Themed collection 2026 Chemical Science Perspective & Review Collection

Singlet fission (SF) materials are attracting great attention in the field of solar energy research, promising increased light-to-electricity conversion efficiency. Unravelling the mechanisms of SF is crucial to advance this endeavour.

IUPAC has developed a set of guiding principles for the responsible practice of Chemistry worldwide that embrace scientific excellence and nurture a shared commitment to ethical and responsible conduct that is aligned with world needs.

“Black-box” data sources prioritize machine learning consumption by moving away from tradeoffs optimized for human-centric consumption, yielding orders of magnitude higher throughput. Our paper outlines seven design strategies to achieve this.

This perspective highlights advanced MS-based single-cell metabolomics, including analytical technologies, data processing, specialized devices, spatial metabolomics, and multi-omics. Future directions for living SCM are also discussed.

This perspective article reviews strategies—intrinsic flexibility engineering, external plasticization, and elastomer blending—to overcome the stretchability-optoelectronic trade-off in light-emitting polymer semiconductors.

This perspective summarizes chiral communication in polymer systems and offers insights for the design of advanced chiral functional materials.

This review categorises metal-based therapeutics by their primary role, distinguishing between complexes acting as inert structural scaffolds for biomolecule recognition and those where the metal centre drives dynamic functional reactivity.

Compared to conventional methods, direct light-driven separations are promising strategies to achieve high selectivity while lowering energy cost.

Afterglow imaging provides continuous deep luminescence when excited by NIR-light, X-ray or ultrasound. Avoiding autofluorescence, improving imaging sensitivity and signal-to-background ratio.

This study shows that by precisely regulating local physicochemical conditions, spatial confinement, and external field assistance, the synthesis of nanomaterials is transformed from macroscopic mixing to microscopic precise control.

This perspective outlines the design strategies of NIR-II metal supramolecular dyes. Applications in anticancer, antibacterial, and cardiovascular therapy, as well as bioimaging, are highlighted, along with challenges and future outlooks.

This Perspective outlines key aspects for developing the next generation of annihilators for solid-state photon upconversion by unifying and translating design rules that have emerged from singlet fission and organic electronics.

The concept of a digital materials ecosystem represents a new paradigm in materials research, where data, theory, and automation are integrated into a unified and iterative framework.

A chemistry-based framework explains when lattice oxygen participates in oxygen evolution. Metal valence regulation activates oxygen redox, while lattice flexibility enables reversible oxygen exchange, together governing the emergence of the lattice oxygen mechanism.

Perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) have emerged as a versatile platform for next-generation optoelectronics owing to high photoluminescence quantum yields, tunable bandgaps, and superior charge transport.

Single-molecule vibrational spectro-microscopy was recently achieved with far-field optics. We present the foundational principles and history of these methods, review recent experimental advances, and discuss exciting future opportunities.

This perspective highlights innovative chemical and supramolecular strategies for immobilizing and detoxifying lead in perovskite optoelectronics toward sustainable and safe device commercialization.

This review summarizes recent advances in electrodes and electrolyzers and employs LCA to clarify the performance requirements necessary for achieving negative emissions and to assess the current technological maturity of CO₂ electrolysis.

This perspective summarizesd the preparation strategies of DNA hydrogels, analyzesd their application advantages, and highlights recent advances. Finally, the challenges and development directions of DNA hydrogels in applications are discussed.

Gut microbiota lipopolysaccharides break the endotoxin dogma: their chemistry reveals functions beyond pro-inflammatory signalling.

Nucleic acid therapeutics enable precise gene regulation. This review outlines major platforms and shows how chemical modifications and delivery methods improve stability, targeting, and clinical use, while noting challenges ahead.

We analyze opportunities and challenges for explainable artificial intelligence in molecular design, emphasize chemically intuitive explanations of predictions, and discuss advantages of including domain-specific knowledge.

This perspective summarizes wireless nanopore electrode (WNE) fabrication strategies, highlights applications from electrocatalytic evaluation to intracellular measurements, and discusses multidimensional single-entity analysis.

Peptide liquid–liquid phase separation offers a minimal, programmable platform to decode condensate molecular grammar and engineer responsive biomaterials for delivery, catalysis, artificial organelles, and disease intervention.

The use of biobased monomers and biopolymers for the fabrication of porous organic frameworks and their composites provides a sustainable approach to developing functional porous materials and their practical applications.

Metal catalysts, with thoughtful consideration towards simplicity, can bridge the gap between commercial and designer catalysts in aliphatic polyester synthesis, offering examples of maintaining polymerization control without complicated synthesis.

Electrocatalytic methane oxidation (EMO) uses renewable electricity to drive electron-transfer reactions for C–H bond activation, converting methane into value-added chemicals under ambient conditions, offering sustainable process control.

Scanning electrochemical microscopy and related techniques provide a unique spatially resolved perspective, enabling deeper insights into photocatalyst performance at the nanoscale.

This review discusses the future of molecular machines and microrobots, focusing on the shift from individual to collective behavior. It also examines how this collective property can be utilized in functionally organized materials.

Ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) is a multimeric, multidomain integral membrane protein belonging to the copper membrane monooxygenase (CuMMO) family. This globally proliferated enzyme initiates nitrification in both archaea and bacteria.

This review summarizes photocrosslinking-enabled direct photopatterning of QDs, elucidating molecular design, mechanisms, and applications in high-performance QLEDs, extensions to other nanomaterials, and 3D printing.

