The Ba(Ti 0.8 Zr 0.2 )O 3 -x(Ba 0.7 Ca 0.3 )TiO 3 (BCZT) solid solution system has been extensively studied since it was proposed as an alternative to PZT (PbZr x Ti 1-x O 3 ) due to its high piezoelectric coefficient ( d 33 ) for compositions close...
We present a computational model to predict triplet excitation energy distributions under ball-milling conditions. Our model is based on a quadratic approach of the potential energy surfaces of the electronic...
Correction for ‘Transition-metal-free/boric acid catalysed mechanochemical synthesis of symmetrical and unsymmetrical azobenzenes: a sustainable approach’ by Tandra Kundu et al. , RSC Mechanochem. , 2026, 3 , 363–370, https://doi.org/10.1039/d5mr00133a.
Mechanochemistry is advancing rapidly, mainly because it enables necessary chemical transformations that are impossible with solution-based methods. However, it has transformed from its beginnings as a comminution and mechanical activation tool that altered raw materials and minerals to its current position as a well-established synthetic tool with time. This perspective article provides a time-wise insight into this transformation by discussing publications in the Scopus database classified by subject area and identifying temporal changes in the journals publishing mechanochemical research. A year-wise monitoring of articles retrieved from the Scopus database using the following eight keywords is provided: mechanochemistry, mechanochemical, ball milling, high-energy ball milling, mechanosynthesis, mechanical activation, mechanical alloying, and mechanical milling. Also, the INCOME conference series, a flagship event for the community held every 3 years, was assessed over 10 years based on the occurrence of the mentioned keywords in the contribution titles. The obtained results clearly show a shift from engineering, materials science, and physics and astronomy to chemistry, energy, and environmental sciences. This is also confirmed by shifting the character of the journals publishing mechanochmistry from materials-science-oriented ones (such as Materials Science Forum or Journal of Alloys and Compounds) to chemical journals (ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, and, very recently, RSC Mechanochemistry). Moreover, the keywords mechanical activation and mechanical alloying, which were once among the key terms in the field, have entirely vanished from the contribution titles at the recent INCOME conference. This perspective should also serve as a reminder that, in addition to significant developments in emerging fields, the older, established, and sometimes forgotten ones still have something to offer mechanochemistry.
In this minireview the overall vision on selected activities in mechanochemistry of sulphide minerals performed in Slovakia is presented. Selected results from science and technology of extractive metallurgy, materials science...
Here, it is found that β-citronellol enables the mechanochemical cross-coupling reactions of various aryl halides and aryl boronic acids in moderate to excellent yields under ambient conditions using low-cost or no phosphine ligand and without the application of external heating. The reaction is found to proceed with heteroaryl boronic acids on the gram-scale.
Ferdi Schüth and Claudia Weidenthaler examine the field of mechanocatalysis and its growing impact.
The present paper sets out the optimisation of the mechanochemical synthesis process of the thermoelectric material Mg 3.2 Sb 1.5 Bi 0.45 Te 0.05 . Optimisation is based on the analysis of phase composition, powder morphology and thermoelectric properties.
Dillon Button-Jennings and Timothy Hanusa examine the contributions of mechanochemical methods to the field of organometallic synthesis.
We prepared MgWO4 phase materials using a single-step energy-efficient mechanochemical approach, which differs from existing studies on the phase formation, thermal, optical, and morphological features. The as-milled powder reveals a monoclinic structure with the lattice parameters, a = 0.4683(5) nm, b = 0.5686(6), c = 0.4956(6) nm, and beta = 90.73 degrees. The TGA curve shows a weight loss of 4.7% for the as-milled powder. The IR bands at 513 and 570 cm-1 indicate the Mg-O vibration mode, whereas the IR bands seen at 794 and 825 cm-1 are assigned to the W-O vibration mode for the MgWO4 phase materials. The NIR reflectance of the MgWO4 phase analysis achieved in the present work is novel in comparison to the existing studies, which reveal a maximum reflectance of similar to 35% in the solar NIR reflectance region. The as-milled powder MgWO4 has an Edirectg of 3.97 eV. Agglomerated particles of MgWO4 phases are observed in the SEM images.
