Mechanochemistry has recently emerged as a practical approach for accessing gold-based organometallic complexes under solvent-minimized or solvent-free conditions. In this personal account, I summarize the developing intersection between gold chemistry and ball-milling, with emphasis on the preparation of Au(I) and Au(III) complexes bearing N-heterocyclic carbene, acyclic diaminocarbene, phosphine, pincer, and cyclometalated ligands. It also discusses the still limited but conceptually important use of gold species in mechanochemical catalysis, including C-H functionalization, multicomponent reactions, alcohol oxidation, and nitroarene reduction. Beyond listing synthetic protocols, this account highlights the operational advantages, current limitations, and unresolved mechanistic questions that define this emerging area. Notable limitations include lack of mechanistic understanding, less informative green metric analysis, unknown reproducibility studies, and scale-up opportunities. The available studies indicate that mechanochemistry can simplify access to selected gold complexes and enable distinctive solid-state catalytic manifolds; however, broader substrate scope, standardized milling parameters, rigorous green metrics, and deeper mechanistic insight will be essential for the field to mature.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is a major kinetic bottleneck in alkaline water electrolysis, motivating the development of efficient, durable, and cost-effective electrocatalysts. This review critically examines NiCo layered double hydroxides (NiCo-LDHs) as earth-abundant OER precatalysts, emphasizing how synthesis, structural modification, and operando reconstruction govern catalytic performance. Reported design strategies are evaluated according to the key limitations they address, including insufficient active-site accessibility, suboptimal intrinsic activity, poor electrical conductivity, restricted mass transport, uncontrolled reconstruction, and limited scalability. The crystal chemistry, interlayer structure, and anodically induced transformation of NiCo-LDHs into catalytically active Ni/Co oxyhydroxide-like phases are discussed as a basis for understanding structure-activity relationships. Major synthesis and modification approaches, including morphology control, heteroatom doping, defect engineering, conductive-support integration, interface engineering, and heterostructure formation, are critically compared in terms of activity, transport, durability, fabrication complexity, and structural stability. Particular emphasis is placed on post-OER, in situ, and operando characterization for identifying working-state structures. Finally, challenges in electrochemical benchmarking, metal dissolution, substrate effects, long-term stability, and scalable fabrication are assessed, providing design principles for advancing NiCo-LDH-based electrodes toward practical alkaline water electrolysis.

Deep eutectic solvents (DES) offer a sustainable, tunable platform for overcoming dissolution-limited oral bioavailability in Biopharmaceutics Classification System (BCS) class II drugs. This review benchmarks DES against established solubility-enhancement approaches, examines their physicochemical and thermodynamic properties and the interactions governing drug dissolution, and classifies drugs showing improved dissolution across DES systems, correlating molecular structure, DES composition, and solubilization mechanism. Key factors governing solubilization, including hydrogen bond donor (HBA), hydrogen bond acceptor (HBD), their molar ratio, and water content, are discussed. Oral formulation strategies incorporating DES, including eutectogels and liquid formulations, are examined, emphasizing that improved dissolution must be paired with appropriate delivery design. Safety, toxicity, regulatory status, manufacturing scalability, and stability are critically evaluated, highlighting the compositional and system-dependent nature of DES performance. Overall, this review provides a physicochemically grounded framework for the rational development of sustainable DES platforms for dissolution-limited drug systems.

