Volume 2 Issue 8, August 2018

Isoporous block copolymer films have useful morphological features, but lack the conductivity necessary for chemiresistive sensing. Combining such films with carbon nanotubes affords new porous composites, whose conductivity is sensitive to guest molecules.

Superatoms — particularly paramagnetic ones — can be difficult to isolate and study. Bulky organic ligands have been shown to stabilize a large copper-aluminium superatom with a unique open-shell electronic structure.

Traditional approaches for studying glycans can lack the precision required to uncover their roles in biomolecular processes. Progress has been made in the use of single molecule techniques for examining individual events in glycobiology — such as the molecular interactions of sugars and their roles in biological processes — within challenging mixtures.

Semiconducting quantum dots (QDs) can serve as light-absorbing components in efficient artificial photosynthetic systems for H₂ evolution. This Review describes how we can optimize QDs for H₂ evolution using sacrificial reductants, before moving on to sustainable strategies for the photolysis of biomass or H₂O.

The discovery of bioactive small molecules is generally driven via iterative design–make–purify–test cycles. Progress has been made towards the automation and integration of adjacent stages within such discovery workflows, which can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of bioactive small-molecule discovery.

Humans have evolved innate and adaptive immune systems to survive infection. Chemical approaches have enabled modulation of the immune system to activate or dampen it, leading to the development of new treatments for cancer and autoimmunity.