Themed collection ChemComm 60th Anniversary Collection

This highlight summarises electrochemical approaches for the deconstructive functionalization of arylcycloalkanes via the fragmentation of anodically generated aromatic radical cations.

The catalytic asymmetric electrophilic functionalization of the less reactive N-heteroaromatic compounds has been reported using the approach of the introduction of an exocyclic amino substituent.

We review what is known of the surface properties of carbon nitrides, increasingly popular photocatalysts, with a focus on hydrogen production and arsenic remediation.

Macrocyclic receptors play a pivotal role in molecular recognition and supramolecular chemistry. This review highlights recent advances in the design, synthesis, and applications of macrocyclic receptors specifically tailored for anion recognition.

Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) is powerful for characterizing the mechanical properties of organic/polymeric semiconductors.

In this review, recent advances and representative photosensitizers used in organelle targeted photodynamic therapy have been reviewed with a focus on organelle targeting strategies and organelle-mediated cell death signalling pathways.

VCD spectroscopy associated with DFT calculations is a powerful tool to unambiguously assign both the absolute configurations and conformations of chiral secondary metabolites directly in solution.

This highlight focuses on breakthroughs, future perspectives and applications of ultra-high-energy-density lithium-based battery systems beyond 500 W h kg⁻¹, represented by systems such as Li–S/Se batteries, Li–gas batteries, Li–CF_x batteries, etc.

This highlight article summarizes the complete development of photodecarboxylative functionalization of free carboxylic acids via a concerted single electron transfer (SET) or energy transfer (ET) pathways.

This article highlights the expansion of time-resolved serial femtosecond crystallography (TR-SFX) to chemical systems by overcoming the challenges in SFX for small molecules.

Novel NOS linkages stabilize protein tertiary and quaternary structures and may be as prevalent as disulfide bonds. They regulate enzyme activity and have other important roles.

The field of chiral 2D and quasi-2D perovskite is reviewed highlighting the most important results to date and indicating future directions for advancement.

Alkene carbofunctionalization reactions have great potential for synthesizing complex molecules and constructing complex structures in natural products and medicinal chemistry.

This review summarizes the hierarchical structure and multifaceted properties of natural silk fibers, and provides an in-depth analysis of their extensive applications in the realms of biomedicine and advanced smart fiber technology.

This highlight discusses the advantages of various oxidation methods for improved performance of the electrochemical oxidation of ethylene and propylene, and provides an overview of current challenges and problems requiring further efforts.

Three strategies to realize the chirality-controlled growth of SWCNTs are presented.

This highlight article summarizes the recent developments and challenges in photocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide and looks forward to the development direction of this field.

This review provides an electrosynthesis strategy of H₂O₂via the 2e⁻ ORR, covering aspects of reaction mechanisms, performance assessment, catalyst engineering, and setups for scaling up H₂O₂ production.

DNA nanostructures are easy to design and construct, have good biocompatibility, and show great potential in biosensing and drug delivery when combined with CRISPR/Cas systems.

This review provides a complete overview of the advances in the semipinacol rearrangement-mediated 1,2-group migration onto metal carbene centers which were reported in the past decades.

This review explores studies on the development of direct dehydrative amide/peptide bond formation from carboxylic acids using organoboron catalysis.

This feature article examines recent lithium–sulfur studies, with a focus on high-loading sulfur cathodes in lean-electrolyte and solid state-electrolyte cells, and highlights recent achievements, challenges, and strategies for future research.

Lanthanide ions display unique luminescent properties, such as long-lived excited states and relatively narrow emission bands, that make them particularly attractive for the development of bioprobes in combination with peptides.

This paper's innovation lies in systematically summarizing and evaluating the latest metal catalyst design strategies and exploring their application in nitrogen sources.

This article describes applications of Eu, including MRI, luminescence, catalysis, and separation science.

Mechanochemical backbone fracture by homolysis of covalent bonds generates highly reactive macroradicals, providing potential strategy to form new load-bearing bonds enabling new synthetic applications and development of stress-responsive polymers.

Recent works on in situ monitoring of organically modified copper with vibrational spectroscopy have revealed a wide scale of effect modifiers can cause on CO₂ electrolysis performance, which can also help design active organic/copper interface.

This review details utilising mechanically interlocked host molecules containing cation and anion binding motifs to achieve ion-pair recognition.

Recent work on catalysed reactions using coordination cage hosts, including new mechanistic insights and reactions types, is reviewed.

This work summarizes catalyst design methodologies based on crystalline complex oxide nanostructures through the synthesis, catalytic application, and structure–activity relationship.

Versatile DNA nanodevices that modulate membrane receptor aggregation and reprogram cell signaling with high precision and programmability.

We highlight the challenges and recent progress in using semiconductors to harvest solar energy for carrying out alcohol oxidation.

This article summarizes small-sized transition metal oxide (TMO) clusters for electrocatalysis. The synergistic actions between TMO and TM–N_x sites and mechanisms by DFT studies are comprehensively highlighted.

This feature article comprehensively summarizes the recent advances in catalytic enantioselective construction of monofluoromethyl-substituted stereocenters.