In his 2004 Priestley Medal address, E. J. Corey stated that in May 1964, he had suggested to R. B. Woodward a frontier molecular orbital explanation for the stereochemistry of electrocyclic reactions-a MO tool that subsequently became foundational to the Woodward-Hoffmann rules. This article examines the resultant controversy from Roald Hoffmann's personal experiences and perspective and completes a triptych of accounts of the prolonged Corey-Woodward dispute. Drawing on contemporaneous correspondence (letters and emails), archival records, laboratory notebooks, published statements, and extensive interviews with Hoffmann and Corey and many others including Albert Eschenmoser over two decades, it reconstructs Hoffmann's scientific and personal interactions with Corey and Woodward from the early 1960s onward. Particular attention is given to Corey's communications following the announcement of Hoffmann's 1981 Nobel Prize, his expectation that Hoffmann publicly validate his allegation against Woodward, and the continuing and lasting emotional and ethical consequences for Hoffmann. The evidence reveals not a simple dispute over priority, but a conflict shaped by idiosyncratic memories and perspectives, asymmetries of professional authority, delayed claims, conflicting loyalties, and fundamentally different conceptions of truth, credit, and responsibility. Hoffmann regarded Corey's recollection of the May 1964 encounter as subjectively credible while rejecting the demand that he judge or publicly support a claim that Corey had not raised directly with Woodward during Woodward's lifetime. The episode illustrates how disputes over scientific credit and collaborative relationships extend beyond the norms of collegial interactions and documentary evidence of discovery to involve character, memory, friendship, trauma, empathy, and the human relationships through which science is created and its history written.

Benzannulation is a key transformation in organic synthesis, enabling direct access to aromatic and heteroaromatic scaffolds central to natural products, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, dyes, electronic devices, and materials. The construction of these frameworks continues to pose a challenge because it requires high regioselectivity, broad substrate scope, and functional-group tolerance. Traditional multistep approaches often suffer from limited efficiency, highlighting the need for more versatile synthetic strategies. Metal-catalyzed benzannulation has emerged as an effective solution, offering excellent efficiency, high selectivity, and broad synthetic applicability. Catalysts based on transition metals (Sc, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Ir, and Au), together with main-group, post-transition, and rare-earth metals (Ca, Al, In, Bi, La, and Yb), have expanded the scope of these transformations. Despite these advances, a comprehensive understanding of catalyst design, reaction mechanisms, and synthetic applications remains incomplete, underscoring the need for an up-to-date and systematic overview. This review addresses this need by providing an overview of metal-catalyzed benzannulation reported since 2018, with particular emphasis on catalyst design, mechanistic insights, and synthetic applications. By integrating recent advances across diverse metal-catalyzed systems, this review provides a comprehensive perspective on the field and offers guidance for the future development of efficient and selective benzannulation methodologies.

The global transition toward low-carbon energy systems is constrained by the carbon intensity and scalability limitations of current hydrogen production technologies. Although hydrogen is widely recognized as a clean energy carrier, the absence of an integrated and comparative framework limits its system-level optimization. This review presents a critical assessment of hydrogen production technologies encompassing industrial processes, biomass, and electrochemical pathways. Conventional processes are analyzed across decarbonization strategies, while biomass-derived electrochemical pathways are evaluated for feedstock flexibility and life-cycle emission advantages. Advanced technologies, including thermochemical water-splitting cycles, plasma-assisted reforming, solar-driven thermochemical processes, photocatalytic and biological routes, are critically examined with respect to scalability, materials limitations, and system integration challenges.

Chalcogen-containing coumarins have attracted considerable attention as a versatile class of heterocyclic compounds because sulfur- and selenium-substituted derivatives can significantly influence molecular reactivity, electronic characteristics, and biological activity. Over the past decades, synthetic approaches toward these compounds have advanced through two main strategies: direct construction of the coumarin framework through cyclization processes and late-stage functionalization of preformed coumarin scaffolds. This review provides a comprehensive survey of the methodologies reported over the past two decades for the preparation of chalcogen-substituted coumarins, with particular emphasis on derivatives functionalized at the C-3 and C-4 positions. Special attention is given to substrate scope, regioselectivity, mechanistic insights, and the use of modern enabling technologies as well as a literature-based quantitative analysis.

