March 2012 – Chemical Communications Blog

Archive for March, 2012

Magneto-chiral dichroism observed in light-harvesting antenna

30 Mar 2012

Artificial light-harvesting antennas absorb light travelling parallel to a magnetic field differently from light travelling anti-parallel to the field, according to Japanese researchers.

This effect – known as magneto-chiral dichroism (MChD) – is proposed to have played a role in the origin of homochirality in life and is important for the development of new magneto-optical devices.

This is only the second example of MChD reported in organic compounds. It indicates that MChD may occur during the light-harvesting process, says the team, which is important not only for learning more about photosynthesis but also for clarifying the origin of asymmetry in biological systems.

Read the communication:
Magneto-chiral dichroism of artificial light-harvesting antenna
Yuichi Kitagawa, Tomohiro Miyatake and Kazuyuki Ishii
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC30996C

Also of interest:
Nanoscale spectroscopy with optical antennas
Palash Bharadwaj, Ryan Beams and Lukas Novotny, Chem. Sci., 2011, 2, 136-140

Artificial Photosynthesis – a ChemComm web theme

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Abstracts invited for International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry

29 Mar 2012

Good news!

There’s still a chance to submit your oral abstract to ICPOC 21: 21st IUPAC International Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry organised by the Organic Division of the RSC on behalf of IUPAC, to be held 9 – 13 September 2012 at Durham University.

The Scientific Committee is currently reviewing all submissions, and has agreed to accept contributions up to Friday 13 April to allow for the Easter holiday break.

Why join ICPOC 21?

Professor Hiromitsu Maeda, Ritsumeikan University, Japan has won the 2012 ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship and will deliver his lecture at ICPOC 21.

This annual award recognises an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career. Professor Maeda’s has been particularly commended for his contributions to the fields of organic chemistry, supramolecular chemistry and materials science.

In addition to the outstanding plenary sessions, there will be three parallel sessions over the five days comprising invited lectures and contributed talks, as well as poster sessions.

A broad range of scientists from across the whole community who share a quantitative perspective on chemistry will be there, providing an opportunity to discuss and celebrate the current status, development, and the future of physical organic chemistry.

Make sure you are one of them! Don’t miss the oral abstract submission deadline – 13 April.

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Announcing the ChemComm Emerging Investigators issue 2013

28 Mar 2012

Following the amazing successes of the 2011 and 2012 ChemComm Emerging Investigators issues, we are delighted to announce the forthcoming 2013 Emerging Investigators issue. All interested parties should contact the ChemComm Editorial Office in the first instance.

This issue is dedicated to profiling the very best research from scientists in the early stages of their independent careers from across the chemical sciences. We hope to feature principal investigators whose work has the potential to influence future directions in science or result in new and exciting developments.

Also of interest:
ChemComm Emerging Investigators Issue 2012

ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship 2012: The winner is….

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Sustainable Inorganic Chemistry – free content for a limited period

22 Mar 2012

ChemComm is delighted to be sponsoring the forthcoming Symposium on Sustainable Inorganic Chemistry along with the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry. The symposium will take place at the ACS Spring 2012 National Meeting & Exposition in San Diego starting on 25th March.

To celebrate we’ve made some articles published by the symposium speakers free to access for a limited period.

We hope you enjoy these articles – but don’t delay! Free access only runs until 1st April.

Selective liquid phase oxidation with supported metal nanoparticles
Nikolaos Dimitratos, Jose A. Lopez-Sanchez and Graham J. Hutchings
Chem. Sci., 2012, 3, 20-44

Mesoscopic organic nanosheets peeled from stacked 2D covalent frameworks
Yugen Zhang, Meixuan Tan, Hai Li, Yuangang Zheng, Shujun Gao, Hua Zhang and Jackie Y. Ying
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 7365-7367

Self-assembly in the electrical double layer of ionic liquids
Susan Perkin, Lorna Crowhurst, Heiko Niedermeyer, Tom Welton, Alexander M. Smith and Nitya Nand Gosvami
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 6572-6574

Continuous flow organometallic catalysis: new wind in old sails
Ulrich Hintermair, Giancarlo Franciò and Walter Leitner
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3691-3701

