Chemical Reviews最新文献

This review provides a foundational understanding of solubility to support researchers in navigating challenges in battery electrolyte development. We survey recent strategies aimed at controlling, and typically maximizing, solubility in electrochemical systems, with a focus on redox flow and metal-ion batteries. The review begins with an accessible overview of solubility concepts, methods for accurately determining solubility for battery-relevant materials, and solubility prediction. We then discuss how solubility can be tuned by modifying the electrolyte solution structure or by tailoring the molecular structure of the active material itself, and we examine emerging strategies to decouple electrolyte capacity from solubility in flow batteries. In the context of metal and metal-ion batteries, we highlight the role of solvation structures in concentrated electrolytes and their influence on both bulk and interfacial properties. Finally, trade-offs associated with high-concentration formulations, such as increased viscosity and reduced ionic conductivity, are considered in light of their impact on practical deployment. We conclude with a forward-looking perspective on solubility as a central design parameter in battery electrolyte research.

Heme is an essential molecule required for critical biochemical processes in most vertebrates and bacteria. During infections, vertebrate hosts sequester heme away from invading pathogens, a process known as nutritional immunity, driving bacteria to evolve diverse mechanisms to evade this immunity and cause diseases. This review explores the functions of heme at the host–pathogen interface. We discuss the multifaceted roles of heme in bacterial pathogenesis and the potential for heme-targeting antimicrobial therapies. Beyond serving as a source of iron in the host environment, where iron bioavailability is limited, heme contributes to the structural stability and enzymatic functions of hemoproteins. We examine the regulatory mechanisms governing bacterial heme homeostasis in the host environment including sensing, detoxification, acquisition, utilization, and degradation pathways. Understanding how heme influences bacterial survival and virulence can lead to the development of novel therapeutic strategies that target the various essential and conserved mechanisms of heme homeostasis in bacterial pathogens. Given the rising challenge of antibiotic resistance, heme-based therapeutic interventions are promising strategies for the treatment of bacterial infections.

Point source carbon capture is a technology that has been developed to separate carbon dioxide (CO₂) from gas mixtures prior to emission to the atmosphere. It is considered a crucial technology to manage CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel-based heat and power and industrial processes as part of emissions reduction strategies. The most mature technology is reactive chemical absorption using aqueous amines, with other options emerging. In this review we have described the chemistry of liquid-based reactive chemical absorption and examined the current state-of-the-art in terms of the molecules being investigated. We have also highlighted the critical properties relevant for an absorbent to be effective for carbon capture. The chemical and physical properties have also been considered in terms of how they influence process performance, both positively and negatively, with emphasis on the multifaceted nature of this relationship and the importance of understanding both the chemistry and chemical engineering when endeavoring to make improvements.

Transition metal complexes featuring unusual oxidation states represent an exciting frontier in inorganic chemistry. This review surveys the unusual oxidation states of two biologically important metals, platinum (Pt^I and Pt^III) and gold (Au^II), examining their electronic structures, bonding characteristics, and biomedical relevance, among other features. Emphasis is placed on synthetic strategies, redox behavior, and factors influencing their stability and stabilization. Pt^III complexes can potentially offer an alternative to the traditional Pt^II/IV anticancer chemotherapy framework and be an intermediate in Pt^II/IV redox chemistry. Indeed, the Pt^III-based platinum blues have been widely investigated as anticancer agents soon after the landmark discovery of cisplatin as a cancer chemotherapeutic. Au^II complexes are less explored for their biological properties but may be intermediates in Au^I/III redox chemistry and offer an alternative pathway to gold-based chemotherapeutics. We outline current challenges and future directions in this evolving field, where fundamental chemistry meets therapeutic innovation.