Ball milling Mn-containing complex oxides in ethanol introduces Lewis acid sites on the surface, which act as anchors for enveloped viruses, enabling their inactivation via Mn-based Mars–van Krevelen (MvK) mechanisms.
This review summarises the current SE preparation via mechanical alloying and investigates the characteristics of this method for producing different electrolytes.
Some mechanochemical reactions exhibit dramatically enhanced reactivity compared to solution-phase processes, yet the molecular origins of this rate acceleration remain poorly understood. Here, density functional theory calculations are used to investigate the previously reported ZnCl2-catalyzed Diels–Alder cycloaddition between anthracene and 1,4-anthraquinone under mechanochemical and solution environments. In the absence of ZnCl2, the reaction proceeds through a synchronous transition state with a prohibitively high activation barrier that is largely insensitive to solvent polarity. Lewis acid coordination lowers the barrier, and the reaction becomes feasible in low effective polarity environments. The findings provide a molecular-level perspective on environment-controlled reactivity in mechanochemical catalysis.
The recent surge of interest in mechanochemistry and mechanobiology indicates a convergence of historical mechanical processes with contemporary nanoprocesses. This review explores interfacial mechano-nanoarchitectonics in chemical, materials, and biological processes. Active research is being conducted on mechanochemistry, which is more closely related to controlling functional materials through by surface structures and properties. Advances in probe microscopy have enabled mechanochemistry researchers to analyze various nanoscale phenomena in conjunction with the application of mechanical stimuli. As demonstrated by numerous examples in the field of mechanobiology, the mechanical properties of basic interfaces have the capacity to regulate sophisticated biological properties by coupling mechanical effects from surfaces. This assertion is applicable to a broad spectrum of targets, ranging from the regulation of cell differentiation to the comprehension of disease mechanisms. In addition, the air–water interface is an optimal location for the mechanical adjustment of nanostructures and molecular structures. The mechanical processes occurring at this interface are characterized by their high efficiency and are driven by delicate forces analogous to those observed in biological systems. The review concludes that interfaces are essential for combining mechanical manipulation as the most traditional method in materials processing with the cutting-edge methodology of nanoarchitectonics.
Mechanochemical methods offer a sustainable alternative to traditional solution-based synthesis, yet their scalability beyond laboratory-scale ball mills remains a challenge and often requires lengthy re-optimization for larger scales. Herein, we report the rapid batch translation of a one-pot Wittig olefination-Diels-Alder reaction sequence from a ball mill to an agitator bead mill (DYNO®-MILL RESEARCH LAB), achieving a scale-up from milligram to multi-gram quantities. Crucially, this translation was accomplished with minimal on-the-fly optimization, requiring only a few bead-milling runs to identify suitable operating conditions and perform the transformation in batch mode with good efficiency. Our results provide a practical case study for the scalability of mechanochemical reactions by using bead-milling technology and highlight the potential of bead-milling devices for future process development.
A new approach based on ball milling is introduced as an efficient and greener alternative to conventional solution-based methods for the synthesis of carbonate compounds, which typically require toxic solvents (e.g., dichloromethane) and bases such as pyridine. Following an initial proof-of-concept, the scalability of the method was demonstrated on a gram scale using two representative reactions, including the synthesis of the fragrance molecule liffarome and the reaction of vanillin with isobutyl chloroformate, affording the desired products in 42% and 74% yield, respectively. Using this solvent-free methodology, a total of nine new carbonate-based aroma compounds were synthesized and fully characterized. Their olfactory properties were evaluated by an expert panel, revealing diverse and, in some cases, unexpected odor profiles, which were classified into floral, spicy, fruity, green, and gourmand categories. A comprehensive comparison with traditional and water-based methods showed that ball milling generally provides superior or comparable yields (up to 84%) while avoiding hazardous solvents. Green metrics further highlight the advantages of the ball-mill approach: atom economy values were higher for ball milling (72.2-78.9%) compared to the traditional method (63.2-71.2%); similarly real atom economy reached up to 0.580 for ball milling compared to 0.151 for the traditional method. Notably, the process mass intensity (PMI) was as low as 1.73 for ball milling, making it nearly seven times more resource-efficient than the conventional approach (PMI = 11.96). Furthermore, analysis of the liquid-assisted grinding (LAG) parameter (eta) revealed that higher liquid-to-solid ratios, achieved in the absence of solid auxiliaries, lead to improved reaction efficiency. Overall, this study demonstrates that ball milling offers a practical, scalable, and sustainable strategy for the synthesis of fragrance-related carbonate compounds, while also enabling access to structurally diverse molecules with unique olfactory properties.
