Chemistry

Hydration entropy of cations regulates chloride ion diffusion during electrochemical chlorine evolution

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Nature Chemistry, Published online: 08 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41557-025-02014-4 Cation effects have been rigorously studied in electrochemical charge transfer, but their role in mass transport remains unexplored. Now, it has been shown that the structural entropy of cation hydration quantitatively explains how cations regulate reactant diffusion during the chlorine evolution reaction.

Photoswitchable olefins as latent metathesis monomers for controlled polymerization

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Nature Chemistry, Published online: 08 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41557-025-02011-7 Latent catalysis in olefin metathesis has seen great progress over the years, leading to key advances in the properties of polymers and 3D printing technologies. Now it is shown that the latency mechanism can be extended to the monomer through quadricyclane–norbornadiene interconversion, expanding the tools available to … Read more

Revealing the impact of microenvironment on gold-catalysed CO2 electroreduction via Marcus–Hush–Chidsey kinetics

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Nature Chemistry, Published online: 05 December 2025; doi:10.1038/s41557-025-02010-8 Electrochemical interfaces play a crucial role in governing electrode-mediated electron transfer processes, but elucidating the complex effects of the microenvironment remains challenging. Now it has been shown that the Marcus–Hush–Chidsey theory can be used to systematically analyse cation effects on the Au-catalysed CO2 reduction reaction with experimentally … Read more