Volume 6 Issue 5, May 2022

As academic staff scrambled into emergency remote teaching during COVID-19 restrictions, we also had to move in-person exams online without compromising integrity. This disruption caused us to think carefully about how chemistry is assessed, because ‘business as usual’ was no longer possible — and at some institutions, there are no plans for in-person exams to return.

Convenient synthesis of planar-chiral rhodium catalysts enables asymmetrical C–H activation.

The lower solvation of phenol at the air–water interface speeds up its photoionization.

Reactions that form C–N bonds are key in the synthesis of molecules used in fertilizers, synthetic materials, pharmaceuticals and more. This Review examines the emerging area of heterogeneous electrocatalytic C–N bond formation using abundant starting materials, with the eventual goal of electrifying chemical manufacturing.

Creating artificial nanostructures inside living cells requires the careful design of molecules that can transform into active monomers within a complex cellular environment. This Review explores the recent development of bioresponsive precursors for the controlled formation of intracellular supramolecular assemblies.

Metal–organic cages with good solubility, accessible cavities and abundant reactive sites can undergo various post-synthetic modifications to assemble into multidimensional functional materials. This Review explores current post-synthetic modification strategies used for metal–organic cages, including covalent, coordination and noncovalent methods.

Modern data science can help to address challenges in experimental chemistry. This Expert Recommendation describes examples of how data science is changing the way we conduct experiments and outlines opportunities for further integration of data science and experimental chemistry to advance these fields.