Pub Date : 2025-07-14DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00735-1
Shiqi Jia , Yudong Hao , Yuedi Li , Yu Lan
Chiral medium-sized rings (MSRs), cyclic molecular structures comprising 7–11-membered rings, are prevalent in bioactive molecules owing to their unique three-dimensional structures and pharmacological properties. Compared with the extensively studied central chirality, MSRs with unconventional chirality — that is, axial chirality, inherent chirality and planar chirality — remain underexplored. The past decade has witnessed rapid advances in this field, with breakthroughs in their synthesis and applications. This Review is structured around the three underexplored types of chirality exhibited in MSRs detailing their key synthetic strategies, with a critical evaluation of their advantages and limitations. Additionally, the factors that influence the conformational stability of chiral MSRs are discussed using structure and energy analysis. Chiral medium-sized rings (MSRs) beyond central chirality, with unique rigid–flexible features, show broad potential. This Review highlights progress in the enantioselective synthesis of axial, inherent and planar chiral MSRs, and it critically assesses key synthetic strategies.
{"title":"Chiral medium-sized rings beyond central chirality","authors":"Shiqi Jia \u0000 , Yudong Hao \u0000 , Yuedi Li \u0000 , Yu Lan","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00735-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00735-1","url":null,"abstract":"Chiral medium-sized rings (MSRs), cyclic molecular structures comprising 7–11-membered rings, are prevalent in bioactive molecules owing to their unique three-dimensional structures and pharmacological properties. Compared with the extensively studied central chirality, MSRs with unconventional chirality — that is, axial chirality, inherent chirality and planar chirality — remain underexplored. The past decade has witnessed rapid advances in this field, with breakthroughs in their synthesis and applications. This Review is structured around the three underexplored types of chirality exhibited in MSRs detailing their key synthetic strategies, with a critical evaluation of their advantages and limitations. Additionally, the factors that influence the conformational stability of chiral MSRs are discussed using structure and energy analysis. Chiral medium-sized rings (MSRs) beyond central chirality, with unique rigid–flexible features, show broad potential. This Review highlights progress in the enantioselective synthesis of axial, inherent and planar chiral MSRs, and it critically assesses key synthetic strategies.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 9","pages":"617-633"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144622438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00742-2
Xuezhi Yang, Haiyan Zhang, Qian Liu, Guibin Jiang
The lithium-ion battery industry is driving the global clean energy transition but faces growing sustainability challenges. Pollution and recycling bottlenecks span the entire materials life cycle, emphasizing the urgent need for integrated chemical, environmental and policy frameworks to guide risk assessments and sustainable development.
{"title":"The Li-ion battery industry and its challenges","authors":"Xuezhi Yang, Haiyan Zhang, Qian Liu, Guibin Jiang","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00742-2","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00742-2","url":null,"abstract":"The lithium-ion battery industry is driving the global clean energy transition but faces growing sustainability challenges. Pollution and recycling bottlenecks span the entire materials life cycle, emphasizing the urgent need for integrated chemical, environmental and policy frameworks to guide risk assessments and sustainable development.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 8","pages":"497-498"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-11DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00741-3
Yuanfu Ren, Kuo-Wei Huang, Huabin Zhang
Despite over half a century of development, catalysts still cannot mimic the efficiency of plants in producing oxygen. By considering spatiotemporal aspects in electrocatalyst design, researchers can transplant the concept of direct oxo–oxo coupling from natural metalloenzymes to heterogeneous catalyst surfaces, thus pushing oxygen-evolution activity beyond conventional limits.
