Chemical Science Blog

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Chemical Science, we invited authors who published with the journal in its early years to revisit their original work and reflect on how their field has evolved. In her Reflection article, Svetlana V. Eliseeva revisits the 2013 minireview “Intriguing aspects of lanthanide luminescence” to examine how this fast‑moving area has progressed over the past decade, from fundamental photophysics to cutting‑edge applications in sensing, imaging and energy conversion.

Read the Reflection, for free, here: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC90251G

Lanthanide-based luminescent materials are now integral to technologies ranging from lighting and telecommunications to bioimaging, anti‑counterfeiting and solar energy conversion. This versatility stems from the characteristic 4f electronic configuration of trivalent lanthanide ions, producing sharp emission bands across the UV, visible and NIR spectral ranges. In 2013, Eliseeva and Bünzli highlighted emerging opportunities in upconverting, downconverting and persistent luminescence nanoparticles, as well as how ligand design and host‑matrix effects could expand the reach of lanthanide emitters.

In her Reflection, Eliseeva notes that the field has only accelerated since then. Advances in spectroscopy, computation and artificial intelligence have enabled more precise control over lanthanide photophysics, while new applications such as NIR‑II biological imaging, circularly polarised luminescence (CPL), and lanthanide nanothermometry have all grown rapidly.

Circularly Polarised Luminescence

One of the major developments explored in the Reflection is the expanding role of CPL‑active lanthanide complexes. Their high dissymmetry factors and narrow emission bands make them appealing for encryption, sensing and next‑generation optical materials. Recent work in Chemical Science illustrates these developments: Pal et al. demonstrate how complete stereochemical control can unlock monosign CPL in a europium complex with exceptionally high circularly polarised brightness, enabling multi‑tier “chameleon” security inks (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC05303J). In parallel, Wang, Zhu et al. show that enhancing ligand conjugation strengthens the antenna effect and improves CPL performance in chiral Eu(III) complexes, which they apply to optical imaging of living cells and zebrafish (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC09594H).

Advances in Bioimaging

Eliseeva’s Reflection highlights significant progress in NIR‑II imaging, which benefits from reduced scattering, deeper tissue penetration and minimal autofluorescence. Lanthanide complexes have become increasingly sophisticated probes in this spectral window, aided by improved ligand design and multimodal capabilities. For example, Gary‑Bobo, Bonnet, Sénèque et al. developed lanthanide complexes featuring π‑extended push–pull antennas that function as efficient MRI and two‑photon microscopy imaging probes, demonstrating their use in zebrafish embryos and living cells (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC06902E).

Light‑Responsive Lanthanide Systems

The Reflection also touches on new mechanisms for modulating lanthanide emission, an area that has advanced significantly during the past decade. Maury, Norel, Rigaut et al. report a family of DTE‑ligand‑based lanthanide complexes capable of reversible photomodulation across visible and NIR emitters, with mechanistic studies revealing how ligand cyclisation and triplet‑state processes drive this behaviour (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC07174G).

Upconversion and Thermometry

Upconversion, one of the focal points of the original 2013 minireview, continues to grow in both mechanistic understanding and practical performance. Suta et al. establish design principles for efficient blue‑to‑UV excited‑state‑absorption‑based upconversion phosphors, identifying host–ion combinations that maximise quantum yield in Pr³⁺‑activated materials (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC01862E). Complementing this, Murugesu, Sun et al. introduce Ln³⁺/Al³⁺ metallacrowns with multifunctional luminescence properties, demonstrating their use in latent fingerprint detection, high‑sensitivity luminescent thermometry and anti‑counterfeiting applications (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SC08549C).

With continuing advances in ligand engineering, nanostructuring and data‑driven design, lanthanide luminescence is poised to deepen its impact across energy, security and biomedical technologies. The distinctive photophysical properties that first drew attention to these ions continue to inspire new materials and new applications, keeping the field dynamic and full of promise.

We are delighted to introduce our two newest Editorial Board members for Chemical Science – Professor Nobuhiro Yanai and Professor Jun Cheng. Both will be handling manuscripts submitted to the journal in their roles as Associate Editors.

Professor Nobuhiro Yanai 

Nobuhiro Yanai is a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Tokyo, having previously been an Associate Professor at Kyushu University. His research covers a broad range of materials science and photochemistry topics, with a particular focus on quantum sensing and control, dynamic nuclear polarisation and photon upconversion.

