Metalloenzyme mastery
There are natural metalloenzymes that make difficult chemistry look easy. James Mitchell Crow talks to the bioinorganic chemists figuring out how to copy them
Inorganic chemists are looking to develop synthetic mimics of nature’s diverse metalloenzyme collection. Many of these metalloenzymes have a mastery of small molecule activation, which – whether it’s efficiently turning inert dinitrogen into ammonia, accessing highly reactive species to break plant waste into biofuels or selectively breaking strong carbon–hydrogen bonds – encompasses many other interesting transformations of great current interest.