Electrostatics advancing green catalysis events

Developing new and more-efficient catalytic ways to control chemical reactivity and selectivity has been a constant quest for chemists in the fields of chemical manufacturing and fundamental research.Oriented external electric fields(OEEFs)are emerging as the“smart effector”to manipulate a range of chemical changes(Figure 1)[1].Unlike the traditional approach of accelerating rates by adding specific chemical entities of molecular catalysts,electrostatic catalysis entails the key advantages of(1)removing the trial-anderror work of searching for a suitable catalyst.