Archive for the ‘People’ Category

NJC Editor-in-Chief Wais Hosseini wins Joseph-Achille Le Bel Award

Editor-in-Chief Professor Mir Wais Hosseini is one of two recipients of the the Grand Prix Joseph-Achille Le Bel Award, 2016 in recognition of his remarkable discoveries in supramolecular chemistry. The prize is awarded annually and recognises French chemists whose work have achieved international acclaim.

After starting his scientific career under the direction of Jean-Marie Lehn, Professor Hosseini created his own laboratory and focussed his research towards molecular tectonics’ which corresponds to large-scale (millimeter) molecular architectures in the solid state by self-assembling “tectons”. The formation of these non-covalent assemblages involves three types of interactions: coordination bonds, combinations of directional hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions, and van der Waals interactions. Their structure can be controlled and programmed according to one, two or even three dimensions by coding information at the tecton level.

His work has brought a major breakthrough in the field of supramolecular chemistry and the study of self-assembly processes as well developing compounds that can be regarded as a new generation of coordination polymers in the crystalline state. His work on “molecular tectonics” has been carried out for more than twenty years in his laboratory and has resulted in an international recognition of his team.

Professor Hosseini has also been the recipient of the CWS Organic Chemistry and Co-ordination Chemistry Prizes and the CNRS Silver Medal in 2011. His international recognition was rewarded by the European Academy of Sciences in 2004 and by the Academia Europaea in 2006.

The NJC Editorial office sends its congratulations to Professor Hosseini on receiving this prestigious award.

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NJC Poster Prize Winners at Metals and Genetics Meeting

Three young scientists were recognized for their contributions at the 6th International Conference on Metals and Genetics, which took place earlier this year at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore.

The winners (in no particular order) of the NJC Poster Prizes awarded at this conference were:

Mr Vadde Ramu, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune
Poster title: New imaging reagents for lipid dense regions in live cells and the nucleus in fixed MCF-7 cells

The presented work is part of Vadde’s Ph.D. thesis, carried out under the supervision of Dr. Amitava Das. Vadde will be defending his thesis work this month and is moving to Jena for a post-doctoral position in October.

The presented research work demonstrated the design and synthesis of two new uracil (U) and 5-flurouracil (5-FU) labelled ruthenium(II)-polypyridyl based cellular imaging reagents. These two complexes were found to show affinity towards DNA in the nucleus of the PFA fixed cells. A large Stokes shift (λ = 160 nm) and an appreciably long-lived 3MLCT excited state (λ = 320 ns) in aq. buffer medium (pH 7.4) are other key features of these complexes. Unlike the common nuclear DNA staining reagents like DAPI, these low-cytotoxic reagents are found to be highly stable towards photo-bleaching upon irradiation with λ > 455 nm at the MLCT band for these complexes.

Mr Samsuzzoha Mondal, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai
Poster title: Sensing Signalling Phospholipids with ‘Lanthano-proteins’

Samsuzzoha is a Ph.D. student working in the group of Dr. Ankona Datta. He is in his final year and expects to defend his degree in mid-2017.

His present research is about developing fluorescent probes for imaging the crucial phospholipids involved in cell signaling processes. Currently available genetically encoded fluorescent probes lack ‘on-off’ sensing and have problems with background signal. Hence tracking the spatio-temporal dynamics of phospholipids in a live cellular process with those fluorescent proteins is challenging. The authors are addressing this issue by developing novel fluorescent probes with ‘turn on’ or ‘ratiometric’ fluorescence sensing. The poster presents a ‘lanthano’-protein based ‘turn on’ sensor for phosphatidylserine, a phospholipid involved in cell-death signals mediation and several other signaling processes. Additionally, a recently developed, cell permeable, ratiometric sensor for phosphoinositides, the most important signaling phospholipids in the cellular system, is demonstrated.


Ms Tandrila Das, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
Poster title: Vacancy-Engineered Nanoceria: Enzyme Mimetic Hotspots for the degradation of Nerve Agents

Tandrila did the work presented in the poster as a 5th year BS-MS student under the direction of Prof. Govindasamy Mugesh. She is now a 1st year student in the Tri-Institutional Ph.D. program in chemical biology offered by Weill Cornell Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and The Rockefeller University (all located in New York City).

