Enzymes use adaptive catalytic pocket to accelerate catalysis. Recently published in Nature Catalysis, Zhong and coworkers have translated this functionality into a MOF with a Cu-Ni active site in which the Cu-Ni distance changes to stabilize intermediates along the CO2 to CH4 pathway and give rise to exceptional catalytic selectivity.

The outer surfaces of mycobacteria, including the organism that causes tuberculosis, are decorated with an array of immunomodulatory glycans. Among these are lipooligosaccharides (LOS), a class of molecules for which the function remains poorly understood. We describe the chemical synthesis of the glycan portion of a tridecasaccharide LOS (2) from the opportunistic pathogen Mycobacterium kansasii.

Urea electrolysis is a prospective technology for simultaneous H2 production and nitrogen abatement toward water-energy nexus. Its sustainability is currently founded on the innocuous N2 products; however, herein, we discovered the prevalent nickel-based catalysts could generally over-oxidize urea into NO2- products with ~80% Faradaic efficiencies, posing potential secondary hazard to the environment

Described herein is an imidazole ring formation strategy for the synthesis of axially chiral N-arylbenzimidazoles by means of chiral phosphoric acid catalysis. Two sets of conditions were developed to transform two classes of 2-naphthylamine derivatives into structurally diverse N-arylbenzimidazole atropisomers with excellent chemo- and regioselectivity as well as high levels of enantiocontrol. It

The stepwise chemical reduction of molecular warped nanographene (WNG) having a negatively curved π -surface and defined C 80 H 30 composition with Cs metal used as the reducing and complexing agent allowed the isolation of three different reduced states with one, two, and three electrons added to its π -conjugated system. This provided a unique series of contorted nanosized carbanions with increasing

Nanozymes with intrinsic enzyme-like characteristics have attracted enormous research interest in biological application, due to their higher catalytic stability and activity than many natural enzymes. However, there is still a lack of facile approach for real-time evaluating the catalytic activity of nanozymes in living system, which limits their application in precise treatment of disease. Herein

The stereochemistry of polymers has a profound impact on their mechanical properties. While this has been observed in thermoplastics, studies on how stereochemistry affects the bulk properties of swollen networks, such as hydrogels, are limited. Typically, changing the stiffness of a hydrogel is achieved at the cost of changing another parameter, that in turn affects the physical properties of the

Aqueous Zn-ion batteries (ZIBs) are regarded as alternatives to Li-ion batteries benefiting from both improved safety and environmental impact in addition to being easy to manufacture at scale. The widespread application of ZIBs, however, is compromised by the lack of high-performance cathodes. Currently, only the intercalation mechanism is widely reported in aqueous ZIBs, which significantly limits

Electrosynthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in the acidic environment could largely prevent its decomposition to water, but efficient catalysts that constitute entirely earth-abundant elements are lacking. Here we report the experimental demonstration of narrowing the interlayer gap of metallic cobalt diselenide (CoSe2), which creates high-performance catalyst to selectively drive two-electron oxygen

As a CRISPR-Cas system (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats and CRISPR associated proteins), Cas14a1 can cis / trans cleave single-stranded DNA (ssDNA). Here, we discover an un-reported capacity of Cas14a1, RNA can trigger the trans ssDNA cleavage. This Cas14a1-based RNA-activated detection platform ( A mplification, T ranscription, C as 14a1-based RNA -activated trans ssDNA cleavage

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.

Nanoparticles that bristle with dozens of copies of a SARS-CoV-2 protein segment could protect against a wide variety of coronaviruses.

Hear the biggest stories from the world of science | 22 September 2021

Correction for ‘Suppressing carboxylate nucleophilicity with inorganic salts enables selective electrocarboxylation without sacrificial anodes’ by Nathan Corbin et al., Chem. Sci., 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D1SC02413B.