ArticleNature2016
Electrostatic catalysis of a Diels-Alder reaction.
Article in Nature, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 207 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
207 citing papers in PubMed.
- Towards next generation enzyme mimics through local electric field control in organic cage catalysts.Chemical science · 2026Article
- Electric-Field Catalysis of Diels-Alder Reactions.ACS central science · 2026Article
- Single-Molecule Memristor Realizing Synaptic Plasticity for Neuromorphic Applications.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- Machine Learning-Enhanced Molecular Dynamics of 4,4'-Bipyridine in a Break Junction: A Supramolecular Origin of the High Conductance.ACS nanoscience Au · 2026Article
- Acid-Catalyzed Rearrangement Reaction for Single-Molecule Junction Formation.Chemistry (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Metal-Enhanced Charge Transport and its Mechanism in Atomically Precise Ruthenium Single-Molecule Devices.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- Electrically Accelerated Mechanochemical Film Formation by a Phosphonium Phosphate Ionic Liquid: AnLangmuir : the ACS journal of surfaces and colloids · 2026Article
- Mechanically Induced Switching Between Orbital- and Fano-Resonance Rectification in a Dual-Anchored Molecular Junction.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2026Article
- pyEF: A Python Framework for QM and QM/MM Atom-Wise Electric Field Analysis.Journal of chemical theory and computation · 2026Article
- Unraveling the dynamics of multiple excited states in a single-molecule transistor.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Precise Probing of Interfaces at the Single-Molecule Scale.Nanomaterials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
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- Single-molecule neuromorphic device with aJ-level power consumption per switching.Nature communications · 2026Article
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- Highly efficient production of nitrite and nitrate from air at the gas-water interface of nanobubbles.Science advances · 2026Article
- Probing a Reactive Alkyne Center Aligned via a Triphenylmethane Tripod on Au(111) for Electric Field-Induced Chemistry by STM and TERS.Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) · 2026Article
- Electric fields enhance Diels-Alderase catalysis in abyssomicin C biosynthesis.Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) · 2026Article
- Electric Fields Can Assist Prebiotic Reactivity on Hydrogen Cyanide Surfaces.ACS central science · 2026Article
- Halogen Bonds under Electric Field with Quantum Accuracy and Relativistic Basis Sets.The journal of physical chemistry. A · 2026Article
- Origin of Single-Molecule Reaction Chirality.Research (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
147 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is often thought that the ability to control reaction rates with an applied electrical potential gradient is unique to redox systems. However, recent theoretical studies suggest that oriented electric fields could affect the outcomes of a range of chemical reactions, regardless of whether a redox system is involved. This possibility arises because many formally covalent species can be stabilized via minor charge-separated resonance contributors. When an applied electric field is aligned in such a way as to electrostatically stabilize one of these minor forms, the degree of resonance increases, resulting in the overall stabilization of the molecule or transition state. This means that it should be possible to manipulate the kinetics and thermodynamics of non-redox processes using an external electric field, as long as the orientation of the approaching reactants with respect to the field stimulus can be controlled. Here, we provide experimental evidence that the formation of carbon-carbon bonds is accelerated by an electric field. We have designed a surface model system to probe the Diels-Alder reaction, and coupled it with a scanning tunnelling microscopy break-junction approach. This technique, performed at the single-molecule level, is perfectly suited to deliver an electric-field stimulus across approaching reactants. We find a fivefold increase in the frequency of formation of single-molecule junctions, resulting from the reaction that occurs when the electric field is present and aligned so as to favour electron flow from the dienophile to the diene. Our results are qualitatively consistent with those predicted by quantum-chemical calculations in a theoretical model of this system, and herald a new approach to chemical catalysis.
Identifiers
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.