Elemental mass spectrometry (MS) imaging has evolved beyond mapping biometals in tissue sections. The continually improving sensitivity and spatial resolution of chemical imaging technology has the potential to revolutionize immunohistochemistry (IHC). We explore how simple modifications to routine immunostaining protocols that integrate ‘immuno-MS imaging’ (iMSI) are making in situ quantitative protein

Artificial photosynthesis potentially offers solutions to the world’s looming energy and environmental crises. Here, we discuss the ongoing challenges of commercializing traditional artificial photosynthetic systems based on water splitting and highlight the advantages of replacing the water oxidation half-reaction with value-added alternatives, including biomass valorization and plastics upcycling

Continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) and closed-loop drug delivery systems have revolutionized patient care in diabetes and anesthesia. Here, we review the current state of continuous chemical sensor development, titratable drug delivery systems, and closed-loop therapies to identify clinically meaningful trends that, if realized, can have significant impact on medical practice and patient outcome. In

We discuss some of the challenges facing density functional theory (DFT) and recent progress in DFT for both ground and excited electronic states. We discuss key aspects of the results we have been able to obtain with the strategy of designing density functionals to have various ingredients and functional forms that are then optimized to accurately predict various types of properties and systems with

Comprehending the origin of life on Earth is intriguing and its scientific endeavors have engaged society while guiding the search for life elsewhere. However, some persistently question the science and support for such endeavors. This Science & Society article attempts to put this in context and contemplates how engagement could prevent misunderstandings.

Structurally tailored and engineered macromolecular (STEM) gels are an addition to the field of advanced polymeric materials and additive/subtractive molecular manufacturing. Taking inspiration from nature, STEM gels were designed based on stem cells, which involved a two-step synthetic procedure. In the first step, the STEM gels are synthesized to be ‘undifferentiated’ templates containing latent

Alloyed lead halide perovskites have taken a dominant role in the quest for third-generation solar cells. This is due to optimal light-harvesting properties, which can be tuned across the visible spectrum by mixing halide (X = Cl–, Br–, and I–) anions and A+ cations (A+ = FA+, MA+, and Cs+). Durability issues related to ion movement within the perovskite lattice, however, impede large-scale commercialization

A scientist’s career is not a smooth arc but rather a series of targets and deadlines, some more necessary than others. Several forms of research misconduct are specific to and incentivized by such deadlines, making a fine-grained understanding of those professional ecologies a necessary step toward preventing misconduct.

This review article describes the main reasons to use metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) as solid catalysts for liquid-phase reactions, including synthesis by design, high porosity in the micro-mesoporous range, and a high density of unsaturated transition-metal ions. The primary objective of this short review is to describe key current research strategies for improving activity, such as the role of structural

Structural transformation and evolution of active metal sites can occur in metal-catalyzed reactions in both homogeneous and heterogeneous systems. Such structural changes have an important impact on the catalytic behavior, including activity, selectivity, and stability. Aiming to establish a link between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic systems, this review begins with a discussion on dynamic

The modularity of multivariant scaffolds such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent–organic frameworks (COFs) provides an unprecedented level of control in the alignment of donor (D) and acceptor (A) units, a demand that is driven by the production of optoelectronic, photonic, and spintronic devices. The foray into novel motifs bearing D-A ensembles in frameworks has been applied towards

Li-ion batteries with fast charging capabilities will push the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs). The United States Department of Energy has stated goals of achieving “Extreme Fast Charging” (XFC) – charging to 80% capacity in 15 minutes or under – by 2028. The liquid electrolyte plays an extremely important role in achieving this goal. This review considers recent progress made in electrolyte development

Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) have recently been demonstrated to be excellent platforms for biomedical applications. On account of their porous nature and modular structure, MOFs have served as bioactive-compound carriers, cell-imaging materials, and therapeutic agents. MOF cavities allow the encapsulation of a variety of guest molecules, facilitating controllable drug release and optical imaging

In the past decade, synthetic chemists have discovered the outstanding generality and potential of visible-light-driven photoredox catalysis, which converts visible light into chemical energy, realizing numerous transformations of small molecules. The current state-of-the-art strategy in photoredox catalysis, combining photoredox and transition-metal catalysis, has received considerable attention in

Porphyrins are frequently observed in nature and play a vital role in many biological functions, including light-harvesting, oxygen transport, and catalytic transformations. The rigid, robust, and multifunctional features of porphyrins enable the construction of framework compounds such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs) for use in several important applications

