The rise of artificial intelligence together with advances in robotics is leading a surge of interest in self-driving laboratories. This Perspective discusses self-driving laboratories for catalysis while arguing that, to achieve their full potential, human oversight is required.

This Review covers the recent advances in the field of hydrogen atom transfer catalysis mediated by photoexcited transition metals without the use of external photosensitizers.

The advances in artificial intelligence are permeating most scientific domains, and heterogeneous catalysis is no exception. This Perspective discusses the current state and future prospects of AI in heterogeneous catalysis, from the development of an AI-ready data ecosystem to multimodal foundation models and autonomous labs.

This Perspective discusses ways to probe the presence or absence of molecular-scale interactions between actives sites on heterogeneous electrodes and how they affect the mechanism of (photo)electrocatalytic reactions.

PtSn catalysts are most effective for propane dehydrogenation but structural tunability remains challenging. Now the use of molecular complex precursors unlocks access to subnanometre alloyed PtSn clusters within silicalite-1. The Pt in the clusters undergoes diverse and rapid interconversion among different electronic structures, resulting in high performance and stability.

Pt-based alloys are among the most active catalysts for fuel cells, but strategies to improve their performance are still needed. Now a series of non-metal-modified Pt-based compositionally complex alloys is prepared via a general solvothermal approach and tested for the oxygen reduction reaction, where PtCuNiCoN is shown to exhibit excellent performance.

Direct electrocatalytic oxidation of propylene in aqueous solution has been limited to precious-metal catalysts in halogenated electrolytes. Now, a perovskite oxide has achieved 40% Faradaic efficiency towards propylene oxide and glycol using water as the oxygen source in a phosphate/polyphosphate electrolyte.

Stereoselective radical C–C couplings remain a major challenge. Now photometallobiocatalytic cross-coupling of organotrifluoroborates and α-diazoesters is achieved with high enantio- and diastereoselectivity via an outer-sphere radical mechanism mediated by engineered cytochrome c and eosin B.

Pt-based alloy clusters within zeolite channels are promising catalysts for the dehydrogenation of alkanes, but controlling their distribution under operation is challenging. Now a water-soaking treatment to regenerate and minimize atom migration in K–PtSn@MFI catalysts is introduced, resulting in enhanced stability for non-oxidative ethane dehydrogenation.

Understanding the charge transfer at microbe–semiconductor interfaces in biohybrids is valuable for advancing solar-to-chemical conversion. Now, the reverse electron transfer in Shewanella–haematite hybrids is quantified using multimodal single-particle imaging, revealing facet-dependent efficiency.