Chemical Science Blog

Dedicated to Professor David O’Hagan to mark his retirement from the University of St Andrews (UK) and his seminal contributions to shaping contemporary organofluorine chemistry, this themed collection brings together invited contributions that highlight the vibrancy of fluorine chemistry, including Reviews and Perspectives that highlight emerging areas in the field. Guested Edited by Professor Ryan Gilmour, Associate Editor, Chemical Science.

Reviews & Perspectives

Fluorinated carbohydrate-based vaccines Elena Chikunova, James Suri, Kathrin Siebold, Ryan Gilmour*
		Recent advances in the degradation of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) at low temperature (≤100 °C) Matthew E. Lowe, Matthew N. Hopkinson, Dominik J.,* Erli Lu,* Roly J. Armstrong*
Unique fluoroalkyl substituents: is there life after CF3? Vladimir Kubyshkin,* Pavel K. Mykhailiuk*
		Synthesis and properties of N-(trifluoromethyl)amides Miriam L. O’Duill,* Isabel L. Wood, Isaac Brooks, Charlotte McIvor

Edge Articles

		Inhibitor fluorination pattern modulates protein surface dynamics and chemically induced dimerization Eric Schwegler, Jean-Martin Harder, Marco D. Preuss, Charlotte Guhl, Shuaibing Zhang, Annika Wagner, Nicole Bader, Pierre Stallforth, Hermann Schindelin, Till Opatz, Markus Lakemeyer, Ute Hellmich*
Fluorination of Alkoxide Ligands: Neither too much, Nor too little for Optimal Ligand Field Strength Felix Jeffrey de Zwart; Noah Gehr; Sophie W Anferov; Joel Landis; Christophe Coperet*
		Trifluoromethylbismuth dications: pronounced parallel substrate activation, Lewis superacidity, and catalytic application Ahmed Fetoh, Heba Youssef, Hendrik Kilian, Bernhard Roling, Crispin Lichtenberg*
Genomic signatures highlight stress-response evasion and translational tuning as key drivers of Escherichia coli adaptation to fluorinated tryptophans Christin Treiber-Kleinke, Jana Madeleine Göller, Justin Liba, Michael Chun-Hin Wong, Silver Anthony Wolf, Allison Ann Berger, Torsten Semmler, Nediljko Budisa,* Beate Koksch*
		Ligand-enabled palladium-catalyzed late-stage C–H fluorination of arenes Chitrala Teja, Minhajul Islam, Jagrit Grover, Yogesh Bairagi, Velayudham Sankar, Rajagopal Pothikumar, Arvind Kumar Yadav, Debabrata Maiti*
Homoleptic teflate coordination at platinum(iv): synthesis and characterization of [Pt(OTeF5)6]2−, and covalency trends revealed by the OSLO method Niklas Limberg, Jacob Mack, Alberto Pérez-Bitrián, André Dallmann, Simon Steinhauer, Sebastian Riedel*
		Recycling fluoropolymers to acyl fluorides through shuttle catalysis Shannon E. S. Farley, Amanda A. Fogh, Mark R. Crimmin*
PhSO2CF2H as a difluoromethylene bridge connecting electrophiles and electronically diverse alkenes Yunlong Zhao, Kaidi Zhu, Feng Zhao, Yanxia Zhang, Chuanfa Ni, Jinbo Hu*
		Incorporation and properties of the tris-fluoromethylated motif into heterocycles, amino acids and analogues of elexacaftor and tezacaftor Josephine M. Stewart, Bruno A. Piscelli, David B. Cordes, Rodrigo A. Cormanich,* David O’Hagan*
Triarylselenonium triflates provide efficient access to no-carrier-added ortho-, meta-, and para-[18F]Fluoroareness Jake Sypniewski, Yong-Sok Lee, Phuc Tran, Sean Costner, Fabrice G. Siméon,* Victor W. Pike*
