This week, we look back at how far click chemistry has come in the last 25 years and discuss the strange bonding behaviour of some of the largest elements on the periodic table with Mason Wakley and Frances Briggs.
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Last month marked 25 years of click chemistry. It started as a review paper in 2001 that has since been cited almost 20,000 times, becoming one of the most influential chemistry papers ever written. The discipline has spread across a wide range of fields, from medicine to materials, opening up molecular design to scientists who don’t necessarily have a deep background in complex synthesis. But what may the next 25 years hold for this field?
Scientists have spent decades grappling with a deceptively simple question: how do the actinides – some of the heaviest elements in the periodic table – actually form chemical bonds? Studying these elements is far from straightforward; their intense radioactivity and the complex behaviour of their 5f electrons make them notoriously difficult to probe. While previous experiments have offered glimpses, these have yielded mostly indirect or incomplete answers. Now, thanks to the development of advanced analytical techniques, chemists may finally be getting a clearer picture of how these elements bond.
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