Trends in Chemistry最新文献

Nanozymes and their constituent substances have primarily relied on inorganic materials. However, researchers now use organic compounds as base materials to create new nanozymes. This review article comprehensively addresses the advent of organic-material-based nanozymes (organic nanozymes) and their broader applications beyond the traditional biomedical and chemical disciplines. It explores the ability of organic nanozymes to address key obstacles of inorganic nanozymes, demonstrating examples and highlighting advancements. The potential impacts and the enhanced capability of organic nanozymes for broader and sustainable applications are succinctly highlighted, and how organic nanozymes will be actively utilized across various domains is envisioned.

The enantioselective synthesis of atropisomers through organic electrochemistry or photochemistry is a valuable and environmentally sustainable alternative to conventional organic synthesis, which has applications in oxidation, reduction, and redox-neutral transformations. These enantioselective reactions have demonstrated considerable potential for rapidly constructing chiral compounds with molecular diversity and complexity. During the past few years, the enantioselective construction of atropisomers via electrochemical and photochemical reactions has reached an impressive level of sophistication and efficiency and has emerged as a powerful tool in synthesis. Our review aims to highlight the enantioselective synthesis of atropisomers through electrochemical and photochemical methods, utilizing transition-metal catalysis and organocatalysis, alongside pinpointing the limitations of existing techniques and potential future development directions.

Transition metal-catalyzed asymmetric organic transformations are powerful tools for the syntheses of chiral building blocks, bioactive molecules, and natural products. Compared with noble transition metals, the development of chiral catalytic systems based on non-noble transition metals is appealing due to their lower cost and ready availability. Among those, the molybdenum complexes are ideal candidates as chiral metal catalysts for catalytic asymmetric organic transformations because of their ready availability and versatile reactivity. The past decades have witnessed advances in the development of chiral Mo-complexes and their application in catalytic asymmetric organic transformations. This review article summarizes the development of several types of chiral Mo-complexes and highlights recent advances in Mo-catalyzed asymmetric organic transformations.

Current methods for separations of critical rare earth elements (REEs) require multi-step, waste-generating procedures that lack the ability to selectively separate similarly sized ions, despite such an onerous process. REEs possess unique optoelectronic properties that are often exploited for photomagnetic or photoluminescent applications but could be harnessed to drive element selective separations. Recent work exploring photochemical reactions of REE complexes points to promise for investigating alternative separations using photoactive molecules and macromolecular frameworks, highlighting a possible pathway towards realizing practical REE separations to increase the sustainability and longevity of mining and recycling these elements.

Previous work focused on (N-heterocyclic carbene) NHC catalysis has mainly centered on forming new chemical bonds and controlling stereoselectivity through electron-pair transfer processes. While these topics remain interesting and impactful, we envisioned that NHC catalysis can offer unique opportunities in radical chemistry and site-selective reactions of sophisticated molecules bearing multiple functional groups with similar reactivities.

Protein nanoparticles (PNPs) present versatile platforms for cargo delivery due to their modularity, biocompatibility, and self-assembled structures. PNPs have benefited greatly from developments in bioorthogonal covalent attachment chemistries, which enable efficient post-translational cargo loading. In this paper, we review recent advancements in bioorthogonal strategies for cargo loading onto PNPs, including methods for chemical functionalization of natural scaffolds and the use of established click chemistries. We also discuss how protein engineering strategies, including genetically encoded ligation systems and non-canonical amino acid incorporation, have conferred even greater specificity and control to cargo loading and delivery. We conclude the review with applications and future directions of PNPs in crop and soil sciences, with insights on their translation to industry and agriculture.