“I am delighted and honoured to join Chemical Science as an Associate Editor. Chemical Science has long been a home for pioneering and interdisciplinary research that expands the boundaries of chemistry and connects diverse scientific disciplines. I look forward to working with authors and reviewers from around the world to help communicate the most exciting advances in our field. I am particularly excited by emerging opportunities in photochemistry, spin chemistry, magnetic resonance, and molecular quantum technologies, and I welcome submissions that combine fundamental discovery with broad scientific impact and open new directions in chemistry.”

Discover some of the topics that Nobuhiro will be considering in our Most Popular Photochemistry and Physical Chemistry collections and read through his recent Chemical Science publications below:

Crystalline organic monoliths with bicontinuous porosity Nobuhiro Yanai et al. Chem. Sci., 2024, 15, 11500-11506

Enhancing the statistical probability factor in triplet–triplet annihilation photon upconversion via TIPS functionalization Pankaj Bharmoria, Kasper Moth-Poulsen et al. Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 20255-20264.

Professor Jun Cheng

Jun Cheng is a Professor at Xiamen University, having previously held positions at the University of Cambridge and the University of Aberdeen. His research and expertise covers a broad range of topics in computational chemistry, machine learning, electrochemistry and catalysis.

“It is a great honour to join the editorial team of the RSC’s flagship journal, Chemical Science. I am truly excited by the opportunity to work with such an outstanding group of editors and to contribute to the journal’s mission of publishing high-quality research that advances the field of chemistry. I look forward to collaborating with the editorial team to support the dissemination of excellent scientific work, particularly in areas closely related to my own research interests, including computational chemistry, artificial intelligence for chemistry, electrochemistry, and catalysis. These fields are evolving rapidly and are playing an increasingly important role in addressing fundamental scientific questions as well as major challenges in energy, materials, and sustainability. As a member of the editorial team, I hope to help identify, evaluate, and promote rigorous, innovative, and impactful manuscripts. I am especially enthusiastic about supporting interdisciplinary studies that connect chemical theory, simulation, data-driven methods, and experimental insights. I believe that the journal will continue to serve as an important platform for shaping the future of chemical research, and I am delighted to contribute to this effort.”

Check out some of the research fields Jun will be considering work on in our Most Popular Theoretical and Computational Chemistry and Catalysis collections, and read his recent work published in Chemical Science below:

Entropy in catalyst dynamics under confinement Jun Cheng et al. Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 18303-18309

Spatial correlation of desorption events accelerates water exchange dynamics at Pt/water interfaces Xiandong Liu, Jun Cheng et al. Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 2325-2334

Decoding the influence of monomer structures on the electrical double layer of alkaline fuel cells Jun Cheng et al. Chem. Sci., 2025, 16, 13741-13748

Please join us in welcoming Professors Yanai and Cheng to the journal!

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Chemical Science, we invited authors who published with the journal in its early years and contributed seminal papers since then to revisit their original work and reflect on how their field has evolved. In their new Reflection article, Alicia Casitas and Xavi Ribas return to their influential 2013 review on high‑valent copper species to examine a decade of discovery, debate, and conceptual refinement in organometallic copper(III) chemistry.

Read the Reflection, for free, here: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC90259B

In 2013 the notion of isolable organocopper(III) complexes was still taking shape. The field was energized by the finding of copper‑catalysed C–H and C–X bond‑forming reactions, yet there remained fundamental questions:

How do these reactive species behave? What governs their selectivity? And what does “Cu(III)” truly mean in systems where ligand effects blur formal oxidation states?

Casitas and Ribas chart how these questions have guided the evolution of the field, highlighting both mechanistic breakthroughs and the nuanced electronic structures that continue to challenge understanding to this day.

Dissecting a Promiscuous Catalyst

Across different ligand environments and substrates, organocopper(III) complexes exhibit dramatically varied mechanistic profiles. These species sometimes follow pathways reminiscent of classical organometallic reductive elimination, other times behaving showcasing radical or redox activity. This mechanistic “promiscuity” has pushed chemists to refine both computational tools and spectroscopic strategies to capture transient structures.

Recent research published in Chemical Science illustrates these complexities. Fan and co‑workers exploited the distinct hydrogen‑atom‑transfer (HAT) and radical‑capture reactivity of two different copper(III) complexes, Cu(III)-OH and Cu(III)-F, to develop a decoupled approach to C(sp³)-H fluorination (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC06381G). This strategy sidesteps the longstanding challenge of expecting a single high‑valent metal complex to excel at both HAT and radical capture.