Nucleic-acid biomarkers play pivotal roles in disease diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and precision medicine, creating an urgent demand for analytical platforms combining high sensitivity, molecular specificity, and rapid detection. Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) integrated with aptamers, short single-stranded DNA or RNA oligonucleotides, has attracted considerable attention by coupling programmable molecular recognition with ultrasensitive plasmon-enhanced Raman detection. This review evaluates recent advances in aptamer-based SERS biosensors for nucleic-acid analysis, systematically examining sensing mechanisms, plasmonic substrate engineering, aptamer immobilization, signal-transduction pathways, and amplification approaches, including catalytic hairpin assembly, hybridization chain reaction, rolling circle amplification, and CRISPR-assisted systems. Recent developments in microfluidics, artificial intelligence-assisted spectral analysis, portable Raman instrumentation, and point-of-care platforms are assessed while distinguishing true aptamer-mediated sensing from conventional hybridization-based DNA detection. Rational hotspot engineering, deterministic nanogap architectures, and advanced amplification strategies have enabled detection from femtomolar to attomolar levels with improved selectivity, multiplexing, and reproducibility. Challenges including substrate variability, quantitative standardization, aptamer stability, biosafety, and clinical translation are discussed. Future directions toward standardized, intelligent, clinically deployable SERS platforms for next-generation molecular diagnostics and precision healthcare are proposed.

Picophotonics describes light-matter interactions in which atomic-scale structure, sub-nanometer confinement, or picometer-scale structural variations significantly influence optical response. This review establishes a unified framework for understanding these interactions across plasmonic picocavities, molecular systems, and van der Waals (vdW) materials and heterostructures. We examine key mechanisms governing extreme optical confinement, including nonlocality, electron tunneling, charge-transfer effects, excitonic interactions, and phonon/plasmon polaritons. Experimental approaches, including scanning tunneling microscopy-based optical measurements, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, near-field optical microscopy, and ultrafast spectroscopy, are discussed together with electromagnetic and quantum-mechanical modeling methods. Particular emphasis is placed on how atomic-scale structural variations, interfacial geometry, and material composition regulate optical response and enable applications in single-molecule spectroscopy, chemical sensing, cavity-modified chemistry, and quantum photonics. We further compare metallic picocavities with vdW polaritonic and hybrid plasmonic-vdW platforms in terms of confinement, losses, tunability, reproducibility, and scalability. Finally, key challenges involving experimental artifacts, heating, fabrication, and quantitative metrology are critically assessed, providing perspectives toward reproducible and programmable picoscale light-matter interactions.

Polyoxometalates (POM) are one of the areas of inorganic chemistry that is actively developing due to the broad application of POM-based materials in the emerging areas of modern science and technology. POMs are a huge family of oxocomplexes distinguished by specific intrinsic properties dependent on the size, structure, and charge. The key role in the performance of POM anions is the ability to generate various interactions with a huge number of species (both charged and neutral). This review is focused on the analysis of the modern trends in the most excited type of bonds-noncovalent interactions-their structural characteristics, and the application in the design of advanced materials.

Copper-mediated C─H amination has emerged as a powerful and sustainable strategy for constructing nitrogen-containing bioactive scaffolds, providing an efficient alternative to traditional cross-coupling methodologies. Historically, precious metals have dominated C─H amination chemistry but often suffer from limitations, including high cost, toxicity, and limited availability. In contrast, copper-based reactions offer several advantages: it is cost-effective, less toxic, earth-abundant, biocompatible, and environmentally benign, while minimizing the formation of undesired byproducts. This transformation enables the streamline synthesis of pharmacologically relevant heterocycles and alkaloids, offering access to bioactive molecules with enhanced therapeutic potential. This review highlights recent advances in design, mechanistic insights, and synthetic applications of copper-mediated C─H amination in medicinal chemistry. Particular emphasis is placed on its role in the construction of complex nitrogen frameworks and its integration into drug discovery and development. In addition, emerging approaches such as electrochemical C─H amination are discussed, demonstrating how these greener and more sustainable methodology can further reduce environmental impact while maintaining synthetic efficiency. By bridging the disciplines of transition-based synthesis and medicinal chemistry, this review underscores the pivotal role of copper in advancing next-generation, sustainable synthetic methodologies and inspiring future innovations in amine-based drug discovery.

