Fe-based oxyhydroxides are state-of-the-art electrocatalysts for alkaline OER, however, the role of Fe still remains a hot topic of considerable discussion over the past decades. The in situ generated Fe vacancies on CoFeOOH derived from dynamic Fe dissolution during OER process are responsible for the significantly enhanced OER performance. More details are discussed in the article by Luo et al. on page 343—350.

Oxidative dehydrogenation of propane is attractive because of its exothermic nature but suffers from the over-oxidation to CO and even CO₂ as undesired by-products. Ni single atoms supported on calcium aluminate are shown to be a potential candidate for propane oxidative dehydrogenation with higher propylene selectivity than that of Ni nanoparticles, which benefits from the positive chemical nature of single atoms. More details are discussed in the article by Qiao et al. on page 370—376.

Fe vacancies could significantly promote the d-band center and valence states of adjacent Co sites, alter the active site from Fe atom to Co atom, accelerate the formation of high-valent active Co⁴⁺ species, and reduce the energy barrier of the potential-determining step, thereby contributing to the significantly enhanced OER performance.

We present a decarboxylative amination using carboxylic acids and nitroarenes via synergistic catalysis. In this method, we use ligand-to-metal charge transfer (LMCT) and single electron transfer (SET) strategies to create alkyl radicals.

Herein, we report a condition-controlled divergent synthesis of spiro indene-2,1'-isoindolinones and spiro isochroman-3,1'-isoindolinones through cobalt-catalyzed formal [4 + 1] and [4 + 1 + 1] spirocyclization of aromatic amides with 2-diazo-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione.

The calcium aluminate supported Ni single-atom catalysts (Ni₁/CA) exhibit higher propylene selectivity in oxidative dehydrogenation of propane than Ni nanoparticles counterpart as a result of Ni₁ sites with higher metal valance states which are more favorable to propylene desorption, effectively inhibiting its further oxidation to CO_x by-products.

A modular cell-free expression system was established for the biosynthesis of bicyclomycin from a chemically synthesized cyclodipeptide.

We successfully synthesized one dihydride-bridged dimeric Dy(III) guanidinate complex and its zero-field single-molecule magnet (SMM) behaviour is confirmed by magnetic relaxation dynamics studies. Theoretical investigations reveal the importance of reasonable arrangement of easy axes on Dy(III) sites to enhance magnetic blocking of dinuclear Dy(III) SMMs.

A bead-like CoSe₂@NC@NCNFs catalyst was constructed for ORR and OER by confining cubic CoSe₂ nanoparticles within 3D porous MOFs-derived N-doped carbon (NC) and 1D N-doped carbon nanofibers (NCNFs). The as-constructed CoSe₂@NC@NCNFs catalyst exhibits high ORR/OER catalytic activity and robust charge-discharge cycling stability.

Cobalt, as a naturally highly abundant first row (3d) transition metal, has emerged as versatile, efficient and less toxic catalyst for C—H bond activation to construct polycyclic molecular frameworks. The cover image depicts the selective synthesis of spiro indene-2,1'-isoindolinones and spiro isochroman-3,1'-isoindolinones via cobalt-catalyzed switchable [4 + 1] and [4 + 1 + 1] spirocyclization of aromatic amides with 2-diazo-1H-indene-1,3(2H)-dione. More details are discussed in the article contributed by Li and Fan et al. on page 363—369.

This work presents a novel approach to achieving stereoselective migratory carboboration of 1,4-cyclohexadiene via nickel catalysis. This innovative transformation allows for the simultaneous introduction of a boron group and an aryl or alkyl fragment into the 1,4-cyclohexadiene framework under mild reaction conditions, exhibiting exclusive regioselectivity and excellent cis configuration. The resulting products contain a double carbon bond and a boronate group, offering significant potential for subsequent transformations and a wide range of downstream applications. More details are discussed in the article by Yin et al. on page 356—362.