Articles in 2024

Ahead of his 75th birthday, Robin Perutz, Emeritus Professor at the University of York, discusses his career combining theory and experiment to probe reactivity while also promoting the inclusion of marginalized groups into science.

Exploration of the coordination chemistry and electronic structure of the actinides is fundamental to understanding factors that govern their reactivity during chemical processing and their behaviour in the environment. Here, we show the recent progress in how X-ray spectroscopy has allowed us to look more closely to these properties.

This Review focuses on recent advances in synthetic molecular cage receptors for carbohydrate recognition. It distinguishes between covalent organic cages and coordination cages, based on their structural characteristics, highlighting their unique advantages in recognizing carbohydrates.

An automated electrochemical flow platform is shown to enhance reaction efficiency, minimize material use, and accelerate data generation. Through Design of Experiments, the platform optimized a reaction, achieving a six-fold improvement in yield, and holds promise for optimizing other reactions.

Forensic science is a mixture of specialties, including many chemistry subdisciplines, that focus on the idea of traces — marks that are remnants of past events. The findings should be affected by scene examination, time factors and context rather than an overreliance on the precision of the laboratory results.

Ahead of his 75th birthday, A. R. (Ravi) Ravishankara, Professor in the Departments of Chemistry and Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University, reflects on his career in atmospheric chemistry as well as his contribution to combatting the depletion of the ozone layer.

Our improved understanding of how to tame aryl radicals means they are now used in many transformations to access high-value products. This Review provides a summary of contemporary approaches towards the photogeneration of aryl radicals and their use in metal-free cross-coupling reactions.

Metal/MXene composites are a combination of metals with highly conductive MXenes that results in an enhanced functionality in energy storage, catalysis, and biomedical applications. However, controlling metal deposition into uniform patterns has been challenging, which impacts their performance. A novel in situ reduction strategy now overcomes these challenges, offering unparalleled ability to control metal size and deposition.

A novel method to detect proteins interacting with triplex DNA in living cells has been developed. This approach provides new insights into triplex DNA regulation and highlights potential therapeutic targets to prevent DNA damage.

Through the collaboration of two members of the ACS Committee on Chemists with Disabilities, a prototype Braille periodic table has been created. This project is part of a wider goal of making chemistry accessible to all.

Advances in photoredox catalysis have led to considerable developments in organic chemistry and its applied subfields. We discuss the development of low-energy light-absorbing photocatalysts and their use in synthesis, polymer chemistry, and biology.

One electron σ-bonds were first proposed in 1931 but most discussion since then has been at a theoretical level. The first experimentally observed single-electron C–C bond both advances our fundamental understanding of bonding and provides the basis of an approach to creating a new class of molecules.

Advances in activatable organic photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy are reviewed, highlighting novel synthetic methodologies, their integration into bioconjugates, and their potential in antimicrobial and anticancer treatments, addressing off-target toxicity and enhancing targeted ablation of pathogenic cells.

A new study explores the catalytic potential of green rust for selectively converting carbon monoxide (CO) to acetone without an applied potential. Its unique electronic properties suggest promising applications in CO remediation and future catalyst design.

Supramolecular metal-based structures have immense potential for biomedical applications as multimodal theranostic platforms. This Review gives an overview of the design principles and synthetic strategies; it also highlights the achievements in the field of radiochemistry.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative disease of the central nervous system. Two early-career researchers in supramolecular chemistry share their experiences of navigating academia whilst managing MS.

Glass transition temperatures are determined through, for instance, calorimetry, but maybe machine learning models can predict them. Here, researchers test this idea with published data as input for the model, to find a close correlation between predicted and experimental values. 

Porous nanoreactors are a class of nanometre-sized materials with embedded catalytic sites. These reactors can be single- or multi-compartmented, and with or without shells, providing a multi-scale material that can be tailored to various applications such as catalysis, energy storage and bioengineering.

Ahead of his 80th birthday, Jean-Pierre Sauvage discussed his career in science from a lab in his cellar to the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Flexizymes can be used to prepare nonproteinogenic aminoacyl-tRNAs (npAA-tRNAs) by activating amino acids with suitable leaving groups, leading to ribosomal incorporation of npAAs by genetic code reprogramming. This enables the ribosomal synthesis of unique peptides and proteins containing various npAAs.