Chemistry of Materials : Highlights from 2025─A Community Effort

RecommendationsA s we enter a new year, Chemistry of Materials would like to reflect on what our community has built together over the past year.The science shared in 2025 represents the creativity, rigor, and collaboration of researchers around the world, and it is this collective effort that continues to shape the direction of materials chemistry and the journal.The research published in 2025 reflects critically important directions in the field, which we have compiled into a Highlights Collection that includes highly cited and highly engaged with�downloaded, shared on social media�manuscripts.Researchers continued to advance materials for energy and sustainability through the design of efficient electrocatalysts as well as next-generation energy storage and conversion materials.These studies emphasized stability, scalability, and realistic operating conditions, reflecting a broader shift toward impact-driven science.Another strong theme in 2025 was precision in synthesis and structure control, from colloidal nanocrystals and heterostructures to patterned and polymeric materials and low-dimensional systems.Advances in porous materials showed how controlling internal spaces can improve how materials store, separate, and transform molecules, aligning well with the 2025 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.Contributions in emergent two-dimensional and layered materials highlighted how interfacial design and dimensional confinement continue to unlock new physical and chemical behavior.Across all areas, growing attention was given to how atomic-and molecular-scale dynamics� including local structural distortions and redox-responsive chemical transformations�govern the performance of materials in application spaces as diverse as energy, electronics, and biomedicine.At the same time, the role of data, theory, and machine learning became increasingly central, with a shift from supportive to guiding roles, increasingly shaping experimental design.Finally, the growing use of in situ and operando characterization reflected a shared desire across the community to understand materials as they form and function under realistic conditions.These advances did not happen in isolation.They were built by students, postdocs, staff scientists, faculty, collaborators, and interdisciplinary teams working across time zones, institutions, and cultures.In 2025, a number of special collections helped bring visibility to important areas of materials research, guided by our editorial team as well as guest editors from across the community.These include: