Themed collection Celebrating our 2024 Prizewinners

Professor Nicholas A. Kotov, Professor Luis M. Liz-Marzán and Professor Qiangbin Wang introduce a themed collection in Materials Advances on chiral nanomaterials.

A molecular robot, which is a system comprised of one or more molecular machines and computers, can execute sophisticated tasks in many fields that span from nanomedicine to green nanotechnology.

The encounter complex underpins small-molecule activation and catalysis by frustrated Lewis pairs. This article explores the variety of computational and experimental techniques that have probed this ephemeral species.

The latest progress of carbon-based materials for multivalent-ion hybrid capacitors (MIHCs) is reviewed. The energy storage mechanisms, electrochemical behaviors, material design strategies, and future research prospects are discussed.

This review focuses on recent progress, current challenges and perspectives in interface-related phenomena of complex oxide ferroic thin films for electronics and energy applications.

This review traces the development of targeted delivery of nucleic acids to liver cells using multivalent carbohydrate ligands.

Diverse templating materials and assembly strategies can be used to induce collective optical activity on achiral plasmonic building blocks. We present the advances, applications, challenges, and prospects of plasmonic–excitonic hybrids.

This review includes the current state of the art understanding and advances in technical developments about various fields of gas hydrates, which are combined with expert perspectives and analyses.

Product design is an important factor which can control the efficiency and economics of a recycling flowsheet.

A robust titanium-based metal–organic framework, MFM-300(Ti), exhibits an exceptional NH₃ adsorption of 23.4 mmol g⁻¹ with a record-high packing density of 0.84 g cm⁻³, promoted by strong binding interactions of NH₃ to the framework oxygen sites.

Coupling together the pyroelectric effect, the photovoltaic effect and the plasmonic effect is a novel method to significantly enhance the performance of self-powered photodetectors in the visible region.

A trisulfated disaccharide is identified as the minimal fragment size of heparan sulfate for effective endosulfatase inhibition.

A scalable, two-step synthesis facilitates the preparation of a polymer library of varying side chain and co-monomer, enabling rapid photovoltaic device screening. FO6-T emerged as the optimal donor achieving 15.4% PCE with L8BO as the acceptor.

Modulated self-assembly protocols are used to develop facile, HF-free syntheses of the archetypal flexible PCP, MIL-53(Cr), and novel isoreticular analogues MIL-53(Cr)-Br and MIL-53(Cr)-NO₂, which adsorb and sense SO₂.

Co-catalytic proline and phosphate accelerate prebiotic aldol chemistry, setting the stage for a transition to enzymatic metabolism and highlighting the importance of general acid-based catalysis.

The FLP B(2,6-C₆F₂H₃)₃/tetramethylpiperidine (TMP) in the presence of H₂ (or D₂) catalyzes the hydrodehalogenation of benzyl-halides affording the corresponding toluene derivatives.

A BODIPY molecular rotor can be used to evaluate the viscosity of collagen-like peptide-PEG solutions.

Controlling the charge state of a molecule wired in a two-terminal single-molecule junction at room temperature is a key challenge in molecular electronics in relation to the development of molecular memory and other computational componentry.

A chemoenzymatic synthesis of 3-deoxy-3-fluoro-L-fucose, using a D- to L-sugar translation strategy, and its enzymatic activation and glycosylation, is reported.

Combining N-acyltransferases and CoA ligases with desired substrate profiles allows the construction of non-natural biosynthetic pathways for the synthesis of structurally diverse secondary and tertiary amides in high yields.

Solar hydrogen production has been established by interfacing cyanamide modified graphitic carbon nitride (^NCNCN_X) with [FeFe]-hydrogenase via electrostatic interaction. QCM, PEIS, IMVS, and TPC reveal the importance of specific interaction.

Doubly electrophilic pyrazabole derivatives (pyrazabole = [H₂B(μ-C₃N₂H₃)]₂) combined with one equiv. of base effect the ortho-borylation of N-alkyl anilines.

