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Metal sulfide batteries suffer from low electrical conductivity which limits their application in sodium ion batteries. Here, the authors report a manganese sulfide anode in sodium ion batteries with capacity of 340 mAh g−1 maintained over more than 1000 cycles at a current density of 5.0 A g−1.
Calcium phosphate is an important biomineral and is thought to crystallise through non-classical pathways. Here, time-resolved liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy offers confirmatory evidence gained through continuous monitoring of mineralisation in solution.
Rhenium disulfide is a promising lithium ion battery material but its distorted structure makes computational modelling challenging. Here hardware-accelerator-assisted high-throughput DFT based structure searching is used to model the reversible lithiation of ReS2 including metal–sulphur bond cleavage.
Peptide nucleic acids (PNAs) can invade canonical nucleic acid dimers but may be limited to certain sequences or perform poorly under physiological conditions. Here PNAs containing Janus bases invade a range of RNA and DNA sequences via Watson-Crick base pairing under near-physiological conditions.
The design of beta-sheet rich proteins offers new opportunities for developing synthetic functional molecules. Here a series of proteins and peptides capable of binding multiple heme units between beta-sheets with high affinity are reported.
The detailed molecular-level speciation of organic aerosol is a highly challenging task. Here, the authors show an extensive molecular-level intercomparison of functionalized organic aerosol from three diverse field sites revealing large compositional variability between samples at each field site.
Exciton/recombination events in semiconductor quantum dots are highly dependent on surface coordination environments and these processes are well studied. Here, conversely, the authors use sum-frequency generation spectroscopy to probe the effect of the quantum dot on the vibrational structure of the ligands.
Materials with switchable colour and opacity hold promise as components of ‘smart windows’. Here a photo- and electrochromic device based on a self-assembled naphthalene diimide gel is shown to undergo reversible photo or electrochemical transition from transparent to black.
Solid-state NMR of nitrogen nuclei offers a powerful way to solve protein structures but often requires isotopic labeling. Here through-space interactions between nitrogen-14 and protons allows structural assignment of cyclosporin without the need for isotopic enrichment with nitrogen-15.
Self-driven synthetic microswimmers typically move continuously until the fuel runs out. Here, multilayer graphene oxide particles are shown to periodically swarm together under continuous UV illumination.
Glycerol is an abundant byproduct of the biofuel industry which holds promise as a platform chemical. Here glycerol is converted to value-added chemicals of varying degrees of reduction using thermostable multi-enzyme cascades.
Silicates are abundant in the Earth’s crust but their high-pressure solution chemistry has not been studied by NMR. Here the complexation chemistry of aqueous silicates is studied at pressures of up to 1.8 GPa by 29Si NMR spectroscopy.
Metal-organic frameworks are attractive candidates as catalyst materials. Here, the authors report a highly symmetric hierarchical framework with a rare nha net topology catalyzing microwave-assisted radical polymerization of methyl methacrylate in high yields.
Efficient capture of iodine has important applications in nuclear waste processing. Here a class of imidazolate-derived ionic liquids are shown to chemically capture up to 17.5 grams of iodine per gram of ionic liquid at useful temperatures.
Kinetic control of self-assembly at interfaces offers a promising route to new two dimensional materials. Here high-resolution dynamic atomic force microscopy experiments combined with DFT calculations reveal the kinetic pathways by which 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid sequentially assembles on calcite.
Artificial intelligence approaches to medicinal chemistry are increasingly powerful but struggle to predict bioactive molecules. Here a machine learning model generates synthetically accessible mimetics of natural products, which are shown to be bioactive against the retinoid X receptor.
Intercalated metal-organic frameworks hold promising potential as supercapacitors. Here the performance of 4,4′-biphenyl dicarboxylate dilithium is explored using both experimental and computational methods, offering insight into the basis for high electron and lithium-ion conduction in this material.
Chiral allenes are useful chemical reagents, but efficient access to chiral heteroaryl allenes remains challenging. Here the authors report a copper-catalyzed asymmetric allenylation of quinoline N-oxides using 1,3-enynes, providing efficient access to axially chiral allenes bearing heteroarenes.
Transition metal nanoparticle-MOF systems have promising hydrogen storage properties but the nature of the interfacial interaction remains ambiguous. Here, the authors use computational and spectroscopic methods to investigate the electronic structure and charge transfer processes in a palladium nanocube-MOF system.
DFT is widely used to study catalytic processes but its accuracy is debated. This paper shows major variations in DFT outcome for a simple model of iron-catalyzed ammonia synthesis benchmarked against experimental and high-level quantum mechanical data.