The study of phosphotriesterase (PTE) enzymes and synthesis of its structural and functional mimics has been a long time interest of the lab. PTE enzymes degrade organophosphorus nerve agents, which are known to inhibit acetylcholine esterase, thus resulting in paralysis, respiratory failure, etc.  For her Master’s thesis, Tandrila worked on developing a nano-mimic of PTE enzyme. The poster work showed that vacancy engineered nanoceria (CeO2) with Ce in both +3 and +4 oxidation states very efficiently act as a catalyst to hydrolyze organophosphorus nerve agents like paraoxon, parathion, etc.

(The photo shows Tandrila on the left with co-author Dr Amit Vernekar, currently a post-doc in the Lippard group at MIT.)

Congratulations to the 3 laureates, and best wishes for continuing success in their research and careers.

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NJC issue 05 now online

NJC May 2016 OFC - Themed issue in honor of François FajulaThis month, Guest Editors Professors Anne Galarneau (Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, France) and Irina I. Ivanova (M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russia) are pleased to present a part-themed issue in honor of Dr François Fajula entitled The Creative World of Porous Materials.

This collection of 12 Reviews, 2 Letters and 39 research Papers expresses the materials community’s deep appreciation and conveys thanks to Dr François Fajula for his outstanding contributions to the fields of zeolites and ordered porous materials, and for his hard wok on behalf of the materials community. Additional contributions to this themed collection that are not published in the May issue can be found here as they are added.

NJC would also like to thank Alexander Yakimov and the Guest Editors for the design of the outside cover which illustrates this themed issue.

Read the Editorial here.

We invite you to browse the complete table of contents of the May issue to discover other authors’ contributions that are not part of the themed collection.

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NJC Editor-in-Chief recipient of award in macrocyclic chemistry

Mir Wais Hosseini, Professor at the Faculty of Chemistry of the University of Strasbourg and at the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) has been honoured with the 2014 Izatt Christensen Award for Macrocyclic Chemistry. Professor Hosseini was presented with the award at the 9th International Symposium on Macrocyclic and Supramolecular Chemistry, held in Shanghai in June 2014.

Presentation of the Izatt-Christensen award at the 2014 ISMSC meeting.

Presentation of the 2014 Izatt-Christensen Award to Mir Wais Hosseini (middle), flanked by ISMSC-9 Chair Zhanting Li (Fudan University) and former recipient Makoto Fujita (The University of Tokyo).

This award, given to the top macrocyclic chemist in the world as selected by his/(her) peers, is sponsored by IBC Advanced Technologies, Inc. and is awarded yearly. Professor Hosseini received the award for his work in molecular tectonics and molecular machines. He joins a prestigous group of chemists working in the broad area of macrocyclic chemistry, including his Strasbourg colleague Jean-Pierre Sauvage, who received the first Izatt Christensen Award in 1991.

An overview (in French) of the research topics studied in Professor Hosseini’s group can be found on his laboratory website.

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Meet Our Authors from May and June 2014

Dr Thu HuongDr Tran Thu Huong focuses her research on materials science, especially rare-earth-doped luminescent materials and nano-structured materials for biomedical applications. She works at the Institute of Materials Science (IMS) within the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

In their paper, Tran and co-workers show the influences of chemical composition and pH on the size, shape, morphology and luminescence properties of EuPO4•H2O materials during the fabrication process. The authors also demonstrated that the materials act as an alternative labelling tool for recognizing the measles virus.

The project was initiated in response to a request from biologists for strongly luminescent materials for labelling. According to Tran, the success of the study relied on efficient teamwork, support and provision of research facilities from the IMS, and the wonderful collaboration with scientists at the Vietnamese Center for Vaccine Research and Production of Biologicals.

Tran is very proud of General Vo Nguyen Giap, one of the most important figures in the history of Vietnam and well known throughout the world as a prominent commander who won victories in the Dien Bien Phu battle as well as during the Vietnam War. She adds: “In my opinion, he was also a leader with a strategic vision as he showed a special interest for culture and science. He often attended cultural events and meetings with scientists where his speech always focused to favour development.”

Read Tran’s NJC article:

Fabrication and optical characterization of multimorphological nanostructured materials containing Eu(III) in phosphate matrices for biomedical application
T. T. Huong, L.T. Vinh, T. K. Anh, H. T. Khuyen, H. T. Phuong and L. Q. Minh
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2114–2119. DOI: 10.1039/c3nj01206a

Dr Marcela Gazitúa López works at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile and specializes in physical chemistry, chemical kinetics and computational chemistry.

Dr Marcela GazituaHer paper describes an experimental study of the effect of solvation on the mechanisms of nucleophilic substitution reactions. Marcela and her colleagues compared the results in water with those in 20 conventional organic solvents (COS) and 17 ionic liquids on the basis of solvent polarity indicators.

