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Volume 5 Issue 3, March 2021

Mechanical loads can affect chemical reactivity in diverse ways. Exerting pressure on fullerenes in a ball mill sees them dimerize and trimerize, while pulling on opposite ends of a biimidazole causes it to rupture into two radicals. Tension can also break bonds away from the main chain of a molecule, as in the case of phosphate esters. See O’Neil and Boulatov

Image: Roman Boulatov (University of Liverpool). Design: Carl Conway

Volume 5 Issue 3

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In the Classroom

  • Innovative student-centred teaching, exemplified by the flipped and linked classroom approaches, is important in modernizing chemistry education to make it relevant to and effective in diverse scenarios.

    • Mik Fanguy
    • Sang Yup Lee
    • David G. Churchill
    In the Classroom

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Research Highlights

  • The dynamic process of sodium chloride nucleation and growth has been recorded in real time and with atomistic resolution.

    • Gabriella Graziano
    Research Highlight

  • Splat chemistry fires molecules at a surface and then analyses the products that remain attached in order to study the dynamics of collision-activated reactions

    • Stephen G. Davey
    Research Highlight
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News & Views

  • A landmark vibrational study from 15 years ago established much of what we know about hydrogenase mechanisms

    • Sven T. Stripp
    News & Views
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Reviews

  • The diverse manifestations of mechanochemistry probably share a similar mechanism, whereby mechanical motion drives otherwise endergonic reactions. This Review discusses what reactions of stretched polymers and model macrocycles have taught us about this mechanism.

    • Robert T. O’Neill
    • Roman Boulatov
    Review Article

  • This Review discusses recent progress in the uses, challenges and future prospects for separations using metal–organic cages. Precise control over the size, shape and functionalization of these cages enables their application for separations required in petroleum, pharmaceuticals, mining and life sciences.

    • Dawei Zhang
    • Tanya K. Ronson
    • Jonathan R. Nitschke
    Review Article

  • Biological processes can be monitored in real time using induced volatolomics, whereby metabolism of an exogenous probe affords volatiles diagnostic of healthy functioning or pathogens.

    • Fabiola Djago
    • Justin Lange
    • Pauline Poinot

    Innovations In:

    Review Article

  • Carbohydrate adjuvants potentiate immune responses through diverse mechanisms. This Review highlights carbohydrate-based adjuvants, providing insights into structure–activity relationships and applications in vaccine development, while discussing current knowledge of the mechanisms by which they potentiate and modulate the immune response.

    • Carlo Pifferi
    • Roberto Fuentes
    • Alberto Fernández-Tejada
    Review Article
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