History, versatility and future prospects of oscillatory carbonylation reactions of alkynes.

The paper looks back at three decades of oscillatory carbonylation reactions, summarises core findings and shares perspectives, with particular emphasis on applications. Oscillatory carbonylation reactions of alkynes display remarkable versatility in terms of substrates, catalysts and solvents. Furthermore, in addition to oscillations in pH and redox potential, these organic chemical oscillators can yield oscillations in turbidity and release heat from the reaction in a pulsatile manner.

Plasma-assisted removal of methanol in N, dry and humidified air using a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) reactor.

In this work, a non-thermal plasma dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) was used to remove methanol from ambient air. The effects of carrier gases (N, dry and humidified air), power (2-10 W), inlet concentration (260-350 ppm), and residence time (1.2-3.

An integrated platform approach enables discovery of potent, selective and ligand-competitive cyclic peptides targeting the GIP receptor.

In any drug discovery effort, the identification of hits for further optimisation is of crucial importance. For peptide therapeutics, display technologies such as mRNA display have emerged as powerful methodologies to identify these desired hit ligands against targets of interest. The diverse peptide libraries are genetically encoded in these technologies, allowing for next-generation sequencing to be used to efficiently identify the binding ligands.

Pathways to increase the dissymmetry in the interaction of chiral light and chiral molecules.

The dissymmetric interaction between circularly polarised (CP) light and chiral molecules is central to a range of areas, from spectroscopy and imaging to next-generation photonic devices. However, the selectivity in absorption or emission of left-handed right-handed CP light is low for many molecular systems. In this perspective, we assess the magnitude of the measured chiroptical response for a variety of chiral systems, ranging from small molecules to large supramolecular assemblies, and highlight the challenges towards enhancing chiroptical activity.

Intrinsic photogeneration of long-lived charges in a donor-orthogonal acceptor conjugated polymer.

Efficient charge photogeneration in conjugated polymers typically requires the presence of a second component to act as electron acceptor. Here, we report a novel low band-gap conjugated polymer with a donor/orthogonal acceptor motif: poly-2,6-(4,4-dihexadecyl-4-cyclopenta [2,1-:3,4-']dithiophene)--2,6-spiro [cyclopenta[2,1-:3,4-']dithiophene-4,9'-fluorene]-2',7'-dicarbonitrile, referred to as . The role of the orthogonal acceptor is to spatially isolate the LUMO from the HOMO, allowing for negligible exchange energy between electrons in these orbitals and minimising the energy gap between singlet and triplet charge transfer states.

Exceptionally fast radiative decay of a dinuclear platinum complex through thermally activated delayed fluorescence.

A novel dinuclear platinum(ii) complex featuring a ditopic, bis-tetradentate ligand has been prepared. The ligand offers each metal ion a planar ^^^ coordination environment, with the two metal ions bound to the nitrogen atoms of a bridging pyrimidine unit. The complex is brightly luminescent in the red region of the spectrum with a photoluminescence quantum yield of 83% in deoxygenated methylcyclohexane solution at ambient temperature, and shows a remarkably short excited state lifetime of 2.

Two-dimensional conductive phthalocyanine-based metal-organic frameworks for electrochemical nitrite sensing.

2D nickel phthalocyanine based MOFs (NiPc-MOFs) with excellent conductivity were synthesized through a solvothermal approach. Benefiting from excellent conductivity and a large surface area, 2D NiPc-MOF nanosheets present excellent electrocatalytic activity for nitrite sensing, with an ultra-wide linear concentration from 0.01 mM to 11 500 mM and a low detection limit of 2.

Establishing empirical design rules of nucleic acid templates for the synthesis of silver nanoclusters with tunable photoluminescence and functionalities towards targeted bioimaging applications.

DNA-templated silver nanoclusters (AgNCs) are an emerging class of ultrasmall (<2 nm) fluorophores with increasing popularity for bioimaging due to their facile synthesis and tunable emission color. However, design rules correlating different nucleotide sequences with the photoemission properties of AgNCs are still largely unknown, preventing the rational design of DNA templates to fine-tune the emission color, brightness and functionalities of AgNCs for any targeted applications. Herein, we report a systematic investigation to understand the empirical influences of the four basic DNA nucleotides on AgNC synthesis and their effects on photoluminescence properties.

Metal-enhancement study of dual functional photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission and singlet oxygen generation.

Photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission (AIE-PS) are attractive for image-guided photodynamic therapy due to their dual functional role in generating singlet oxygen and producing high fluorescent signal in the aggregated state. However, their brightness and treatment efficiency maybe limited in current practice. Herein we report the first systematic investigation on the metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) and singlet oxygen generation (ME-SOG) ability of our newly synthesized AIE-photosensitizers.

