Themed collection Chemical Communications HOT Articles 2023

This article reviews the methodologies available to achieve C–C bond formation via photocatalytic and photo-electrocatalytic direct functionalization of simple alkanes.

2D metal–organic networks on solid substrates are promising materials for sensing, catalysis, and nanomagnetism. This article reviews lanthanide metal–organic coordination networks, focusing on their structure, electronic and magnetic properties.

Multimetallic catalysis is a powerful strategy to access complex molecular scaffolds efficiently from easily available starting materials.

Possible ways to scale-up electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR), and what are the promising and gap areas in CO₂RR are emphasized in the current manuscript, while addressing the carbon neutral economy.

This Highlight examines key strategies that have enabled the structural authentication of important species that shed light on fundamental on-cycle intermediates in transition-metal-catalysed cross-couplings.

This Highlight overviews recent advancements in the past eight years (since 2015) in nickel-catalyzed asymmetric cyclization and cycloaddition of alkynes with unsaturated functional groups.

This highlight summarises electrochemical approaches for the generation and utilization of alkoxy radicals, predominantly focusing on recent advances (2012–present).

This minireview highlights advances in the application of small-molecule photoswitches towards the design of controllable functional reporters for fluorescence microscopy.

Solution-based reactions are a staple of synthetic chemistry—but what happens mechanochemically, when there is no solvent?

This feature article provides a comprehensive overview of recent developments and applications of Bobbitt's salt and 4-acetamidoTEMPO in organic synthesis and fields beyond.

Cages at work: structural tunability results in tailored properties, which makes these systems suitable for countless applications in sensing and separation processes, both in solution and the solid state.

This feature article describes recent examples of the implementation of two types of organic electronic materials including phenothiazine and truxene in heterogeneous photocatalysis for organic synthesis.

Dual reactivity based dynamic covalent chemistry was developed via activating/switching the reaction pathways of ring-chain tautomers toward diverse reversible systems. The underlying mechanistic insights and versatile applications are summarized.

Simple organic chemistry can be used to introduce, into silicone elastomers, organic/natural materials that deliver functionality in the form of new, useful properties including enhanced sustainability.

This Feature Article summarizes the recent progress in prodrug activation mediated by controllable bioorthogonal catalysis.

Main group elements are promising for developing electrochemical H₂ production or CO₂ reduction catalysts.

Combining a working knowledge of reaction mechanism with statistical modelling is a powerful approach to prediction.

Recent advances in understanding the electronic structure of metal ammonia complexes enable development of novel materials with diffuse electrons and catalytic applications.

Latest advances in the chemistry of pyramidanes, a novel type of the polyhedral clusters featuring main group element at the inverted tetrahedral apical position, are overviewed, highlighting their synthetic strategies and specific reactivity.

Examples of C–H modification of natural products as a minimalist enabling tactic to improve pharmacophysical properties are overviewed.

When a defined protein/peptide (or combinations thereof) control and define the synthesis of an inorganic nanoparticle, the result is a cloneable NanoParticle (cNP).

This article reviews the strategies available to achieve the umpolung of diazocompounds and the synthetic applications of such compounds.

To delineate the state-of-the-art, we provide a critical assessment of the recent works by our and other groups concerning plasmonic photocatalysis, which is expected to guide future research in plasmon-enhanced value-added chemical transformations.

The bacterial cell wall is assembled via a coordinated biosynthetic cycle employing various membrane-anchored precursors. Sequestration of these uniquely bacterial building blocks remains a highly effective antibiotic strategy.

Ferrocene is precursor of [FeCp(arene)]ⁿ⁺ (n = 0–2), redox and electrocatalysts and motifs generating dendrimer cores upon multiple C–C bond formations. Dendrimer functionalization including with ferrocene led to numerous properties and applications.

One of the ultimate goals of chemistry is to understand and manipulate chemical reactions, which implies the ability to monitor the reaction and its underlying mechanism at an atomic scale.

Single-molecule measurements provide a large amount of conductance data that varies over a wide range. We reviewed the development of machine learning-based analysis for reliable single-molecule measurement.

The latest developments and applications in highly accurate quantitative NMR of complex mixtures.

Water plays an essential role in the development of society.

This article reviews the recent progress of magnetic research of graphene in different dimensions under various of regulatory techniques.

Fluorine-containing materials have enriched the field of molecular and cellular MRI with unambiguous and quantitative detection capabilities.

Synthetic DNA walkers that traverse stochastically on 2D and 3D tracks pave a promising way to design biosensors for diverse analytical applications.

This Feature Article provides a brief review on the preparation of platinum–cobalt intermetallic nanostructures as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction in hydrogen-powered fuel cells, especially for improving the catalyst durability.

Nuclear receptor modulation enables pharmacological control of gene expression and holds great therapeutic potential. Chemical tools are lacking for many nuclear receptors but needed to reveal new therapeutic opportunities.

Cyanobacterial secondary metabolite biosynthesis often involves the use of a rich enzymatic arsenal for the incorporation and modification of fatty acid-derived moieties.

Well-defined organometallic cations supported on high surface area oxides are promising heterogeneous catalysts.

