A nanopore distance away from next-generation protein sequencing

A recently published study in Science from the Dekker and Aksimentiev groups demonstrates a significant step toward adapting nanopore technology to directly sequence proteins. The long-term goal is to be able to read the amino acid sequence of a protein via nanopore, as simply as reading a strand of DNA.

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Porous liquids unlock a new class of spatially orthogonal catalyst

Catalytic cascades epitomize green chemistry principles, enabling ultra-efficient transformations while minimizing unit operations. In the last Chem issue, Chen et al. demonstrate a new strategy to combine antagonistic catalytic functions by incorporating an acidic zeolite in the pores of a sterically hindered, basic ionic liquid to drive a deacetalization-Knoevenagel...

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The discovery of charged point-point repulsions: A lesson in storytelling

Charged point-point repulsion (CPPR) is a newly discovered phenomenon that employs fundamental chemical interactions to reverse the conventional thermodynamics of porosity. We observed CPPR in a densely entangled network material named NU-1303-6, which spontaneously transforms to its non-entangled counterpart, featuring doubled pore size and record-high...

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In This Issue

In This Issue highlights the most exciting articles of the current issue with short editorial pieces written by the corresponding handling editors.

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Progress in carbon dioxide capture materials for deep decarbonization

To prevent runaway climate change, the goal of carbon neutrality calls for an aggressive use of decarbonization technologies such as carbon capture from flue gas and direct air capture (DAC) of carbon dioxide to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. Both of these techniques rely on carbon dioxide (CO2) sorbents or diffusion membranes, which can take...

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Chemodivergent difunctionalization of alkenes through base-controlled radical relay

Establishing chemodivergent synthetic strategies remains a daunting task in the realm of free-radical reaction manifolds. In the December issue of Chem, Glorius and co-workers resolve this challenge for selective difunctionalization of aliphatic alkenes. In the disclosed light-promoted radical relay process, switchable trifluoromethylation/alkylation...

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Progress in anion receptor chemistry

Anion receptor chemistry concerns the design of molecules that can bind species with a negative charge. This review details important advancements made in anion receptor chemistry and anion complexation in the years 2019 and 2020. Due to the growing nature of this field of research, this review focuses on the applications of sensing, self-assembly,...

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Light-harvesting biohybrids for enhanced solar-to-chemical conversion technologies

Photosynthesis combines solar energy capture and conversion to power oxygenic water splitting and carbon fixation. Integral to its success are protein-pigment complexes highly adapted over billions of years. In this issue of Chem, Cesana et al. create a photosynthetic biohybrid complex that utilizes energy from light to power challenging catalytic reactions.

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Deriving intuition in catalyst design with machine learning

Catalysts for asymmetric syntheses provide a powerful means to manipulate and obtain matter with defined stereochemistry. In a recent issue of Cell Reports Physical Science, Kanai and colleagues report on a data-driven approach to identify key components in iridium/boron catalysts for the on-demand synthesis of stereochemically defined α-allyl carboxylic...

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Expanding dynamic framework materials into COFs through HOF approach

In this issue of Chem, Samanta et al. discovered unique guest sorption induced dynamic and reversible structural expansion in a hydrogen-bonded cross-linked organic framework HCOF-6, which is originated from the flexible disruption and rearrangement of anion clusters, expanding the dynamic framework materials into the region of covalent organic frameworks...

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