Themed collection 2022 Chemical Science Perspective & Review Collection

Chemical tools provide the ability to illuminate and manipulate the behavior of intrinsically disordered proteins and their phase transitions.

This Perspective outlines the myriad of products that can be obtained by the dearomatisation and functionalization of heteroarene substrates. Complex 3D molecules can often be prepared in one step from simple arene starting materials.

Unsymmetrical ligand scaffolds bridging two or more different metals in a site-selective manner offer a convenient approach to utilize metal–metal cooperation for bond activation.

With the increasing emphasis on data sharing, reproducibility, and replicability, big-data analytics, and machine learning, chemists must consider database management systems for their laboratory's data storage, management, and accessibility.

Decades of research have revealed the multifactorial nature of Alzheimer's disease. We present recent efforts and multipronged approaches to rationally develop reliable diagnostics and therapeutics targeting multiple pathological factors.

Insights on microenvironment engineering for metal nanoparticles using porous materials enriched with organic groups and how it determines the hydrogenation performance through non-covalent interaction are highlighted.

Photochemical ligations that form fluorescent products provide valuable visual feedback for use in biology and material science.

Ammonia is a promising net-zero-carbon energy vector whose hydrogen content is accessible via multiple catalytic pathways. This perspective highlights advances in NH₃ reforming catalysis and opportunities for reaction engineering of reformer devices.

Ruthenium-catalyzed hydrogen auto-transfer reactions for the direct enantioselective conversion of lower alcohols to higher alcohols are surveyed. A brief historical perspective on ruthenium-catalyzed hydrogen transfer is given.

This perspective focuses on electrokinetic methods for separating the smallest microplastics (<10 μm) on the basis of charge. Advantages, limitations, and future research opportunities regarding electrokinetic separation methods are discussed.

Light-driven catalytic cycles by oxidative enzymes, such as peroxygenases, dehydrogenases or monooxygenases, perform a variety of selective oxyfunctionalization and dehydrogenation reactions with or withdrawal of reducing equivalents.

This perspective discusses the synthesis and precise control of sub-nanometric cluster assemblies at the molecular level, as well as the exceptional properties derived from interactions between clusters.

Deep learning has been applied in all stages of single molecule imaging and analysis.

Chemistry, the science of transformation of matter, is fundamental to achieving sustainability through ensuring biogeochemical flows do not transgress planetary boundaries. This requires urgent changes in chemistry education, research and industry.

“Soft theories” largely drove chemical understanding for 150 years or more. In the past 50 years, quantum chemistry has provided (a) the underlying “hard evidence” for many soft theories and (b) the explanations for chemical phenomena that are unavailable by soft theories.

Overview of the current status on emerging, multi-faceted nanosensor platform designs and data analysis strategies for rapid, point-of-need detection and monitoring of small-molecule metabolites.

The reflection (or ‘mirror’) symmetry of space is among the fundamental symmetries of physics. It is connected to the conservation law for the quantum number purity and its violation and has a fundamental relation to stereochemistry and molecular chirality.

The mobility of Cu ions in zeolites is influenced by oxidation state, ligands, zeolite topology and chemical composition. The known and possible implications for catalytic activity of Cu-zeolites are discussed.

This Perspective summarizes progress in the development of O₂-selective metal–organic frameworks for adsorptive air separations and identifies key metrics and design considerations toward optimizing material performance for practical applications.

In this Perspective, we draw a unified picture for single-molecule magnets as delicately coupled spin systems, discuss the hierarchical couplings (from intra-atomic to inter-molecular) and their distinctive impacts on the magnetic behaviours.

Recent important advances in the synthesis of allenes via radical strategies are highlighted.

The proof is in the π: when more than one π-donor ligand is bound to a group 5 metal center, imido-based reactivity increases.

This perspective article focuses on discussing several “less-developed” but important topics for Zn anodes and try to present readers a practical angle to look at the development of aqueous Zn batteries.

Computational high-throughput screenings (HTS) have become a standard method of sieving the vast amount of metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) data. But not many HTS studies have been able to bring MOFs to the lab.

Catalytic systems are complex and dynamic, exploring vast chemical spaces on multiple timescales.

This feature article overviews recent work on active spaces, matrix product reference states, treatment of quasidegeneracy, hybrid theory, density-coherence functionals, machine-learned functionals, spin–orbit coupling, gradients, and dipole moments.

Small molecule contaminants pose a significant threat to the environment and human health.

In this Perspective we compare the ability of transition metals and p-block Lewis acids to activate electrophilically hydrosilanes and hydroboranes. The mechanistic similarities and dissimilarities in different catalytic transformations are analyzed.

The molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation have been studied extensively in test tube reactions. This perspective article addresses the question to what extent these mechanisms apply to the complex situation in living cells and organisms.

This perspective presents the current status and prospects of tin-perovskites and the relevant optoelectronic device applications.

Catalytic approaches to enhance PEMFC performances are introduced, especially focusing on the studies reporting MEA cell data.

In this perspective, we detail how solvent-based carbon capture integrated with conversion can be an important element in a net-zero emission economy.

This perspective highlights the development of interactive chemical education resources for worldwide usage. We hope to promote a spirit of innovation in chemical education and spur the development of new chemical education resources.

In this perspective, the effect of different oxidation states in sulfur-bridged bichromophoric systems on structural, photochemical and photophysical properties in organic and coordination compounds is explored.

Internal electrostatic field effects are poised to play a major role in the design of molecular coordination complexes and catalysts.

The realisation of permanent microporosity in liquids transforms the way functional porosity may be implemented. Considering recent advances, we explore the developing theory of porous liquids and delve into the discovery process and applications.

