#ChemSciPicks
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chemicalscience.rsc.org
Our Chemical Science Pick of the Week for this week is "Abiotic Formation of Nitrile Precursors to Amino Acids and Nucleobases in Interstellar Ice Analogues" by André Eckhardt and Ralf Kaiser et al.

Read it for free here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪 #ChemSciPicks
Composite scientific graphic illustrating the formation of HCN polymers relevant to astrochemistry. On the left, a three‑dimensional mass spectrometry intensity plot (signal vs. mass‑to‑charge ratio) labeled “HCN Polymers” is overlaid with colorful spectral peaks and surrounded by ball‑and‑stick molecular models of nitrogen‑rich organic species (grey carbon, blue nitrogen, white hydrogen). On the right, a red temperature‑programmed desorption trace shows signal intensity increasing sharply between ~220–300 K, alongside additional molecular structures indicating species released upon warming. A “Pick of the Week” badge appears in the lower left corner.
January 21, 2026 at 10:34 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's Chemical Science Pick of the Week #ChemSciPicks is from Professor Amy C. Rosenzweig (Northwestern University): "Simultaneous occupancy of CuC and CuD in the ammonia monooxygenase active site"

Read for free at: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
Diagram showing the structure of ammonia monooxygenase (AMO) from Nitrosospira briensis. The left panel depicts the enzyme in native membranes with three labeled copper-binding sites: CuB (periplasmic), CuC, and CuD (transmembrane), and a lipid molecule positioned between CuC and CuD. The right panel zooms in on the AMO active site, highlighting the CuC and CuD sites separated by approximately 8.0 Å, with the lipid molecule spanning between them. Copper ions are shown as cyan spheres, and the lipid is illustrated in pink.
January 15, 2026 at 10:04 AM
hughpatrickryan.bsky.social
Awesome to see this research in @chemicalscience.rsc.org being picked up by @chemistryworld.com!

The original work was actually a #ChemSciPicks - doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
December 11, 2025 at 9:12 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Our Chemical Science Pick of the Week for this week is "Direct measurement of covalent three-center, two-electron M–H–B bonding in Zr and Hf borohydrides using B K-edge XAS" by Jason Keith and Scott Daly et al.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSciPicks
November 5, 2025 at 10:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks is from Prof Dong-Xu Xue et al. (Shaanxi Normal University, China)!

“Fluorine-mediated single-step ethylene purification in face-transitive metal–organic frameworks from binary to ternary gas mixtures”

Read for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
Graphical abstract image for “Fluorine-mediated single-step ethylene purification in face-transitive metal–organic frameworks from binary to ternary gas mixtures” - https://doi.org/10.1039/D5SC06836C.
October 29, 2025 at 10:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Our #ChemSciPicks this week is from Hongzhe Sun (The University of Hong Kong, P. R. China) et al.

"Unprecedented allosteric inhibition of E. coli malate dehydrogenase by silver(i) from atomic resolution analysis"

Read it here for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
October 15, 2025 at 9:11 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Our #ChemSciPicks this week is from Max Holthausen, Terrance Hadlington et al., who look at the path to an open-shell metallo-germylene and consider whether this proceeds via direct ligation, or reduction and metathesis.

Read the full article online now: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
October 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s fantastic #ChemSciPicks is from Jaewon Lee and Woon Ju Song (Seoul National University) titled:

“Cerium-mediated site-selective cysteine functionalization”

You can read the work in full and for free here: pubs.rsc.org/doi/D5S...

#ChemSky 🧪
Graphical abstract image for “Cerium-mediated site-selective cysteine functionalization”, by Jaewon Lee and Woon Ju Song (Seoul National University.
October 1, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks is "Synthesis of Biodegradable Vinyl Copolymers via Enforced Regular Sequence Distribution from Automated Radical Ring Opening Polymerisation" by Tanja Junkers et al. @polymerreaction.bsky.social

Read it here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
Graphical abstract image for the paper titled Synthesis of biodegradable vinyl copolymers via enforced regular sequence distribution from automated radical ring opening polymerisation. The image shows a scheme of how the reaction monitoring and monomer feed optimisation work to produce a regular product distribution of block copolymers with automation.
September 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Check out this week's #ChemSciPicks from Wenbin Tu, Xin Sun, Peng Zhang, Yu Qiao et al. titled: ' In situ analysis of gaseous products from PEO-based polymer electrolyte decomposition'.

You can read it here in full and for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
September 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's Chemical Science Pick of the Week is "Iminoboronate Chemistry Enables Multifunctional and Reprocessable Polyphenol-derived Vitrimers" by Junfei Hu, Zhipeng Gu, and Yiwen Li et al. from Sichuan University.