Silica (SiO2) is an earth-abundant, low-cost material that has been explored for use in triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy generation and in ecofriendly tires to support a healthy ecosystem. In particular, SiO2-based nanocomposites hold promise for applications in both TENGs and green tires, yet literature reviews on these applications are limited, with most research focusing on other composites. This study provides methods for synthesizing SiO2-based nanocomposites on conductive substrates for use in TENGs and for synthesizing SiO2-based elastomers for use in green-tire vehicles. First, the basic principles of TENGs and how these systems work are briefly described. Then, the types of SiO2-based nanocomposites and the relationship between structure and properties are reviewed. This review aims to provide a chemistry-based perspective to better understand the roles of SiO2 in these systems. It suggests new avenues for designing more efficient materials and, by focusing on the role of the interface and providing a coherent framework for the relationship between material design and performance, contributes to the development of advanced energy-harvesting systems and enhances the tire performance of rubber composites. This study summarizes past contributions of SiO2-based materials to TENGs and their role in advancing sustainable transportation over the last decade. Finally, this work provides perspectives on opportunities and challenges for the near-future advancement of green tires and triboelectric devices, leveraging the design functionalities of SiO2-based nanocomposites (or elastomers) to engineer high performance.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly reshaping organic synthesis; nevertheless, currently most laboratory practice still remains driven by human intuition, trial-and-error optimization, and manual interpretation of analytical data. Here, we synthesize recent advances that move AI from isolated demonstrations to a practical toolkit spanning the full experimental cycle: molecular design and prioritization, computer-assisted synthesis planning and route selection, catalyst and condition optimization, and AI-enabled product identification and verification using chromatographic and spectroscopic data. We analyze these developments using a three-level hierarchy-AI assistant, AI analyst, and emerging AI researcher-and map them onto what bench chemists can deploy today, from commercial and open retrosynthesis platforms to multimodal structure elucidation workflows. We also frame adoption as a strategic choice among three trajectories, arguing that near-term impact will be dominated not by fully autonomous robotic laboratories but by scalable "digital co-expert" approaches that compress candidate spaces and accelerate decision-making while preserving rigorous human validation. Finally, we highlight why data quality, laboratory variability, underreported negative results, and black-box failure modes demand calibrated reliance, mechanistic plausibility checks, and standardized synthesis applications. Together, these trends point to an end-to-end digital thread for organic synthesis that optimizes decisions across workflows rather than individual steps.

Silver vanadate is an important class of multifunctional inorganic materials with broad application prospects in photocatalysis, sensing, batteries, and antibacterial fields, owing to its unique crystal structure and excellent optical, electrical, and catalytic properties. This paper systematically reviews the main synthesis methods of silver vanadate, including hydrothermal, ion exchange, and sol-gel methods, among which the hydrothermal method is the most widely used due to its simple process and high product crystallinity. The research progress in photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, antibacterial activity, and electrochemical energy storage is emphatically discussed. Finally, the current challenges in large-scale preparation and long-term stability are analyzed, and future research directions, including the construction of novel composite systems, innovation in modification strategies, and exploration of practical applications, are prospected.

This essay concerns Constantin Kirchhoff (1764-1833), a Russian chemist of German origin working at the Imperial Court Apothecary in St. Petersburg. In 1811, a quarter century before Berzelius coined "catalysis," Kirchhoff converted starch to grape sugar (glucose) with vitriolic (sulfuric) acid and established that a charge of acid far too small to have combined with the starch nevertheless converted all of it, that reducing the acid lengthened the process without altering the product, and that the acid remained, to be neutralized, at the end. The practical result-crystalline sugar from potato starch-was promptly recognized and rewarded. The finding beneath it was not: Berzelius credited the discovery to Kirchhoff and stated that the acid was recovered unchanged, but the notice did not take, and Kirchhoff was remembered for the sugar. What he set down was a protocol of unusual completeness for its date-the proportions, the four runs, and the times-made at manufacturing scale before Academy witnesses, and he claimed nothing beyond what he had weighed. On this evidence, Kirchhoff was the first to record what would later be recognized as a homogeneous catalytic reaction in organic chemistry, in a year that had neither the concept nor a word for it.