Direct air capture, carbon dots and synthetic cells have all been included in a list of the top emerging technologies in chemistry.
The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) has compiled its list of the top ten emerging technologies in chemistry for the seventh-year running. IUPAC is the international authority on chemical terminology including the naming of new elements in the periodic table.
It said the aim is to showcase the transformative value of chemistry and to inform the general public about the potential of the chemical sciences to support sustainability of the planet.
An international panel of scientists reviewed emerging technologies submitted by researchers and selected a final top ten to cover fields from synthesis and polymer chemistry to health and machine learning.
The list includes direct air capture, an emerging technology which allows for carbon dioxide to be removed directly from the atmosphere. It also includes carbon dots - carbon nanoparticles that can be used in healthcare while synthetic cells which could help with the production of chemicals, biofuels and drugs. Another of the technologies, xolography, aims to print polymers with precision and in great detail.
“These technologies are defined as transformative innovations that lie in between a eureka-moment discovery and a fully-commercialised technology that have outstanding potential to open new opportunities in chemistry, sustainability, and beyond,” IUPAC said.
The 2025 list of top emerging technologies in chemistry (in alphabetical order) include:
- Additive manufacturing
- Carbon dots
- Direct air capture
- Electrochemical carbon dioxide capture
- Multimodal foundation models for structure elucidation
- Nanochain biosensor
- Single-atom catalysis
- Synthetic cells
- Thermogelling polymers
- Xolography
IUPAC published its first top ten emerging technologies in chemistry list in 2019. That first list included technologies including nanopesticides, enantio-selective organocatalysis, solid-state batteries, flow chemistry, reactive extrusion, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous materials for water harvesting, directed evolution of selective enzymes, 'from plastics to monomers', reversible-deactivation of radical polymerisation and 3D-bioprinting. The scientists behind the development of MOFs were recently awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry.
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