Hybrid membranes assembled from a polymeric matrix and an inorganic filler are considered one of the most promising membranes for energy-efficient gas separations due to their high performance and low-cost fabrication. Rigid polymer matrices often exhibit lasting porosity and consequently have been gradually employed to fabricate separation membranes of high permeance. Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs)

Lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles capable of converting near-infrared excitation into UV and visible emissions have attracted considerable research interests in recent years. Low-density near-infrared light needed for excitation of these nanoparticles is nondestructive and highly penetrating, offering significant technological advantages for biological and photonic applications such as remote

Dynamic soft materials are requisite components not only for the survival of organisms in complicated natural environments but also for the advancement and operation of smart devices. A recently published article (Zhao et al.) reports new tunable polymeric materials exhibiting excellent reversible properties when the network hydration state is varied.

Thermoelectric materials have been widely investigated and have shown great promise as a sustainable source of energy. A recent article (Luo et al.) reveals a new, promising robust thermoelectric material, Sb2Si2Te6 and provides a robust approach for enhancing the thermoelectric performance through the construction of cellular nanostructures.

Recent development in membrane technology for capturing osmotic energy suggests significant performance enhancement due to nanoscale structured materials. A new article in Joule (Chen et al.) presents a bio-inspired layer-by-layer assembled composite membrane of aramid nanofibers and boron nitride nanosheets that demonstrates a major step towards practical osmotic energy harvesting.

C−C bond activation has emerged as an increasingly useful approach for constructing complex molecular scaffolds through unusual bond-disconnection strategies. As a common versatile functional group, ketones provide an excellent handle and platform for C−C bond activation reactions. Utilizing strain-release, carbon-monoxide-extrusion, and directing-group (DG) approaches, diverse transformations of various

The encapsulation of metal nanoparticles (MNPs) inside porous organic hosts (POHs), such as metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, organic molecular cages, and amorphous porous organic polymers has attracted significant attention because this procedure can generate highly catalytically active MNPs. This short review describes important recent progress in the fabrication of active MNP

Sodium–oxygen (Na-O2) batteries are considered a higher-energy-efficiency alternative to the lithium–oxygen (Li-O2) system. The reversible superoxide electrochemistry governing the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions in Na-O2 cells results in a relatively lower charging overpotential. Thus, significant research attention has been directed toward Na-O2 in the hope of developing a high-energy-storage

Since the middle of the 20th century, metallopolymers have represented a standalone subfield with a beneficial combination of functionality from inorganic metal centers and processability from the organic polymeric frameworks. Metallo-polyelectrolytes are a new class of soft materials that showcase fundamentally different properties from neutral polymers due to their intrinsically ionic behaviors.

Designing and engineering materials into particular shapes and/or structural arrangements paves the way to advanced materials properties. Top-down micro/nano fabrication can achieve patterns with sub-10 nm precision; however, challenges and limitations in material versatility, dynamic arrangement, biocompatibility, and high cost still exist. Bottom-up methods, however, allow elements to grow/assemble

Titanium oxide (TiO2) is commonly used as an electron transport layer (ETL) of regular-structure perovskite solar cells (PSCs); however, it suffers from inherent drawbacks such as low electron mobility and a high density of trap states. Modifying the surface chemistry of TiO2 has proved facile and efficient in enhancing key electron-transport properties, thereby improving device performance. In this

Recent laboratory and modeling studies suggest high relevance of aerosol mixing state and particle morphology for the life cycle of atmospheric aerosols. A new article by Gorkowski and colleagues presents a framework to predict morphologies of aerosol particles based on O:C ratio for incorporation into chemical transport models.

Stimulus-responsive soft materials that can enable folding of a 2D sheet into a 3D object have potential significant applications, including wearable electronics, biomimetic machines, soft robotics, drug delivery, biomedical devices, and responsive buildings. The responses can be tuned by the materials chemistry, composition, and type of external stimulus; the direction and magnitude of the deformation

Flexible materials can adapt to external stimuli with predictable and controllable responses. The emergence of dynamic behavior in metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) is promising for the development of ‘smart’ materials for applications that leverage their porosities and tunable chemical compositions, including the storage, separation, and sensing of small molecules. The translation of molecular structural

Membranes formed from polymers with rigid, contorted backbones have been explored for the separation of a variety of liquid and gaseous mixtures. Recent research reported by Helms and colleagues opens a whole new area of application, demonstrating cation-exchange membranes with exceptional performance for new batteries.

Restructuring the syllabus of an introductory organic chemistry course to better suit the need of biology-oriented students and provide fundamental understanding of chemical principles of biochemical transformations is proposed. It is recommended that certain organic reactions less relevant to natural biological systems are replaced with biochemical reactions as illustrations.

