Perspectives

Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is one of the most important fluorescence mechanisms, with multi-step FRET systems enabling sequential energy transfer as seen in natural photosynthetic systems. Here, the authors review recent progress in exploiting discrete supramolecular assemblies to achieve multi-step FRET between donors and multiple acceptors.

Self-sustainable autonomous soft actuators have emerged as naturally evolving out-of-equilibrium systems that do not require human intervention. Here, the authors discuss recent advances in the field, with a focus on shape-morphing materials, motion characteristics, built-in negative feedback loops, and constant stimulus response patterns.

Shortwave UV photons and very low energy electrons (vLEEs) are thought to be unfavorable prebiotic conditions on early Earth which can destroy unstable molecules. Here, the authors propose that nucleobases in their complementary pairs can enhance and consolidate the intrinsic stability of nucleobases against shortwave UV photons and vLEEs and promote their proliferation.

Atomically precise metal nanoclusters display exciting optical and catalytic properties, but their long-term instability under ambient conditions hinders their practical application. Here, the authors review recent progress in creating nanohybrids from atomically precise nanoclusters and other more stable nanomaterials, forming hybrids with useful properties and improved stabilities.

Constructing crystalline materials with specific stimuli-responsive dynamics and controlled molecular motion affords opportunities for innovative functionality and applications. Here, the authors discuss recent developments in dynamic solid-state framework materials across a range of material classes, exploring key phenomena associated with such complex dynamics.

Two-dimensional colloidal nanoplatelets can assemble into materials with promising optical properties, and the influence of local curvature on these properties is an area of active interest. Here, the relationship between nanoplatelet geometry, self-assembly, and collective properties is reviewed.

The field of C-H activation has boomed in the past two decades, but the diverse and overlapping terms used in the literature can be difficult to parse. Here the authors review key mechanistic concepts and offer a guide to the perplexed.

Photochemical and electrochemical approaches to protein and peptide modification offer a valuable complement to the use of stoichiometric reagents. Here recent developments in bioconjugation methodology relying on single electron transfer are described.

While the bulk structures of metal–organic frameworks can be solved by diffraction-based techniques, characterization of their local structures has been lacking. Here the authors review recent advances in (scanning) transmission electron microscopy that have made it possible to probe the local structures of MOFs at atomic resolution.