Review Articles in 2022

Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) emitters are inexpensive and versatile materials for organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) covering all colour regions. Here, the authors review double boron embedded multi resonant TADF emitters with particular attention to molecular design concepts, synthetic routes, optoelectronic properties, and OLED performance, providing future prospects for display applications.

¹⁰¹Tc is a lesser studied technetium isotope, but its unique nuclear properties and varying routes of production make it interesting for an array of applications where its shorter half-life can be exploited. Here, the authors review the discovery, nuclear properties, synthesis and separation, as well as applications of ¹⁰¹Tc, and point towards future research directions.

Ion separation membranes are of importance for a range of applications, including water treatment, raw material recovery, gas separation, and fuel cells, but traditional research and development methods can be expensive and time-consuming. Here, the authors review the capabilities and limitations of artificial intelligence in the design of high performing ion-selective membranes.

‘Molecular surgery’ is a useful method through which to create endohedral fullerenes that aren’t accessible by conventional physical methods of trapping small atoms and molecules. Here, the authors review the organic chemistry behind molecular surgery, describing the methods to access open-cage intermediates alongside the cage-closing chemistry.

Control over chemical transformations in aqueous environments employing catalytic systems whose activity can be switched on/off is challenging. Here, the authors review the switchable catalytic systems that operate in aqueous environments in response to external stimuli, such as pH, temperature, light, small molecules, electric field, magnetic field and mechanical energy.

Aluminum–sulfur batteries have a theoretical energy density comparable to lithium–sulfur batteries, whereas aluminum is the most abundant metal in the Earth’s crust and the least expensive metallic anode material to date. Here, the authors review experimental and computational approaches to tailor the chemical interactions between sulfur host materials and polysulfides in Al-S batteries and point towards promising future research directions.

Continuously evolving computational methods are crucial to improve our understanding of the thermophysical properties of molten salts, which are experimentally hard to probe but used widely from steel manufacturing to solar power generation. Here, the authors review computational method developments from early simulations to current machine learning tools, and conclude with an outlook on the challenges molten salt simulations still pose.

Molecular dynamics simulations, used to study chemical and biophysical processes, rely on the accuracy of the employed force fields. Here, the authors review successes and key areas of difficulty in the development of additive and polarizable force fields, and discuss experimental data availability, how empirical refinement impacts parametrization, and highlight possible routes to further improve the accuracy of force fields.