{"title":"Pursuing spatiotemporal coordination in electrocatalysis","authors":"Yuanfu Ren, Kuo-Wei Huang, Huabin Zhang","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00741-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00741-3","url":null,"abstract":"Despite over half a century of development, catalysts still cannot mimic the efficiency of plants in producing oxygen. By considering spatiotemporal aspects in electrocatalyst design, researchers can transplant the concept of direct oxo–oxo coupling from natural metalloenzymes to heterogeneous catalyst surfaces, thus pushing oxygen-evolution activity beyond conventional limits.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 8","pages":"501-503"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144603702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-10DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00743-1
Cesar Horna-Saldaña, Xavi Canaleta, Juan Ernesto Perez-Perez
Students with visual impairments face multiple barriers during their education, which can hinder their learning in STEM subjects. The design of the innovative tool Qarvis seeks to promote inclusion in chemistry teaching through the sense of touch and the organization of chemical elements as an accessible complement to the periodic table.
{"title":"Developing a tool for teaching chemistry to people with visual impairments","authors":"Cesar Horna-Saldaña, Xavi Canaleta, Juan Ernesto Perez-Perez","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00743-1","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00743-1","url":null,"abstract":"Students with visual impairments face multiple barriers during their education, which can hinder their learning in STEM subjects. The design of the innovative tool Qarvis seeks to promote inclusion in chemistry teaching through the sense of touch and the organization of chemical elements as an accessible complement to the periodic table.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 9","pages":"569-570"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144608855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00736-0
Dek N. Woolfson, Stephanie Greed
Ahead of his 60th birthday, Dek N. Woolfson, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and a recently elected Fellow of the Royal Society, spoke to us about his career in science.
在60岁生日前夕，布里斯托尔大学化学与生物化学教授、最近当选为英国皇家学会会员的戴克·n·伍尔夫森（Dek N. Woolfson）向我们讲述了他的科学生涯。
{"title":"A story of chance and collaboration","authors":"Dek N. Woolfson, Stephanie Greed","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00736-0","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00736-0","url":null,"abstract":"Ahead of his 60th birthday, Dek N. Woolfson, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bristol and a recently elected Fellow of the Royal Society, spoke to us about his career in science.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 7","pages":"430-431"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144569029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-07DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00733-3
Jeannie Z. Y. Tan, Joao M. Uratani, Steve Griffiths, John M. Andresen, M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer
Carbon capture (CC) is a key solution for decarbonizing industries with ‘hard-to-abate’ emissions, such as the cement, steel and chemicals sectors. The chemistry behind CC technologies underpins much of their cost and performance and hence, is an important research topic. As such, this Review focuses on the underlaying chemistry and industrial deployment status of CC technologies that have progressed to the early stages of development and beyond. The discussion provides insights into the CC technologies, which based on absorption, adsorption, membrane separation, cryogenic gas separation and electroswing, poised to have the greatest impact on industrial decarbonization. Carbon capture has a critical role in reducing emissions in hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel and chemicals. This Review examines the underlying chemistry and industrial progress of key carbon capture technologies with the potential to enable sector-wide decarbonization.
{"title":"Chemistry advances driving industrial carbon capture technologies","authors":"Jeannie Z. Y. Tan, Joao M. Uratani, Steve Griffiths, John M. Andresen, M. Mercedes Maroto-Valer","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00733-3","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00733-3","url":null,"abstract":"Carbon capture (CC) is a key solution for decarbonizing industries with ‘hard-to-abate’ emissions, such as the cement, steel and chemicals sectors. The chemistry behind CC technologies underpins much of their cost and performance and hence, is an important research topic. As such, this Review focuses on the underlaying chemistry and industrial deployment status of CC technologies that have progressed to the early stages of development and beyond. The discussion provides insights into the CC technologies, which based on absorption, adsorption, membrane separation, cryogenic gas separation and electroswing, poised to have the greatest impact on industrial decarbonization. Carbon capture has a critical role in reducing emissions in hard-to-abate sectors such as cement, steel and chemicals. This Review examines the underlying chemistry and industrial progress of key carbon capture technologies with the potential to enable sector-wide decarbonization.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 10","pages":"656-671"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144568793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-04DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00729-z
Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro, Héctor Carrascosa de Lucas, Rafael Martín-Doménech
Astrochemistry is a well-established multidisciplinary field devoted to the study of atoms and molecules in space. Although many astrochemists study molecules in the gas phase and reproduce their abundances by modelling the physical conditions of the interstellar medium, the microscopic dust particles floating in the interstellar medium also deserve the attention of the community. Radiation and thermally driven processes taking place on the bare dust, and particularly on dust particles covered by icy mantles, are mimicked in the laboratory. In addition to water, interstellar ice contains other simple species. In this Review we present our current knowledge on ice photochemistry and thermal processing that ultimately leads to the formation of complex organic molecules. Numerous complex organic molecules are of astrobiological interest and match those present in comets and asteroids. Upon impact of these minor bodies, water and complex organic molecules could have been delivered to the early Earth, which might have been vital for the first prebiotic reactions. Ultraviolet irradiation of simple ice mixtures present in the interstellar medium can lead to the synthesis of organic species, which could behave as the precursors to life on primordial Earth following asteroidal and cometary delivery. These reactions and their products are discussed herein.