Sulfolactate is an important species in the biogeochemical sulfur cycle. Herein we report the 3D cryo-EM structure and kinetics of its biosynthetic enzyme, sulfolactaldehyde dehydrogenase.

The efficient production of methanol by reduction of CO₂ using green hydrogen is a promising strategy from both a green chemistry and a carbon net zero perspective.

A systematic investigation of a family of photo-switches with electron-donating and -accepting substituents reveals that the switch with two electron-accepting 4-ethynyl-pyridinium groups exhibits excellent switching behavior in aqueous solution.

Ten synthetic oligosaccharides resembling Candida auris cell surface mannans are used for plasma screening to identify a vaccine lead.

Using a post-synthetic modification strategy we have prepared a series of functionalised [2]catenanes to study the impact of mechanically-enforced proximity on functional group properties, including emission, electrochemistry and photoreactivity.

¹⁹F-centred NMR structure determination protocol alleviates the need for compound separation. Disinfection byproducts of chloramination were unraveled by analyzing the reaction pathways of a single fluorinated molecule.

The introduction of glycoconjugate vaccines marks an important point in the fight against various infectious diseases.

The implementation of a quantum computer requires protecting of information from noise and the ability to perform quantum gates. We present a molecular architecture providing both these ingredients, via an electronic spin 1/2 processor and a nuclear spin 3/2 memory.

Comparative study of cholinium based solvents for biomass deconstruction by theoretical calculation and simulation.

Organic photodetectors have great potential in near-infrared applications. Here we develop new non-fullerene acceptors with detection above 800 nm and demonstrated large area devices with record performances.

Conjugation of sulfoquinovose to agarose via a linker provided SQ-agarose, which captures a sulfoquinovose-binding protein, and releases it upon elution with sulfoquinovose.

We investigated the impact of calcination conditions of layered double hydroxide on the formation of layered double oxides and its relationship with CO₂ capture.

The ionizable lipid ALC-0315 is the major component of the lipid nanoparticles used to encapsulate the mRNA in the Biontech–Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

In-situ orientation tuning of WO₃ thin films with high crystallinity is achieved with a low-temperature and open-atmosphere deposition technique. The fabricated devices showed a significant change in photo-response for film orientation.

The proposed cathode, achieved by a cost-effective and scalable coating process, highlights the potential of simultaneously promoting surface reactivity while ensuring bulk stability for efficient high mass loading cathodes in zinc-ion batteries.

Quantitative study into how the adsorption of aromatic molecules is affected by surface termination in the absence of clear directional bonds to the substrate. Subtle differences are found between the studied terminations as shown by X-ray standing waves and density functional theory.

Targeted modifications of the 1 : 2 Choline-and-geranate (CAGE) structure promote the formation of room-temperature ionic liquid crystals.

This work demonstrates the simultaneous upcycling of all components in lignocellulosic biomass together with the greenhouse gas CO₂ as an attractive opportunity to synthesise sustainable and valuable chemicals.

Controlled ice nucleation enables cryopreservation of primary hepatocytes monolayers, in assay ready format.

Phase-pure thin films of BiSBr are shown to have an optical efficiency limit of 43.6% under indoor lighting, with improved environmental and photo-stability over lead-halide perovskites, and have band positions well suited to a range of charge transport layer materials.

The selective oxidation of methane to methanol, using in situ generated H₂O₂ has been investigated using a series of TS-1 supported palladium-based catalysts, with the introduction of Au or Ni considerably improving catalytic performance.

Smart biodegradable nanoparticles with biomimetic lipid bilayers are reported for cancer treatment and diagnostics.

Cationic polymers can be used as vectors to transport and efficiently protect nucleic acids.

Complex I is an essential membrane protein in respiration and contributes to ATP synthesis. Zeta potential measurements are shown to be sensitive to the enzyme’s activity and capability to pump protons in varying lipid environments.

Lignin oxidation by bacterial dye-decolorizing peroxidase enzymes requires hydrogen peroxide as a co-substrate, an unstable and corrosive oxidant.

