Combinatorial chemistry is a new strategy for discovery and optimization of lead compounds in drug design in 1990s. It makes a big difference from traditional method in which pure compounds are synthesized, purified and screened one by one. Combinatorial chemistry is a type of synthetic and screening strategy which leads to large chemical libraries and extremely accelerates the rate of finding and optimizing new lead compounds.In this paper, the essential theories, methods, development tendency, achievements of combinatorial chemistry are reviewed.

Recent progress in solid phase supported organic synthesis of heterocyclic libraries with important physiological activity, such as 1, 4- benzodiazpines, diketopiperazines, isoquinolinones, dihydro and tetrahydroisoquinolines, 1, 4-dihydropyridines, dihydropyrimidines, hydantoins, pyrrolidines, thiazolidine-4-carboxylic acids, 4-thiazolidnones and related 4-metathiazanones, imidazoles, β-lactams and related azetidinones; important targeted libraries including β-turn mimetics library, protease and kinase inhibitor libraries such as aspartic acid protease, HIV-1 protease, zinic protease, carbonic anhydrase、tyrosine kinase, as well as estrogen receptor ligand library are reviewed.

The transition state plays an important role in mechanism research of chemical reactions, but it is hard to determine experimentally. Recently, some quantum chemical and molecularm echanicalm ethods have been developed and it is possible to calculate the structures of transition states. These methods are reviewed and examined in detail.

On discussing some activation models of dinitrogen by the active center,FeMo-cofactor of the nitrogenase based on experiments and theoretical calculations, a new activation model of dinitrogen has been suggested. In this model, the dinitrogen is coordinated to 4Fe and 2Fe atoms of FeMo-cofactor in“end-on”and“side-on”modes respectively, and is activated inside the FeMo-cofactor. Accompanying the complete cleavage of N≡N triple bond, both fragments containing Natomshift to the respective“window”on both sides of the FeMo-cofactor and are reduced in the hydrogenation process to form NH₃which get off from the nearby“windows”.

Chemical nucleases are newly designed and synthesized compounds which used as tools of DNA or RNA cleavage in a sequence specific way. They consist of nucleic acid recognition system and chemical scission system and can cleave both DNA and RNA in either form of single or double strand at any selected site, beyond the restriction of natural specifity of restriction enzymes. In addition to introducing some new chemical nuclease systems, this paper stresses on the discussion of their action modes and acting mechanisms.

Integrated bioreaction and seperation process is a new technique used for enhancing the performance and efficiency of bioreaction process. This technique has been used for producing traditional fermentation products such as ethanol, acetone, butanol, organic acid, aminoacid, and other biotechnology products with extra value. This review summarizes the development of this technique in recent years in order to provide reference to the studies of this field in our country.

The research progress of enzyme catalysis in organic media is reviewed.The factors influencing the enantio selectivity of enzyme catalyzed asymmetric transformations in organic phase, and the enzymatic resolution kinetics are discussed.

Fullerene chemistry is a new research field concerning compounds with all carbon spherical molecules as their parents. It has potential applications in materials science, medical science and synthesis methods of sterochemistry. This review summarized the addition reaction of C₆₀ and revealed the chemical properties of fullerene.

Tribochemistry is a branch of chemistry dealing with the chemical and physicochemical changes of solids due to the influence of mechanical energy. The research progress of tribochemistry in the aspects of chemical effects of rubbing surfaces, physicochemical changes under dry and lubricated friction conditions were reviewed. The application of the tribochemical principle in preparing self-lubricating materials was introduced.problems and suggestions for furthure study of tribochemistry were proposed.

This paper introduced the history and the recent progress of natural gas hydrates, their formation in both permafrost and sea submarine, their impact on oil gas industry, and the way of inhibiting their formation. Natural gas hydrates may play an important role as potential source of energy and also may be harmful to global climate change, i. e. , enhancing the greenhouse effect.