The simultaneous electroreduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate is a promising and environmentally benign route to urea production, but achieving high selectivity for urea electrosynthesis via this route remains challenging. Here, CuO_xZnO_y electrodes are shown to enable the efficient and selective production of urea under mild conditions, with the efficiency found to strongly depend on the metal ratio within the catalyst composition.

Heterogeneous reaction of NO₂ with atmospheric humic like substances is a potentially important source of volatile organic compounds, but the role of ubiquitous water-soluble aerosol components in this chemistry remains largely unexplored. Here, secondary electrospray ionization ultrahigh-resolution mass spectrometry is used to obtain real-time measurements of VOCs formed during the heterogeneous reaction of gas phase NO₂ and a solution containing gallic acid as a model for moderately acidic aerosol particles.

Fluorinated ketones can function as covalent warheads applied in the design of reversible covalent inhibitors, however, the reactivity of certain fluorinated moieties remains underexplored. Here, the authors investigate the species-specific lipophilicities of fluorinated geminal diketones in multicomponent equilibrium systems and reveal their potential as multifaceted warheads for reversible covalent drugs.

Co-electrolysis of nitrogen oxides and carbon oxides has been studied for over two decades but remains largely inefficient with numerous persisting knowledge voids. Here, the authors report a thermodynamic basis for modelling urea production via co-electrolysis using several exchange-correlation functionals, highlighting the importance of gas-phase error assessment in computational electrocatalysis.

One-carbon insertion into N–O bonds is widely exploited in organic synthesis, but synthetic protocols for this rely on hazardous diazo precursors that are difficult to access. Here, copper-catalyzed intermolecular formal (5 + 1) annulation of 1,5-diynes with 1,2,5-oxadiazoles is shown to facilitate one-carbon insertion into heterocyclic N–O bonds without the need for diazo precursors.

Electrolytes with high concentrations are desirable for high-performance electrochemical devices, but their microstructures are still not well understood. Here, the authors study electrolyte structure and correlate it to ionic conductivity for four nitrate-based electrolyte solutions over wide concentration and temperature ranges, and derive a simple model with only two parameters and high accuracy to correlate conductivity with molar concentration and temperature.

The formation of Li dendrites at the Li/electrolyte interface at practically relevant current densities (> 1 mA cm⁻²) is a critical issue hindering the deployment of non-flammable and non-toxic Li₇La₃Zr₂O₁₂ (LLZO) electrolyte in solid-state batteries. In this comment, the authors argue for an agreement to standardize measurements of the critical current density at which Li dendrites begin to penetrate the LLZO solid-state electrolyte.

Attosecond science is nowadays a well-established research field, and table-top attosecond sources based on high-harmonic generation are routinely used to access electronic motion in matter at its natural time scale. Here, the authors describe a new way of doing chemistry—attochemistry—by directly acting on the electronic motion, and discuss a few key open questions in this emerging field.

Fluorochemicals have a wide range of applications in industry, but accessing these relies on the energy intensive conversion of acid-grade fluorspar (CaF₂) to toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF) gas, which is in turn used for the downstream production of fluorochemicals via multistep processes. Now, directly treating acid-grade fluorspar with dipotassium hydrogen phosphate (K₂HPO₄) under mechanochemical conditions affords a fluorinating reagent for direct S–F and C(sp³/sp²)–F bond construction, bypassing the need for HF production.

Vat-polymerization 3D printing (3DP) enables the high speed printing of precise and intricate 3D models, yet it inevitably produces highly crosslinked polymers that are not easily degradable or recyclable. Here, the author highlights recent work that realizes the formation of fully degradable polymers based on organocatalytic vat-ring-opening photopolymerization 3DP.

Dr Zoe Schnepp and Professor David Smith share their experiences of working part-time in academia, discussing some of the benefits and challenges, and offering advice to those who may be seeking to work part-time.

Dr Satoshi Honda talks to us about pursuing his scientific dreams, scientific developments he is excited about, directions polymer synthesis and materials development should focus on, as well as his experience of being an Editorial Board Member for Communications Chemistry.