Themed collection The Spiers Memorial Lectures

We describe the problems of quantum chemistry, the intuition behind classical heuristic methods used to solve them, a conjectured form of the classical complexity of quantum chemistry problems, and the subsequent opportunities for quantum advantage.

This introductory lecture prefaces the 2024 New Horizons in Nanoelectrochemistry Faraday Discussion.

This article presents a perspective on what we think are key topics related to the structure and structural dynamics of ILs and to some extent high-temperature molten salts.

We present an overview of current methods for chemical shift driven NMR crystallography, illustrated with applications to complex materials.

We discuss how machine learning researchers view and approach problems in chemistry and provide our considerations for maximizing impact when researching machine learning for chemistry.

Enzymes are being engineered to catalyze chemical reactions for many practical applications in chemistry and biotechnology.

Molecular scattering is reviewed as it pertains to gas–gas as well as gas–surface reaction dynamics. We emphasize the collaboration of experiment and theory, from which new directions of research are being pursued on increasingly complex problems.

Bioelectronics are currently used in a huge variety of applications considering the ongoing revolution in personalised medicine. Bioelectronics are poised to make a significant impact on disease diagnosis and treatment.

In this article we discuss current issues in the context of the four chosen subtopics for the meeting: dynamics and nano-rheology of interfacial water, electrified/charged aqueous interfaces, ice interfaces, and soft matter/water interfaces.

Here, we discuss experimental approaches developed by some of the authors to understand the function and failure of lithium–oxygen batteries.

Organic electrolytic synthesis is experiencing a second renaissance and is expected to develop more and more as a comprehensive field, focusing on organic synthesis, but also producing the materials necessary to enrich our lives.

We present a classical density functional theory based on the hypernetted-chain approximation, which allows us to calculate the velocity of electroosmotic flows inside nanopores containing 1 : 1 or 2 : 1 electrolyte solution.

This Spiers Memorial Lecture introduces the Faraday Discussion on ‘Astrochemistry at high resolution’, focusing on the special case of interstellar complex organic molecules (iCOMs).

We have evaluated chimeric streptavidin superoxide dismutase C as a scaffold for an asymmetric transfer hydrogenase, incorporating [Cp*Ir(biot-p-L)Cl] as a cofactor.

This article briefly reviews catalytic activation of N₂ for NH₃ synthesis under mild conditions. Described are historical background and current demand, recent advances on new catalysts, and next challenges.

The paper presents a view on the achievements, challenges and prospects of mechanochemistry. The extensive reference list can serve as a good entry point to a plethora of mechanochemical literature.

The lecture focuses on emerging chalcogenide-based thin-film photovoltaics and provides both an overview of selected absorber candidates that are of recent interest, and a deeper dive into an exemplary Cu₂BaSn(S,Se)₄-related family.

The historical and continuing advances in our understanding of unimolecular reaction dynamics have arisen from the synergy between improvements in experimental measurements and in theoretical methodologies.

The concept of using appropriately shaped pulses of light to control the properties of materials has a range of potential applications, and relies on an understanding of intricate couplings within the material.

We review recent investigations into crystal growth by particle attachment, with an emphasis on oriented attachment.

The unique spectroscopic features of metalloenzymes reflect novel geometric and electronic structures imposed by the protein activating the metal sites for efficient biological function.

After introducing nanoelectrochemistry, this introductory lecture focuses on recent developments in two major application areas of nanoelectrochemistry; electrocatalysis and using single entities in sensing.

Membrane–peptide interactions play critical roles in many cellular and organismal functions, including protection from infection, remodeling of membranes, signaling, and ion transport.

This review of soft coordination networks that undergo guest-induced switching between nonporous and porous structures addresses switching mechanisms and their potential utility.

This overview on carbon dioxide utilization (CDU) provides a framework for the opportunities, boundary conditions, potential pitfalls, and critical needs to advance technologies rapidly to deploy CDU as a mainstream climate-relevant solution.

Heterogeneous catalysis lies at the heart of the chemical and fuel manufacturing industries and hence is a cornerstone of many economies.

A brief overview is presented on ultrafast spectroscopy and imaging of photochemical reactions by highlighting several experimental studies reported in the last five years.

Nanographenes and graphene nanoribbons are unique connectors between the domains of 1D-conjugated polymers and 2D-graphenes. They can be synthesized with high precision in solution and on-surface, and serve as ideal objects for nanoscience.

This introduction provides an overview of air quality in megacities, sources and atmospheric processing of emissions, impacts on health and climate, mitigation strategies, and challenges of COVID-19.

We provide a brief overview of the state of the MOF field from their inception to their synthesis, potential applications, and finally, to their commercialization.

We develop expressions for electron density defined through the linear response for general density functional approximations, demonstrating results for orbital functionals and for many-body perturbation theory, and explore the connections to developments in DFT.

We consider fault tolerance with respect to structural colour and disorder in biological photonics. Several systems have been examined to support discussion and enable optical modelling for a description of the optical costs and benefits of structural disorder.

This review highlights many spectroscopy-based studies and selected phenomenological studies of silicon-based nanostructures that provide insight into their likely PL mechanisms, and also covers six application areas.

In this introductory lecture we discuss the state-of-the-art glycan microarray technology, with emphasis on novel approaches to immobilize collections of glycans in a defined, multivalent manner.

We present concepts of complexity, and complex chemistry in systems subjected to biotic and abiotic transformations, and introduce analytical possibilities to disentangle chemical complexity into its elementary parts as a global integrated approach termed systems chemical analytics.

Because the Introductory Lecture of this Faraday Discussion emphasized the recent history and exciting developments in the fields of experimental methods and applications of gaseous ion spectroscopy, these Concluding Remarks are, by design, directed somewhat more toward the roles played by theory.

This introduction provides a historical context for the development of ion spectroscopy over the past half century by following the evolution of experimental methods to the present state-of-the-art.

A brief introduction into artificial photosynthesis technologies is presented.

In these introductory remarks we discuss the generation of nonequilibrium electrons in metals, their properties, and how they can be utilized in two emerging applications: for extending the capabilities of photodetection (left), and for photocatalysis (right), lowering the barriers of chemical reactions.

This Spiers Memorial Lecture discusses quantum effects that can be calculated and observed in the chemical reactions of small molecules.

The stochastic nature of very fast single-entity events challenges current electrochemical methods and modern electronics, as illustrated using recent experiments from the authors’ laboratory.

This review gives an overview of the impact of structure on the understanding of photoinduced processes in macromolecules, focusing on systems presented at this Faraday Discussion meeting.