Illuminating Radical Pathways

The Reflection also highlights the continuing debate over the nature of formal Cu(III), particularly in CF₃‑bearing complexes. Photochemical activation strategies have provided a powerful platform for interrogating these species. In an elegant demonstration, Motornov, Beier and co‑workers used violet‑light irradiation to sequentially release all four CF₃ groups from a tetrakis(trifluoromethyl)cuprate(III) complex, enabling efficient C-H trifluoromethylation of (hetero)arenes and even biomolecules (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC07405C). Their mechanistic studies reinforce how photochemistry can reveal hidden facets of high‑valent copper intermediates while affording practical transformations.

The interplay of radical and organometallic pathways also features in the combined computational and experimental work of Mandal, Stahl and colleagues (https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC03597B). Their study dissects N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide (NFSI)-based radical-relay reactions, mapping selectivity trends and evaluating competing pathways such as radical–polar crossover and reductive elimination from formal Cu(III) species.

Expanding the Copper Redox Landscape

New insights into copper(I)/copper(III) redox cycles continue to appear in unexpected places. Sneddon, Kerr and collaborators conducted a deep mechanistic study of a copper(I)-catalysed sulfonylative Suzuki–Miyaura reaction (https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC01337E), revealing not only the expected Cu(I)/Cu(III) pathways but also a competing Cu(II)-mediated route. Their work highlights the interconnectedness of copper’s redox chemistry, which is explored in the Reflection article from Casitas and Ribas.

Following their early contribution to Chemical Science, this Reflection captures not just how far copper(III) chemistry has come, but how vibrant, and mechanistically rich, future research may be.

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of Chemical Science, we invited authors who published with the journal in its early years and contributed seminal papers since then to revisit their original work and reflect on how their field has evolved. In their Reflection article, Koji Nakano and Kyoko Nozaki look back on their 2010 study of bimetallic cobalt(salen) complexes, which revealed a cooperative bimetallic mechanism for the alternating copolymerisation of epoxides with carbon dioxide.

Read the Reflection, for free, here: https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC90244D

Their original work showed that placing two cobalt centres in close proximity allows one to activate the epoxide while the other delivers the propagating carbonate species, affording an elegant intramolecular division of labour that enhanced catalytic activity. In their Reflection, Nakano and Nozaki outline how this discovery helped motivate subsequent developments in both homobimetallic and heterobimetallic catalysts for epoxide/CO₂ copolymerisation.

Bimetallic Catalysts Beyond Polymerisation

The mechanistic principles highlighted in the Reflection, that proximity, complementarity and cooperative activation are all essential, now underpin advances across a wide range of bimetallic catalytic systems.

Yue, Yang, Tang et al. recently achieved atomic‑level spatial precision of cobalt and nickel sites within a covalent organic framework, creating a highly active bimetallic catalyst for CO₂ photoreduction in which the two metals influence each other electronically (https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC08435K).

Römelt, Apfel et al. show that a Cu^ICo^II cryptate complex exhibits strong synergistic behaviour in visible‑light CO₂ reduction, outperforming its mononuclear analogues (https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC02679E). These examples underscore how strategically combining metals can unlock reactivity that neither metal achieves alone.

Broader Advances in Polymerisation Chemistry

Other recent studies in Chemical Science reflect that the same emphasis on mechanistic clarity and controlled monomer insertion noted in the Reflection article is essential beyond bimetallic systems.

Seidel and Sumerlin et al. present a practical strategy for accessing alternating styrene–propylene and styrene–ethylene copolymers by coupling RAFT polymerisation with mild photocatalytic decarboxylation, sidestepping long‑standing reactivity‑ratio limitations (https://doi.org/10.1039/D3SC03827K).

Meanwhile, Plajer et al. offer monomer‑centred guidelines for selectivity in sulfurated ring‑opening copolymerisation, showing how an understanding of backbiting, chain‑end stability and ring strain can deliver perfectly alternating poly(esters‑alt‑thioesters) (https://doi.org/10.1039/D4SC05858E).

Though distinct from bimetallic approaches, both studies reinforce that precise control of fundamental steps in chain growth, as showcased in the Reflection and original Chemical Science paper, enables new polymer structures and reactivities.

