Shilpi Kushwaha received her PhD (2012) from the Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU), Vadodara, and then worked as a Fulbright-Nehru Postdoctoral Research Fellow (PDF) at Arizona State University and as a Young Scientist (DST-YS) at the National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune. She is an assistant professor at the Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) and a scientist at the Central

Fei Sun is currently an associate professor at the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). He obtained his BS and PhD degrees from Peking University and the University of Chicago, respectively. Before joining HKUST, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology. His primary research interests

Cafer T. Yavuz received his PhD from Rice University in 2008 with a Welch scholarship under the supervision of Vicki Colvin. He then worked as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with Galen Stucky. He started his independent group in 2010 at KAIST, Korea. He is currently a professor of chemistry at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia

Guangshan Zhu received his BSc (1993) and PhD (1998) degrees in chemistry from Jilin University. He is now a full professor at Northeast Normal University. Driven by the demands in sustainable energy and environments, his current research interest focuses on the design and synthesis of porous aromatic frameworks for gas adsorption, separation, and uranium capture.

Hui Li received his PhD from Xinjiang University, after which he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at South China University of Technology and Soochow University. He is currently a research assistant in Prof. Shuao Wang’s group at Soochow University, where he studies uranium extraction from seawater using MOFs and COFs. Shuao Wang received his PhD from the University of Notre Dame and then worked as

Understanding the relationship between catalytic selectivity and surface structures of heterogeneous catalysts is essential for high-performance catalysis. In this issue of Chem, Zhu et al. report a puzzle-solving strategy relying on single-crystal foils and Pearson correlation analysis to determine the dependence of catalytic activity on the principal surface parameters.

Harnessing free radical intermediates for selective functionalization of organic compounds has been widely demonstrated under photocatalytic conditions requiring a distinct photocatalyst. In this issue of Chem, Seo, Chang, and co-workers demonstrate an alternative photocatalyst-free light-mediated approach that allows efficient amidation of aldehydes via N-centered radical intermediate.

Grain size and shape and the structure of grain boundaries greatly influence the mechanical, electrical, and optical properties of polycrystalline metals and alloys. In this issue of Chem, Nagaoka et al. take a bottom-up approach to grain boundary engineering by consolidating colloidal nanocrystals into millimeter-scale polycrystalline and metallic glass samples.

Download : Download high-res image (148KB) Download : Download full-size imageLuca Catalano received his Bachelor’s in Chemistry from the University of Milan (2011) and his MS in Photochemistry and Molecular Materials from the University of Bologna, working with Professor Dario Braga (2013). He then earned his PhD in supramolecular chemistry from the Polytechnic University of Milan under the supervision

In the December issue of Chem, Li et al. developed an operando Mössbauer spectroscopy to portray a spin-crossover-involved mechanism of a single-Fe-atom electrocatalyst during the oxygen reduction reaction. This technique broadens and deepens the perspective on single-site catalysts at the electronic level.

Selectively adding functionality to commodity plastics is an abiding challenge in polymer science. In this issue of Chem, Hartwig and co-workers describe a selective, catalytic oxidation of polyethylene C–H bonds by using high-valent ruthenium-oxo species. The transformation increases polyethylene’s adhesive properties without significantly modifying its thermal stability or mechanical strength.

In this issue of Chem, Metrangolo and colleagues describe the selective mechanochemical formation of three-component halogen-bonded ionic co-crystals that adopt a Borromean ring topology. Intriguingly, a seemingly minor adjustment of the milling conditions results in profound changes to the supramolecular reaction trajectory and final product, as monitored by in situ synchrotron diffraction.

Cyclic daisy chain rotaxanes represent a particularly intriguing class of mechanically interlocked molecules with the potential to generate precisely controlled molecular movements by internal sliding of their chains. In this issue of Chem, Stoddart and collaborators introduce an efficient template-directed strategy for accessing [c3]daisy chain rotaxanes capable of redox switching between a relaxed

Controlling the internal molecular dynamics in reticular materials is a major challenge for the development of nanotechnological applications. In this issue of Chem, Schurko, Loeb, and co-workers show how the ring motion of the [2]rotaxane-based linker and that of the surrounding triphenylene-based struts influence each other within a series of robust zirconium(IV) organic frameworks.

Membrane proteins play critical roles but have been challenging for structural biology. In this issue of Chem, Olerinyova et al. apply an emerging technology, mass photometry, to characterize membrane proteins in different solubilization vehicles. Mass photometry streamlines characterization of membrane proteins in different membrane mimetics, enabling rapid analysis of homogeneity.

Aziridines are versatile synthetic intermediates en route to structurally diverse and complex nitrogen-containing molecules. In this issue of Chem, Noël and co-workers report the aziridination of internal alkenes with primary alkyl amines through novel electrochemical activation with hydrogen gas generated as the byproduct, assisted by a microflow electrocell.

Structural change of electrocatalysts is typically considered a negative effect but can be utilized for controlling interfacial kinetics. In the December issue of Matter, Wang et al. demonstrate a new strategy for enhancing the performance of NiMoFe electrocatalyst by MoO42− dissolution and subsequent reconstruction into the active species.

Modeling dynamical effects in chemical reactions typically requires ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) simulations due to the breakdown of transition state theory (TST). Reactive AIMD simulations are limited to lower-accuracy electronic structure methods and weak statistics because quantum mechanical energies and forces must be evaluated at femtosecond time resolution over many replicas. We report

Download : Download high-res image (428KB) Download : Download full-size imageMeng Zhao received her B.S. degree from the School of Chemical Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology in 2017. Presently, she is a PhD student at the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Beijing Institute of Technology, under the supervision of Professor Jia-Qi Huang. Her current research mainly focuses

In this issue of Chem, Han and co-workers discovered the first aerobic alcohol C–C cleavage esterification that achieves good functional tolerance and reaction efficiency. The enhanced performance of the reported copper-catalyzed aerobic process was partially due to the simultaneous conversion of the side-product into their corresponding ester.

Stable cycling with a high energy density at an affordable cost is a key challenge for the prevailing cathode material, Ni-rich layered oxides, to power the development of long-range electric vehicles. Now, Sun and co-workers introduced a Li[Ni0.90Co0.09Ta0.01]O2 cathode in Nature Energy, demonstrating great potential to overcome this challenge.