Chemometers, polymeric passive equilibrium samplers, are promising tools for environmental and human health assessment of a broad range of hydrophobic organic compounds and allow for direct comparison of chemical profiles and levels across media.

This feature article summarizes the recent progress on the rational design of atomic site catalysts for electrochemical CO₂ reduction.

Summary of the synthesis, structures and catalytic applications of Zr- and Ti-based MOFs.

Plasmonic “Quenchancement”: in this feature article, we discuss the interplay of different quenching and enhancement mechanisms that influence the development of metal–quantum dot nanohybrid biosensors.

The synergy between wireless unconventional actuation and chiral stimuli can be used as a straightforward read out of chiral information.

The metal–pnictogen bond has rich and varied reactivity. The differences and similarities down the group and impacts on catalytic reactions with these elements is explored in this Feature.

The progress and prospects in the field of multi-stimuli-responsive vertical Schottky-barrier transistor technology are reviewed.

The chemistry of aluminyl compounds has rapidly expanded since their discovery in 2018 and is evaluated in this summary.

Exact quantum dynamics developments make it possible to have a fundamentally correct and detailed description of quantum nuclear motions.

This review covers redox-active polyimides in energy conversion and storage applications along with the recent progress in the synthetic methods and topological control used to produce polyimides.

The FE of CO₂RR products seriously deviates from 100% due to the misjudgment of outlet flow at large current density. Several modified equations and calibration methods are recommended to establish benchmarks for CO₂ reduction product assessment.

Gold nanoparticles were functionalized with natural abundance and ¹³C-labeled N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) to investigate the Au–C stretch.

The enantio-kinetic threading of chiral guests by chiral porphyrin hosts is determined by the planar chirality of the host and influenced by the size but not the chirality of the substituent X.

The presence of the 1,2,4,5-tetrazinyl radical (tz˙⁻) in a tetranuclear Tb^III metallocence leads to strong magnetic coupling and slow magnetic relaxation. Magneto-optical studies complete the spectroscopical profile of this magnetic unity.

The charge carrier dynamics of SrTiO₃ are measured on fast (ps–ns) timescales, to reveal remarkably slow bimolecular recombination compared to alternative metal oxides commonly employed in photocatalytic applications.

A novel organic–inorganic hybrid material [Me₃NCH₂CH₂F]FeBr₄ (1) with a true three-step “on–off–on–off” SHG switch above room temperature is a rare nonlinear optical (NLO) material.

Herein, a septenary hydroxide nanoarray catalyst with a unique wire-on-sheet morphology and high-entropy feature was fabricated, which exhibits boosted pre-oxidation behavior and enhanced performance towards the oxygen evolution reaction.

The importance of internal non-metallic elements in stabilizing metallofullerenes has been investigated through a comparative study of Lu₂C₂/Lu₂O/Lu₂@C₂(13333)-C₇₄.

pH-Triggered visual detection of bacteria was achieved based on a probe which was prepared by co-assembly of bacitracin and thymolphthalein.

Aided by the synergistic effect of cross-linking AlNw and the “thermal conducting micro-bridges” of AgNPs, composite films with an extremely high in-plane thermal conductivity were prepared.

Herein we report for the first time the synthesis of a high entropy (CuZnCoInGa)S metal sulfide thin film deposited by AACVD using molecular precursors.

The activation of alkynes was achieved by Se⋯π bonding, enabling cyclization of 1,6-diynes to take place.

The selective activation of C–C bonds holds vast promise for catalysis.

Power conversion efficiency of 18.59% from 17.27% has been achieved using thermal annealing-free solid additive octafluoronaphthalene-modified organic solar cells.

A continuous magnetic separation microfluidic chip and a single-cell array chip for high throughput continuous real-time monitoring of CTCs in vivo.

A single crystal growth method for low solubility polycyclic aromatic substrates based on competitive host–guest equilibria is developed.

Internal and external binding modes of guests with a Co₈L₁₂ cage were uncovered by mass spectrometry.

We construct a sensitive chemiluminescent biosensor for sensitive detection of cytosine deaminase APOBEC3A based on deamination-triggered exponential signal amplification.

A 1D (HM)Pb₂Br₆ based on hexamethonium has been developed for broadband red emission with a PLQY of 6.24%. Mechanistic investigations reveal that the red emission derives from the self-localized Pb₂³⁺, Pb³⁺ and Br₂⁻ species.

Ru-doped CoFe-based layered double hydroxides in situ grown on Ni foam were fabricated by an etching-precipitation strategy, boosting bifunctional water splitting efficiently.

Perylene bisimides equipped with bulky imide substituents self-assemble into orthogonally stacked dimers or bind up to two aromatic guests. These complexes were confirmed by single crystal X-ray analysis and their optical properties were elucidated.

Herein, we report the insertion of a difluoromethylene into 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-2-arylethyl copper complexes to synthesize extended perfluoroalkyl-bridged compounds with various functional groups on each edge.

Reversible crystal-glass phase transitions of several Sb-based halides and their switching luminescence were reported, and information encryption and anti-counterfeiting applications were achieved.

We investigate in detail the influence of O, S, and N functionalization of Pt₃Co/C catalysts on the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).