The work began in 2012 as part of a postdoctoral project covering the experimental-theoretical study of conventional solvents and ionic liquids as reaction media. Marcela is proud to present her first postdoctoral work in NJC which, according to her, is a “a chemistry journal that will rise in impact because of a wide scope that will appeal to a broad readership”.

Her favourite historical figure is Albert Einstein whom she admires for the importance and magnitude of his discoveries.

Read Marcela’s NJC article:

Mechanistic pathways in aromatic nucleophilic substitution in conventional solvents and ionic liquids
Marcela Gazitúa, Ricardo A. Tapia, Renato Contreras and Paola R. Campodónico
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2611–2618DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00130C

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Meet Our Authors – April 2014

Dr Abdul HameedDr Abdul Hameed, Assistant Professor at Kohat University of Science and Technology (Pakistan), focuses his research on the synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles and their applications in the field of medicine and analytical chemistry. 

According to Abdul and his co-workers, their NJC paper, dealing with the use of noble metal nanoparticles in the field of enzyme inhibition, opens the gates for future research into this field.

Abdul is a synthetic organic chemist who loves nanotechnology, especially noble metal nanoparticles. His work in this area is, however, hampered by the lack of facilities in Pakistan. This is one of the reasons why his group recorded TEM images for the paper in South Korea.

Abdul’s dream is “to dive in the depth of nanotechnology” by going abroad to work with other hard-working research groups. “I hope I will find it very soon”, he says, to which we wish him the best of luck! 

Synergistic enzyme inhibition effect of Cefuroxime by conjugation with gold and silver
Abdul Hameed, Sehrish Fatima, Faiz Ur Rahman, Tae-Ho Yoon, Andaleeb Azam,  Shaukat Khan, Ajmal Khan and Nazar Ul Islam.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1641-1646. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00974B (Paper)


 

Our second author, Dr Suresh Kumar Kailasa, is an Assistant Professor at the S. V. National Institute of Technology (India). Suresh is principally interested in nano- and bio-analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry, sensors and proteomics.Dr Suresh Kumar Kailasa

In their paper, Suresh Kumar and his colleagues report the use of p-amino salicylic acid dithiocarbamate functionalized gold nanoparticles (NPs) as colourimetric sensors for selective and sensitive determination of Fe3+ ions in plasma.

The results show that the Fe3+ ion induces the aggregation of the modified Au NPs via the formation of a covalent coordination bond between it and an organic derivative on the surface of the Au NPs, leading to a colour change from red to blue that can be observed with the naked eye.

They have developed straightforward methods for both the functionalization of Au NPs and the characterization of the NP aggregation induced by the Fe3+ ion. The functionalized Au NPs did not react with other metal ions and, therefore, were demonstrated to be selective for Fe3+ in both biological and environmental samples.

 Suresh Kumar’s dream is to develop miniaturized, nanomaterial-based analytical tools for inorganic, organic and biomolecule assays.

 Sensitive and selective colorimetric sensing of Fe3+ ion by using p-amino salicylic acid dithiocarbamate functionalized gold nanoparticles
Vaibhavkumar N. Mehta, Suresh Kumar Kailasa and Hui-Fen Wu.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1503-1511. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01468A (Paper)

 


 

With his research group, Prof. William Skene works on conjugated materials prepared via simple methods and assesses their optoelectronic properties at the University of Montreal (Canada). 

Prof. William SkeneMany organic materials undergo visible colour changes either when oxidized or reduced  however there are few materials which can do both. 

In their paper, Will and his co-workers demonstrated that a reversible colour change upon both oxidation and reduction was possible with an easily-prepared, conjugated construct consisting of motifs known for their reversible redox properties.

This research started as a summer project with a different aim before the unusual colour change behavior of the material was keenly observed by the student conducting the experiments.

 In order to delight taste buds, Will confesses that his dream is to be an outstanding pastry chef!

 Towards Multichromatic Electrochromes from Ambipolar Conjugated Azomethines
Michael E. Mulholland, Daminda Navarathne, Samim Khedri and W. G. Skene
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1668-1674. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00027G  (Paper)

 

Thanks to Abdul, Suresh and Will for sharing a bit of themselves with our readers. Join us again next month for more portraits in “Meet Our Authors”.