		Trifluoromethylation of pyridines through skeletal rearrangement Haiwen Wang, Nilanjan Bhaduri, Michael F. Greaney*
Decoding cryptic defluorinases through a latent generative sequence landscape Ke Ji, Sydney S. Barnes, Cheyenne Ziegler, Marjan Nikpey, Jose Alberto de la Paz, Elizabeth K. Pack, Nikita Kvasovs, Faruck Morcos,* Sheel C. Dodani*
		AgBF4-catalyzed insertion of unactivated alkynes into C–F bonds of acyl fluorides Tomoya Emmei; Mamoru Tobisu*
18F-labelling of (hetero)aryl halides via sequential Miyaura borylation/copper-mediated radiofluorination Abdias N. Noel, Samuel G. Greco, Mami Horikawa, Taylor E. Spiller, Diana L. Nichols, Jason A. Witek, Allen F. Brooks, Peter J. H. Scott,* Melanie S. Sanford*
		Using xenon difluoride and 2 Li[Al{OC(CF3)3}4] as an oxidant: from organoxenonium intermediates to (fluoro-)biphenyl radical cations Konstantin Kloiber, Tim Heizmann, Benoît Lacombe, Philipp Thielert, Malte Sellin, Tim Schwandt, Sabine Richert, Stefan Weber, Ingo Krossing*
Electrochemical deoxygenative trifluoromethylallenylation of propargylic alcohols via sodium-mediated pre-association Jihoon Jang, Hyunwoo Kim, Eun Jin Cho*
		A unified strategy for remote C–H fluorination of phenylacetic acids and their homologues at the meta-position Kun Zhou, Xin Chen, Yue Wang, Yang-Jie Mao,* Xin Yang, Kai Liu, Qi Pan, Dong-Liang Pan, Dan-Qian Xu,* Shao-Jie Lou*
How fluorine substituents strengthen aryl C–H bonds Daniel A. Santos Oliveira, Daniela Rodrigues Silva, Ataualpa A. C. Braga, Célia Fonseca Guerra, Robin N. Perutz,* Odile Eisenstein,* F. Matthias Bickelhaupt*
		Rhodium-catalyzed atroposelective C–H fluoroallylation of heteroarenes with gem-difluorocyclopropanes Junwei Li, Fen Wang,* Xian He, Genping Huang,* Zi-Qiang Rong, Xingwei Li*
Regioselective synthesis of aza-saccharins via anionic [1,4] Fries-type rearrangement of aryl sulfonimidoyl fluorides Mario Leypold,* Lorenzo Poli, Max Earl, Okky D. Putra, Karolina Kwapien, Richard J. Lewis, John J. Murphy, Marta Passamonti, Lena M. von Sydow, Victor Spelling, Ioannis Asproudis, Malvika Sardana, Claudia Gatti, Hikaru Seki, Thomas Lemaitre, Radvile Juskaite, Ranganath Gopalakrishnan, Stuart J. Francis, Cristina Gardelli, Per-Ola Norrby, Werngard Czechtizky
		Enhanced crystallinity of tetrahalopyridyl (THP) derivatized compounds Callum S. Begg, Viktoriya G. Dragomanova, Dmitry S. Yufit, Toby J. Blundell, Steven L. Cobb, Mark A. Fox,* Matthew O. Kitching,* William D. G. Brittain*
Bidirectional skeletal remodelling of SF5-nitrobenzenes into azepine, bicyclic, and benzimidazole frameworks Muhamad Zulfaqar Bacho, Shiwei Wu, Takuya Muramatsu, Chavakula Nagababu, Daiki Harano, Seishu Ochiai, Norio Shibata*
		Conversion of trifluoromethyls into esters along with polyether upcycling via cation-transfer-catalyzed C–O/C–F metathesis Zhuojun Li, Xiangqian Shi, Dongke Zhang, Qian Wu*
A Brønsted acid–base approach for the net monoselective C–F substitution of (trifluoromethyl)alkanes Nicholas J. Coradi, Jeffrey S. Bandar*
		Negative cooperativity in the formation of two H-bonds with an oxygen H-bond acceptor Maria Cristina Misuraca, Christopher A. Hunter*
Enantioselective electrophilic α-fluorination catalyzed by an artificial metalloenzyme Jinmeng Yu, Chang Wang, Wenhao Hu, Huan Wang, Jing Zhao, Hui-Jie Pan*

