Themed collection Emerging Investigator Series

Designing short antimicrobial peptides and tuning their interaction with bacterial barriers.

Numerous tests have been developed for early clinical detection of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, including RT-PCR, rapid PCR, laminar flow tests, and large-scale decentralized screening of SARS-CoV-2 in a point-of-care format.

Recombinant DNA technology allows us to generate new nature-inspired structural proteins with monomer-level control. These proteins can be used for the manufacture of materials with applications in healthcare, textiles or adhesives, to name a few.

Antibiotics are the main strategy to treat bacterial infections, but can cause bacterial resistance. We comprehensively summarize work on the fabrication of photothermal antibacterial platforms for bacterial infectious skin wound healing.

A classic technique in semiconductors but new to polymers, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) offers numerous opportunities in polymer processing.

We provide overviews of recent developments in the software tools for both molecular and process simulations for adsorption science and engineering.

Graphene and its derivatives are used as metal-free photocatalysts because of their fascinating optoelectronic properties which can further be improved by chemical doping for advanced functional applications in the field of energy and environment.

This review article covers the use of click chemistries toward the design of dynamic and instructive hydrogels for understanding cell mechanobiology.

A review detailing existing electrode materials, cell architectures, and charge transfer mechanisms related to electrochemically driven desalination and selective element extraction in aqueous environments.

A pillar-layered ultramicroporous MOF material featuring a C₂H₂-matching cavity was reported to efficiently separate C₂H₂ from C₂H₂/CO₂ mixtures.

A nanoporous zwitterionic metal–organic framework is accessed for its atmospheric water harvesting properties due to its strong Lewis acidity and water stability. Findings show high cycling output and unique hydrochromic behavior.

Covalent “click” cross-linking of 6FDA-based membranes has been demonstrated via thiol-ene reaction. The membranes exhibit systematic changes in gas separation.

This study presents a concept that focuses on the structure design of preceramic resin precursors by the sol–gel method for fabricating carbon–ceramic molecular sieving membranes.

By aligning the pore orientation in the ZIF-8 thin film molecular transport diffusivity could be enhanced by 2-fold as compared to a mixed orientation ZIF-8 thin film.

Mitigating molecular transport limitations in thick sintered battery electrodes with electrolyte and microstructure design.

The interplay between directional patchy attraction and shape-driven entropic forces sculpts the spatial and orientational orderings between anisotropic building blocks, giving rise to symmetry breaking of pre-programmed interactions between particles.

Proposed mechanistic model: balancing electrokinetic and thermodynamic factors in CNF colloid to film transition.

Coordinating solvent-controlled photochromism.

Peptides are naturally potent and selective therapeutics with massive potential; however, low cell membrane permeability limits their clinical implementation, particularly for hydrophilic, anionic peptides with intracellular targets.

During the lithiation process, –CN– groups in the PHATN coordinate with Li⁺ to form –C–N–Li– bonds on PHATN molecule layer. The dynamic volume change of the PHATN molecule provides excellent protection against structural collapse.

3D CuSCN is transformed into 2D sheet structures when coordinated with pyridine (Py)-based ligands at a specific 1 : 1 ratio. By varying the substituent at the 3-position, the optical and electronic properties can be systematically tuned.

Ru-DES/AC catalysts modulate the microchemical environment around the active centre through electron transfer, and the hydrogen bond length between HBD and HBA in DES can be used to design high performance catalysts.

Physalis alkekengi L. husk-derived hard carbon is firstly investigated as the anode of sodium-ion batteries and demonstrates the great possibility of practical application.

The development of structurally controlled techniques inspired by the structural formation of living systems is of great importance for the fabrication of next-generation functional soft materials using environmentally friendly processes.

By drawing on similarities between energy landscapes and model response surfaces we gain new insight into model performance, even in the absence of data.

The disparities in adsorption stem from surface charge polarization effects, which may originate from the bond-order-induced effect, serving as a driving force to promote additional deoxygenation activities.

Discovery of new antimicrobial peptide sequences using a computer-aided inverse design framework.

CO₂-responsive amidine-modified ZIF-90-stabilized Pickering emulsions are developed and used as a micro-reactor to achieve the coupling of Knoevenagel condensation, product separation and catalyst recycling via alternate CO₂ bubbling or removing.

Amorphous polymers are considered promising materials for separation applications due to their excellent transport properties and low fabrication costs.

An environmental pH-sensitive cation/anion-exchange mode switching chromatography system was developed by utilizing a pH-responsive mixed-charge polymer.

We report the bio-inspired dry adhesive pads (BDAPs) with various shapes and contact areas optimized for various robot arm movements. Moreover, MWCNT/PDMS composite-based BDAP (c-BDAP) has shown superior heat resistance and electrical conductivity.

Can we modulate active site flexibility to engineer broad range temperature activity in thermophilic enzymes?

In templated self-assembly, nanoparticles are slotted far from and ahead of the receding contact line.

Using density functional theory, our study unravels how the charge distribution and zwitterionic units affect hydration of polymers, paving the way for materials-by-design for anti-icing polymers via molecular engineering.

An out-of-equilibrium simulation method for tracking the time evolution of glassy systems (or any other systems that can be described by hopping dynamics over a network of discrete states) is presented.

Halogenated paracyclophanetetraenes (PCTs) for the integration of the PCT motif into larger conjugated molecules by cross-coupling reactions are introduced.

Electronic transport properties of semidilute conjugated polyelectrolytes are predicted using a quantum mechanical (QM) transport model parameterized using coarse grained (CG) morphologies derived from molecular dynamics simulations.

Self-assembled polyelectrolyte complex-based scaffoldings to address the limitations and enrich the microstructure and the mechanical properties of photocrosslinked hydrogels.

Adaptable degradative responses to multiple biological stimuli are of great importance for biorecognition. Here, enzymatic and ROS degradability are tuned by monomer identity and sequence in a series of sequence-defined oligomers.

We have developed our strategy to create gyroid nanostructured polymer membranes having a 3D continuous proton conduction pathway.

This work provides fascinating insights into NIR fluorophore design and methods to effectively alter the photophysical and morphological properties of the nanoaggregates for bio-imaging purposes.

In this work, we present, evaluate, and analyze strategies for representing polymer chemistry to machine learning models for the advancement of data-driven sequence or composition design of macromolecules.

The distinct peptide strands of a heterotrimeric α-helical coiled-coil can be used as fusion tags to mediate heterogeneous co-assembly of proteins into supramolecular complexes with tunable subunit stoichiometry.

Computational study reveals that the N501Y mutation alters host recognition to human and cat ACE2 in diverged scenarios, which is attributed to the competition of favorable hydrophobic packing versus unfavorable steric hindrance.

Kinetic analysis of alkylation of 1,3,5-trimethylbenzene with benzyl alcohol and accompanying secondary reactions provides insight into reaction–diffusion–deactivation of bulky polyaromatic moieties in hierarchical zeolites.