Looking Ahead

Nakano and Nozaki’s Reflection highlights how the principles of cooperative catalysis have shaped fifteen years of progress in epoxide/CO₂ copolymerisation. Recent advances in both bimetallic activation strategies and mechanistically informed polymerisation methods show that these ideas continue to influence catalyst and polymer design across the field.

Awarded for contributions to the field of digital chemistry and the chemical applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning and automation.

Chemical Science is delighted to announce the winner of our 2026 Lectureship, Professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik!

The Chemical Science Lectureship celebrates leading, independent researchers at all career stages who have made exceptional discoveries and innovations in their field within the last five years. This annual lectureship focuses on a specific subject area that aligns with the Chemical Science symposium each year, rotating to cover the breadth of the journal and all areas of the chemical sciences.

This year, the Lectureship focused on digital chemistry and Professor Alán Aspuru-Guzik was selected as the winner for his recent research on machine learning and automation. Alán will deliver the Lectureship at the 2026 Chemical Science Symposium on the same theme on 29–30 October in London, UK.

About our 2026 winner:

Photo credit: Carlos Osorio

Alán Aspuru-Guzik, University of Toronto

Alán Aspuru-Guzik is a professor of Chemistry and Computer Science at the University of Toronto, the Canada 150 Laureate in Theoretical Chemistry, and a Canada CIFAR AI Chair at the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence. He is also a CIFAR Fellow and co-directs CIFAR’s Accelerated Decarbonization program.

Alán directs the Acceleration Consortium, a University of Toronto strategic initiative that brings together researchers from industry, government, and academia to advance pre-competitive research related to the lab of the future. Before joining the University of Toronto, Alán began his independent career at Harvard University in 2006, where he was a full professor from 2013 to 2018. He received his B.Sc. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1999 and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 2004, where he was a postdoctoral fellow from 2005 to 2006.

Alán’s research spans quantum information, machine learning, and chemistry. He pioneered the development of algorithms and experimental implementations of quantum computers and quantum simulators for chemical systems. His work has also examined the role of quantum coherence in excitonic energy transfer in photosynthetic complexes and accelerated discovery through calculations on organic semiconductors, organic photovoltaic materials, organic batteries, and organic light-emitting diodes.

He has worked extensively on molecular representations and generative models for learning molecular properties. His current interests include automation and autonomous chemical laboratories for accelerating scientific discovery as well as AI Scientists, in particular the El Agente project.

Alán has also made significant contributions to scientific publishing and editorial leadership. He served as the first Chemical Science Associate Editor for theoretical and computational chemistry. He is editor-in-chief of Digital Discovery, the Royal Society of Chemistry journal focused on data-driven approaches to scientific discoveries.

Among other recognitions, Alán has received the Google Focused Award for Quantum Computing, the Sloan Research Fellowship, and the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. He won the Heinrich Emanuel Merck Award for Computational Sciences in 2025 and was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2025. He was selected by MIT Technology Review as one of the top innovators under 35 and received the Early Career Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. He is also an elected fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

In 2024, Alán received the University of Toronto President’s Impact Award and the 2024 PRISM Prize from the Istituto di Struttura della Materia.

Alán was named in Maclean’s 2024 Power List as one of Canada’s 100 most powerful people, in the AI category. In 2026, he was featured as a BetaKit Most Ambitious Canadian.

Alán has served as a co-founder and advisor of several companies.

Read Alán’s recent Chemical Science articles:

Photochemical post-functionalization of polystyrene enables accelerated chemical recycling

Stanley Lo, Angela Lin, Cher Tian Ser, Alán Aspuru-Guzik* and  Helen Tran* 

Chem. Sci., 2026, 17, DOI: 10.1039/D6SC03696A

Grammar-driven SMILES standardization with TokenSMILES

 Luis Armando Gonzalez-Ortiz,* Lisset Noriega, Filiberto Ortiz-Chi, Gabriela Vidales-Ayala, Emmanuel Soberanis-Cáceres, Amilcar Meneses-Viveros,*  Alan Aspuru-Guzik* and Gabriel Merino*

Chem. Sci., 2026,17, 1666-1675

Automated electrosynthesis reaction mining with multimodal large language models (MLLMs)

 Shi Xuan Leong, Sergio Pablo-García, Zijian Zhang and Alán Aspuru-Guzik*

Chem. Sci., 2024,15, 17881-17891

Find out more about the 2026 Chemical Science Symposium on digital chemistry in the age of AI and machine learning where Alán will deliver the 2026 Lectureship on our event webpage.