Mechanochemistry is a research area that is growing in popularity, with the number of published articles growing year on year.  Yet surprisingly, a universally agreed definition of this term is not yet in use.

In his CrystEngComm Highlight, Gerd Kaupp, University of Oldenberg, Germany, provides thoughtful and authoritative discussion of the use of the term 'mechanochemistry'. In particular, he makes the distinction between the mechanical breaking of covalent bonds, where mechanical energy is used for bond breaking as the first step in chemical transformations, and the mechanical creation of chemical contacts which initiate chemically driven reactions between solid reagents.   His Highlight includes several examples which relate to this mechanical breaking of chemical bonds.

In writing this Highlight, Kaupp aims to define the term mechanochemistry for the benefit of the scientific community. 'A strict and clear-cut systematics of mechanochemistry that separates out mechanophysical events and clearly distinguishes mechanochemistry from molecular solid-state chemistry removes widespread confusion', says Kaupp.