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Theoretical studies predict that the introduction of nitrogen atoms onto cycloparaphenylene frameworks would add fascinating properties but few partially N-doped carbon nanorings have been synthesized. Here, the authors report the synthesis of a cycloparaazine, where every para-connected aromatic moiety consists of a N-heterocycle, and two other highly N-doped carbon nanorings.

Strategies for the creation of topological carbon nanostructures have greatly advanced synthetic organic chemistry and materials science. Now, the synthesis of a Möbius carbon nanobelt, a molecule with a twist on belt-shaped aromatic hydrocarbons, is reported.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are typically produced as a mixture of tubes with different diameters and sidewall structures — parameters that determine the optical and electronic properties of these materials. Now, it has been shown that discrete carbon nanorings can be used as templates to control the bottom-up growth of CNTs with a narrow distribution of diameters.

Conventional synthesis of nanocarbons, such as graphene, fullerenes and carbon nanotubes, yields mixtures of molecules with varying structures. However, harnessing the full potential of these materials demands atomically precise synthesis methods. Recent advances using organic chemistry are discussed in this Review.

The Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling is a mainstay of organic synthesis, allowing carbon-carbon bond formation between a variety of coupling partners. Here, the authors report a decarbonylative process, whereby alkyl or aryl esters can be coupled with organoboron compounds using nickel catalysts.

Bottom-up synthesis of nanographenes is highly desirable. Here, the authors report one-shot annulative π-extension reactions that occur at the convex armchair edge of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and show that unfunctionalized precursors can be used for π-component assembly and extension.

Synthetic methods for the preparation of perfluorinated aromatic compounds are desirable in materials science. Here, the authors synthesize perfluorocycloparaphenylenes, fully fluorinated carbon nanorings, through a nickel-mediated one-pot method.

Nanographenes and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are important classes of compounds with numerous applications, but challenging to access due to a lack of programmable and diversity-oriented methods. Here, the authors report a diversity-oriented, growth-from-template synthesis of nanographenes enabled by iterative annulative π-extension reactions from small PAH starting materials.

The synthesis of a zigzag carbon nanobelt has been achieved through an iterative Diels–Alder reaction followed by reductive aromatization. The isolated nanobelt was fully characterized by X-ray crystallography and its wide energy gap with blue fluorescence properties was revealed by photophysical measurements.

The Mackay crystal is a proposed—but synthetically unachieved—nanocarbon molecule that is anticipated to have many desirable properties. Now, a strategy based on annulative coupling of chlorophenanthrene derivatives is reported, allowing streamlined access to an important substructure.

Narrow-band thermal emitters are still scarce despite their potential for infrared energy conversion applications. Here the thermal emission of one-dimensional carbon nanotubes up to 2000 K is reported to exhibit very narrow excitonic emission with a full-width at half-maximum of approximately 170 meV.

Though single-walled carbon nanotubes should theoretically be extremely strong, it is unclear why their experimental tensile strengths are far lower and vary between nanotubes. Here, the authors directly measure the tensile strengths of individual structure-defined carbon nanotubes, revealing key insights into the relationship between their chemical structure and strength.

Synthesis of aromatic belts with embedded thiophene structures, which manifest significant optoelectronic and conductive properties, has not yet been achieved. Herein, the authors report the synthesis of thiophene-fused aromatic belts via one-step sulfur cross-linking reaction of partially fluorinated cycloparaphenylenes.

A grossly warped nanographene, C₈₀H₃₀, that incorporates five 7-membered rings and one 5-membered ring embedded in a hexagonal lattice has been synthesized, isolated and fully characterized. Experiments revealing how the properties of such a large graphene subunit are affected by multiple odd-membered-ring defects are also reported.

The Birch reduction, although widely used and effective, suffers from significant limitations in the available nucleophiles, since in most cases only alkyl halides and silyl chlorides are available. Herein, the authors report a Birch reductive arylation by mechanochemical anionic activation using a lithium(0) wire followed by addition of various fluoroarenes.

Unsubstituted aromatic polymers are materials with multiple potential applications, but their preparation remains challenging. Here, the authors report a dendrimer-enabled synthesis of soluble bare aromatic polymers and explore their properties; these compounds can be further transformed into other materials.

A lack of general methods for making multisubstituted benzene derivatives means that only a small fraction of the huge number of possible structures based on this ubiquitous building block have been explored. Now, a programmed synthesis of hexaarylbenzenes using C–H activation, cross-coupling and [4 + 2] cycloaddition reactions has been developed that can also be applied to tetraarylnaphthalenes and pentaarylpyridines.

This study reports Stomidazolone, a doubly-sulfonylated imidazolone that inhibits stomatal differentiation by binding to the ACT-Like domain of MUTE, disrupting its interaction with the bHLH partner SCREAM, which expands the chemical toolkit for manipulating bHLH-ACTL protein interactions, offering new avenues for controlling plant development.

The authors describe a brassicales-specific metabolite BITC as a stomatal opening inhibitor that suppresses PM H⁺-ATPase phosphorylation. They develop BITC derivatives with higher inhibitory activity that act as drought tolerance–conferring agrochemicals.

The circadian clock is an internal mechanism that controls various physiological processes, such as the sleep-wake cycle, but its precise regulation is challenging. Here, the authors develop a visible light-responsive inhibitor of casein kinase I which controls the period and phase of cellular and tissue circadian rhythms in a reversible manner.

A solution-based living annulative π-extension polymerization technique produces graphene nanoribbons with simultaneous control over their length, width and edges, resulting in the synthesis of graphene nanoribbon block copolymers.

Cell-based phenotypic screening of small-molecule circadian clock modulators identified isoform-selective compounds for highly homologous clock proteins CRY1 and CRY2, revealing a key role of the disordered C-terminal region in compound selectivity.

A synthetic, orthogonal pair of the plant hormone auxin and its receptor TIR1 was engineered to hijack auxin signaling without interfering with the endogenous system. The synthetic system conclusively demonstrates the role for TIR1 in auxin-induced acid growth.