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Meet Our Authors – February & March 2014

By Cynthia Challencin, Publishing Assistant

Éva Józsa and Katalin Ősz in front of Ernest Hemingway's house (Key West)

Katalin Ősz, Associate Professor at the University of Debrecen (Hungary), focuses her work on kinetics of inorganic (photo)reactions.

In their NJC Paper, Katalin and her colleagues studied the structure-reactivity relationships in the oxidation of water-soluble quinones, which are sensitive to light and may have an important role in utilizing solar power. It was learned that otherwise nonreactive substituents can change several redox and kinetic properties and thus tune the reactivity. She also explains that NJC seemed to be an ideal venue because it offers a nice selection of papers from all the fields of chemistry for a general audience.

During her spare time, Katalin enjoys listening to classical music, hiking (mostly downhill), reading and traveling. The latest is demonstrated by the photo picturing the first author of the article, Éva Józsa (on the left), and herself in front of Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West (Florida), which they visited while attending a GRC conference on Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms.

Kinetic studies of hydroxyquinone formation from water soluble benzoquinones by Éva Józsa, Mihály Purgel, Marianna Bihari, Péter Pál Fehér, Gábor Sustyák, Balázs Várnagy, Virág Kiss, Eszter Ladó and Katalin Ősz, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 588-597. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01274C (Paper)

Dr Bong-Hyun Jun and familyBong-Hyun Jun, Assistant Professor at Konkuk University (Korea), works on the synthesis of nanoparticles (metal, QDs, silica) and their applications, but also on organic synthesis and surface modification.

In their NJC Letter, Bong-Hyun and co-workers report the fabrication of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) using silica-coated quantum dot-embedded silica nanoparticles (SiO2/QD/SiO2 NPs) as a light-harvesting layer. According to them, these nanoparticles, which are brighter than single QDs, enable an easier handling because of their bigger size. The fact that they can be prepared in large quantity shows that they could be applied to several fields such solar cells, protein detection and in vivo imaging.

Bong-Hyun studied at UC Berkeley in California and traveled to several places with his family. He reports: “I was impressed by the natural landscape of California. Especially, Yosemite National Park was outstanding and we had a really great time there.” He now would like to have the chance to visit Europe!

Dye-sensitized solar cell with silica-coated quantum dot-embedded nanoparticles used as a light harvesting layer by Won-Yeop Rho, Jung-Woo Choi, Hea-Yeon Lee, San Kyeong, Sang Hun Lee, Heung Su Jung, Seunho Jung, Yung-Eun Sung, Yoon-Sik Leeb and Bong-Hyun Jun*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 910-913. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01345F (Letter)

Our second author, Miss Shan Peng, Ph.D. student at the South China University of Technology, focuses her work on biomimetic/fabrication and performance characterization of superhydrophobic surfaces based on an Al substrate.

After the discovery of the hierarchical macroporous alumina template, Shan and her collegues introduced a simple template-wetting method to prepare superhydrophobic PMMA macroporous surfaces with diverse water adhesion reported in their NJC Paper.

Shan’s favorite place in China is Guangzhou, one of the most developed cities. She appreciates the convenience of the public transport and the warm weather even during winter, since she does not like cold weather. Moreover, Guangzhou is famous for its variety of flowers, which has given it the name of Flower city’.

A facile approach for preparing biomimetic polymer macroporous structures with petal or lotus effects by Shan Peng and Wenli Deng*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1011-1018. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01156A (Paper)

Panayiotis Andreas Koutentis (aka Pani) is Associate Professor in Organic chemistry at the University of Cyprus. His team focuses on heteroatom rich systems. There is no specific target, but rather they identify heterocyclic systems that are potentially useful but under-exploited. Students then develop their technical, theoretical and more importantly creative skills by exploring these systems. “I encourage my students to adopt an orthogonal approach to their work, except of course when they must publish!”

Dr Panayotis KoutentisIn their NJC Paper, Pani and co-workers describe the magnetic properties of a readily prepared and structurally interesting fused Blatter radical. According to them, the information provided could assist in the design of radicals with tailor-made solid-state properties, which can potentially find use in a range of organic electronic applications.

Pani would like to address special thanks to Prof. Fred Wudl as he worked for him on benzotriazinyls as a post doc. “Fred gave me his blessing to continue exploring the chemistry of the system once I started my independent career.”

Pani has travelled extensively and India is by far the most exciting country he has visited. According to him, the people are friendly and hospitable, the food is excellent and there is an incredible diversity on many levels.

