Chemical synthesis articles within Nature

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  • Article |

    The introduction of chemical short-range disorder substantially affects the crystal structure of layered lithium oxide cathodes, leading to improved charge transfer and structural stability.

    • Qidi Wang
    • , Zhenpeng Yao
    •  & Chenglong Zhao

  • Article |

    Rhodium catalysts confined in zeolite pores exhibit high regioselectivity in the hydroformylation process of propene to high-value n-butanal, surpassing the performance of all heterogeneous and most homogeneous catalysts developed so far.

    • Xiangjie Zhang
    • , Tao Yan
    •  & Zhi Cao

  • News & Views |

    The idea that three different free radicals could be used together to carry out specific steps in a chemical reaction has long been implausible. A ‘radical sorting’ strategy now achieves this feat to make organic molecules.

    • Kenneth F. Clark
    •  & John A. Murphy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We introduce a method for the direct 1,3-difunctionalization of alkenes, based on a concept termed ‘charge relocation’, which enables stereodivergent access to 1,3-difunctionalized products of either syn- or anti-configuration from unactivated alkenes.

    • Bogdan R. Brutiu
    • , Giulia Iannelli
    •  & Nuno Maulide

  • Article
    | Open Access

    We describe an imidodiphosphorimidate-catalysed asymmetric Wagner–Meerwein shift of aliphatic alkenyl cycloalkanes to cycloalkenes with excellent regio- and enantioselectivity.

    • Vijay N. Wakchaure
    • , William DeSnoo
    •  & Benjamin List

  • Article |

    Enzyme-bound ketyl radicals derived from thiamine diphosphate are selectively generated through single-electron oxidation by a photoexcited organic dye and shown to lead to enantioselective radical acylation reactions.

    • Yuanyuan Xu
    • , Hongwei Chen
    •  & Xiaoqiang Huang

  • News & Views |

    Scientists are tantalized by the many forms that carbon could adopt — some of which are predicted to have extraordinary properties. The synthesis of three new all-carbon molecules is therefore a source of excitement.

    • Przemysław Gaweł
    •  & Cina Foroutan-Nejad

  • Article |

    Computers equipped with a comprehensive knowledge-base of mechanistic steps augmented by physical-organic chemistry rules, as well as quantum mechanical and kinetic calculations, can use a reaction-network approach to analyse the mechanisms of cationic rearrangements.

    • Tomasz Klucznik
    • , Leonidas-Dimitrios Syntrivanis
    •  & Bartosz A. Grzybowski

  • News & Views |

    An unconventional route for modifying pharmaceutically relevant molecules swaps an atom of carbon for one of nitrogen. The resulting derivatives might open up avenues of research in medicinal-chemistry campaigns.

    • Filippo Ficarra
    •  & Mattia Silvi

  • Article |

    We report a radical-based Ni/Ag-electrocatalytic cross-coupling of substituted carboxylic acids, enabling an approach to accessing complex molecular architectures, which relies on a silver additive that forms an active Ag nanoparticle-coated electrode surface along with carefully chosen ligands.

    • Benxiang Zhang
    • , Jiayan He
    •  & Phil S. Baran

  • Research Briefing |

    The natural toxins portimine A and B have attracted interest for their unusual chemical architecture and potent anti-cancer activity. The first total synthesis of portimines enables the identification of portimine A’s molecular target and reveals that the toxin induces programmed cell death in human cancer cells.

  • Research Briefing |

    Sandwich compounds are molecules in which two planar molecular rings sandwich a metal ion ‘filling’ between them. The chemistry of these compounds has been extended by the assembly of nano-rings from 18 identical sandwich-type building blocks.

  • News & Views |

    Energy released from molecules under strain can promote difficult chemical reactions. A practical method has been developed that uses an overlooked, highly strained compound to rapidly construct complex organic products.

    • Fahima I. M. Idiris
    •  & Christopher R. Jones

  • Research Briefing |

    The synthesis of high-entropy alloy nanoparticles (HEA-NPs) — small particles each containing multiple principal metal elements — typically requires extreme conditions to ensure adequate mixing of constituents. Innovative experiments show that the liquid metal can act as a mixing reservoir to facilitate the synthesis of a diverse range of such nanoparticles in mild conditions.

  • Research Briefing |

    A minimal but general method has been developed for catalysing many different cross-coupling reactions — those in which two chemical fragments are joined. It requires only the two substrate substances, a nickel salt as a catalyst precursor, a catalyst for light-driven redox reactions and, in some cases, a nitrogen-containing base.

  • Article |

    A self-adjustive catalytic system with nickel under visible-light-driven redox reaction conditions provides a general method for carbon–(hetero)atom cross-coupling reactions and is demonstrated for nine different bond-forming reactions.

    • Indrajit Ghosh
    • , Nikita Shlapakov
    •  & Burkhard König

  • Article |

    Quinuclidine-pyridone and sulfonamide-pyridone ligands enable transannular γ-methylene C–H arylation of cycloalkane carboxylic acids with a range of ring sizes, bringing us closer to molecular editing of saturated carbocycles.

    • Guowei Kang
    • , Daniel A. Strassfeld
    •  & Jin-Quan Yu

  • Article |

    The strained C6H6 isomer 1,2,3-cyclohexatriene and its derivatives participate in a host of reaction modes which demonstrate their potential for selective chemical transformations and provide an unconventional entryway to complex scaffolds.

    • Andrew V. Kelleghan
    • , Ana S. Bulger
    •  & Neil K. Garg

  • Article |

    The enantioconvergent alkylation of oxygen nucleophiles is achieved using α-haloamides and a readily available copper catalyst, and the reaction proceeds under mild conditions in the presence of a wide variety of functional groups.