Here at Chemical Science, we have put together some subject-specific collections of our most popular Chemical Science content published last year. These specially curated collections are designed to highlight some of the exceptional research published in Chemical Science – and like all Chemical Science articles, they are free to access and read from anywhere in the world with no restrictions. We hope you will have a great time reading these collections.

Many of the articles selected in the collections below are also included in our 2023 ChemSci Pick of the Week Collections, as well as our 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collections.

Analytical Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the field of analytical chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, including chemical sensors for imaging total cellular aliphatic aldehydes in live cells and an all-in-one digital microfluidic pipeline for proteomic sample preparation and analysis.
Browse the full collection

Catalysis

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the field of catalysis. The collection highlights some outstanding contributions, including recent advances in electrocatalysis, photocatalysis and thermocatalysis, especially frontiers on CO₂ reduction, C-H activation, H₂O₂ decomposition.
Browse the full collection

Chemical Biology

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the field of chemical biology. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from biomaterials for wound healing to biosensors.
Browse the full collection

Energy & Environment

This specially curated collection pulls together some of our most popular articles from 2023 in the fields of energy conversion and storage, sustainability, and environmental and green chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, including advances in electrolyte and electrode materials for batteries, photocatalysts and electrocatalysts for water splitting, photovoltaics, CO₂ reduction, and plastic valorisation.
Browse the full collection

Inorganic Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the fields of main group, inorganic and organometallic chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from metal photosensitizers to organolanthanide chemistry.
Browse the full collection

Materials Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the field of materials chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from recent advances in porous materials for targeted drug delivery through to new state-of-the-art research on 2D material nanoarchitectronics, organic–inorganic hybrid metal halides for white-light-emitting diodes.
Browse the full collection

Organic Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the field of organic chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from enantioselective photocatalysis to flow chemistry.
Browse the full collection

Physical & Theoretical Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the fields of main group, inorganic and organometallic chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from dysprosium single molecule magnets to air and water stable germacarbonyl compounds.
Browse the collection

Supramolecular & Polymers Chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2023 in the fields of polymers and supramolecular chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, including sequence-defined antibody-recruiting macromolecules and tetrahomo corona[4]arene-based spirophanes.
Browse the collection

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types and find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. Browse the articles in our latest issues by signing up to our E-Alerts.

Browse the collection, which includes:

Molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation in living systems
Tessa Sinnige
Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 7080-7097, DOI: 10.1039/D2SC01278B

A perspective addressing how molecular mechanisms of amyloid formation, which have been extensively studied in test tube reactions, can apply to the complex situations in living cells and organisms.

Stability matters, too – the thermodynamics of amyloid fibril formation
Alexander K. Buell
Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 10177-10192, DOI: 10.1039/D1SC06782F

A review highlighting important open questions regarding the thermodynamics of amyloid formation and addressing the current state of experimental exploration.

Single molecule sensing of amyloid-β aggregation by confined glass nanopores
Ru-Jia Yu,  Si-Min Lu,  Su-Wen Xu,  Yuan-Jie Li, Qun Xu,  Yi-Lun Ying and  Yi-Tao Long
Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 10728-10732, DOI: 10.1039/C9SC03260F

In this research article, the authors employ a novel technique for direct sensing the amyloidosis process of Aβ1-42 peptide, of great significance in Alzheimer’s disease, using a glass nanopore.

