Themed collection ChemSocRev – Highlights from 2023

Ion pairs comprising π-electronic cations and anions, formed viaⁱπ–ⁱπ interactions with synergetically worked electrostatic and dispersion forces, and their properties for potential applications as functional materials are summarized.

This review highlights the recent advances and emerging opportunities of ionic liquids in biomedicine based on their intrinsic advantages and potentials.

This review discusses proton transfer kinetics for reactions involving transition metal hydride complexes, highlighting the techniques used to measure proton transfer rate constants and the implications for fuel-forming reactions.

The quantitative assessment of the greenness of mechanochemical processes for green metrics were calculated is herein reported. A general introduction to the topic, variables influencing the reaction outcome and, an outlook are also provided.

A comprehensive analysis of flow battery technologies from the aspect of sustainable chemistry is provided and 9 principles have been proposed to evaluate a flow battery's technical and environmental sustainability.

Numerous complex architectures are possible through Click reactions which display high specificity, flexibility and modularity. Click chemistry has addressed many challenges in the biomedical field, including drug delivery and theranostics.

This review summarises the state-of-the-art in transition-metal catalysed asymmetric hydrogenation of (hetero)arenes and highlights recent advances with a special focus on sustainability while also addressing its shortcomings.

This review discusses the application of FLPs to the capture, reactivity, and reduction of CO. These developments illustrate an alternative strategy to advance the reactivity of CO.

Oxidative stress is closely related to the physiopathology of numerous diseases. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and reactive sulfur species (RSS) are direct participants and important biomarkers of oxidative stress.

This review discusses Raman spectroscopic investigations of metal–organic framework (MOF) materials to understand the structural transitions, defects, guest adsorption, and catalytic reactions during various environmental and energy applications.

In this review, we summarize the recent advances in newly reported macrocyclic arenes, focusing on their synthetic strategies and applications.

This review provides a detailed analysis and summary of the design principles and strategies for the synthesis of fluorinated electrolyte solvents for Li-based batteries.

Glycomacromolecules show significant potential as antimicrobials. We highlight recent studies on their performance in hindering host cell entry and biofilm formation, and their potential as drug delivery and diagnostic agents.

The metal-free C–H functionalisation is providing environmentally benign, cost-effective, sustainable catalytic systems. Comprehensive developments of various metal-free C–H functionalisation reactions are the focal point of this review.

Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (APDT) is a promising approach to fight the growing problem of antimicrobial resistance that threatens health care, food security and agriculture. Suitable light sources include lasers, LEDs, OLEDs and lamps.

This review draws connections between top-down direct-ink-writing and bottom-up supramolecular designs. Examples of supramolecularly designed viscoelastic inks and perspectives of using supramolecular motifs for 3D printing have been discussed.

This review provides an overview of emerging ultrafast synthesis technologies for energy and environmental applications. Representative ultrafast methods include Joule heating, plasma, laser, infrared, microwave, and flame-assisted synthesis, etc.

This review summarizes chemical tools for cell engineering, introduces their wide application in diagnosis and therapy, and discusses the challenges and opportunities in precision medicine.

Schematic diagram of noncancerous disease-targeting AIEgens.

Block copolymer vesicles are well suited as nano-sized drug delivery vehicles for therapeutic proteins. However, they have not reached the clinic yet. Why? The review discusses opportunities and obstacles of polymersome-based protein drug delivery.

Uranium extraction from seawater (UES), a potential approach to securing the long-term uranium supply and sustainability of nuclear energy, has experienced significant progress in the past decade.

This review discusses pillar[n]arene-based MIMs such as rotaxanes, catenanes, polyrotaxanes, single-component mechanically self-locked molecules, and supramolecular polymers.

Skin bioelectronics for long-term, continuous health monitoring opens unprecedented opportunities for timely disease management. This review summarized representative healthcare sensing, desired materials and designs, and various bio-signal analysis.

The importance of protecting inorganic nanoparticles with organic ligands and thus imparting the needed stabilization as colloidal dispersions for their potential applications is highlighted in this review.

We divide the up-to-date techniques into two categories: technologies executed under violent conditions and mild conditions, and we present a timely summary of the mechanism of bond cleavage in plastic waste to produce valuable chemicals.

This review focuses on recent advances in the biodistribution, biodegradation, and metabolic studies of 2D materials for their biomedical applications.

Metal–organic cages are processable porous molecules that can be assembled into a range of macroscopic porous materials.

This tutorial review introduces basics and recent advances of low-power-threshold nonlinear photochromic materials. We attempt to provide an intuitive understanding of incoherent nonlinear optical processes using fundamental concepts.