High-energy-density all-solid-state lithium batteries (ASSLBs) require cathodes with exceptional mechanical integrity, interfacial compatibility, and long-term electrochemical stability. Single-crystal (SC) layered oxides, distinguished from polycrystalline (PC) counterparts by their grain-boundary-free architecture and crystallographic uniformity, exhibit enhanced structural and interfacial stability while providing an ideal model system for decoupling electro-chemo-mechanical interactions. These characteristics enable precise investigation of facet-dependent transport, reaction kinetics, and degradation pathways─insights that can inform the design of both SC and advanced PC cathodes. In this review, we examine the anisotropic lithium transport, mechanical responses, and interfacial behaviors of SC cathodes, and compare them systematically with PCs to clarify how microstructural differences influence performance in ASSLBs. We further summarize advances in intrinsic material optimization, interfacial engineering, and composite electrode architectures, alongside state-of-the-art characterization and modeling tools for probing degradation mechanisms and coupling effects. Finally, we outline key challenges and research directions to accelerate the practical deployment of SC cathodes in next-generation high-energy-density ASSLBs.

Ionic liquids (ILs) have emerged as highly tunable sorbents and membranes for gas separation, especially in the purification of CO₂-containing gas streams such as air, natural gas, biogas, and syngas. Their negligible volatility, high thermal stability, and chemical versatility position them as promising alternatives to conventional amine and alkaline metal derivative-based systems, effectively addressing key challenges such as volatility, stability, and high regeneration energy. This Review explores IL-derived systems for CO₂-related gas separation across dense, porous, and supported categories. At the dense liquid level, we discuss strategies for tailoring IL properties to optimize CO₂ sorption, focusing on the correlation between IL-CO₂ interaction strength, uptake capacity, and regeneration energy. Key advancements in carbon capture, including amino-functionalized (AILs) and superbase-derived ILs (SILs), are highlighted, along with strategies such as chemical structure engineering, multiple binding site integration, alternative driving force exploration, and stability enhancement. Then, the porous liquids (PLs) scale focuses on the emerging field integrating IL properties with permanent porosity engineering, spanning ultramicropores (<5 Å) to macropores (around 100 nm). These innovations improve gas uptake capacity, accelerate transport kinetics, introduce the gating effect, and enable the coexistence of active sites with antagonistic properties within a single IL medium. At the supported IL scale, the discussion shifts to IL- and ionic pair-modified sorbents and membranes, emphasizing the modulation of cations and anions, confinement effects from porous supports, and the IL–interface interaction to enhance CO₂ separation performance, particularly in diluted gas streams. Beyond separation, this Review highlights IL-based integrated processes for CO₂ capture and conversion into value-added chemicals via thermocatalytic, electrocatalytic, and photocatalytic pathways. At each scale, advanced computational and experimental tools for IL design are also discussed, providing insights into stability enhancement, sorption efficiency, and process integration. The Review concludes by addressing existing challenges and outlining future directions for IL-driven innovations in gas separation technologies.

Photon upconversion, the process of converting low-energy photons to higher energy ones, shows promise for applications in solar energy, photocatalysis, biomedicine, and additive manufacturing. In triplet–triplet annihilation (TTA), incident low-energy photons populate metastable spin-triplet states that annihilate to generate high-energy emissive spin-singlet states. Thus, TTA-based photon upconversion (TTA-UC) can operate efficiently under incoherent and low-intensity excitation, such as sunlight. In this Review, we discuss the recent emergence of halide perovskite-based materials as potent triplet sensitizers for a variety of applications. Due to their strong and tunable absorption and high defect tolerance, perovskite materials ranging from nanocrystalline to bulk semiconductors enable efficient TTA-UC in both solution and solid-state systems. After introducing the TTA-UC process and giving a brief overview of its beginnings, we first consider TTA-UC systems based on perovskite nanocrystals and low-dimensional perovskite-inspired materials and the achievements that have been made in those areas. We then focus on the mechanism of bulk perovskite-sensitized TTA-UC, the impact the underlying structure holds, and review the current challenges in perovskite-sensitized solid-state UC and outline future research directions to unlock the full potential of TTA-UC in practical applications.