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Electric fields have been proposed as having a distinct ability to catalyse chemical reactions through stabilizing polar intermediates. Here, the authors show that electric fields can catalyse the cis-to-trans isomerization reactions of cumulenes in solution in a scanning tunnelling microscope

Perylene diimide-bithiophene macrocycles are electroactive and shape-persistent hosts. Here, the authors describe their self-assembly into a cellular organic semiconducting film whose voids are electrically sensitive to different guests, and which can function as the active layer in a field-effect transistor device.

Using ethnically and geographically diverse metagenomic data, the authors identify microbiota alterations associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). They discover universal IBD-associated bacteria, which serve as the basis for a multibacteria biomarker panel that could support a noninvasive tool for IBD diagnosis.

Electric conductance through an atomic cluster shows signatures of a Coulomb blockade effect with an on/off ratio of ∼600.

Designing long and highly conducting molecular wires has been a great challenge for decades. It has now been shown that a singly oxidized 2.6-nm-long oligophenylene-bridged bis(triarylamine) can show a single-molecule junction conductance over 0.1G₀.

In atomic solids, substitutional doping is a powerful approach to modulating materials properties. Now, three substitutional mixtures of {Co₆Se₈} and {Cr₆Te₈} clusters in a crystal lattice with C₆₀ fullerenes have been prepared. At two Co:Cr mixing ratios, the solid solutions showed particularly high electrical conductivities and low activation barriers for electron transport, owing to their structural heterogeneity.

Molecular-scale switches will be central components in nanoscale electronic devices. Switching in single-molecule junctions has so far been achieved through changes in the conformation or charge state of the molecule. Now, reversible binary switching has been demonstrated by mechanical control of the metal–molecule contact geometry—a mechanism which could form the basis for a new class of mechanically activated single-molecule switches.

Pseudocapacitors exhibit charge-storage mechanisms leading to high-capacity and rapidly cycling devices. An organic system designed via molecular contortion is now shown to exhibit unprecedented electrochemical performance and stability.

In organic photovoltaics, the best-performing devices are often based on fullerene derivatives as the electron acceptor counterpart. Here, the authors present new molecular electron acceptors with a helical structure and achieve 8.3% power conversion efficiency.

Creating molecular components with controllable electronic properties is crucial to the realization of nanoscale devices. Now, a single-molecule conductance switch that operates through a stereoelectronic effect has been developed. The sub-ångström control of a scanning tunnelling microscope is used to switch reversibly between two distinct sets of rotational isomers, which differ greatly in their electronic character.

A two-dimensional crystalline polymer of C₆₀, termed graphullerene, is synthesized by chemical vapour transport, and mechanically exfoliated to produce molecularly thin flakes with clean interfaces for potential optoelectronic applications.

Long-standing radical species have raised noteworthy concerns in organic chemistry and but there remains a substantial challenge to produce long-standing radicals by light. Here, the authors demonstrate a stable dithienylethene derived photochromic radical for detection of peroxides and ozone.

Gold–thiol contacts are ubiquitous across the physical and biological sciences, connecting organic molecules to surfaces. Now, conductance measurements of different sulfur-bound single-molecule junctions show that thiols—in contrast to the prevailing view—are not chemisorbed on gold, which strongly suggests that the thiol hydrogen is retained.

Functional dyspepsia is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by discomfort or pain in the upper abdomen (generally associated with food intake) with no apparent underlying organic cause. The three subtypes of functional dyspepsia are postprandial distress syndrome, epigastric pain syndrome and a subtype with mixed features.

Single-molecule electronic junctions comprise three components: anchors, electrodes and the molecular bridge. This Review surveys the relationship between the chemical structures and the electronic properties of each component, and extends the discussion to switching functions and the phenomenon of quantum interference.

This Review describes recent work where scanning probe techniques are used to effect the formation and cleavage of chemical bonds. We contextualize this progress in terms of single-molecule manipulation and summarize implications for synthetic chemistry and future studies.