This introductory contribution to the special issue of Catalysis Today is dedicated to selected contributions presented at the Carbocat-IV (Carbon for Catalysis) Symposium held in Dalian (China) on November 7-10 (2010). The introduction first shortly overviews the main reasons for the interest on carbon materials for catalysis and the elements of novelty discussed on the contributions of this i...

The chemo- and regioselectivity and functional group compatibility in gold and palladium cooperatively catalyzed cross-coupling reactions were determined in the synthesis of lactones; the selectivity in the gold and palladium dual-metal catalysis system was distinct from that available for the same class of substrates in systems with only gold catalysis or only palladium catalysis rather than d...

Synergistic catalysis is a synthetic strategy wherein both the nucleophile and the electrophile are simultaneously activated by two separate and distinct catalysts to afford a single chemical transformation. This powerful catalysis strategy leads to several benefits, specifically synergistic catalysis can (i) introduce new, previously unattainable chemical transformations, (ii) improve the effi...

Over the past 40 years, transition metal catalysis has enabled bond formation between aryl and olefinic (sp(2)) carbons in a selective and predictable manner with high functional group tolerance. Couplings involving alkyl (sp(3)) carbons have proven more challenging. Here, we demonstrate that the synergistic combination of photoredox catalysis and nickel catalysis provides an alternative cross-...

Catalysis gets all tied up in knots Over the past decade, chemists have used metal ion templating to prepare a wide variety of knotted molecular strands. Marcos et al. now show that one such pentafoil knot can be applied to catalysis. When held taut by zinc ions, the knot can capture a chloride or bromide ion from a halocarbon, thereby unleashing the reactivity of the residual cation for applic...

The proposal that enzymatic catalysis is due to conformational fluctuations has been previously promoted by means of indirect considerations. However, recent works have focused on cases where the relevant motions have components toward distinct conformational regions, whose population could be manipulated by mutations. In particular, a recent work has claimed to provide direct experimental evid...

A new measurement technique was studied using catalysis to specifically detect airborne nanoparticles in presence of background particles in the workplace air. Catalytically active nanoparticles produced by spark discharge were used as aerosol catalysts. According to these particles suitable catalytic test reactions were chosen and investigated by two different approaches: catalysis on airborne...

For nearly 100 years, the extraordinary catalytic power of enzymes has fascinated biochemists (1). In a recent article in this Journal, Splittgerber (2) analyzed several ofthe factors by which enzymes are thought to effect catalysis, including proximity and orientation effects, substrate strain, acidbase catalysis, and nucleophilic catalysis. Here we will discuss the fundamental role that the f...

The transesterification of uridine 3'-phosphodiesters with a wide range of leaving group alcohols has been studied in the presence of monometallic and bimetallic complexes. The catalysis of isomerization of the phosphodiester bond was studied with a nucleoside 3'-phosphonate as a substrate. The results obtained are consistent with a step-wise mechanism, where metal ions are able to enhance both...