Effective exchange coupling in alternating-chains of a π-extended 1,2,4-benzotriazin-4-yl by Christos P. Constantinides, Andrey A. Berezin, Maria Manoli, Gregory M. Leitus, Michael Bendikov, Jeremy M. Rawson and Panayiotis A. Koutentis*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 949-954. DOI: 10.1039/ C3NJ01235B (Paper)

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Distinctions for NJC personalities

Mir Wais HosseiniNJC Editor-in-Chief Mir Wais Hosseini was awarded the Humboldt–Gay-Lussac Prize by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 2013. This prize, given each year to active researchers in France, recognises their contributions to French-German cooperation and their scientific projects. Wais Hosseini, professor at the University of Strasbourg and director of the Molecular Tectonics Laboratory, was proposed as a laureate by Professor Stefan Bräse of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Wais was one of 10 French scientists to receive the Humboldt–Gay-Lussac Prize in 2013. On the German side, Gay-Lussac–Homboldt Prize was discerned to two distinguished scientists.

More details (in French) on the 2013 laureates and these French-German awards can be found by clicking here.

Last December the French Academy of Sciences announced the election of 17 new members, including Odile Eisenstein and Azzedine Bousseksou to the chemistry section.

Odile EisensteinAzzedine BousseksouOdile Eisenstein, computational chemist and CNRS Director of Research working at the University of Montpellier, has been associated with New Journal of Chemistry since its founding, as Nouveau Journal de Chimie, in 1977. She served as Editor-in-Chief of NJC from 1993 to 2000 and has been a member of the editorial board since 2001, representing the CNRS.

The junior member elected to the Academy’s chemistry section is Azzedine Bousseksou, CNRS Director of Research in the Coordination Chemistry Laboratory in Toulouse. His research is focused on molecular magnetism and switchable molecular materials. Azzedine coordinated NJC‘s November 2013 issue celebrating the career of his Toulousian colleague Dr Bernard Meunier.

Congratulations to Wais, Odile and Azzedine for these honours!

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Meet Our Authors – January 2014

By Andre Cobb, NJC Advisory Board member

In an excellent review on the chemistry and applications of nanodiamonds (diamondoids), our first authors—Professors Peter Schreiner of the Justus-Liebig University, and Jean-Cyrille Hierso of the Institut Universitaire de France—explain how these fascinating structures are the next generation sp3-carbon materials supplied by nature (in gas and petroleum). These long overlooked “carbon gems” close the gap to the popular sp2-materials such as carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and graphenes that have complementary properties.

Prof. Peter Schreiner playing tennis

Peter’s goals for 2014 are to establish two recently introduced concepts more firmly. The first is the tunneling control of chemical reactions, where he has shown in a series of papers that tunneling can override kinetic and thermodynamic considerations, and should therefore be considered as the third paradigm to rationalize chemical reactivity. His second goal is to decipher the role of London dispersion interactions for chemical structures and in chemical reactivity. At a personal level, he would like to become a better tennis player, although he believes he has already begun struggling with typical age limitations!

Prof. Jean-Cyrille Hierso

 

 

For his part, Jean-Cyrille plans to continue to promote science and to continue contributing to the “blossoming” of his co-workers.

Diamondoids: functionalization and subsequent applications of perfectly defined molecular cage hydrocarbons by Maria A. Gunawan, Jean-Cyrille Hierso,* Didier Poinsot, Andrey A. Fokin, Natalie A. Fokina, Boryslav A. Tkachenko and Peter R. Schreiner, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 28-41. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00535F (Perspective)

Prof. Masanari Kimura

 

  

 

Professor Masanari Kimura of the Nagasaki University in Japan is interested in the development of new reactions based on transition metals and heterocyclic chemistry, as is demonstrated by his January contribution on the formation of C—C bonds using allylzinc species and carbonyls.

Masanari says his inspiration for this work comes of course from Philippe Antoine Barbier and François Auguste Victor Grignard.

A major goal for Professor Kimura in 2014 is the development of novel and efficient organic syntheses of useful compounds from carbon dioxide.

C–C bond formation via 1,2-addition of a tert-butylzinc reagent and carbonyls across conjugated dienes by Yuki Ohira, Maya Hayashi, Takamichi Mori, Gen Onodera and Masanari Kimura, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 330-337. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00992K (Paper)

 

Prof. Katarzyna OstrowskaProfessor Katarzyna Ostrowska of Jagiellonian University in Poland and co-workers have published an investigation on the design and sensing abilities of a range of integrated azaheteroarene fluorophores designed to recognize a variety of different ions. Katarzyna says that, “As an organic chemist, I was fascinated to see how the minor modifications of structure affect the fluorescence emission and recognition of zinc and indium metal ions.”

