A MOF sets the stage to make amines

Catalysis Reductive amination is a common method that chemists use to make carbon-nitrogen bonds. The reaction, which often requires precious metal catalysts, couples ammonia or other amines with carbonyl compounds and then with hydrogen. Jagadeesh et al. report a class of nonprecious cobalt nanoparticles that catalyze this reaction across a very broad range of substrates, including complex molecules of pharmaceutical interest (see the Perspective by Chen and Xu). The cobalt was first embedded in a metal-organic framework (MOF), which, upon heating, transformed into a graphitic shell. The catalyst could be conveniently separated from products and recycled up to six times. Science , this issue p. [326][1]; see also p. [304][2] [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aan6245 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aap8004