Comment

Plastic waste management is challenged by the inefficiencies and environmental impact of traditional chemical recycling methods. Here, the authors explore the chemoenzymatic cascade depolymerization approach, which offers a promising and sustainable solution for transforming plastic waste into valuable products.

Structural biology is crucial in understanding disease mechanisms and in driving drug and vaccine development—applications that are particularly relevant to Africa’s challenges—yet Africa faces significant barriers to advancing structural biology. Here, the authors outline a recent capacity building workshop run by BioStruct-Africa, focused on training of artificial intelligence tools such as AlphaFold, designed to foster a highly skilled community of structural biologists in Africa.

Coulometric titration time analysis (CTTA) has recently been introduced as a quantitative electrochemical technique to assess the compatibility of Li-ion electrolytes with metallic lithium. Here, the authors outline that the applied stack pressure is a critical factor in influencing CTTA results, highlighting the need for careful stack pressure assessment to perform conclusive CTTA experiments.

Research on the Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO)/Li interface is essential for improving the performance of LLZO-based solid-state batteries. In this comment, the authors present an analysis of the key interfacial phenomena at the LLZO/Li interface, highlighting recent developments and unresolved issues.

Extraterrestrial carbon gives insights into the origin of life and processes that took place billions of years ago in our solar system. Here, the authors provide an overview of what is known and of unanswered questions with a meteoritical focus.

FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) data practices are necessary to expedite knowledge discovery, encourage collaboration, and optimise resource use, fostering a robust foundation for future scientific progress. Here, the authors explore the use of FAIR practices to advance materials chemistry research, examining key repositories, highlighting their role in sharing scientific data, and examining the accessibility of these approaches.

Organic π-conjugated radicals have recently joined the ranks of high-efficiency light-emitting materials, however, their light-emission mechanism is still a matter of debate. Here, the authors highlight a recently proposed luminescent enhancement mechanism and record-breaking efficiency of a radical organic light-emitting diode.

Pupils with vision impairment face significant challenges in learning science. Here, the authors discuss the impact of an inaccessible curriculum and new ideas that can improve accessibility.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a key enabler of sustainable chemical energy storage. Here, the author assesses the current status of protocols for benchmarking the OER in materials- and device-centered investigations and makes suggestions for more comparable data.

The formation of Li dendrites at the Li/electrolyte interface at practically relevant current densities (> 1 mA cm⁻²) is a critical issue hindering the deployment of non-flammable and non-toxic Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO) electrolyte in solid-state batteries. In this comment, the authors argue for an agreement to standardize measurements of the critical current density at which Li dendrites begin to penetrate the LLZO solid-state electrolyte.

Attosecond science is nowadays a well-established research field, and table-top attosecond sources based on high-harmonic generation are routinely used to access electronic motion in matter at its natural time scale. Here, the authors describe a new way of doing chemistry—attochemistry—by directly acting on the electronic motion, and discuss a few key open questions in this emerging field.

Vat-polymerization 3D printing (3DP) enables the high speed printing of precise and intricate 3D models, yet it inevitably produces highly crosslinked polymers that are not easily degradable or recyclable. Here, the author highlights recent work that realizes the formation of fully degradable polymers based on organocatalytic vat-ring-opening photopolymerization 3DP.

Efforts are ongoing to address inequities in scientific fields. Here, the author provides a critical look at the practice and culture of science with calls to action to broaden participation and recognition of talented members from marginalized groups in the chemical sciences.

Liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) underlies the formation of intracellular membraneless compartments in biology and may have played a role in the formation of protocells that concentrate key chemicals during the origins of life. While LLPS of simple systems, such as oil and water, is well understood, many aspects of LLPS in complex, out-of-equilibrium molecular systems remain elusive. Here, the author discusses open questions and recent insights related to the formation, function and fate of such condensates both in cell biology and protocell research.

Efforts to address equitable access to education and research in chemistry are ongoing in many countries around the world. Here, Professor Hind A. Al-Abadleh provides a personal account of her contributions to equity, diversity, and inclusion in the Canadian chemistry community.

To reach a net-zero energy economy by 2050, it is critical to develop negative emission technologies, such as CO₂ reduction electrolyzers, but these devices still suffer from various issues including low utilization of CO₂ because of its cross-over from the cathode to the anode. This comment highlights the recent innovative design of membrane electrode assembly, utilizing a bipolar membrane and catholyte layer that blocks CO₂ cross-over and enables high CO₂ single-pass utilization.

Pinpointing double bond (C=C) positions in native lipid extracts is beyond the capabilities of standard mass spectrometry-based approaches. This article highlights a novel untargeted workflow supported by the open-source software MS-RIDD, that allows for semi-automated annotation of C=C locations with high confidence.

Adiabatic state preparation (ASP) represents an efficient way of generating correlated wave functions on quantum computers for subsequent quantum simulation. Here, the author discusses recent work that numerically studied the performance of ASP on strongly correlated molecules and presented several approaches of improving the quality of prepared ground state wave functions.

It has been a great joint achievement of astronomy, laboratory spectroscopy and quantum chemistry to identify interstellar molecules in various astronomical environments and piece together their origins story from the fragmented evidence. Here the authors provide a sketch of what we know and motivate the asking of open questions on carbon-based molecules in space.

Strong emergence is the main form of emergence that has been defended with respect to chemistry, and in particular molecular structure. Here, the author spells out this form of emergence, proposes new ways in which one can further explore the question of emergence, and explains why investigating emergence should be of interest not only to philosophers but to chemists as well.