Diels-Alder reaction is one of the most effective ways to construct six-membered ring with mul-ti-stereocenters in one step, which is important but challenging. In this perspective, we focus on research significance and recent progress of theoretical investigations on organocatalytic Diels-Alder reactions, and look forward to further research directions.

The scopes to utilize weak-interactions in different spheres of sciences are presented through specific examples on the utility of charge-assisted hydrogen bonds of small molecules in distinctions of regio-isomeric carboxylic acids.

The outcomes of gathering leading scholars in solar energy, materials science and energy efficiency at the beginning of the world’s energy transition to renewable energy at the “SuNEC-Sun New Energy Conference” held in Sicily between 2011 and 2016 suggest two major achievements and have two lessons to teach.

In the last decade, researchers discovered the existence of new type of emerging pharmaceutical pollutants such as drugs, personal care products, hormones, and so on, in wastewater as well as drinking water. These contaminants are hard to remove using conventional treatment technology. The use of advanced nano-materials-based technologies for the treatment of emerging contaminants from wastewater and drinking are gaining much attention from the researchers. Adsorption is one of the wastewater treatment methods for the decontamination of wastewater. Herein, the applications of a variety of pure materials as well as nanocomposite materials are summarized used for adsorptive removal of antibiotics. The role of different functional groups and adsorption forces are discussed.

The level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere is increasing at an alarming rate. As a result, it has become vital for chemists, environmentalists and other concerned scientists to find ways of transforming undesirable CO₂ to fuels and other harmless and valuable chemicals. Among the approaches used for CO₂ conversion, metal-based and metal-free catalysis are the most commonly used technologies. Although encouraging results have been obtained in electrocatalytic, photocatalytic, and photoelectrochemical CO₂ reduction and hydrogenation, obtaining selective and stable catalysts at lower temperature has remained a challenge. Un-derstanding the details of the reaction mechanisms is also another challenge. Computational studies using density functional theory (DFT) have potentials in alleviating such challenges. In this minireview, we highlight the promising areas where DFT can contribute and the challenges related to such computational studies aiming to show the already available opportunities for further improvements in the field.

Due to the increasing population and developing industry, the energy demand in the world is increasing. Fuel cells are technologies that can meet this need without a negative impact on the environment. However, for the commercialization of fuel cells, their costs must be reduced and their efficiency increased. An important way to reduce cost is to reduce the amount of Pd, a precious metal used as an anode catalyst, by adding a second metal. The aim of this study is to explain how Pd increases the activity when used as an anode catalyst with a second metal for the formic acid electrooxidation.

Azobenzene based metal ion-imprinted polymers (IIPs) were synthesized for selective separation of Co(II) and Cu(II) ions from the mixture of metal ions. After polymerization, cavities for the Co²⁺ and Cu²⁺ ions were created in the polymer materials by leaching with hydrochloric acid solution. The synthesized IIPs were characterized by FT-IR, ¹H NMR and elemental analysis. The competitive sorption studies were carried out to evaluate the selectivity of the target metal ions. Interestingly, the observed sorption capacity was pH dependent and maximum sorption was found to be 95.4 and 103.0 mg ·g⁻¹ for Co-IIPs and Cu-IIPs at pH 5, respectively. It was observed that the IIPs showed good selectivity to Co(II) and Cu(II) ions in the presence of other bi and trivalent metal ions in solution. Reused capacity was also checked for six times without a significant decrease in binding affinity for IIPs.

Biphenyl coupled isomeric pyridyl bisamides 1—4 have been synthesized and their gelation propensities have been thoroughly investigated. In spite of having a pyridine center, capable of forming water linking network and hydrogen bonding amide functionality, all the compounds behave as non-gelator in organic and semi aqueous solvents. However, in presence of Ag+ ions, only compound 1 forms gel and validates its visual sensing over other metal ions. The nongelation behaviour of other derivatives 2, 3 and also meta derivative 4 highlights the effect of positional role of the pyridine ring nitrogen with respect to the biphenyl ring as well as endorse the isomeric substitution in biphenyl ring, respectively. Spectroscopic studies confirm that the metal coordination as well as the hydrogen bonding involving the amide NHs of 1 plays a pivotal role in establishing the gel network in solution. Not only through gelation, compound 1 also selectively recognizes Ag⁺ ions fluorimetrically in a turn-on mode in solution state and correlates the gel phase observations.