-3 Knots reduce the tensile strength of macroscopic threads and fibres. Now it has been shown that the presence of a well-defined overhand knot in a polymer chain can substantially increase the rate of scission of the polymer under tension, as deformation of the polymer backbone induced by the tightening knot activates otherwise unreactive covalent bonds ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01480-6 Although metal-free catalysts, featuring defined active sites, represent alternatives to scarce or problematic metals, metal-free compounds rarely show activities as promising as metal-based materials. Now deprotonated 2-thiolimidazole is shown to serve as a metal-free electrocatalyst for selective acetylene hydrogenation and achieves competitive performances with metal-based catalysts ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01513-0 Understanding the ways by which metal-containing catalysts carry out a reaction is a chemical puzzle. Now, investigations of a multi-metallic molecular system uncover how the self-assembly of molecular catalysts facilitates cooperation between active species and improves the conversion of water to hydrogen gas ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 19 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01515-y Chlorine-containing waste streams pose potential risks to human health and the environment, so their remediation represents a significant challenge. Now, chlorinated wastes have been successfully repurposed as chlorinating reagents for use in the preparation of organic chemicals and pharmaceutical ingredients ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 18 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01518-9 Natural protein folding takes place in aqueous cell environments. Now, it has been found that proteins in a water-free environment undergo faster and more efficient folding ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 17 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01494-0 Despite their intriguing photochemical activities, natural photoenzymes have not yet been repurposed for new-to-nature activities. Now, by leveraging the strongly oxidizing excited-state flavoquinone cofactor, fatty acid photodecarboxylases were engineered to catalyse unnatural decarboxylative radical cyclization with excellent chemo-, enantio- and diastereoselectivities ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 17 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01504-1 Enantioconvergent reactions convert both enantiomers of a racemic starting material into a single enantioenriched product. All currently known enantioconvergent processes necessitate the loss or partial loss of the racemic substrate’s stereochemical information. Now, an alternative approach has been developed that proceeds with full retention of the racemic substrate’s configuration ..read more

Nature Chemistry, Published online: 17 April 2024; doi:10.1038/s41557-024-01512-1 Phenols and their derivatives are ubiquitous in nature and important within the chemical industry. Their properties are linked to their substitution patterns, but meta-isomers are underrepresented due to the difficulty of their synthesis. Now we address this challenge by describing a 1,2-transposition of phenols that enables a formal para- to meta-isomerization ..read more

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