{"title":"Photochemistry of interstellar ice forming complex organic molecules","authors":"Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro, Héctor Carrascosa de Lucas, Rafael Martín-Doménech","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00729-z","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00729-z","url":null,"abstract":"Astrochemistry is a well-established multidisciplinary field devoted to the study of atoms and molecules in space. Although many astrochemists study molecules in the gas phase and reproduce their abundances by modelling the physical conditions of the interstellar medium, the microscopic dust particles floating in the interstellar medium also deserve the attention of the community. Radiation and thermally driven processes taking place on the bare dust, and particularly on dust particles covered by icy mantles, are mimicked in the laboratory. In addition to water, interstellar ice contains other simple species. In this Review we present our current knowledge on ice photochemistry and thermal processing that ultimately leads to the formation of complex organic molecules. Numerous complex organic molecules are of astrobiological interest and match those present in comets and asteroids. Upon impact of these minor bodies, water and complex organic molecules could have been delivered to the early Earth, which might have been vital for the first prebiotic reactions. Ultraviolet irradiation of simple ice mixtures present in the interstellar medium can lead to the synthesis of organic species, which could behave as the precursors to life on primordial Earth following asteroidal and cometary delivery. These reactions and their products are discussed herein.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 8","pages":"537-552"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144564967","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-07-01DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00738-y
Zhiling Zheng
Agentic workflows powered by large language models are beginning to assist chemists in literature search, summarization, and outline drafting. Though they remain unable to replace expert insight, these systems promise to reshape how reviews are prepared — shifting the human role from exhaustive curator to creative synthesizer, empowered by intelligent, always-on review-copilots.
{"title":"The future of reviews writing in the AI era","authors":"Zhiling Zheng","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00738-y","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00738-y","url":null,"abstract":"Agentic workflows powered by large language models are beginning to assist chemists in literature search, summarization, and outline drafting. Though they remain unable to replace expert insight, these systems promise to reshape how reviews are prepared — shifting the human role from exhaustive curator to creative synthesizer, empowered by intelligent, always-on review-copilots.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 8","pages":"495-496"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144540924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-06-23DOI: 10.1038/s41570-025-00739-x
Ashley Mapile
In separation or filtration membranes, polymers can clog the active sites of porous materials. A recent adaptation of solution-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows for quantification of polymer intrusion in metal–organic frameworks.
{"title":"Threading the needle","authors":"Ashley Mapile","doi":"10.1038/s41570-025-00739-x","DOIUrl":"10.1038/s41570-025-00739-x","url":null,"abstract":"In separation or filtration membranes, polymers can clog the active sites of porous materials. A recent adaptation of solution-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows for quantification of polymer intrusion in metal–organic frameworks.","PeriodicalId":18849,"journal":{"name":"Nature reviews. Chemistry","volume":"9 7","pages":"432-432"},"PeriodicalIF":51.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144341353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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