The cover image depicts the process of chirality transfer from the natural cellulose derivatives to azobenzene-containing achiral polymer films. The green plants in the background represent nature property, indicating that the chiral cellulose is widely distributed in life. At the same time, it also shows that the cost of using such natural chiral substances as chiral inducers will be relatively low and more environmentally friendly. More details are discussed in the article by Zhang et al. on page 3625—3632.

This picture depicts a recently synthesized chiral precursor, specifically identified as 2,2'-dibromo-6,6'-diiodo-1,1'-biphenyl, that exhibits a remarkable capability for effortless conversion into a variety of atropisomeric compounds. This work was highlighted by successively demonstrating C—I and C—Br metalation of the aforementioned precursor, followed by carboxylation, boroylation, oxygenation, allylation, phosphinylation, etc. These findings offer a new and convenient approach for synthesizing axially chiral biphenyls. More in-depth information, please refer to the article by Gu et al. on page 3515—3520.

An efficient catalytic asymmetric synthesis of optically active 2,2'-dibromo-6,6'-diiodo -1,1'-biphenyl was reported. This chiral molecule features four carbon-halogen bonds, which can be sequentially elaborated to provide a variety of highly functionalized axially chiral biaryls.

A copper-catalyzed hydrodifluoroallylation of cyclopropenes and alkenyl boronates with 3,3-difluoroallyl sulfonium salts (DFASs) has been developed. The reaction provides an array of gem-difluoroallyl cyclopropanes and borylalkanes with high efficiency and stereoselectivity under mild reaction conditions. The synthetic utility of this approach has also been demonstrated by the diversified transformations of the gem-difluoroallylated products.

A homogeneous cobalt catalyst with dual hydrogenation activities was developed for deoxygenation of ketones with a Lewis acid as the co-catalyst. This protocol features a broad substrate scope and excellent functional group tolerance. Mechanistic studies supported a hydrogenation-dehydration-hydrogenation pathway for this hydrodeoxygenation reaction.

Direct alkylation with skipped enynes or cyclopropropylacetylenes represents an ideal process for the installation of pentadienyl group in terms of atom- and step-economy. We herein describe a synergistic chiral primary amine/Pd catalysis for asymmetric α-pentadienylation of β-ketocarbonyls and aldehydes with skipped enynes or cyclopropropylacetylenes. The reaction features the construction of acyclic all-carbon quaternary centers with high enantioselectivity, and good functional group tolerance and scalability.

An efficient nickel-catalyzed cross-electrophile coupling of triazine esters with aryl bromides in the presence of magnesium powder and lithium chloride in THF is reported. The cross-coupling reactions proceeded smoothly at room temperature to afford a variety of structurally diverse diaryl ketones in moderate to good yields with wide functional group tolerance.

The first iron-catalyzed alkenylzincation of internal alkynes featuring mild conditions, simple operation, broad substrate scope, excellent functional group tolerance, and high activity has been developed, which provides an efficient access to multi-substituted conjugated olefins.

S doping can promote H₂O activation and adjust Co active site. As a result, Co₁-SNC catalyst exhibits a greatly enhanced CO₂RR to CO performance compared to Co₁-NC.

Poly(3-hydroxyalkanoates) (PHA), promising biodegradable polymers, are hindered by the lack of efficient catalytic systems for competitive commercialization. Addressing this, we introduce a chloro-bridged dimeric salphen zirconium cobaltate complex. Under mild conditions under base-free conditions, it achieves full monomer conversion, 92% PHA selectivity, and challenges the prevailing β-lactone pathway. Instead, direct epoxide and carbon monoxide co-polymerization emerges as a unique and efficient PHA synthesis mechanism

A one-pot synthesis of vicinal diamines using indoles, azoles and phenothiazines in a tandem multi-component reaction is developed.

The first asymmetric hydrogenation of tetrapyridine-type N-heteroarenes, catalyzed by phosphine-free chiral cationic ruthenium diamine complexes, was successfully developed. With this methodology, a broad range of enantiopure tetradentate pyridine-amine-type ligands were obtained in high yields (up to 93%) with excellent stereoselectivities (up to 92 : 8 dl/meso and >99% ee) under mild conditions. Furthermore, the resulting tetradentate nitrogen-donor ligands were successfully applied in the Cu-catalyzed asymmetric Friedel–Crafts alkylation of indoles.

Herein, we report that the dehydration process of lantibiotic cacaoidin involves a dehydratase complex, which is composed of a phosphotransferase CaoK and a lyase CaoY in a 1 : 1 molar ratio. We show that fusing CaoK to CaoY enables the resulting enzyme CaoYK to exert enhanced solubility and dehydration activity.

A cross-coupling of aldehydes with α-haloboronates has been achieved under dual nickel/photoredox catalysis system. Considering the easy preparation of α-haloboronates with our deoxygenative difunctionalization of carbonyls (DODC) strategy, this protocol provides a formal deoxygenative cross-coupling of aldehydes to one-carbon-prolonged ketone products. The mild conditions enabled good functional group tolerance and broad substrate applicability. The application of this method was presented via a tunable synthesis of two ketones with very similar skeletons from two same aldehydes.