Modulation of electrostatic interactions to reveal a reaction network unifying the aggregation behaviour of the Aβ42 peptide and its variants
Georg Meisl, Xiaoting Yang, Christopher M. Dobson, Sara Linse and Tuomas P. J. Knowles
Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 4352-4362, DOI: 10.1039/C7SC00215G

Here, the authors show that changes in the ionic strength of the solution leads to significant variation in the aggregation mechanism of the Aβ42 peptide, linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and they provide a means to relating the different aggregation mechanisms response to varying electrostatic interactions.

Understanding co-polymerization in amyloid formation by direct observation of mixed oligomers
Lydia M. Young, Ling-Hsien Tu, Daniel P. Raleigh, Alison E. Ashcroft and Sheena E. Radford
Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 5030-5040, DOI: 10.1039/C7SC00620A

In this research article, the authors observe that co-assembly into hetero-oligomers controls the lag time of amylin assembly. They relate the mechanism to that of prions.

Origin of metastable oligomers and their effects on amyloid fibril self-assembly
Filip Hasecke, Tatiana Miti, Carlos Perez, Jeremy Barton, Daniel Schölzel, Lothar Gremer, Clara S. R. Grüning, Garrett Matthews, Georg Meisl, Tuomas P. J. Knowles, Dieter Willbold, Philipp Neudecker, Henrike Heise, Ghanim Ullah, Wolfgang Hoyer and Martin Muschol
Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 5937-5948, DOI: 10.1039/C8SC01479E

This research article conveys how the inhibitory effects of metastable oligomers on amyloid fibril formation can be revealed by analysis of oligomer and fibril assembly kinetics simultaneously.

Identification of on- and off-pathway oligomers in amyloid fibril formation
Alexander J. Dear, Georg Meisl, Anđela Šarić, Thomas C. T. Michaels, Magnus Kjaergaard, Sara Linse and Tuomas P. J. Knowles
Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 6236-6247, DOI: 10.1039/C9SC06501F

A research article enabling the comparison of amyloid oligomers’ contribution to fibril formation by establishing a general non-binary definition for on- and off- pathway intermediates.

Atomic resolution map of the soluble amyloid beta assembly toxic surfaces
Rashik Ahmed, Michael Akcan, Adree Khondker, Maikel C. Rheinstädter, José C. Bozelli, Jr, Richard M. Epand, Vincent Huynh, Ryan G. Wylie, Stephen Boulton, Jinfeng Huang, Chris P. Verschoord and Giuseppe Melacini
Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 6072-6082, DOI: 10.1039/C9SC01331H

In this research article, the authors show an atomic resolution map of amyloid beta assembly “toxic surfaces” that facilitate the early pathogenic events in Alzheimer’s disease.

C-terminal truncation of α-synuclein promotes amyloid fibril amplification at physiological pH
Ingrid M. van der Wateren, Tuomas P. J. Knowles, Alexander K. Buell, Christopher M. Dobson and Céline Galvagnion
Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 5506-5516, DOI: 10.1039/C8SC01109E

Here, the authors show how the pH range at which α-synuclein secondary nucleation occurs can be shifted from acidic to neutral values by C-terminal truncation.

We hope you enjoy reading these articles and the rest in this themed collection published in Chemical Science!

Here at Chemical Science, we are pleased to present our readers with a series of subject-specific collections of our most popular content published last year. These specially curated collections are designed to highlight some of the exceptional research published in Chemical Science – and like all Chemical Science articles, they are free to access and read from anywhere in the world with no restrictions. We hope you will have a great time reading these collections.

Many of the articles selected in the collections below are also included in our 2022 ChemSci Pick of the Week Collections, as well as our 2022 Chemical Science HOT Article Collections.

