Themed collection Bridging excellence —20 years of CCS-RSC collaboration and the Young Chemist Award

Xu Hou and Jungmok Seo introduce the Industrial Chemistry & Materials themed issue on liquid-based materials.

Guest Editors Wee-Jun Ong, Nanfeng Zheng and Markus Antonietti introduce the Nanoscale themed collection on advanced nanomaterials for energy conversion and storage.

Liang-Nian He and Da-Gang Yu introduce the themed collection on CO₂ utilisation.

This article highlights a perspective shift, focusing on the transition from the internal mechanisms of electrochemical processes to their interactions with the environment, thus unlocking potential applications in environmental regulation.

By drawing inspiration from photoredox catalysis, the field of radical-mediated alkane functionalization has made remarkable advancements recently to address the challenges of today and future.

Inert sp³ C–H bonds can be activated by palladium-catalysis through various pathways, providing synthetically useful strategies to construct C–C/C–X bonds.

The coupling effect between the confined interphase and geometric space structures contributes to advanced mechanical polymer nanocomposites.

Thermal and thermoelectric transport in molecular junctions is reviewed, covering quantum mechanisms, characterization methods and applications.

This review summarizes recent advancements in the study of multiphase coacervates, focusing on design strategies, underlying mechanisms, structural control, and their applications in biomimetics.

This feature article summarizes the recent advances in the synthesis of fluorinated amino acids and peptides. The developed approaches provide powerful tools to selectively access fluorinated amino acids, peptides, and proteins.

In this feature article, we provide an overview of synthetic strategies and growth mechanisms of various Fe₃O₄ nanostructures, discuss the uniqueness of associated properties, and illustrate their potential applications.

Direct functionalization of unactivated alkenes via visible-light photocatalysis has emerged as a highly effective strategy for the rapid construction of multi-functional, complex molecular architectures from simple, abundant chemicals.

In this review, Zhao et al. have summarized the construction of protein-functionalized DNA origami nanodevices and their biological applications. The challenges and potential directions in cell biology and structural biology have also been discussed.

Patterning materials have advanced significantly to achieve high-resolution fabrication of integrated circuits for extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography. Emerging trends in the chemistry of polymeric resists for EUV lithography are summarized.

The composition and microstructure control of Sm₂Fe₁₇N₃ powders lays the foundation for the enhancement of magnetic properties, which is mainly ascribed to the optimization of the intrinsic magnetic properties and domain structure.

The review summarizes and categorizes innovative gel synthesis methods and coating fabrication techniques with robust interfacial adhesion, focusing on the strategies of user and eco-friendliness in versatile scenarios.

This review highlights a curated selection of publications utilizing homogeneous gold-catalyzed cycloaddition and cyclization reactions for the total synthesis of natural products reported from 2016 to mid-2023.

Overview of the joint profiling technologies of 5mC and 5hmC.

2D organic semiconductor crystals have the advantage of ultrathin thickness, long-range ordered molecular structures, the absence of grain boundaries, and low defect and impurity densities. They are of great significance for preparing high-performance OFET devices.

This review provides an overview of main group carbene analogues, covering recent advancements, synthesis strategies, and the diverse reactivity of elements in groups 13–15 based on their structural characteristics.

The latest advancements in two-dimensional organic–inorganic van der Waals heterojunctions, including their classification, construction, and device applications, elucidating their structure–property relationship based on interface engineering.

With the rapid development of n-type and ambipolar OECT materials, OECTs have been widely used in constructing logic circuits, electrophysiological recording, biosensing, and neuromorphic computing.

This paper mainly introduces the application of photothermal conversion of MXenes in the biomedical field, including photothermal therapy of tumors, drug delivery, photoacoustic imaging, and antibacterial agents.

This review summarizes the regulations of liquid–liquid phase separation involving fused in sarcoma protein (FUS) by physical stimuli, biochemical modulators and protein structural modifications.

By imitating the structures of stem peptide, many fluorescent and bio-orthogonal labeling probes have been designed and used in illuminating the peptidoglycan biosynthesis processes.