CO₂ selectivity of a 1D microporous adenine-based metal–organic framework synthesised in water
Kyriakos C. Stylianou, John E. Warren, Samantha Y. Chong, Jeremy Rabone, John Bacsa, Darren Bradshaw and Matthew J. Rosseinsky
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3389-3391

Room temperature oxidation of methyl orange and methanol over Pt–HCa₂Nb₃O₁₀ and Pt–WO₃ catalysts without light
Emiliana Dvininov, Upendra A. Joshi, James R. Darwent, John B. Claridge, Zhongling Xu and Matthew J. Rosseinsky
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 881-883

Tunable, light-assisted co-generation of CO and H₂ from CO₂ and H₂O by Re(bipy-tbu)(CO)₃Cl and p-Si in non-aqueous medium
Bhupendra Kumar, Jonathan M. Smieja, Alissa F. Sasayama and Clifford P. Kubiak
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 272-274

Photocatalytic H₂ evolution from neutral water with a molecular cobalt catalyst on a dye-sensitised TiO₂ nanoparticle
Fezile Lakadamyali and Erwin Reisner
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 1695-1697

Transition metal catalysed ammonia-borane dehydrogenation in ionic liquids
William R. H. Wright, Emily R. Berkeley, L. R. Alden, R. Tom Baker and Larry G. Sneddon
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3177-3179

Co and Mn polysiloxanes as unique initiator–catalyst-systems for the selective liquid phase oxidation of o-xylene
Tobias Förster, Stephan A. Schunk, Andreas Jentys and Johannes A. Lercher
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 3254-3256

@ChemCommun Follow the symposium at #CCsymp

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New drug delivery agents

22 Mar 2012

Platinum complexes have been employed as anti-cancer drugs for years despite significant side effects. Second generation metal-complex anti-cancer drugs in contrast are still in their infancy, and suffer from low solubility and high reactivity, leading to deactivation before the drug can reach its target.

To overcome these problems, scientists in Australia have developed a gold-based drug chemically incorporated in a polymeric micelle as a drug delivery agent. The resulting molecules showed potent in vitro antitumour activity in human ovarian carcinoma cells.

Link to journal article
Micelles based on Gold-Glycopolymer Complexes as New Chemotherapy Drug Delivery Agents
S Pearson, W Scarano and M H Stenzel
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc30510k

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Ambient pressure XPS on the cheap

21 Mar 2012

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is capable of characterising the surface composition, oxidation state and electron state of materials. Unfortunately, it uses electrons and so common XPS machines must work at vacuum pressures. But how could you use XPS under ambient pressure?

One option would be to use public synchrotron facilities but access is through proposal review and available time is restricted so it is not feasible for day-to-day studies. Another option would be to follow the lead of Franklin Tao and build an inexpensive, ambient pressure XPS machine in-house.

Such a machine is ideal for catalytic studies. Previously scientists investigated catalysts with conventional vacuum XPS before and after experiments. Tao’s machine enables him to investigate catalyst surface changes during reaction conditions, something that required synchrotron facilities until now. The machine’s novel reaction cell allows XPS measurements to be carried out at up to 25-50 Torr using an inexpensive bench top X-ray source.

: external view of the reaction cell

In addition to the ambient pressure XPS functionality, an on-line mass spectrometer allows correlation between catalytic performance and surface chemistry. Tao has demonstrated this novel machine by investigating the oxidation and reduction of ceria under real reaction conditions.

With day-to-day ambient pressure XPS now within reach of every research group, catalytic studies under reaction conditions have received a significant boost.

To find out more, download the ChemComm article today.

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Stopping bugs in their tracks

20 Mar 2012

To prevent the spread of bugs, scientists in Switzerland have starved microbes of phosphate by using lanthanum oxide nanoparticles. The nanoparticles compete against the microbes for available phosphate and so the microbes can’t grow. The team says that the strategy is of particular technical interest as it can bypass toxic material release and provides an antimicrobial solution with small environmental footprint.