Supramolecular approaches to face chemical biology problems targeting different types of species are illustrated with selected representative examples, using conventional receptor design or dynamic covalent chemistry.

This review highlights recent advances in transition metal complexes of silylene, showcasing their efficacy in hydroboration, hydrosilylation, hydrogenation, hydrogen isotope exchange, and small molecule activation chemistry.

This article summarizes the potential of TPP salts in tuning RTP properties and their applications in multi-level information encryption, high-level anticounterfeiting tags, and X-ray scintillators.

Cascading responses are a new concept for integrating stimulus-responsive materials to obtain output responses from the original input stimulus through successive conversions of the stimuli in a system.

The burgeoning interest in stable conjugated diradicals is attributed to their distinctive spin characteristics. In this review, we emphasize how to precisely control these spin characteristics to understand their role in the molecules and as functional radical materials.

This article discusses the roles of Zr-MOFs in electrocatalysis, and the challenges and opportunities in using Zr-MOFs in electrocatalytic applications.

Advances in the understanding and applications of perovskite 2D/3D heterostructures were overviewed with a focus on ligand design principles.

In this article we disclose our contributions to use of cyclopropanes as unconventional reagents for the development of enantioselective transformations under different organocatalytic activation manifolds for the synthesis of chiral building blocks.

This review introduces tetrazoles as the building blocks. The tetrazole ring offers four nitrogens, thereby assisting in multiple binding sites. The consequence is usually polymeric networks, but meticulous stratagem can form discrete cages as well.

This review has examined the advancements and challenges in the development of transition metal-based electrocatalysts for the alkaline water splitting reaction in the last decade.

ZnPcs with pyridine or imidazole units were synthesized as HTMs in PSCs. PMMA addition improved performance and stability, reaching 16.2% PCE for ZnPc-1.

Sequence-selective G-quadruplex ligands are valuable for controlling gene expression.

A substituent-dependent synthetic strategy to precisely convert easily accessible phenylallenyl phosphine oxides into phenanthren-9-yldiphenylphosphine oxides and benzo[b][1,4]oxaphosphinin-4-iums is reported.

Thermal decomposition of overlithiated Li_1+xNi_1−xO₂ yields high-quality LiNiO₂ cathode materials that show potential for application in different kinds of batteries.

The heteroleptic complex [(Me₄TACD)Zn–ZnCp*]⁺ (Me₄TACD = N,N′,N′′,N′′′-1,4,7,10-tetramethylcyclododecane) reacts with activated C–H bonds to give the corresponding hydrocarbyl zinc(II) complex [(Me₄TACD)ZnR]⁺ (R = CH₂CN, CCPh).

NiFe–PMA/CNTs homogeneous/heterogeneous hybrid catalyst exhibits low overpotential and a high TOF for the oxygen evolution reaction.

Semiconducting aerogels with tunable luminescence and photocurrent responses were fabricated by freeze-drying of colloidal cyclohexane dispersions of metal halide perovskites.

Extending the length of phenanthrene-based ligands directs the selective assembly of paddlewheel metal–organic cages into tetrahedral, square, or triangular topologies.

The development of theranostic agents for radiopharmaceuticals based on therapeutic alpha emitters marks an important clinical need.

Controlled fabrication of porous (Ni,Co)_0.85Se sheets improves OER performance through optimized electronic properties and enhanced kinetics.

The inherent helical chirality and improved π-stacking capabilities endow helicenes with fascinating photophysical characteristics when decorated with heteroatoms.

The charge of different Ru(II) Electro-Chemi-Luminescent complexes drives their self-organization inside doped silica nanoparticles, increasing the generated ECL signal in a magnetic microbeads-based immunoassay model.

Several liquid crystalline polymer network films with bright multicolour and white circularly polarized luminescence have been fabricated, which exhibit luminescence dissymmetry factors up to 0.85 and fluorescence quantum yields up to 90%.

A highly crystalline and robust Zr-hydroxamate MOF was made from a pyrazine-derived ligand. Featuring abundant chelating sites which were readily metalated with a high Pd loading, the MOF became a versatile and recyclable Suzuki–Miyaura catalyst.

We demonstrate the intrinsic benign point defect properties of the one-dimensional photovoltaic semiconductor Se through a detailed theoretical investigation.

A carbene and photocatalyst-catalyzed 3-acylation of indoles was disclosed, providing access to indole-3-yl aryl ketones, which play important roles in both organic synthesis and diverse types of functional molecules.

In a quest to understand bio-inspired interactions of SO₂ with hosts, we have observed the lone pair⋯π interaction between the aromatic ring and O of SO₂ (3.11 Å), in addition to the interaction between S of SO₂ and metal-bound thiolate (2.63 Å).

Polydopamine nano- and microspheres, with aminochrome as the principal building block, were rapidly and controllably synthesized in microdroplets.

Formal [2+2] cycloaddition between arynes and 2-imidazolones furnishes syn-1,2-diaminobenzocyclobutenes.

Film-electrochemical electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (FE-EPR) enables investigation of electron transfer in membrane proteins in their native membrane environment.

Aberrant activation of the cGAS-STING signaling results in innate immune response induction.