This review provides an overview of visible-light induced dearomatization reactions classified based on the manner in which aromaticity is disrupted.

This review summarizes the main concepts, recent developments, and several strategies for mimicking sensory adaptation; challenges and perspectives in this emerging field are also proposed.

Inorganic nanomaterials with inherently exceptional physicochemical properties and rapid clearance behavior would find wide biomedical applications.

This review describes the applications of chemically modified nucleic acid biopolymers in biosensing, and mainly introduces different assembly methods of chemically modified nucleic acid biopolymers.

Here we will summarize some of the recent advances in α-diimine ligand developments, as well as some new and challenging monomers that this class of catalysts can address through these ligand improvements.

This review summarizes the research activities on DNA metallization since the concept was first proposed in 1998, covering the principles, methods, structures, and applications.

From the perspective of noble metal alloy nanocrystals with complex structures, we highlight their controllable synthesis and improved electrochemical property.

Band gaps and molecular energy level modulations of conjugated polymers containing benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (BDT) exhibit promising power conversion efficiencies for polymer solar cells.

This review is a systematic summary of radical deuteration with four reaction types: reductive deuteration, defunctionalization–deuteration, hydrogen–deuterium (H/D) exchange and radical deuteroalkylation.

In this tutorial, we introduced the fundamental aspects of nitrogen fixation, summarized the recent progresses with main group elements and tried to make clear the clue for further developments.

The confluence of available membrane materials and the explorations into fluid behaviors have revolutionized liquid-based porous membranes, which deserve more attention.

This review highlights thermoelectric-oriented chemical doping of organic semiconductors from molecular design, doping mechanisms, doping methods and insightful strategies.

Digital microfluidic (DMF) bioassays with the benefits of automation, addressability, integration and dynamic configuration ability for nucleic acids, proteins, immunoreaction and cell analysis are presented in this review.

In this work, we introduce a microphase-separation strategy that enables in situ p–n switching in ionic thermoelectrics, overcoming their intrinsic unipolar limitation and advancing the design of smart thermal sensors.

Owing to the excellent chemical/thermal stability, it is difficult to induce surface modification in graphite, which limits its wider application in rechargeable batteries.

The synthesis of [¹⁸F]-difluoromethylated alkanes has been developed by combining [¹⁸F] radiofluoride with monofluoroalkyl triflates, offering potential for the development of new PET agents.

We report an effective method for H/D exchange of silanes using Ru-bpy@γ-Al₂O₃, which is compatible with 16 silanes under mild conditions. Deuterium gas (D₂), generated in situ from the electrolysis of D₂O, served as the deuterium source.

The selective cleavage of CC double bonds to form carbonyl groups is a fundamental maneuver in retrosynthetic analysis, empowering swift alterations to molecular structures and efficient synthesis of sophisticated, multifunctional molecules.

Doping Cu and in situ electrochemical reconstruction on Bi₂O₂CO₃ optimize the hybridization between Bi 6p of Bi₂O₂CO₃ and O 2p of *OCHO, leading to high HCOO⁻ faradaic efficiency of >96% in the all-pH range and satisfactory durability.

Multiple-unit interlocking assembly strategy has provided a method for accelerating the constructing of stable DNA nanostructures with the potential for numerous applications.

A novel fiber organic electrochemical transistor with a micro-scale vertical channel achieves a 12 ms response time and 16 mS transconductance at zero gate bias, enabling 7-day in vivo ECG monitoring and effective heart disease detection.

Stable (phosphino)(stannyl)carbene has been synthesized and characterized. Reactivity and DFT calculations demonstrate its ambiphilicity and potential for unusual stannyl-substituted compounds.

Pyridine N-oxyl radicals can be effectively generated under environmentally friendly mild conditions, significantly enhancing the reactivity of direct C–H fluorination.

Rh(III)-catalyzed atroposelective C–H alkynylation with hypervalent iodine–alkyne reagents has been developed to afford axially chiral alkynylated isoquinolines.

We introduce a radical reaction for the stereoselective synthesis of α-glycosyl azides using bench-stable allyl glycosyl sulfones as the donor.