Link to journal article
Phosphate starvation as an antimicrobial strategy: the controllable toxicity of lanthanum oxide nanoparticles
L C Gerber et al
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc30903c

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Top ten most accessed articles in February

19 Mar 2012

This month sees the following articles in ChemComm that are in the top ten most accessed:-

Transition metal catalysis and nucleophilic fluorination
Charlotte Hollingworth and Véronique Gouverneur
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 2929-2942, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC16158C

Use of dimethyl carbonate as a solvent greatly enhances the biaryl coupling of aryl iodides and organoboron reagents without adding any transition metal catalysts
Kiyofumi Inamoto, Chisa Hasegawa, Kou Hiroya, Yoshinori Kondo, Takao Osako, Yasuhiro Uozumi and Takayuki Doi
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 2912-2914, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17401D

Pd-catalysed synthesis of isoquinolinones and analogues via C-H and N-H bonds double activation
Hongban Zhong, Dan Yang, Songqing Wang and Jianhui Huang
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 3236-3238, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17859A

Photoisomerization locking of azobenzene by formation of a self-assembled macrocycle
Masaki Yamamura, Yuki Okazaki and Tatsuya Nabeshima
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC18014F

Highly selective red- and green-emitting two-photon fluorescent probes for cysteine detection and their bio-imaging in living cells
Zhiguang Yang, Ning Zhao, Yuming Sun, Fang Miao, Yong Liu, Xin Liu, Yuanhong Zhang, Wentao Ai, Guofen Song, Xiaoyuan Shen, Xiaoqiang Yu, Jingzhi Sun and Wai-Yeung Wong
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 3442-3444, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC00093H

A reversible near-infrared fluorescence probe for reactive oxygen species based on Te-rhodamine
Yuichiro Koide, Mitsuyasu Kawaguchi, Yasuteru Urano, Kenjiro Hanaoka, Toru Komatsu, Masahiro Abo, Takuya Terai and Tetsuo Nagano
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 3091-3093, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC18011A

A supramolecular hydrogel containing boronic acid-appended receptor for fluorocolorimetric sensing of polyols with a paper platform
Masato Ikeda, Keisuke Fukuda, Tatsuya Tanida, Tatsuyuki Yoshii and Itaru Hamachi
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 2716-2718, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17503G

N-Heterocyclic carbene chemistry of iron: fundamentals and applications
Michael J. Ingleson and Richard A. Layfield
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 3579-3589, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC18021A

Reversible formal insertion of CO₂ into a remote C-H bond of a ligand in a Ru(ii) complex at room temperature
Vincent T. Annibale and Datong Song
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17933D

A turn-on two-photon fluorescent probe for ATP and ADP
Alla Sreenivasa Rao, Dokyoung Kim, Hyoseok Nam, Hunho Jo, Ki Hean Kim, Changill Ban and Kyo Han Ahn
Chem. Commun., 2012, 48, 3206-3208, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17629G

Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.

Fancy submitting an article to ChemComm? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively contact us with your suggestions.

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Cheap and non-toxic porphyrins for detecting cells deep within the body

08 Mar 2012

Near-infrared fluorescent imaging can be used for rapid and sensitive detection of cells deep within the body. However, common NIR dyes and quantum dots are expensive and/or toxic.

Porphyrins are economical fluorescent dyes, but their emission and excitation wavelengths are shorter than the NIR region and they can be toxic and poorly water-soluble. Scientists in Japan have made silica–porphyrin hybrid nanotubes that have no acute toxicity and higher water solubility compared to porphyrin. They used them to label macrophages, injected them into mice and tracked their distribution by fluorescence imaging with good results.

Link to journal article
Silica/Porphyrin Hybrid Nanotubes for In Vivo Cell Tracking by Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging
K Hayashi, M Nakamura and K Ishimura
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc17444h

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Micro power for micro devices

08 Mar 2012

An easy way to make high-performance micro-supercapacitors based on nanocrystal building blocks has been developed by scientists in the US and China. Micro-power sources have become a key component for micro-electronics but they are expensive and difficult to make. To demonstrate their concept, the team made nanoporous thin-film pseudocapacitor electrodes that showed ultrafast lithium storage kinetics, high capacitance and excellent cycling stability, giving them great promise for high energy and high power micro-device applications.

Link to journal article
Ready Fabrication of Thin-Film Electrodes from Building Nanocrystals for Micro-Supercapacitors
Z Chen et al
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc30406f

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