Read the paper here for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSciPicks
Schematic of polyphenol-derived vitrimers showing accelerated imine and boronic ester exchange, with low-temperature recovery and natural sources like apples.
September 3, 2025 at 3:01 PM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Check out this week's #ChemSciPicks from George Fytas and E. W. Meijer et al.!

"Impact of Vibrational Strong Coupling on Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation in Supramolecular Polymers"

Read the paper here, in full and for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪
August 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Check out this week's #ChemSciPicks from Hong-Bin Xie and Joseph S. Francisco et al. titled: 'Significance of Halogen Bonding in the Synergistic Nucleation of Iodine Oxoacids and Iodine Oxides'

You can read it here in full and for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪
August 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from Francesco Zinna (Università di Pisa, Italy) who looks at circularly polarized luminescence detected by chromaticity differences.
Read it here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
August 6, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s #ChemSciPicks is "Novel tryptophan 2,3-dioxygenase-targeted ruthenium(II)-indole complex activates immunotherapy in vitro and in vivo" by Xuling Xue and Hong-Ke Liu (Nanjing Normal University, China) et al.
Read it here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...
July 30, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from Huajun Yang (Nanjing Normal University, China) and looks at the water-mediated synthesis of hydrogen-bonded metal–organic frameworks. Read the full article online now: pubs.rsc.org/doi/D5S...
July 23, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s #ChemSciPicks is "Understanding the strain effect in alkaline hydrogen oxidation reaction over well-defined Ru surfaces: insights into catalyst design" by Zehua Hu, Hongwen Huang, et al.

Read it here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
July 18, 2025 at 2:58 PM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s #ChemSciPicks is "Stimuli-Responsive Photoswitch-Actinide Binding: A Match Made in MOFs" by @shustovalab.bsky.social (University of South Carolina, United States) et al.

Read the paper here for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
July 10, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s #ChemSciPicks is an edge article from Annaliese Franz (University of California, Davis) et al. titled: 'Multifunctional Chiral Silanol Ligands for Enantioselective Catalysis'.

Read the paper here in full and for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
A graphical abstract for the Chemical Science Pick of the Week paper "Multifunctional Chiral Silanol Ligands for Enantioselective Catalysis". The graphical abstract image shows how enantioselective Cu-catalysed N-H insertion can be achieved using a metal-chelating ligand that contains a silanol group. Through DFT calculations, it is found that pi-pi interactions guide the enantioselectivity of the process and this transition state, which occurs via a chair-like geometry is shown on the right hand side of the image.
July 2, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week’s #ChemSciPicks is an excellent Edge article from Guomin Xia and Hongming Wang (Nanchang University) et al. titled: 'Intramolecular Tension-Driven Self-Recovering Mechanochromism in Organic Microcrystals'

Read the paper here in full and for free: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪
June 25, 2025 at 9:00 AM
graemeday.bsky.social
Now published in @chemicalscience.rsc.org and highlighted as a #ChemSciPicks. Great work by @ffmmgg.bsky.social. Collab with @aicooper.bsky.social

A Universal Foundation Model for Transfer Learning in Molecular Crystals

#compchemsky #chemsky
@unisouthampton.bsky.social @liverpooluni.bsky.social
chemicalscience.rsc.org Chemical Science @chemicalscience.rsc.org · Jun 18
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from @graemeday.bsky.social (University of Southampton), @ffmmgg.bsky.social‬, Chengxi Zhao‬, Xenphon Evangelopoulos, and @aicooper.bsky.social‬ (University of Liverpool).

Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
June 18, 2025 at 8:57 PM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from @graemeday.bsky.social (University of Southampton), @ffmmgg.bsky.social‬, Chengxi Zhao‬, Xenphon Evangelopoulos, and @aicooper.bsky.social‬ (University of Liverpool).

Read the full paper here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
June 18, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from Robert J Gilliard and Christopher Cummins (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, United States).

The authors use the elimination of hexamethylbenzene to form transient boron-containing unsaturated bonds.

Read it free here: doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky
June 4, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
This week's #ChemSciPicks comes from @matilegroup.bsky.social (University of Geneva, Switzerland), who look at the response of reaction mechanisms to electric-field catalysis on carbon nanotubes in microfluidic reactors. Read the full paper here: pubs.rsc.org/doi/D5S...
May 28, 2025 at 9:00 AM
chemicalscience.rsc.org
Check out this week’s #ChemSciPicks from Benlin Hu et al.

‘High-Performance Elastic Ferroelectrics via Low-Temperature Carbene Crosslinking and High-Temperature Annealing’

Read the paper here in full and for free:

doi.org/10.1039/D5SC...

#ChemSky 🧪
May 14, 2025 at 9:00 AM