We report herein a palladium-catalyzed cyclizative alkynylation of allenyl ketones with terminal alkynes, which is proposed to follow a mechanism involving palladium-carbene migratory insertion.

Sulfate and 1,10-phenanthroline ligands decorated Ti₁₇ and Ti₁₉-oxo clusters are prepared by ionothermal synthesis and show structure dependent photocatalytic MB dye degradation and photoelectrochemical photocurrent behaviors.

Modern methods for producing CaC₂ are associated with a large amount of CO₂ emissions and energy costs. The use of metallic Ca as a starting reagent can affect both the complete removal of CO₂ emissions and the reduction of energy costs due to a lower reaction temperature.

We demonstrate a novel electrocatalytic strategy for selectively hydrogenating alkynols to corresponding high-value-added alkenols under ambient temperature and pressure. In acidic solution, the as-fabricated Cu₃P nanoarrays on Cu foam exhibit high alkynol conversion, high alkenol selectivity, and superior long-term stability at an industrial-level current density.

The chirality transfer from a natural chiral biosource to achiral azobenzene polymers is developed based on the simple and efficient spin-coated film. The annealing treatment, the content of chiral inducer and the molecular weight of the Azo polymer are key to the induction of supramolecular chirality by cellulose derivatives. The corresponding chirality-inducing mechanism was demonstrated to arise from the aggregation chirality induced by the C-H/O=C and C-H/π interactions between the glucose repeating units and the PMMAzo polymer side-chains.

Here, we report a cobalt-catalyzed sequential dehydrogenative Heck silylation/hydroamination of styrenes with hydrosilane and diazo compound to access 1-amino-2-silyl compounds with excellent regioselectivity. Not only di- and tri-substituted hydrosilanes, but also alkoxysilane is suitable, which does explore the scope of the family of 1-amino-2-silyl compounds. The ligand relay phenomenon between neutral tridentate NNN ligand and anionic NNN ligand is observed for the first time in this one-pot, two-step transformations.

Photo-modulation of gene-editing enzymes CRISPR/Cas9 has been achieved by a bifunctional small-molecule ligands strategy.

Quinazolone and imidazole were introduced to both sides of ethenone to construct novel structural quinazolone-derived imidazolenones as unique multitargeting antibacterial agents. The medicinal identification revealed that quinazolone-derived imidazolenones were expected to be further developed into a novel class of multitargeting antimicrobial agents to cope with multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.

Three trinuclear windwheel-shaped complexes were synthesized using M(II) (M = Mn, Co, Ni) ions, to give the easy-axis and easy-plane magnetic anisotropy, and the Co(II) complexes exhibited slow magnetic relaxation behavior.

A new CXCR4-inhibiting nanomedicine PAMD/Zn@siPAI-1 was designed to synergistically regulate the hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) activation and extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition.

Here, we proposed one type of CDs doped with nitrogen and sulfur through the hydrothermal method, which exhibited the obvious yellow-fluorescence in aqueous solution. Importantly, the fluorescence intensity of CDs decreased with pH decreasing in the acidic range, thus exhibiting the potential of pH sensing. Importantly, introducing tigecycline into these CDs resulted in their decreased fluorescence, thus we further established a strategy of detecting tigecycline.

Molecular conformations play a crucial role in fields such as materials science and drug design. Traditional methods like molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo simulations are limited in speed and accuracy. Deep learning models offer a promising solution by rapidly generating accurate molecular conformations. This Emerging Topic highlights recent progresses in using deep learning for predicting molecular conformations and explores the potential and challenges of this emerging field.

PY-IT, an efficient polymer acceptor, is fueling all-polymer solar cell efficiency breakthroughs.

This mini-review highlights recent achievements in the development of mussel-inspired adhesive hydrogels, including the elucidation of adhesion mechanisms and design of adhesive hydrogels toward biomedical applications.

This review focuses on summarizing the recent progress on thick-active layer organic solar cells (OSCs) and includes four parts: the efficiency loss analysis, the molecular design strategy, the device optimization strategy and the outlook for thick-active layer OSCs.

Fused polycyclic N-heterocycles are very important in biomedicinal chemistry and materials science. This review summarizes recent advances in domino reactions for the synthesis of fused polycyclic N-heterocycles based on intramolecular alkyne hydroamination under copper catalysis.

This review comprehensively summarizes the various structures of Fe-MOFs, along with recent research progress on their synthesis and multifunctional applications in gas storage and separation, catalysis, bioimaging, and magnetism.

This work reveals the balancing role of polymeric CXCR4 antagonist in the progression of liver injury. The CXCR4-inhibiting nanomedicine constructed based on this discovery can simultaneously inhibit HSCs activation and degrade ECM deposition in liver fibrosis. In today's increasingly serious liver diseases, it represents a versatile platform that offers valuable benefits for the treatment of liver diseases. More details are given in the article by Ding et al. on page 3669—3676.

The introduction of the polymerized small-molecule acceptor (PSMA) strategy has significantly enhanced the power conversion efficiency of all-polymer solar cells (all-PSCs). Within this strategy, PY-IT, as an outstanding representative of PSMA, demonstrates remarkable performance, thus finding extensive application in the mechanism investigation and performance optimization of all-PSCs. For more details regarding research based on PY-IT, please refer to the article by Sun et al. on page 3714—3728.