Themed collection Chemistry for a Sustainable World – Celebrating Our Community Tackling Global Challenges

This review provides an in-depth analysis of the recent progress in bifunctional transition-metal catalysts for NWE, highlighting their critical role in both the degradation of nitrogenous pollutants and the generation of hydrogen energy.

This review examines LDHs as UOR electrocatalysts a key process in urea-assisted hydrogen production. It discusses their limitations and explores strategies for performance enhancement of LDHs. Future research directions are also highlighted.

This review highlights the role of polymer and composite materials in advancing the green hydrogen economy, supporting a low-carbon future, and outlines future research directions.

This review provides insights into the biointerface interactions of wearable patches, focusing on their design strategies, research progress, and emerging medical applications.

Photodegradable photosensitizers minimize post-treatment side effects and improving the overall safety profile of photodynamic therapy.

Fast-charge ability is essential for organic materials in high-power sodium storage. A highlight covers the challenges, strategies and future perspectives related to organic molecular design for high-power density sodium ion batteries.

Bio-based vitrimers represent a green and sustainable bridge between thermoplastics and thermosets.

Structural transformation of electrocatalyst contributes to its catalytic activity and selectivity. Properly guided and stabilized transformation offers enhanced catalyst performance, while unregulated surface reconstruction may lead to deactivation.

The application, challenges and prospects of isothermal amplification for AMR detection in conjunction with different technologies in terms of high assay specificity, high throughput and integration are summarized.

This review summarizes the recent focus on the dynamic evolution of atomic metal–nitrogen-codoped catalysts in electrocatalytic reactions.

We highlight recent advances and future directions in the electrocatalytic upgrading of NO_x into value-added chemicals.

We summarise the recent surge of interest in CALF-20, which stems from its remarkable balance of properties, including stability, durability, and processability, as well as its utility for CO₂ capture at industrial scales.

This review systematically summarizes the electrochemical mechanisms, material synthesis methods, and modification strategies for Mn-based tunnel-structured cathodes while also proposing future research directions.

This work summarizes macrocyclic catalysis strategies for overcoming aqueous-phase reactivity challenges, product inhibition, and catalyst compatibility in “one-pot” reactions.

This mini-review highlights the scientific breakthroughs in photochemical upcycling polymers through oxidative degradation and post-polymerization modification via visible light-driven C–H bond activation.

Smart polymers represent a class of advanced materials that undergo reversible changes in their physical or chemical form and are known as responsive polymers.

This review focuses on the sulfurization of transition metal inorganic compounds and the effect of sulfurization on redox reactions in Li-S batteries, examining the current developments and providing insights into the prospects of the sulfurization.

Recent developments in flow protocols for the Minisci reaction highlight its versatility and potential for industrial applications.

This highlight provides an overview of methods for carbon–carbon bond formation using sustainable aromatics derived from biomass.

We provide a comprehensive overview of the latest research progress and development strategies for high-performance chemiresistive H₂ sensors, highlighting the enhancement strategies that have been employed to improve sensor performance.

Biomass-derived carbon materials (BDCMs) are considered as promising and practical electrode materials for solid-state supercapacitors (SSCs), which are beneficial to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals 7, 11-13.

Direct functionalization of alkenes with C(sp³)–H substrates offers unique opportunities for the rapid construction of pharmaceuticals and natural products.

The COF-based SACs and DACs, including their design, synthesis, applications, and electrocatalysis mechanism, are reviewed by investigating their catalytic mechanisms underlying both the oxygen reduction reaction and oxygen evolution reaction.

The recent advancements in the functional design of metal-aerogels for wearable electrochemical sensors and their application in biomarker monitoring are highlighted.

Flexible porous materials that exhibit extreme guest-induced phase transformations are under valued in terms of their potential utility. As detailed herein, recent advances in understanding and properties of such adsorbents should change this view.

Enzyme-based techniques play an important role in the process of DNA information storage.

A review of the state-of-the-art advances for upgrading ethanol to n-butanol via the Guerbet reaction catalyzed by molecular homogeneous complexes is provided here. Key advancements in catalyst design based on mechanistic understanding is discussed.

This feature article highlights the recent advances, challenges and future scope of transition metal phosphides as bifunctional oxygen electrocatalysts for aqueous zinc–air batteries.

Electrochemical recycling of waste NdFeB magnets through molten salt electrolysis and room-temperature electrolysis.

This feature article provides a thorough summary on replacing toxic solvents with non-toxic green solvents for sustainable perovskite solar cells.

This article presents a review of catalytic processes used at low temperatures to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) and nitrous oxide (N₂O), which are exceedingly important in terms of their environmental impacts on the Earth.

This feature article mainly outlines the advances in the precise design of inorganic- and organic-based porous electrocatalysts towards the enhancement of oxygen evolution reaction (OER) properties to achieve efficient water-splitting reaction.

This feature article focuses on classifying pollutants that degrade indoor air quality (IAQ) and highlights next-generation nanofilter technologies to address them.

This feature article highlights recent progress in shell waste biorefinery, focusing on chitin extraction, upgrading to key chemicals and future research trends.

In this review, the potential role of machine learning in sustainable energy and SGDs is analyzed; energy forecasting, planning, renewable energy production and storage are covered and an extensive perspective on the future role of ML is provided.