    • Caiyou Chen
    •  & Gregory C. Fu

  • Research Briefing |

    A generalizable technique has been developed to create diverse functional inorganic membranes on the surface of various aqueous solutions. The technique ensures that the air–liquid interface receives a continuous supply of floating particles, which then assemble dynamically to form continuous membranes.

  • Article |

    The chemoselective and enantioconvergent N-alkylation of aliphatic amines, including ammonia, is achieved using chiral tridentate anionic ligands and a copper catalyst; the method shows excellent enantioselectivity and functional-group tolerance.

    • Ji-Jun Chen
    • , Jia-Heng Fang
    •  & Xin-Yuan Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The design, synthesis and characterization of a helically chiral triaryloxonium ion is reported, which is an example of a chiral non-racemic and configurationally stable molecule in which the oxygen atom is the sole stereogenic centre.

    • Owen Smith
    • , Mihai V. Popescu
    •  & Martin D. Smith

  • Article |

    A two-dimensional crystalline polymer of C60, termed graphullerene, is synthesized by chemical vapour transport, and mechanically exfoliated to produce molecularly thin flakes with clean interfaces for potential optoelectronic applications.

    • Elena Meirzadeh
    • , Austin M. Evans
    •  & Xavier Roy

  • Research Briefing |

    High-temperature solutions called fluxes are widely used to synthesize solid compounds. The composition and structural properties of reaction products in a two-component flux system can now be tuned by varying the temperature and the ratio between a component of the reaction medium and a second component that serves as a ‘tuning knob’.

  • Article |

    A new methodology for the discovery of chalcogenides by tuning the temperature and flux ratios of systems using mixed fluxes is demonstrated, leading to the synthesis of 30 new and unreported compounds or compositions.

    • Xiuquan Zhou
    • , Venkata Surya Chaitanya Kolluru
    •  & Mercouri G. Kanatzidis

  • News & Views |

    Truly general chemical reactions work well regardless of the structural features and functional groups in the starting molecule. A new screening protocol speeds up the identification of such reactions in the field of asymmetric catalysis.

    • Manuel J. Scharf
    •  & Benjamin List

  • News & Views |

    Efforts to probe the biological functions of carbohydrates have long been limited by the lack of such molecules with well-defined structures. An automated carbohydrate synthesizer has been developed that could remedy this.

    • Hanchao Cheng
    •  & Peng George Wang

  • News & Views |

    The ozonolysis reaction is a classic of organic synthesis, but involves the formation of potentially explosive reaction intermediates. A modern, safer spin on this process makes use of previously overlooked chemistry.

    • Vignesh Palani
    •  & Alison Wendlandt

  • Article |

    Oxidative cleavage of alkenes is achieved using nitroarenes and light irradiation as an alternative to using ozone to break the carbon–carbon bonds, avoiding the explosive intermediates formed with ozone.

    • Alessandro Ruffoni
    • , Charlotte Hampton
    •  & Daniele Leonori

  • News & Views |

    A compound made by plants used in traditional medicine has been prepared by chemical synthesis, providing enough for biological testing. The unexpected finding that it acts at opioid receptors raises prospects for drug discovery.

    • Nicholas P. R. Onuska
    •  & Joshua G. Pierce

  • News Feature |

    A retracted paper highlights chemistry’s history of trying to avoid the expensive, toxic — but necessary — catalyst.

    • Ariana Remmel

  • News & Views |

    A method has been developed for fabricating thin films of the 2D insulator hexagonal boron nitride with a uniform crystal orientation. The advance makes this material a key contender for replacing silica substrates in future electronics.

    • Soo Ho Choi
    •  & Soo Min Kim

  • Research Briefing |

    Carbon–carbon single bonds are found in most organic molecules. A new electrocatalytic method can create such bonds by uniting different alkyl carboxylic acids, substantially shortening synthetic routes to useful molecules. The reaction uses inexpensive reagents in a simple and scalable set-up, and allows the inclusion of many other functional groups.

  • Article |

    A forward-synthesis platform, Allchemy, computationally determines how to ‘close the circle’, or use waste chemicals to make valuable pharmaceutical or agrochemical products, ranking possible routes by environmental, geospatial, and other factors.

    • Agnieszka Wołos
    • , Dominik Koszelewski
    •  & Bartosz A. Grzybowski

  • News & Views |

    Chemical synthesis often relies on reactions catalysed by transition metals. Electrochemical methods have now been developed that negate this need, opening up pathways to previously challenging reactions.

    • Charlotte Willans

  • Article |

    A metastable palladium hydride is synthesized where the unique environment in the liquid cell, namely the limited quantity of Pd precursors and the continuous supply of H, resulted in the formation of the hcp phase.

    • Jaeyoung Hong
    • , Jee-Hwan Bae
    •  & Dong Won Chun

  • Article |

    A synthetic strategy for the stereoselective preparation of sulfinate esters and related sulfur stereogenic centres via asymmetric condensation expands the drug discovery toolbox for these compounds.

    • Xin Zhang
    • , Esther Cai Xia Ang
    •  & Choon-Hong Tan

  • Article |

    V-SYNTHES, a scalable and computationally cost-effective synthon-based approach to compound screening, identified compounds with a high affinity for CB2 and CB1 in a hierarchical structure-based screen of more than 11 billion compounds.

    • Arman A. Sadybekov
    • , Anastasiia V. Sadybekov
    •  & Vsevolod Katritch

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