{"title":"Knowledge distillation of neural network potential for molecular crystals†","authors":"Takuya Taniguchi","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00090K","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00090K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Organic molecular crystals exhibit various functions due to their diverse molecular structures and arrangements. Computational approaches are necessary to explore novel molecular crystals from the material space, but quantum chemical calculations are costly and time-consuming. Neural network potentials (NNPs), trained on vast amounts of data, have recently gained attention for their ability to perform energy calculations with accuracy comparable to quantum chemical methods at high speed. However, NNPs trained on datasets primarily consisting of inorganic crystals, such as the Materials Project, may introduce bias when applied to organic molecular crystals. This study investigates the strategies to improve the accuracy of a pre-trained NNP for organic molecular crystals by distilling knowledge from a teacher model. The most effective knowledge transfer was achieved when fine-tuning using only soft targets, <em>i.e.</em>, the teacher model's inference values. As the ratio of hard target loss increased, the efficiency of knowledge transfer decreased, leading to overfitting. As a proof of concept, the NNP created through knowledge distillation was used to predict elastic properties, resulting in improved accuracy compared to the pre-trained model.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"256 ","pages":" 139-155"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00090k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141737507","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daria Torodii, Jacob B. Holmes, Pinelopi Moutzouri, Sten O. Nilsson Lill, Manuel Cordova, Arthur C. Pinon, Kristof Grohe, Sebastian Wegner, Okky Dwichandra Putra, Stefan Norberg, Anette Welinder, Staffan Schantz and Lyndon Emsley
{"title":"Crystal structure validation of verinurad via proton-detected ultra-fast MAS NMR and machine learning†","authors":"Daria Torodii, Jacob B. Holmes, Pinelopi Moutzouri, Sten O. Nilsson Lill, Manuel Cordova, Arthur C. Pinon, Kristof Grohe, Sebastian Wegner, Okky Dwichandra Putra, Stefan Norberg, Anette Welinder, Staffan Schantz and Lyndon Emsley","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00076E","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00076E","url":null,"abstract":"<p >The recent development of ultra-fast magic-angle spinning (MAS) (>100 kHz) provides new opportunities for structural characterization in solids. Here, we use NMR crystallography to validate the structure of verinurad, a microcrystalline active pharmaceutical ingredient. To do this, we take advantage of <small><sup>1</sup></small>H resolution improvement at ultra-fast MAS and use solely <small><sup>1</sup></small>H-detected experiments and machine learning methods to assign all the experimental proton and carbon chemical shifts. This framework provides a new tool for elucidating chemical information from crystalline samples with limited sample volume and yields remarkably faster acquisition times compared to <small><sup>13</sup></small>C-detected experiments, without the need to employ dynamic nuclear polarization.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":" 0","pages":" 143-158"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00076e?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Jacob B. Holmes, Daria Torodii, Martins Balodis, Manuel Cordova, Albert Hofstetter, Federico Paruzzo, Sten O. Nilsson Lill, Emma Eriksson, Pierrick Berruyer, Bruno Simões de Almeida, Mike Quayle, Stefan Norberg, Anna Svensk Ankarberg, Staffan Schantz and Lyndon Emsley
{"title":"Atomic-level structure of the amorphous drug atuliflapon via NMR crystallography†","authors":"Jacob B. Holmes, Daria Torodii, Martins Balodis, Manuel Cordova, Albert Hofstetter, Federico Paruzzo, Sten O. Nilsson Lill, Emma Eriksson, Pierrick Berruyer, Bruno Simões de Almeida, Mike Quayle, Stefan Norberg, Anna Svensk Ankarberg, Staffan Schantz and Lyndon Emsley","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00078A","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00078A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >We determine the complete atomic-level structure of the amorphous form of the drug atuliflapon, a 5-lipooxygenase activating protein (FLAP) inhibitor, <em>via</em> chemical-shift-driven NMR crystallography. The ensemble of preferred structures allows us to identify a number of specific conformations and interactions that stabilize the amorphous structure. These include preferred hydrogen-bonding motifs with water and with other drug molecules, as well as conformations of the cyclohexane and pyrazole rings that stabilize structure by indirectly allowing for optimization of hydrogen bonding.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":" 0","pages":" 342-354"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00078a?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719550","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Junichi Usuda, Kenshin Yagyu, Hiromasa Tanaka, Masaru Hori, Kenji Ishikawa and Yasufumi Takahashi