Schematic diagram of ceramic fuel cells, functions of key materials and design methods.

From channel-aligned MOFs/COFs to amorphous coordination polymer glasses, this review highlights how tunable framework materials enable fast anhydrous proton conduction and outlines design strategies for next-generation proton conductors.

This review examines organic small-molecule-catalyzed carbonylation, with a particular emphasis on N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC), oxygen, sulfur, selenium, nitrogen, and phosphine main-group species-based catalysts.

Chemically programmable reconstituted HDL nanocarriers for drug delivery.

Additive manufacturing of battery enables a more versatile battery form factor and design.

This review comprehensively analyzes defect engineering in electrocatalysis, covering defect classification, synthesis, dynamic evolution, and advanced applications in water electrolysis.

This review addresses four critical electronic-level challenges in electrocatalysis. It examines design strategies. Advanced theoretical methods are highlighted.

This review explores single-atom catalysts for CO₂-to-ethanol conversion, focusing on atomic-level design principles that enhance C–C coupling selectivity and activity to enable sustainable carbon utilization and renewable fuel production.

Rationally designed MOF-based single-atom catalysts enable efficient and selective solar-to-fuel CO₂ conversion.

This review summarizes advances in CO₂ electrocatalysis, from homogeneous to heterogeneous systems, with emphasis on hybrid molecular–metallic co-catalysts that drive improved activity, selectivity, and overall catalytic performance.

Schematic illustration of the molecular engineering roadmap for CRISPR/Cas12a-based biosensing, highlighting the progressive transition from activity enhancement to exponential signal amplification.

Inverted perovskite solar cells show leading efficiencies, but long-term stability is still limited by degradation in top-stack layers. This review discusses key instability pathways and strategies for tandem-compatible, commercially viable devices.

Single-phase molecular multiferroics with ferroelectricity and ferroelasticity offer unique polarization–strain coupling. This review summarizes recent advances in their molecular design strategies, functional performance and applications.

We summarize mechanisms of coacervates crossing phospholipid membranes including vesicular engulfment via electrostatic interaction, photoswitchable phospholipids, caveolin and actin polymerization, and direct penetration via lipid rafts and defects.

This review systematically summarizes various methods for constructing porous organic polymers (POPs) via carbon–carbon coupling reactions, and elaborates on their application scenarios and core advantages in diverse fields.

This review systematically analyzes the key challenges and outlines emerging strategies in electrolytes, interface engineering, and current collector design to guide the development of high-energy-density anode-free solid-state sodium batteries.

This review systematically summarizes electrochemical oxidation, reduction, and combined technologies, highlighting AI-enabled high-throughput screening and bifunctional material design for complete PFAS mineralization.

Microcracking in Na_xTMO₂ arises from synthetic defects, electrochemical failure, and interfacial degradation. Electronic structure regulation, strain engineering, and interface modulation suppress crack initiation and propagation.

Five facile designing routes for non-centrosymmetric NLO iodates are outlined, including polymerization, aliovalent substitution, fluorine substitution, and hybrid integration with π-conjugated or tetrahedral units.

The latest developments of Bi₂S₃-based artificial photosystems in multifarious photoredox catalysis are elucidated with future perspectives elucidated.

This review highlights the unique advantages of spinel structure in enhancing Na_xTMO₂ cathodes, offering insights for the rational design and development of advanced sodium-ion batteries.

Integrating co-facial chromophores within a supramolecular platform, chiral cyclophanes create preorganized chiral cavities enabling functions from circularly polarized luminescence to enantioselective recognition and asymmetric catalysis.

With high ionic conductivity and excellent mechanical properties, sulfide solid electrolytes (SSEs) represent a leading candidate electrolyte system for sodium metal batteries (SMBs), offering enhanced energy density and improved safety.

This review emphasizes the importance of developing durable, high-performance anti-reflection coatings (ARCs) for improving the efficiency of perovskite solar cells (PSCs) through enhanced light management and reduced reflection losses.

Site-specific modification enables precise functionalization of peptide and protein without heterogeneous interference. This review covers four strategies, highlighting the design rationale and downstream applications.

This review highlights electrochemical strategies for pyridine functionalization that overcome challenges associated with pyridine's low nucleophilicity, regioselectivity, and catalyst poisoning, enabling efficient and selective transformations.

Macrocyclic and linear supramolecular hosts can bond a variety of organic luminophores to construct luminescent systems with large Stokes shifts with applications in near-infrared targeted imaging, drug detection, photodynamic therapy, etc.

Experimental enhancement and theoretical mechanisms of photoluminescence in ligand-protected Au nanoclusters.

Dynamic covalent organic frameworks (COFs) switch their crystalline structures and properties in response to external triggers. This review summarises the current state of the art and emerging applications of these intriguing materials.

This review summarizes development history of NVPF cathodes for SIBs, particularly focusing on modification strategies related to nanotechnology engineering, which aims at advancing the application of nanotechnology in electrode materials.

The escalating concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) necessitates the development of efficient and scalable carbon capture technologies.

This review provides an overview of recent progress in high energy density quasi-solid-state lithium batteries using in situ polymerized gel electrolytes. It also discusses the future perspectives and potential avenues for development in this field.

Strategies and advanced characterization techniques to improve the commercial viability of manganese-based cathode materials in lithium/sodium-ion batteries.