Open Access

Arguably mechanochemistry is one of the oldest, and at the same time one of the newest, areas of chemistry. One of the oldest, because it has been theorized that early hominids were able to develop rapidly due to their ability to heat and mechanically process their food to make it easier to digest. Old, because the ancient Greeks knew that mechanically activating stones (consisting of cinnabar) with vinegar in a copper pestle and mortar caused them to convert into mercury. We might be forgiven for thinking that this could have led our alchemical forbears to wonder if there were other stones that might also be persuaded to convert into gold. Early chemical luminaries such as Michael Faraday and Wilhelm Röntgen dabbled in mechanochemistry. However, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the field developed separately in many areas. Perhaps most significantly, synthetic chemists realized that reactions could be carried out with surprisingly high yields and selectivities by shaking them in a ball mill, and that they could even make novel compounds that their colleagues just using heat were not able to. Physicists were mechanically rearranging atoms into new configurations (i.e., doing chemistry) using exotic means such as atomic force microscope tips and optical tweezers. Scientists and engineers studying the formation of lubricious and anti-wear films realized that they were mechanochemically formed. Biochemists found molecular motor proteins, such as myosin and kinesin, that were able to convert chemical energy into motion or, vice versa, mechanical energy into the biochemical energy storage molecule adenosine triphosphate. In 2023, this confluence of advances convinced the Royal Society of Chemistry that the time was ripe to establish a new journal dedicated to the field of mechanochemistry. It is rare that a journal has the privilege of helping to create a new sub-branch of chemistry but, having done so, it has the obligation of helping to define the field and, optimistically, suggesting how the field might develop. This editorial has two major goals. The first is to bring to the attention of the scientific community the challenges faced by the field to set people thinking about how they might contribute and, second, to form the basis for more thorough discussions in the future. The sub-topics below outline current thoughts brought forward from members of our editorial board. We lay out areas and topics here with the intent of establishing a new editorial series, which we invite the community to contribute to, and outline topics and hopefully lay out challenges, which will enable us as a community to come together to move mechanochemistry forward.