{"title":"Nanoscale visualization of the anti-tumor effect of a plasma-activated Ringer's lactate solution†","authors":"Junichi Usuda, Kenshin Yagyu, Hiromasa Tanaka, Masaru Hori, Kenji Ishikawa and Yasufumi Takahashi","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00116H","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00116H","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Plasma-activated Ringer's lactate solutions (PALs), which are Ringer's lactate solutions treated with non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma, have an anti-tumor effect and can be used for chemotherapy. As the anti-tumor effect of the PAL is influenced by the cell-treatment time, it is necessary to monitor the structural changes of the cell surface with non-invasive, nanoscale, and time-lapse imaging to understand the anti-tumor effect. In this study, to characterize the anti-tumor effect of the PAL, we used scanning ion conductance microscopy (SICM), using glass nanopipettes as probes, to visualize the structural changes of the cell surface. SICM time-lapse topographic imaging visualized a decrease in the movement of lamellipodia in normal cells and cancer cells after the PAL treatment. Furthermore, in normal cells, protrusive structures were observed on the cell surface. Time-lapse imaging using SICM allowed us to characterize the differences in the morphological changes between the normal and cancer cells upon exposure to the PAL.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"257 ","pages":" 212-223"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00116h?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719551","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Basita Das, Kangyu Ji, Fang Sheng, Kyle M. McCall and Tonio Buonassisi
{"title":"Embedding human knowledge in material screening pipeline as filters to identify novel synthesizable inorganic materials","authors":"Basita Das, Kangyu Ji, Fang Sheng, Kyle M. McCall and Tonio Buonassisi","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00120F","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00120F","url":null,"abstract":"<p >How might one embed a chemist's knowledge into an automated materials-discovery pipeline? In generative design for inorganic crystalline materials, generating candidate compounds is no longer a bottleneck – there are now synthetic datasets of millions of compounds. However, weeding out unsynthesizable or difficult to synthesize compounds remains an outstanding challenge. Post-generation “filters” have been proposed as a means of embedding human domain knowledge, either in the form of scientific laws or rules of thumb. Examples include charge neutrality, electronegativity balance, and energy above hull. Some filters are “hard” and some are “soft” — for example, it is difficult to envision creating a stable compound while violating the rule of charge neutrality; however, several compounds break the Hume-Rothery rules. It is therefore natural to wonder: can one compile a comprehensive list of “filters” that embed domain knowledge, adopt a principled approach to classifying them as either non-conditional or conditional “filters,” and envision a software environment to implement combinations of these in a systematic manner? In this commentary we explore such questions, “filters” for screening of novel inorganic compounds for synthesizability.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"256 ","pages":" 587-600"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00120f?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719553","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Marie Juramy, Eric Besson, Stéphane Gastaldi, Fabio Ziarelli, Stéphane Viel, Giulia Mollica and Pierre Thureau
{"title":"Exploring the crystallisation of aspirin in a confined porous material using solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance†","authors":"Marie Juramy, Eric Besson, Stéphane Gastaldi, Fabio Ziarelli, Stéphane Viel, Giulia Mollica and Pierre Thureau","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00123K","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00123K","url":null,"abstract":"<p >In this study, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is used to investigate the crystallisation behaviour of aspirin within a mesoporous SBA-15 silica material. The potential of dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) experiments is also investigated using specifically designed porous materials that incorporate polarising agents within their walls. The formation of the metastable crystalline form II is observed when crystallisation occurs within the pores of the mesoporous structure. Conversely, bulk crystallisation yields the most stable form, namely form I, of aspirin. Remarkably, the metastable form II remains trapped within the pores of mesoporous SBA-15 silica material even 30 days after impregnation, underscoring its persistent stability within this confined environment.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":" 0","pages":" 483-494"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00123k?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719552","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Scanning electrochemical probe microscopy: towards the characterization of micro- and nanostructured photocatalytic materials†","authors":"Giada Caniglia, Sarah Horn and Christine Kranz","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00136B","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00136B","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Platinum-black (Pt-B) has been demonstrated to be an excellent electrocatalytic material for the electrochemical oxidation of hydrogen peroxide (H<small><sub>2</sub></small>O<small><sub>2</sub></small>). As Pt-B films can be deposited electrochemically, micro- and nano-sized conductive transducers can be modified with Pt-B. Here, we present the potential of Pt-B micro- and sub-micro-sized sensors for the detection and quantification of hydrogen (H<small><sub>2</sub></small>) in solution. Using these microsensors, no sampling step for H<small><sub>2</sub></small> determination is required and <em>e.g.</em>, in photocatalysis, the onset of H<small><sub>2</sub></small> evolution can be monitored <em>in situ</em>. We present Pt-B-based H<small><sub>2</sub></small> micro- and sub-micro-sized sensors based on different electrochemical transducers such as microelectrodes and atomic force microscopy (AFM)-scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) probes, which enable local measurements <em>e.g.