Continuous-flow chemistry has recently attracted significant interest from chemists in both academia and industry working in different disciplines and from different backgrounds. Flow methods are now being used in reaction discovery/methodology, in scale-up and production, and for rapid screening and optimization. Photochemical processes are currently an important research field in the scientific community

Supramolecular peptide assemblies not only provide molecular insight into understanding and mimicking the fundamental features of the self-assembly of biological molecules, but also promise many important applications. This review discusses representative examples of supramolecular assemblies of peptides or peptide derivatives and highlights the emerging applications of these materials, including tissue

Advances in nickel-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions have expanded the chemical space of accessible structures and enabled new synthetic disconnections. The unique properties of Ni catalysts facilitate the activation of traditionally inert substrates, tolerate alkyl coupling partners that undergo decomposition via β-hydride (β-H) elimination with Pd, and enable stereoconvergent cross-couplings. The

Charge transfer (CT) between donors and acceptors following photoexcitation of organic photovoltaics (OPVs) gives rise to bound electron–hole pairs across the donor–acceptor interface, known as CT states. While these states are essential to charge separation, they are also a source of energy loss. As a result of reduced overlap between electron and hole wavefunctions, CT states are influenced by details

Atomically thin transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) exhibit strong light–matter interaction and pronounced excitonic behavior. Understanding the nonequilibrium dynamical processes of photoexcited carriers in such materials is a key step in view of their technological applications. Here, we review the ultrafast photophysics of 2D TMDs and related heterostructures (HSs) measured by femtosecond optical

Over the past few decades, DNA has turned into one of the most widely used molecular linkers and a versatile building block for the self-assembly of DNA nanostructures. Such complexes, composed of only a few oligonucleotides (e.g., DNA tiles) or assembled from hundreds of synthetic and natural scaffolding strands (e.g., DNA origami), are being increasingly assembled into higher-order architectures

There is a growing drive in the chemistry community to exploit rapidly growing robotic technologies along with artificial intelligence-based approaches. Applying this to chemistry requires a holistic approach to chemical synthesis design and execution. Here, we outline a universal approach to this problem beginning with an abstract representation of the practice of chemical synthesis that then informs

Silicon-containing molecules are of great academic and industrial interest with widespread applications in several research areas such as materials science, medicinal chemistry, and complex-molecule synthesis. C–Si bond formation by direct C–H functionalization is a modern synthetic approach toward highly valuable compounds that offers a superior step and atom economy in contrast to conventional procedures

Guanine-rich DNA sequences can fold into four-stranded, noncanonical secondary structures called G-quadruplexes (G4s). G4s were initially considered a structural curiosity, but recent evidence suggests their involvement in key genome functions such as transcription, replication, genome stability, and epigenetic regulation, together with numerous connections to cancer biology. Collectively, these advances

Solid-state batteries (SSBs) could exhibit improved safety and energy density compared with traditional lithium-ion systems, but fundamental challenges exist in integrating solid-state electrolytes with electrode materials. In particular, the (electro)chemical evolution of electrode materials and interfaces can often be linked to mechanical degradation due to the all-solid nature of these systems.

Hydrogen evolution via solar-driven photocatalytic water splitting (PWS) is considered an important strategy for facilitating clean global energy and overcoming the severe environmental challenges facing our society. As a result, many photocatalysts have been developed over the past several years. In this review, we outline the most recent advances in hydrogen evolution photocatalysts over the past

Beyond their central role in storing and transmitting genetic information, nucleic acids are renowned for their high-specificity, high-affinity hybridization. In the past several decades, scientists have become increasingly interested in emulating this unique property of nucleic acids using synthetic mimics. Many creative strategies for the synthesis of xenonucleic acids (XNAs) have been developed

Carbon nanodots (CNDs) and graphene/carbon quantum dots (GQDs/CQDs) have emerged as useful components for the fabrication of electrodes in electric double-layer capacitors (EDLCs). In this review, we highlight the emerging trend of employing CNDs and their relatives as active components in EDLCs. We discuss recent progress in converting CNDs with intrinsically low electrical conductivity into conductive

Rylene diimide-based n-type organic semiconductors possess several advantages over traditional materials, such as structural diversity, facile chemical modification, and tunable optical and electronic properties. Rylene diimides are widely used as electron acceptors in organic solar cells (OSCs), with power conversion efficiencies of >11%. Recent studies have revealed that several rylene diimide acceptors

Electrochemical interphases dominate the performance of reactive Li-metal anodes, which possess high theoretical specific capacity and low electrochemical potential. A new article by Bao and colleagues describes an artificial interfacial layer to overcome common sources of instability through the use of a dynamic, electrolyte-blocking, and single-ion-conducting dynamic polymer network.

