Themed collection 2025 ChemSci Pick of the Week Collection

In our fluorination of the antibiotic salinomycin and its simple derivatives, a chain of discoveries provided us a unique path to a selective result, unlocking low-noise conformational reporting by ¹⁹F NMR in a widely studied medicinal scaffold.

The core–valence energy gaps decrease from the light to the heavy elements, with the heavy noble-gas cores transferring their large spin–orbit splitting into the upwardly pushed valence bands of the ligands.

Insight into the detailed bulk and surface structure of γ-Al₂O₃ is provided by a NMR crystallographic approach, exploiting isotopic enrichment, multinuclear experimental measurements and periodic calculations.

We present a method for constructing water–air nanointerfaces with the curvature regulated electrochemically. The nanointerfaces' intrinsic properties could be probed through fluorescence imaging of the interfacial single-molecule collisions.

The fabrication of environmentally ion-dissociable high-performance supramolecular polyelectrolyte plastics with a synergistic multivalent and hydrophobic counterion strategy.

Precise endo-functionalization tailors the host cavity to fit the shape and charge distribution of target guest molecules, offering a novel bottom-up strategy for constructing customized molecular receptors.

The energy gaps between “forbidden” and “allowed” mechanisms of routine electrocyclic reactions can be negligibly small.

We discovered a fully synthetic non-degradative molecular glue for the ternary complex between FKBP12 and the FRB domain of mTOR by screening a library of FKBP12 ligands. Solving the ternary complex structure allowed significant potency enhancement.

Life's homochirality may have emerged from mutual antagonism. As a synthetic model, chiral molecular clips form mirror-image dimers with a record-high 180-fold selectivity, effectively amplifying and transmitting asymmetry.

This work reports an efficient strategy to tailor the stacking mode in 2D vinylene-linked covalent triazine frameworks by regulating the base-catalyst with different alkali-metal ions.

High-level quantum chemical calculations for closely stacked π-dimers of antiaromatic molecules have revealed that the appearance of the double-triplet [¹(T₁T₁)] character is critical to connecting the stacked-ring aromaticity with Baird's rule.