Organic chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of organic chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from photocatalytic radical generation to prediction of protein p_Ka.
Browse the full collection

Materials and energy chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most read, cited and shared articles from 2022 in the field of materials and energy chemistry. The collection highlights some outstanding contributions ranging from reviews detailing recent advances in energy storage technologies through to new state-of-the-art research on organic ferroelectrics, methods for nanoparticle synthesis, porous materials for isomer separation and many other topics.
Browse the full collection

Catalysis chemistry

This specially curated collection includes some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of catalysis. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, including contributions on photocatalysis, electrocatalytic reduction, organocatalysis, and biocatalysis.
Browse the full collection

Analytical chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of analytical chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, including NIR fluorescent probes for in vivo imaging, new isotope labelling methodologies for NMR, and single-molecule reaction kinetics.
Browse the full collection

Chemical biology

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of chemical biology. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from imaging to peptide catalysis.
Browse the full collection

Physical & theoretical chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of physical and theoretical chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from deep learning models for predicting drug-target interactions, through to investigations into colour-tunable persistent luminescence in low-dimensional zinc-organic halide microcrystals.
Browse the full collection

Main group, inorganic & organometallic chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the fields of main group, inorganic and organometallic chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from dysprosium single molecule magnets to air and water stable germacarbonyl compounds.
Browse the collection

Supramolecular chemistry

This specially curated collection pulls together some of the most popular articles from 2022 in the field of supramolecular chemistry. The collection presents some outstanding contributions to the field, ranging from the synthesis of catenane assemblies to chiral molecular nanosilicas.
Browse the collection

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types and find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. Browse the articles in our latest issues by signing up to our E-Alerts.

Chemical Science welcomes our newest Associate Editor, Professor Malika Jeffries-EL, who brings a wealth of experience in organic electronics and functional materials to Chemical Science.

Malika recently came to the end of her time as an Associate Editor for Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances and, in celebration of her joining the Editorial Board for Chemical Science, she has selected her Editor’s Choice from papers published in Chemical Science, Journal of Materials Chemistry C and Materials Advances. We hope you enjoy reading through this selection!

You can explore the full collection of papers that are in Malika’s Editor’s Choice here!

Highlighted articles include:

A cell membrane-targeting AIE photosensitizer as a necroptosis inducer for boosting cancer theranostics
Niu Niu, Ying Yu, Zhijun Zhang, Miaomiao Kang, Lei Wang, Zheng Zhao, Dong Wang and Ben Zhong Tang
Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 5929-5937

Detection of multi-reference character imbalances enables a transfer learning approach for virtual high throughput screening with coupled cluster accuracy at DFT cost
Chenru Duan, Daniel B. K. Chu, Aditya Nandy and Heather J. Kulik
Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 4962-4971

Acenaphthene-triphenylamine (acceptor-donor) based luminophores for organic light emitting diodes: combined experimental and theoretical study
Jairam Tagare, Aravind Babu Kajjam, Kasturi Singh, Sabita Patel and Sivakumar Vaidyanathan
Mater. Adv., 2022, 3, 399-408

Synthesis and photoswitchable amphiphilicity and self-assembly properties of photochromic spiropyran derivatives
Yiwei Zhang, Maggie Ng, Eugene Yau-Hin Hong, Alan Kwun-Wa Chan, Nathan Man-Wai Wu, Michael Ho-Yeung Chan, Lixin Wu and Vivian Wing-Wah Yam
J. Mater. Chem. C, 2020, 8, 13676-13685

Open-circuit-voltage shift of over 0.5 V in organic photovoltaic cells induced by a minor structural difference in alkyl substituents
Mitsuharu Suzuki, Kengo Terai, Cassandre Quinton, Hironobu Hayashi, Naoki Aratani and Hiroko Yamada
Chem. Sci., 2020,11, 1825-1831

We encourage you to submit your best work in organic electronics and functional materials to Malika and our team of Associate Editors now! Check out the Chemical Science author guidelines for more information.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

Happy Chinese New Year to all our authors, reviewers and readers from all of us at Chemical Science!

To celebrate the year of the tiger we have put together a collection highlighting our most popular articles from the past year from our Chinese authors, as well as a selection of infographics accompanying some of these papers, which you can find below.