Tandem reactions consist of a sequence of two or more distinct transformations that can be achieved in a single synthetic step. A new article by Sun and colleagues demonstrates how the catalytic properties of bimetallic nanoparticles can be rationally optimized to enable the one-pot synthesis of polybenzoxazole (PBO).

Processing, storing, and transmitting information accounts for ∼10% of global energy use; projections suggest that computational energy demands will be 10× higher than the projected global energy supply by 2040. Realizing solid-state analogs of neural circuitry, using ‘neuromorphic’ materials, holds promise for enabling a new energy-efficient computing paradigm. The metal–insulator transitions (MITs)

The rapid advancement of bio-orthogonal click chemistry in the past decade has enabled the study and precise manipulation of biological processes within living organisms. The capability to induce fast and selective chemical reactions between two exogenous complementary moieties in living systems, with negligible perturbation to their native activities, have rendered bio-orthogonal click chemistry highly

Amphidynamic crystals have close links to molecular machines, which have considerable potential for developing smart materials. A recently published article in Matter (Colin-Molina et al.) reports an amphidynamic supramolecular rotor that displays a remarkable thermosalient effect when undergoing a phase transition, concomitant with a substantial structural reconfiguration resulting in crystal motility

There is a significant need for economic and environmentally sustainable chemistry in both academia and industry. The field of organic electronics is also rapidly growing due to substantial interest in semiconducting polymers. A major limitation associated with semiconducting polymers is their synthesis, which often requires many synthetic steps and relies on stoichiometric amounts of toxic metallic

Brownian dynamics (BD) is a technique for carrying out computer simulations of physical systems that are driven by thermal fluctuations. Biological systems at the macromolecular and cellular level, while falling in the gap between well-established atomic-level models and continuum models, are especially suitable for such simulations. We present a brief history, examples of important biological processes

Body-interfaced sensors have received tremendous attention due to a broad and diverse collection of potential applications, from monitoring of health status to managing and preventing disease conditions. In this review article, we highlight the emerging sensing modalities and advanced materials/device designs in body-integrated flexible platforms capable of capturing and analyzing biofluids. In particular

Hierarchical zeolites containing both microporosity and meso/macroporosity have emerged as a new and important branch of zeolites due to their potential for improving mass transfer and molecular accessibility, which are key to overcoming steric, diffusional, and coke-formation limitations in catalytic reactions. In this review, we present significant recent progress in the fabrication of hierarchical

In organic synthesis, the synthetic methodology of using cyclopropanes for cycloadditions has witnessed significant progress over the past several years. A series of cyclopropane-related cycloaddition reactions via organic or metal-catalyzed/mediated pathways has been exploited in constructing cyclic frameworks such as polycycles, bridged-ring carbocycles, and heterocycles. Moreover, this synthetic

Chemists have learned how to create molecules that mimic the rudimentary motions exhibited at the macroscopic level by some of the components of modern machinery. Almost all of these molecules are single-component examples that operate in solution, in isolation, and with incoherent motion. To create complexity and build more sophisticated systems comprising interacting mechanical components, methods

Over the past decade, the bottom-up synthesis of structurally defined graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) with various topologies has attracted significant attention due to the extraordinary optical, electronic, and magnetic properties of GNRs, rendering them suitable for a wide range of potential applications (e.g., nanoelectronics, spintronics, photodetectors, and hydrothermal conversion). Remarkable achievements

The Arctic is undergoing rapid change, with increasing temperatures, rapid sea ice loss, and resulting development. The sea ice, snowpack, and atmosphere are connected through multiphase chemistry, including unique halogen photochemistry that changes atmospheric composition and pollutant fate. Field-based mass spectrometry is leading new insights into this halogen chemistry.

Lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries show significant promise as next-generation energy-storage devices due to their high energy density (2600 Wh kg-1). However, the severe shuttling of polysulfide intermediates and low Coulombic efficiency during operation induce rapid capacity loss, hindering their practical applications. Although sulfur coin cells can reach 1000 cycles, sulfur pouch cells reach only

Use of a directing group in C–H functionalizations, often referred to as chelation assistance, is one of the most reliable methods for achieving highly efficient and highly site-selective reactions. Although a variety of transition metals can be used in directed C–H functionalization reactions, Ni-catalyzed directed C–H functionalization reactions have remained a relatively underdeveloped area of research