This is a list of unsolved problems in chemistry. Problems in chemistry are considered unsolved when an expert in the field considers it unsolved or when several experts in the field disagree about a solution to a problem.

Physical chemistry problems

Organic chemistry problems

Inorganic chemistry problems

Biochemistry problems

  • Enzyme kinetics: Why do some enzymes exhibit faster-than-diffusion kinetics?[13]
  • Protein folding problem: Is it possible to predict the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure of a polypeptide sequence based solely on the sequence and environmental information? Inverse protein-folding problem: Is it possible to design a polypeptide sequence which will adopt a given structure under certain environmental conditions?[4][14] This has been achieved for several small globular proteins in recent years.[15] In 2020, it was announced that Google's AlphaFold, a neural network based on DeepMind artificial intelligence, is capable of predicting a protein's final shape based solely on its amino-acid chain with an accuracy of around 90% on a test sample of proteins used by the team.[16]
  • RNA folding problem: Is it possible to accurately predict the secondary, tertiary and quaternary structure of a polyribonucleic acid sequence based on its sequence and environment?
  • Protein design: Is it possible to design highly active enzymes de novo for any desired reaction?[17]
  • Biosynthesis: Can desired molecules, natural products or otherwise, be produced in high yield through biosynthetic pathway manipulation?[18]

See also

References

  1. Philip Ball (November 2010). "Would element 137 really spell the end of the periodic table? Philip Ball examines the evidence". Chemistry World. Royal Society of Chemistry.
  2. Morss, Lester R.; Edelstein, Norman M.; Fuger, Jean, eds. (2006). The Chemistry of the Actinide and Transactinide Elements (3rd ed.). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. ISBN 978-1-4020-3555-5.
  3. Christensen, J.; Albertus, P.; Sanchez-Carrera, R. S.; Lohmann, T.; Kozinsky, B.; Liedtke, R.; Ahmed, J.; Kojic, A. (2012). "A Critical Review of Li–Air Batteries". Journal of the Electrochemical Society. 159 (2): R1. doi:10.1149/2.086202jes.
  4. 1 2 "So much more to know". Science. 309 (5731): 78–102. July 2005. doi:10.1126/science.309.5731.78b. PMID 15994524.
  5. Narayan, Sridhar; Muldoon, John; Finn, M. G.; Fokin, Valery V.; Kolb, Hartmuth C.; Sharpless, K. Barry (2005). ""On Water": Unique Reactivity of Organic Compounds in Aqueous Suspension". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 44 (21): 3275–3279. doi:10.1002/anie.200462883. PMID 15844112.
  6. Ussing R, Singleton A (February 2005). "Isotope effects, dynamics, and the mechanism of solvolysis of aryldiazonium cations in water". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 127 (9): 2888–2889. doi:10.1021/ja043918p. PMID 15740124.
  7. Lowe, Derek (24 Aug 2017). "Electrochemistry For All". In the Pipeline. American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved 23 August 2023.
  8. Miles, Ned Carter (2023-08-05). "'Endless possibilities': the chemists changing molecules atom by atom". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 2023-08-24.
  9. Potter, Brian. "The Story of Titanium". Construction Physics. Retrieved 2023-08-24. In the 1950s, it was hoped/assumed that a better process for producing titanium sponge would come along to replace the Kroll process, which is a laborious and energy-intensive batch process that must be done in an inert atmosphere. But such a process has never materialized...likewise, turning titanium sponge into metal is an energy and capital-intensive process [that] has also changed little since the 1950s.
  10. Lewars, Errol G. (2008). Modeling Marvels: Computational Anticipation of Novel molecules. Springer Science+Business Media. pp. 141–63. doi:10.1007/978-1-4020-6973-4. ISBN 978-1-4020-6972-7.
  11. Sanz-Pérez, Eloy S.; Murdock, Christopher R.; Didas, Stephanie A.; Jones, Christopher W. (12 October 2016). "Direct Capture of carbon dioxide from Ambient Air". Chemical Reviews. 116 (19): 11840–11876. doi:10.1021/acs.chemrev.6b00173. PMID 27560307.
  12. Styring, Stenbjörn (21 December 2011). "Artificial photosynthesis for solar fuels". Faraday Discussions. 155 (Advance Article): 357–376. Bibcode:2012FaDi..155..357S. doi:10.1039/C1FD00113B. PMID 22470985.
  13. Hsieh M, Brenowitz M (August 1997). "Comparison of the DNA association kinetics of the Lac repressor tetramer, its dimeric mutant LacIadi, and the native dimeric Gal repressor". J. Biol. Chem. 272 (35): 22092–6. doi:10.1074/jbc.272.35.22092. PMID 9268351.
  14. King, Jonathan (2007). "MIT OpenCourseWare - 7.88J / 5.48J / 7.24J / 10.543J Protein Folding Problem, Fall 2007 Lecture Notes - 1". MIT OpenCourseWare. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved June 22, 2013.
  15. Dill KA; et al. (June 2008). "The Protein Folding Problem". Annu Rev Biophys. 37: 289–316. doi:10.1146/annurev.biophys.37.092707.153558. PMC 2443096. PMID 18573083.
  16. Callaway, Ewen (2020-11-30). "'It will change everything': DeepMind's AI makes gigantic leap in solving protein structures". Nature. 588 (7837): 203–204. Bibcode:2020Natur.588..203C. doi:10.1038/d41586-020-03348-4. PMID 33257889. S2CID 227243204.
  17. "Principles for designing ideal protein structures. | the Baker Laboratory". Archived from the original on 2013-04-01. Retrieved 2012-12-19.
  18. Peralta-Yahya, Pamela P.; Zhang, Fuzhong; Del Cardayre, Stephen B.; Keasling, Jay D. (2012). "Microbial engineering for the production of advanced biofuels". Nature. 488 (7411): 320–328. Bibcode:2012Natur.488..320P. doi:10.1038/nature11478. PMID 22895337. S2CID 4423203.
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