The machine learning atomic simulation will usher the research of zeolite, as other complex materials, into a new era featuring the easy access to zeolite functionalities predicted from theory.

IRED-catalyzed reductive aminations have progressed from mg to ton scale, through advances in enzyme discovery, protein engineering and process biocatalysis.

A fundamental workflow of ML in flow batteries and recent progress of the state-of-art ML applications in both organic FBs and vanadium FBs are discussed. The challenges and future directions of ML research in FBs are proposed.

Interface instability of emerging nonfullerene organic solar cells has been discussed, with respect to the phenomena, mechanism of interfacial reactions and strategies proposed to improve the interfacial stability of devices.

Mechanically interlocked molecules that employ a handcuff component provide a pathway to highly unusual structures, a new nomenclature is proposed which helps to identify opportunities for employing this structural unit for new architectures.

Catenane chemistry is closely associated with that of rotaxane and knot, and this perspective highlights their similarities and differences in various aspects including synthesis, structure and properties.

The self-assembly of molecules in two dimensions (2D) is gathering attention from all disciplines across the chemical sciences. This perspective discusses the main strategies to direct the supramolecular self-assembly of organic monomers in 2D.

This perspective briefly reviews recently developed water splitting electrocatalyst materials and discusses their utilization as cocatalysts for photocatalytic and photoelectrochemical water splitting systems.

This perspective highlights the growing body of literature that leverages polarity reversal (umpolung reactivity) for the selective modification of proteinogenic functionalities and identifies opportunities for further innovation.

Polyoxometalates are anionic molecular metal oxides with diversity in composition, structure, nuclearity and charge. Their adaptable chemistry leads to potential for self-assembly with other building blocks into a variety of hybrid structures.

This perspective is focused on the current development state and the future development direction of FA-based perovskite materials and solar cells.

SRM, an advanced nanoscopy technique demands a transition from being a niche sophisticated technique to standard routine method for material characterization. The roadmap of necessary developments through multidisciplinary collaboration is discussed.

The convergence of chemistry, biology, and solid-state approaches enables the construction hybrid nanopores with enhanced single-molecule applications.

UCNPs can convert the long wavelength of light to UV-Vis light for the controlled gas release owing to their unique upconversion luminescence (UCL) ability. This review summarized the recent progress of UCNP-based nanocomposites in gas therapy.

Natural products (NPs) are primarily recognized as privileged structures to interact with protein drug targets.

Different strategies of SEI engineering such as modification, additive application, and artificial SEI for electrolyte are summarized. Characterization techniques for SEI studies using X-ray, neutron, and electron as probing beams are discussed.

Asymmetric transformations involving sulfoxonium ylides, culminating in catalytic enantioselective versions, are discussed in this perspective.

Defect engineering strategies are used to boost the SERS activity of a wide variety of semiconductors including metal oxides, nitrides, carbon materials and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), as discussed in this perspective.

The transition to green ammonia is necessary, but conventional catalysts perform poorly under ‘green’ reaction conditions. We provide a perspective on the recent progress in developing more efficient catalysts for lower temperatures and pressures.

Recent advances in cancer chemodynamic therapy based on Fenton chemistry are reviewed, including the working mechanism, characteristics, and strategies for optimizing treatment efficiency.

The asymmetric molecular functionalization of two-dimensional materials on one (supratopic) or both (antaratopic) faces enables the design of new multifunctional Janus materials for applications in opto-electronics, energy storage, and catalysis.

We evaluate the improvements over the past two decades in intrinsic activity of electrocatalysts for sustainable energy conversion, and highlight opportunities from tuning the electrolyte.

In this perspective, we highlight the recent development of metallation protocols of non-polar unsaturated molecules for the generation of organo-alkaline earth metal compounds and their applications in chemical synthesis and catalysis.

This review provides a comprehensive summary of the research progress of Zn anodes, including the main challenges of Zn metal anodes, the corresponding optimization strategies, and the perspectives for practical aqueous Zn-ion batteries.

MOF-based optical sensors can achieve volatile organic compound sensing via different mechanisms: colorimetric sensing, luminescent sensing and optical-index modulation sensing.

Ultrasound is an important tool for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes in the clinic. We here survey recent efforts to exploit the principles of polymer mechanochemistry for ultrasound-guided drug delivery and activation – sonopharmacology.

This review summarizes the synthesis of diverse organothianthrenium salts from various precursors and their applications in organic synthesis to forge new C–C, C–H and C–heteroatom bonds by C–S bond cleavage with different mechanistic considerations.

Mesoporous ordered films, from self-assembly to advanced applications.

Immune-related imaging strategies, current problems and development direction are summarized and discussed in this paper.

It is still a long march for AI-controlled synthesis to enter into general laboratories. Flaws in the architecture of AI-controlled synthesis systems must be overcome.

Continuous efforts to produce functional nanomaterials and flexible/stretchable devices have promoted cumbersome, laboratorial, detection processes toward wearable and portable intelligent sensing approaches.

Catalytic asymmetric sigmatropic rearrangements induced by chiral metal catalysis have been intensively explored. This review summarizes recent significant advances, mainly involving [3,3], [2,3] and [1,3]-rearrangements.

This review summarizes the progress of metal–organic frameworks and their derivatives as advanced multifunctional platforms for metal-ion hybrid capacitors.

A flurry of reports for preparing, functionalizing, and using bicyclo[1.1.0]butanes (BCBs) have positioned them to be powerful synthons with numerous applications. This review discusses the recent developments regarding this strained carbocycle.