As for goals for the coming year, Professor Ostrowska comments, “In a recent publication I described the two different mechanisms of ligand binding to zinc and indium ions. In 2014 I hope to find out why these receptors selectively recognize zinc and how resonance effects can influence the quantum yields of different substituted fluorophores”.

Ratiometric fluorescent Zn2+ and In3+ receptors of fused pyrazine with an aminopropanol chain in acetonitrile by Katarzyna Ostrowska,* Alicja Kaźmierska, Maria Rąpała-Kozik and Justyna Kalinowska-Tłuścik, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 213-226. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00750B (Paper)

Many thanks to all our authors who contributed photos and comments for this article.

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Meet Our Authors from December 2013

Dr Santa Chawla of the CSIR - National Physical Laboratory in New DelhiOur first author, Dr Santa Chawla, works at the CSIR National Physical Laboratory in New Delhi (India), where she is Associate Dean of Physical Sciences and also professor of the Academy of Scientific & Innovative Research. Her research centres on the development of phosphor nanoparticles for the enhancement of solar cell efficiency through solar full-spectrum conversion.

With several colleagues, Santa’s paper reports their latest efforts to develop materials for efficient energy harvesting. In this paper, a single phosphor with dual excitation and dual emission properties has been fabricated. Their material also shows plasmonic enhancement of the fluorescence. Such a material with intense red and green emission can be very useful for simultaneous conversion of solar UV and IR to visible radiation.

When not in the lab, Santa enjoys both reading and travelling.

Fabrication of dual excitation dual emission phosphor with plasmonic enhancement of fluorescence for simultaneous conversion of solar UV and IR to visible radiation
by Santa Chawla,   M. Parvaz,   Vineet Kumar and   Zubair Buch,
New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 3991–3997. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00889D (Paper)

Julia Bayne, student at the University of OttawaJulia Bayne co-authored the Focus review on pigments with Prof. Ian Butler. While participating in the Inorganic Chemistry Exchange Program during the summer of 2013, Julia worked in Ian’s materials science laboratory at McGill University (Montreal, Canada), which specialises in variable-temperature and high-pressure micro-Raman spectroscopy of artists’ pigments. Temperature and pressure-dependent structural changes of artists’ pigments play an instrumental role in art conservation and the determination of forgeries. Additionally, the stability of the pigments noted in their paper reinforces their continued long-term use in artwork.

Julia is currently a 4th year undergraduate student at the University of Ottawa (Canada) in the chemistry honours programme. She is conducting research in an organometallic laboratory, exploring the synthesis and reactivity of transition metal catalysts with respect to perfluoroalkene polymerization.

When not in the lab or immersed in a chemistry textbook, Julia practices yoga or weight-lifting, aiming to improve her “physical” chemistry.

Effect of temperature and pressure on selected artists’ pigments
by Julia M. Bayne and Ian S. Butler,
New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 3833–3839. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00955F (Focus)

Dr Igor Sivaev of the A.N.Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement CompoundsOur last author for this month is Dr Igor Sivaev, who is a senior researcher working in the area of boron chemistry at the A.N.Nesmeyanov Institute of Organoelement Compounds in Moscow (Russia).

Igor’s current research project is the synthesis of functional derivatives of carboranes for incorporation in various bio- and nano- molecules. Igor explains the significance of this work by quoting one of his countrymen:
“Chemistry has widely spread his hands in human affairs” said Mikhail Lomonosov, famous Russian scientist encyclopedist in the middle of the 18th century. Today these words are associated in the best way with the chemistry of polyhedral boron hydrides (boranes, carboranes, metallacarboranes, etc.) that find applications in such different fields as cancer diagnostics and treatment, liquid crystals, nonlinear optic materials, catalysts, molecular machines and many others. Therefore I chose NJC to publish this research work because the journal is addressed to a cross-disciplinary and wide readership.

In his free time (when he has some) Igor reads non-fiction works and enjoys travelling to different places with historical or cultural significance.

Synthesis of new ω-amino- and ω-azidoalkyl carboranes
by Marina Yu. Stogniy, Igor B. Sivaev, Ivan A. Godovikov, Zoya A. Starikova, Vladimir I. Bregadze and Shicheng Qi,
New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 3865–3868. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00677H (Letter)

A very warm thanks to our three authors who agreed to play the game and reply to a few questions.

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