An all-metal fiber electrode was prepared based on a metal nanowire hybrid strategy and exhibited high flexibility, high electrical conductivity, and satisfactory biocompatibility.

We copolymerized the rigid 4-hydroxyproline-derived thiolactone with flexible lipoic acid derivatives to prepare poly(thioester-co-disulfide) copolymers with tunable thermal and mechanical properties, and complete depolymerizability to recycle monomers.

A biophotonic device is fabricated for employing a flexible OLED to excite conjugated polymer PPV in a macrophage (M₀)-laden 3D printed hydrogel, resulting in the generation of ROS and subsequent M₁ macrophage polarization for tumor immunotherapy.

Non-Newtonian fluid gating membranes have been constructed for contactless regulation of gas release and spontaneous blockage of transient high-pressure gas.

Lanthanide-doped nanocomposite is established as a dual-ratiometric luminescence nanothermometer. The cross-relaxation processes can efficiently enhance near infrared emissions and induce a temperature response of the emissions.

A racemate of monoanionic chiral [Cu₂₈H₂₀(S₂P(OiPr)₂)₉]⁻ cluster containing four different hydride coordination modes with one Cu and thirteen hydrides exposed is reported.

A printable ink composed of a photoactive cationic conjugated polymer (PPV) and gelatin/alginate/hyaluronic acid was developed for 3D printing artificial skin patches with the biofunctions of anti-infection and augmenting wound repair.

Control of conductance through a single molecule via alternating anchoring points provides a unique perspective to design single-molecule electronic devices.

Tandem reactions of the yttrium(III) catalyzed ring-opening reaction of 3-(2-isocyanoethyl)indoles with 2,2′-diester aziridines and the subsequent Friedel–Crafts/Mannich/desulfonylation were described.

Fe–Cur CPNs were utilized for AKI relief. After i.v. injection, the oxidative stress-induced damage in kidneys was significantly ameliorated and the kidney functions were well recovered. Fe–Cur CPNs showed potential promise in the treatment of AKI.

A flexible aqueous zinc-ion battery fiber that can be recharged by scavenging energy from the ambient air is reported. This air-recharging process is highly reversible with a high gravimetric capacity of 371 mA h g⁻¹.

An electro-filtration strategy is used to access a Pt single-atom sites catalyst on graphite carbon paper at room temperature from Pt foil, assisted by a GOM membrane. It exhibits excellent activity and stability towards HER (with CdS) under visible-light irradiation.

Herein, we report a heterogeneous single iron atom catalyst exhibiting excellent peroxidase, oxidase and catalase enzyme-like activities (defined as single atom enzymes, SAEs), exceeding those of Fe₃O₄ nanozymes by a factor of 40.

Metabolic labeling with azidosugars in a neural stem cell (NSC)-enriched endothelial coculture followed by mass-spectrometry profiling identifies sialoglycoproteins on NSCs.

We have demonstrated that fluorescent carbon nanodots can be used as environmentally-friendly probes for label-free detection of Hg²⁺ and biothiols.

A new kind of amphiphilic DNA-dendron hybrid is synthesized and self-assembled into nanofibers. The possible assembly mechanism and potential functionalization of the fiber are investigated.

Total synthesis of (+)-asteriscanolide featuring a chiral substrate induced Rh(I)-catalyzed [(5+2)+1] cycloaddition to efficiently construct the [6.3.0] carbocycle is achieved.

High quality large-flake graphene membranes up to 300 μm² can be exfoliated from graphite by oleyl amine based on solvothermal conditions.

New Rh(I)-catalyzed intramolecular [3 + 2] cycloaddition reactions of 1-ene-, 1-yne and 1-allene-vinylcyclopropanes have been developed, affording an efficient and versatile synthesis of cyclopentane- and cyclopentene-embedded bicyclic structures.

We report a thieno[2,3-c]-pyrrole-based photoinduced Cys modification that converts Cys residues to Trp/Tyr/Phe bioisosteres, and the development of a biocompatible sulfonate reagent for Cys desulfurization in cell lysate and live cells.