We herein report a dual synthetic approach that integrates sono- and mechanochemical strategies to access a diverse array of 5-iodo-1H-1,2,3-triazoles through a copper(i)-catalysed click reaction of aryl/heteroaryl acetylenes with benzyl bromides, sodium azide, and copper iodide (CuI). CuI acts here as both a catalyst and an iodine source. Both synthetic protocols provide a straightforward, efficient, and practical platform for accessing this important class of biologically and synthetically valuable organic compounds. The salient features of the newly developed methods include mild reaction conditions, avoidance of external heating and oxidants, shorter reaction times (in minutes), good to excellent yields with high regioselectivity, broad substrate scope and tolerance toward various functional groups, acceptable E-factors in most cases, gram-scale synthetic applicability, and reusability of the solid surface (mechanochemical). Besides, a few selected synthesised 5-iodo-triazoles were converted into a range of biorelevant molecular scaffolds, as part of the synthetic application.
Polymer-derived mechanoradicals generated under solid-state conditions offer a unique platform for driving chemical transformations that are difficult to achieve in solution. Here, we report a mechanoradical-mediated oxidation of 1,1-disubstituted alkenes using a polymer as the radical source and molecular oxygen as the oxidant. Ball milling of polystyrene (PS) in the presence of diarylethene (DAE) derivatives under air resulted in backbone cleavage of PS in addition to oxidative cleavage of the alkene moiety to afford the corresponding diaryl ketone (DAK) derivatives. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy revealed the formation of oxygen-centered radical species, suggesting a reaction pathway involving the addition of mechanoradicals derived from PS to DAE, followed by reaction with molecular oxygen. The experiments using poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) instead of PS gave similar results, indicating that the oxidative cleavage proceeds irrespective of the polymer species. Gel permeation chromatography with a UV detector further supported the addition of PMMA-derived mechanoradicals to DAE derivatives. Substituent effect studies showed that DAK formation occurs for DAE derivatives with both electron-donating and electron-withdrawing substituents, whereas oxirane derivatives (DAO) were observed only for derivatives with electron-withdrawing groups, reflecting substituent-dependent stability of DAO. These findings establish polymer-derived mechanoradicals as effective initiators for alkene oxidation in the solid state and demonstrate the potential of mechanochemistry as a powerful platform for elucidating radical oxidation mechanisms under solvent-free conditions.
Mechanochemistry offers a sustainable alternative to solution-based synthesis, yet its potential in main-group chemistry remains largely untapped. Here we demonstrate that both the formation and cleavage of Si-Si bonds can be efficiently achieved under mechanochemical conditions. Solvent-free Wurtz-type couplings enable rapid access to disilanes, higher silanes, and cyclic silicon frameworks, while controlled ball-milling with alkali metal bases allows the quantitative generation of silanide and disilanide species. These reactive intermediates undergo clean and selective derivatization with a range of electrophiles, frequently affording higher yields than reported solution-phase protocols. The methodology is operationally simple, scalable, and enables multistep transformations without intermediate workup. This work establishes mechanochemistry as a powerful platform for silicon-silicon bond manipulation and highlights its potential for advancing sustainable main-group synthesis.
Starting from a racemic building block, we introduce a one-pot mechanochemical synthesis of enantioenriched 2-(benzylideneamino)butanamide, a key intermediate for the enantiopure drug levetiracetam. Optimisation leads to an ee of up to 94% ee with an overall 80% isolated yield.
