Reaction: Porous Organic Polymers for Uranium Capture

Uranium recovery from seawater is a promising uranium-extraction method that could provide needed resources for low-carbon energy production. However, for widescale implementation of uranium recovery, issues of cost and scale must be addressed. In this reaction piece, Yavuz explores new materials that could help further the implementation of uranium...

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Catalyst: Uranium Extraction from Seawater, a Paradigm Shift in Resource Recovery

Nuclear energy, a low-carbon route to lowering worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, could play a critical role in the transition to a clean energy future. However, low terrestrial supplies of uranium ore could limit the potential of nuclear power unless alternative extraction methods are employed. This Catalysis article highlights the development of...

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Reaction: Semiconducting MOFs Offer New Strategy for Uranium Extraction from Seawater

Uranium extraction from seawater is one of the most important chemical separations for society given that oceanic uranium reserves could enable the expansion of low-carbon nuclear energy production. In this reaction piece, Li and Wang discuss the potential of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for efficient and sustainable uranium extraction from seawater.

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Reaction: Engineer Biology for Uranium

Cost and scalability remain major hurdles facing existing technologies for the extraction of oceanic uranium, but repurposing existing biological systems could help overcome these obstacles. In this reaction piece, Sun and He discuss the progress in protein engineering of biological systems to sustainably mine uranium from seawater.

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Reaction: Goal-Oriented PAF Design for Uranium Extraction from Seawater

Although nuclear power is a promising technology for achieving a clean energy economy, the terrestrial availability of uranium limits implementation of nuclear power. In this reaction piece, Zhu discusses how porous aromatic frameworks, which are especially promising for adsorbent methods given their open framework architectures, chemically amenable...

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Controlling Radical Relay Processes with Visible Light

Harnessing free radical intermediates for selective functionalization of organic compounds has been widely demonstrated under photocatalytic conditions requiring a distinct photocatalyst. In this issue of Chem, Seo, Chang, and co-workers demonstrate an alternative photocatalyst-free light-mediated approach that allows efficient amidation of aldehydes...

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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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From Nanocrystals to Nanocrystalline Metals

Grain size and shape and the structure of grain boundaries greatly influence the mechanical, electrical, and optical properties of polycrystalline metals and alloys. In this issue of Chem, Nagaoka et al. take a bottom-up approach to grain boundary engineering by consolidating colloidal nanocrystals into millimeter-scale polycrystalline and metallic...

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Deciphering Catalytic Selectivity on Uneven Terraces

Understanding the relationship between catalytic selectivity and surface structures of heterogeneous catalysts is essential for high-performance catalysis. In this issue of Chem, Zhu et al. report a puzzle-solving strategy relying on single-crystal foils and Pearson correlation analysis to determine the dependence of catalytic activity on the principal...

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Bulk Grain-Boundary Materials from Nanocrystals

We propose a new concept, the nanocrystal (NC)-coining process, to produce bulk materials with precisely tailored nanoscale grain-boundary conditions. By consolidating surface-engineered NCs into bulk materials using pressure, we can fabricate free-standing NC coins with metallic appearance and conductivity, while preserving the original NC domain feature....

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