</em>, at heterogenized photocatalytically active samples. The microsensors are characterized in terms of limits of detection (LOD), which ranges from 4.0 μM to 30 μM depending on the size of the sensors and the experimental conditions such as type of electrolyte and pH. The sensors were tested for the <em>in situ</em> H<small><sub>2</sub></small> evolution by light-driven water-splitting, <em>i.e.</em>, using ascorbic acid or triethanolamine solutions, showing a wide linear concentration range, good reproducibility, and high sensitivity. Proof-of-principle experiments using Pt-B-modified cantilever-based sensors were performed using a model sample platinum substrate to map the electrochemical H<small><sub>2</sub></small> evolution along with the topography using AFM-SECM.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"257 ","pages":" 224-239"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2025/fd/d4fd00136b?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141719554","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Douglas J. Fansher, Jonathan N. Besna and Joelle N. Pelletier
{"title":"Indigo production identifies hotspots in cytochrome P450 BM3 for diversifying aromatic hydroxylation†","authors":"Douglas J. Fansher, Jonathan N. Besna and Joelle N. Pelletier","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00017J","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00017J","url":null,"abstract":"<p >Evolution of P450 BM3 is a topic of extensive research, but screening the various substrate/reaction combinations remains a time-consuming process. Indigo production has the potential to serve as a simple high-throughput method for reaction screening, as bacterial colonies expressing indigo (+) variants can be visually identified <em>via</em> their blue phenotype. Indigo (+) single variants, indigo (−) single variants and a combinatorial library, containing mutations that enable the blue phenotype, were screened for their ability to hydroxylate a panel of 12 aromatic compounds using the 4-aminoantipyrine colorimetric assay. Recombination of indigo (+) single variants to create a multiple-variant library is a particularly useful strategy, as all top performing P450 BM3 variants with high hydroxylation activity were either indigo (+) single variants or contained multiple substitutions. Furthermore, active variants, as determined using the 4-AAP assay, were further characterized and several variants were identified that gave more than 90% conversion with 1,3-dichlorobenzene and predominantly formed 2,6-dichlorophenol; other variants showed significant substrate selectivity. This supports the hypothesis that substitution at positions that enable the indigo (+) phenotype, or hotspot residues, is a general mechanism for increasing aromatic hydroxylation activity. Overall, this research demonstrates that indigo (+) single variants, identified <em>via</em> colorimetric colony-based screening, may be recombined to generate a multiply-substituted variant library containing many variants with high aromatic hydroxylation activity. The combination of colony-based screening and other screening assays greatly accelerates enzyme engineering, as readily-identified indigo (+) single variants can be recombined to create a library of active multiple variants without extensive screening of single variants.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"252 ","pages":" 29-51"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141588953","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Spiers Memorial Lecture: Quantum chemistry, classical heuristics, and quantum advantage","authors":"Garnet Kin-Lic Chan","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00141A","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00141A","url":null,"abstract":"<p >We describe the problems of quantum chemistry, the intuition behind classical heuristic methods used to solve them, a conjectured form of the classical complexity of quantum chemistry problems, and the subsequent opportunities for quantum advantage. This article is written for both quantum chemists and quantum information theorists. In particular, we attempt to summarize the domain of quantum chemistry problems as well as the chemical intuition that is applied to solve them within concrete statements (such as a classical heuristic cost conjecture) in the hope that this may stimulate future analysis.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"254 ","pages":" 11-52"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/fd/d4fd00141a?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141613544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Concluding remarks: Reflections on the Faraday Discussion on New Directions in Molecular Scattering","authors":"Mark Brouard","doi":"10.1039/D4FD00118D","DOIUrl":"10.1039/D4FD00118D","url":null,"abstract":"<p >These concluding remarks summarize the <em>Faraday Discussion</em> on New Directions in Molecular Scattering. The discussion brought together scientists from a wide range of disciplines, from astrochemistry to coherent quantum control, and the submitted papers highlighted the need for innovation in experimental methods and computational tools to tackle more complex systems, relevant to chemistry in the real world. As recorded in the previous pages of this discussion, the meeting saw lively debate on numerous topical issues. This summary outlines some of the highlighted key developments in the field, and points towards future directions of molecular scattering research.</p>","PeriodicalId":49075,"journal":{"name":"Faraday Discussions","volume":"251 ","pages":" 666-675"},"PeriodicalIF":3.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlepdf/2024/fd/d4fd00118d?page=search","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141613549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}