A regioselectively 1,1',3,3'-tetrazincated ferrocene complex displaying core and peripheral reactivity.

Regioselective 1,1',3,3'-tetrazincation [C-H to C-Zn(Bu)] of ferrocene has been achieved by reaction of a fourfold excess of di--butylzinc (BuZn) with sodium 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidide (NaTMP) in hexane solution manifested in the trimetallic iron-sodium-zinc complex [Na(TMP)Zn(Bu){(CH)Fe}], . X-ray crystallographic studies supported by DFT modelling reveal the structure to be an open inverse crown in which two [Na(TMP)Zn(Bu)Na(TMP)Zn(Bu)] cationic units surround a {(CH)Fe} tetraanion. Detailed CD NMR studies have assigned the plethora of H and C chemical shifts of this complex.

New scaling relations to compute atom-in-material polarizabilities and dispersion coefficients: part 1. Theory and accuracy.

Polarizabilities and London dispersion forces are important to many chemical processes. Force fields for classical atomistic simulations can be constructed using atom-in-material polarizabilities and C ( = 6, 8, 9, 10…) dispersion coefficients. This article addresses the key question of how to efficiently assign these parameters to constituent atoms in a material so that properties of the whole material are better reproduced.

Scale-up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway.

Poly(limonene carbonate) (PLC) has been highlighted as an attractive substitute to petroleum derived plastics, due to its utilisation of CO and bio-based limonene as feedstocks, offering an effective carbon capture and utilisation pathway. Our study investigates the techno-economic viability and environmental sustainability of a novel process to produce PLC from citrus waste derived limonene, coupled with an anaerobic digestion process to enable energy cogeneration and waste recovery maximisation. Computational process design was integrated with a life cycle assessment to identify the sustainability improvement opportunities.

Scale-up and Sustainability Evaluation of Biopolymer Production from Citrus Waste Offering Carbon Capture and Utilisation Pathway.

Invited for this month's cover picture is the group of Dr Miao Guo from Department of Chemical Engineering at the Imperial College London (UK). The cover picture shows modelling research on the co-polymerisation of waste-sourced limonene oxide with CO to produce poly(limonene carbonate), which offers a sustainable pathway to achieve carbon capture and utilisation. A computational approach to process design was integrated with sustainability evaluation to model this synthetic pathway and identify the environmental-damaging and performance-limiting steps for further improvement.

Nucleotide-derived theranostic nanodots with intrinsic fluorescence and singlet oxygen generation for bioimaging and photodynamic therapy.

Nucleic acids are important molecules of life and have recently emerged as important functional materials to synthesize, organize and assemble inorganic nanoparticles for various technological applications. In this study, we have systematically investigated the four basic nucleotides of DNA as precursors to form fluorescent nucleotide derived biodots (N-dots) with unique singlet oxygen generation properties by one-pot hydrothermal synthesis. It has been discovered for the first time that the nitrogenous base adenine accounts for the bright fluorescence, while the sugar and phosphate groups of the nucleotide endow the N-dots with good photo-stability.

Triazatruxene: A Rigid Central Donor Unit for a D-A Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence Material Exhibiting Sub-Microsecond Reverse Intersystem Crossing and Unity Quantum Yield via Multiple Singlet-Triplet State Pairs.

By inverting the common structural motif of thermally activated delayed fluorescence materials to a rigid donor core and multiple peripheral acceptors, reverse intersystem crossing (rISC) rates are demonstrated in an organic material that enables utilization of triplet excited states at faster rates than Ir-based phosphorescent materials. A combination of the inverted structure and multiple donor-acceptor interactions yields up to 30 vibronically coupled singlet and triplet states within 0.2 eV that are involved in rISC.

Oilseed rape () as a resource for farmland insect pollinators: quantifying floral traits in conventional varieties and breeding systems.

Oilseed rape (OSR; L.) is a major crop in temperate regions and provides an important source of nutrition to many of the yield-enhancing insect flower visitors that consume floral nectar. The manipulation of mechanisms that control various crop plant traits for the benefit of pollinators has been suggested in the bid to increase food security, but little is known about inherent floral trait expression in contemporary OSR varieties or the breeding systems used in OSR breeding programmes.

Heterogeneous Electron-Transfer Rates for the Reduction of Viologen Derivatives at Platinum and Bismuth Electrodes in Acetonitrile.

The standard heterogeneous rate constants for the reduction of a series of viologen derivatives with a range of inter-ring torsion angles were measured at Bi and Pt electrodes. The electrode potentials for the first one-electron reduction of the viologens vary from -684 mV to -1070 mV vs. Ag/0.