Front Cover: Catalytic Relevance of Mg‐Al‐O Basic Centers in the Upgrade of Ethanol to n‐Butanol (ChemCatChem 19/2024)

The Front Cover depicts the stages ethanol follows during its conversion to n-butanol over a bifunctional catalyst, and the use of probe molecules and spectroscopy to interrogate catalytic sites. Applying a combination of in-situ FTIR, CO2-TPD, and operando titration, Wei Tian and José Herrera use carbon dioxide and acetic acid to identify and quantify catalytically relevant functionalities responsible for C–C couplings. Their findings indicate n-butanol formation catalyzed by MgAlO systems is regulated by α-carbon proton abstraction taking place only over strong basic centers. More information can be found in the Research Article by Wei Tian and José E. Herrera (DOI: 10.1002/cctc.202400225).