Ex situ biofilm samples were used to study the interactions between SERS-enhancing Ag and Au particles and biofilm components without the complexity associated with highly structured in situ biofilms.

Formation of multi-carbon (C₂₊) products by electrochemical reduction of CO₂ using two porous Cu(II)-based materials (HKUST-1 and CuMOP, MOP = metal–organic polyhedra) under electrochemical conditions in the presence of TNCQ.

Careful control of synthetic conditions allows isolation of highly porous hcp topology Zr and Hf MOFs containing a linker with a potentially reactive alkyne spacer.

Lab-on-printed circuit board platform for scalable electrochemically-gated graphene field effect transistors test strips, measuring pH and Na⁺ ion concentration.

Perovskites quantum dots coupled to Mie resonators display an 18-fold luminescence enhancement. Spatially- and time-resolved measurements, coupled to numerical simulations, confirm increased absorption, Purcell factor and extraction efficiency.

Pathways by which the biopolymer lignin is broken down by soil microbes could be used to engineer new biocatalytic routes from lignin to renewable chemicals, but are currently not fully understood.

The in situ synthesis of H₂O₂ offers an attractive alternative to the current industrial route to cyclohexanone oxime, a major precursor to Nylon-6.

Studying the electronic structure and orbital localization characteristics for a sample of 36 different polymer backbone structures the features of the monomer sequence that lead to greater charge delocalization are identified.

Efficient global structure search and optimization of hybrid organic–inorganic interfaces is achieved by coupling a short-range machine learning potential with an accurate long-range dispersion description.

We try to determine if machine learning (ML) methods, applied to the discovery of new materials on the basis of existing data sets, have the power to predict new classes of compounds or perform well only when interpolating between known materials.

Encapsulation of a [ReBr₆]²⁻ guest in a [Cu₂L₄]⁴⁺ cage induces a magnetic interaction between the Cu^II and Re^IV ions.

The influence of polymer architecture of cationic polymers on gene transfection is investigated. Bottle brush copolymers are shown to outperform linear counterparts.

Thermoresponsive ionic liquid hydrogel delivery vehicles of reduced gelation temperature for injectable and controlled drug delivery applications.

¹⁹ F is the focal point of broadband, phase-sensitive 2D NMR experiments that provide ¹H, ¹³C and ¹⁹F chemical shifts, values of J_HF, J_HH, and J_FC coupling constants and ¹³C-induced ¹⁹F isotopic shifts to elucidate structures of fluorinated molecules.

We present a new framework to study organic photovoltaic devices in which a model that integrates device physics with excited state dynamics is applied to explain transient and steady-state spectroscopic and optoelectronic measurements.

Within this work we show that headgroup methylation greatly impacts polymorphic phase behaviour within palmitic acid:phospholipid mixtures.

N-Heterocycle directing groups lead to selective borylation of indole at C2 or C7 controlled by heterocycle ring size. With five membered heterocycle directing groups, C2 borylation is disfavoured due to an increased degree of distortion.

Two PDI tetramers with a central tetrathienylethene core were investigated as non-fullerene acceptors in organic photovoltaics and the dramatic differences in their optical absorption spectra were rationalised on the basis of DFT calculations.

Electronic textiles are rapidly emerging as key enablers for wearable electronics. Here we demonstrate fast electro-thermochromic textile displays enabled by a screen-printed, few-layer graphene ink on a cotton fabric, thus representing a breakthrough in e-textiles technology.

Automatic analysis of competing mechanisms.

Direct MCTDH quantum dynamics simulations, with automatic active coordinate generation, applied to potential molecular sunscreens.

We rationalized the predominance of photoinduced electron transfer in quenching the fluorescence of tetrazine-based near-infrared fluorogenic labels.

Susceptibility and magnetisation measurements, magnetic neutron spectroscopy and first principles calculations reveal the presence of competing ferro- and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and both easy plane and easy axis anisotropy in a [Ni₇] Anderson wheel.