Nature has provided us the assurance and inspiration for thousands of years in synthesizing value-added chemicals, with the assistance of reactive hydrogen species, and water as the ultimate hydrogen source. However, the natural photosynthesis is inefficient due to some intrinsic properties, urging people not only to learn from but also surpass during nature imitation. In this review, we summarized recent progresses on reactive hydrogen species-assisted nanocatalytic reduction of organic molecules towards value-added fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, with water as the hydrogen source, and especially highlighted how photocatalytically or electrocatalytically evolved reactive hydrogen species synergize with biocatalytic centers and nanocatalytic sites for reduction of organic molecules. The design principles of collaborative semi-artificial systems and nanocatalytic artificial systems, the structure tuning of catalysts for the evolution and utilization of hydrogen species, and the determination of reactive hydrogen species for mechanistic insights were discussed in detail. Finally, perspectives were provided for further advancing this emerging area of nanocatalytic reduction of organic molecules from water (or proton) and organics.

Platinum based alloys are hereinto the mostly used methanol oxidation catalysts. However, there are limited ways to improve the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) performance of catalysts in terms of both activity and stability. Herein we developed a simple heat-treatment method to synthesize PtCu₃/C intermetallic compound catalyst with lattice compression. The as-prepared PtCu₃/C-1000 exhibited high specific activity of 3.23 mA·cm^–1 and mass activity of 1,200 mA·mg_Pt^–1, which is much higher than the PtCu₃/C-untreated and commercial Pt/C catalysts, respectively. The XAS and DFT results shows the high activity of the catalyst towards MOR comes from the tightening of the Pt-M bond, which leads to the decrease of Fermi energy level and the make it difficulty in adsorbing carbon intermediates, thus releasing more active sites to promote the improvement of MOR performance. Moreover, the PtCu₃/C-1000 shows better stability which is due to the surface-rich Pt prevents Cu from dissolution.

The on-surface self-assembly of inorganic atomic clusters and organic molecules offers significant opportunities to design novel hybrid materials with tailored functionalities. By adopting the advantages from both inorganic and organic components, the hybrid self-assembly molecules have shown great potential in future optoelectrical devices. Herein, we report the co-deposition of 4,8-diethynylbenzo[1,2-d-4,5-d0]bisoxazole (DEBBA) and Se atoms to produce a motif-adjustable organic–inorganic hybrid self-assembly system via the non-covalent interactions. By controlling the coverage of Se atoms, various chiral molecular networks containing Se, Se ₆, Se₈, and terminal alkynes evolved on the Ag(111) surface. In particular, with the highest coverage of Se atoms, phase segregation into alternating one-dimensional chains of non-covalently bonded Se₈ clusters and organic ligands has been noticed. The atom-coverage dependent evolution of self-assembly structures reflects the remarkable structural adaptability of Se clusters as building blocks based on the spontaneous resize to reach the maximum non-covalent interactions. This work has significantly extended the possibilities of flexible control in self-assembly nanostructures to enable more potential functions for broad applications.