News & Views in 2024

In 1993, a new route for the synthesis of semiconductor nanocrystals was reported that exploited organometallic chemistry to afford nearly monodisperse particles. 30 years later the award of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry can be directly traced to this single publication.

Improving zinc–air batteries is challenging due to kinetics and limited electrochemical reversibility, partly attributed to sluggish four-electron redox chemistry. Now, substantial strides are noted with two-electron redox chemistry and catalysts, resulting in unprecedentedly stable zinc–air batteries with 61% energy efficiencies.

Peptide stapling has traditionally relied on the incorporation of unnatural amino acids and symmetric stapling. A recent article targets a typically inert C–H bond within the serine side chain, offering new avenues for conformational control and side chain engineering.

Cutting-edge chemistry is often performed in non-atmospheric conditions. Continued development of the Chemputer platform now enables the utilization of sensitive compounds in automated synthetic protocols.

A highly chemoselective method for the insertion of carbohydrates into existing oligosaccharides has been developed. The reaction sequence involves a selective Lewis-acid catalysed cleavage of one glycosidic bond followed by sequential construction of two new glycosidic bonds.

JWST collects vast amounts of information about exoplanets light years away from Earth. Back home, the measured optical constants of laboratory aerosols are critically input parameters in models to interpret the observational results.

Thirty-four years ago, Curry and Rumelhart described a neural network-based approach to annotate tandem mass spectra. Their ideas foreshadowed several important developments in computational mass spectrometry over the past decade, but many of the challenges they discuss remain relevant today.