Aamod V. Desai

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a family of molecules that possess high vapor pressure and are regarded as air pollutants that prevail in both indoor and outdoor settings. Prolonged exposure to VOCs poses a serious risk to human health. On the other hand, VOCs emitted by humans and plants have been recognized as key biomarkers to estimate the status of health and physiology in living beings. Profiling the total content of VOCs in human and plant fluids leads to early diagnosis of diseases and timely treatment. Monitoring the presence of VOCs, either to track air pollution or to estimate the status of health, has therefore commanded increasing attention. Among the various techniques, optical sensing methods have been sought after owing to the considerations of their fast response time, versatility, miniaturization and portability, as well as the possibility of performing non-invasive detection. Advanced functional materials, such as porous reticular solids, including metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), covalent organic frameworks (COFs), and hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks (HOFs), are well suited not only as sorbents for the detection and capture of VOCs but also as suitable substrates for various approaches of optical signaling. This review, through recent case studies, presents the advances in the optical sensing of VOCs by reticular materials. In addition, a comparative analysis between various reticular material types has been provided, along with an outline of the current challenges and the opportunities that exist for future research.

Organic electrode materials are garnering increasing interest from academia as a potential negative electrode material for sodium-ion batteries (NIBs). Organic electrode materials offer unique advantages in comparison to inorganic materials as they can be derived from sustainable sources, such as biomass. However, their low initial coulombic efficiency (ICE) decreases energy density and cyclability. In a strategy designed to alleviate these issues, a presodiation technique with the reducing agent sodium biphenyl (NaBP) was used to improve the ICE of an organic electrode material, sodium naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylate (Na₂NDC). Powder x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were employed to investigate the rapid sodiation procedure. Cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic cycling elucidated the charge storage behavior. The addition of presodiation additive can be tuned to improve the ICE from 61% up to 150%. An improvement in the rate performance due to presodiation was demonstrated. This procedure can be applied to other organic electrode materials that suffer from low ICE in future investigations. Therefore, this methodology can assist in the adoption of organic electrode materials for NIB negative electrodes.

Organic anode materials for sodium-ion batteries complement the sustainability ethos, and can be tuned structurally. This Perspective summarises the well-studied aspects as well as points out the directions for future research in this domain.

An organic anode, disodium anthracene-9,10-dicarboxylate, was synthesised and characterised using 3D ED. Its utility as an electrode material for Na-ion batteries was explored.

The field of reticular materials, such as metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) and covalent organic frameworks (COFs), is expanding continuously – be it in terms of novel structures, advanced characterization techniques, or record‐breaking physical properties for applications. This timeline review reflects on the progress over the past 30 years, complemented by input from the community of active researchers. Owing to a global, crowdsourced survey of 228 researchers that is conducted through an online questionnaire, recent insights into the demographics of the field are given. Besides revealing how it works, publish, and interact, the review highlights both academic and industrial milestones. The contemporary trends are described, both at the level of material development and their suitability for a range of applications. To pave the way for newcomers to the field, some remaining challenges and steps to overcome them are discussed. The findings from this contemplative review aim to shape the future course of research in this domain.

Development of sustainable synthesis methods of organic electrode materials (OEMs) for sodium (Na)-ion batteries must take hold rapidly in large scale-synthesis if subsequent commercialisation is to occur. We report a facile and rapid gram-scale synthesis method based on microwave irradiation for disodium naphthalene-2,6-dicarboxylate (Na-NDC) and mono/disodium benzene-1,4-dicarboxylate (Na-BDC) as model compounds. Phase purity and formation of materials was confirmed by various characterisation techniques. The electrochemical performance was tested in both half and full cell formats and compared to material obtained via smaller scale synthesis, revealing state-of-the art performance in terms of capacity retention and cyclability. The environmental impacts upon organic anode synthesis were quantified according to cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment (LCA). The results allow for the identification of environmental hotspots during production, indicating areas for future process optimisation. Interestingly, remarkably reduced impacts are obtained compared to conventional syntheses at milligram scale. Additionally, this work suggests potential significant improvements upon additional upscaling and solvent recycling.

An approach to form binary mixtures of sodium carboxylates using efficient microwave-assisted synthesis, as anodes in sodium-ion batteries is demonstrated.

This tutorial review discusses the design principles, implications, and future challenges associated with peptide-based hydrogen-bonded porous frameworks (P-HPFs).

To help ensure a prosperous future on Earth for coming generations, academia and industry need to transform the way they plan and carry out the synthesis of novel materials to make them more environmentally sustainable. In particular, the field of reticular materials, i.e., metal‐organic frameworks, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks, and covalent organic frameworks, has great potential to outperform other materials and revolutionize various fields of applications. This review highlights several key aspects from the choice of their starting materials, solvents and synthetic methodologies that fall under the umbrella of the Green Chemistry principles, and incorporates a Circular Economy perspective by providing relevant strategies such as reuse, regeneration, or recycling to maximize the value of the Earth's available resources. Moreover, it will shed light on the life cycle assessment results of selected reticular materials and consider how constraints imposed by Green Chemistry principles, life cycle assessment metrics, and circular patterns will shape the future rational sustainable design and discovery of reticular materials.

Medicines and pesticides are being used excessively, misused, or abused in recent times, resulting in major environmental contamination and, more specifically, water pollution.