Since the seminal work by Trofimenko (1960s), scorpionate ligands have emerged as pivotal components in the field of coordination chemistry and catalysis. They have demonstrated a remarkable versatility for the preparation of sustainable polymers.

Progress in the study of ether-based polymer electrolytes for in situ polymerization is reviewed, including ring-opening polymerization, Li⁺ conduction mechanism, and recycling of ether-based polymer electrolytes.

Key advances in introducing built-in electric fields to guide the surface dynamic reconstruction of oxygen evolution reaction electrocatalysts are summarized.

This Feature highlights the most prominent features of atomically thin 2D materials and their potential for emerging photovoltaics.

Recent works on practical and recyclable catalysts for the cycloaddition of CO₂ to epoxides are reviewed with an eye to the use of inexpensive, readily-available, non-toxic materials and to future emerging designs.

Recent advances in ordered membrane electrode assemblies for water electrolysis are reviewed, highlighting their fundamental concepts and structural characteristics. Key challenges and potential solutions are also discussed.

This feature article highlights the potential of ball milling in synthesizing pharmaceutically important classes of molecules under solvent-free conditions.

Terpolymerization reactions of epoxides, CO₂, and the third monomers such as cyclic anhydrides, lactones, lactides, heteroallenes, and olefins give polymers with controlled structures and properties.

The electrochemical reaction mechanism of various plastic wastes and the recent developments of four types of plastic waste-assisted electrolysis systems are discussed, and the challenges that hinder scalable implementation are pointed out.

Oxamidato-based MOFs in water remediation: the most remarkable examples of the application of oxamidato-based bioMOFs for the selective and efficient removal of emerging pollutants are highlighted in this feature article.

A schematic depiction of the various solid–solid interfaces existing in a porous electrode.

This feature article highlights the contribution of ionic liquids, as better alternatives to conventional solvating and templating media, in the sustainable synthesis of anisotropic and photo-catalytically active nanoparticles and their composites.

This work focused on renewable polymers derived from lipid compounds, including triacylglycerol, terpenes/terpenoids and rosin gum.

This Feature article discusses the conversion of lignin into high-value chemicals using metabolic engineering.

Progress in chemical recycling of waste polyesters (waste plastic refinery) was reviewed and prospected, newly reported thermal catalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and biocatalysis in the recycle of waste PET-based product were introduced.

The review examines the structure–function relationship and outlines future directions to develop heterogeneous catalysts for C–C and C–O bonds cleavage in plastic waste and upcycling real-world plastic waste into chemicals and fuels.

This work presents the first recyclable multi-layer films with an impedance optimization design, created via simulation screening, that consists of films ordered and arranged to enhance the absorption bandwidth from 0 GHz to 2.17 GHz.

Modelling reveals how zeolites and water stabilize a dicationic dye – cationic neurotransmitter complex for sensing.

We synthesized novel polyimides and their hybrid films integrating a hyper-branched oligomeric phosphazene, which exhibited excellent mechanical properties, water resistance, flame retardancy, and a lowered dielectric constant.

Self-organized subnanoporous membranes prepared from ionic liquid-crystalline compounds exhibit CO₂ separation properties in humid conditions.

A new Ru(II)-complex with an amino-di(NHC) CNC pincer ligand was developed and characterised. In combination with an ionic liquid, it efficiently catalyses formic acid dehydrogenation under mild, additive-free conditions, producing H₂ and CO₂.

A protocol for mono-substitution of quinoxalines/ quinoxaline-2(1H)-ones with indoles and lead to indolocarbazole-quinoxalines with good yields under transition metal-free conditions.

Identification of U(IV), U(V) and U(VI) oxidation states in rocks can be achieved with HERFD-XRF imaging at the uranium M₄ edge.

We present a facile strategy to improve the conductivity and homogeneousness of NiO_x NPs. The flexible perovskite solar cells prepared with NiO_x achieved impressive efficiencies of 22.68% under AM 1.5G and 35.59% under 1000 lux, respectively.

An extended conjugated bipolar polymer cathode is developed for rechargeable magnesium batteries, which undergoes p- and n-doping with enhanced charge delocalization. The extended conjugated structure guarantees high capacity and cycling stability.

Masked hexakis(thio)triphenylene, HVaTT (boy wearing a mask), deprotects (dropping off the mask) and chelates Zn(II) ions (boy grasping the Zn(II) ball) to form a single-crystal 3-fold interpenetrating Zn-tetrathiolate framework (HTT-Zn).

Transforming CO₂ into short-chain olefins via a methanol-mediated route is challenging due to CO byproduct formation.

Degradation or recycling of styrene-copolymers whose main chains are saturated carbon chains is very difficult under natural conditions.

MoS₂ nanosheet-supported Rh nanoclusters were synthesized via molten salt electrolysis followed by wet chemical reduction for high-performance electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution.

This study presents a novel synthetic method to synthesize fully bio-based cellulose esters from natural aldehydes in a multi-functional ionic liquid (as a solvent for cellulose and as an esterification and oxidation catalyst) in atmospheric oxygen.

A facile spectrometric determination of lignin in corn straw was constructed through dissolving the lignin–carbohydrate complex in aqueous solution at room temperature.

Blue emitting zinc based coordination polymer glass: successfully suppressing aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) of solid-state perylene within a glass matrix.