Chemical Communications Blog

January can seem like an extra long month for many, with post-holiday blues and dark wintery evenings to contend with. However, the winter solstice has past, so the evenings are gradually getting lighter and here at the ChemComm Editorial Office we have published enough hot articles to keep the blues at bay. So why not take a look at the selection of hot articles below, which caught some of our referees attention…

All communications have been made freely available until the 7th March 2011, so why not download the ones that interest you today and let us know what you think in our blog below.

If you have some of your own exciting, high impact research to publish then consider submitting your communication to ChemComm, via our online submission system.

So, it’s a new calendar year, new resolutions have been made (and broken!) but before we leave 2010 behind us for good, let’s take a look at some of the hot articles that caught our eye back in December.

Real-time nucleic acid analysis
The quantification of genes in human cDNA and malaria in blood samples using a real-time PCR technique has been developed by scientists in South Korea. To find out more, download the communication, published by Dae-Ro Ahn and colleagues.

Rauhut–Currier reaction strikes again
Phosphinothioureas can be used as organocatalysts for asymmetric Rauhut-Currier reactions of bis(enones). Xin-Yan Wu and co-workers achieved good yields (up to 99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99.4% ee). If you’re interested to know more about the reaction conditions used then why not download their communication today?

Observing atomic hydrogen
A nitrogen-induced ionic hydrate system can produce a hydrogen radical from water without direct energy sources, like hydrogen and methane. Read more about this impressive chemistry in the authors’ communication published in ChemComm.

The power of light
A photo-controlled anticancer drug release system has been designed by scientists in China. Based on photo-induced electron transfer between semiconductor quantum dots and an ester derivative, the anticancer drug can be released upon shining visible light onto the sample. Read more about their discovery in their communication article.

Hard graft for better fuel
Grafting highly dispersed Cu(I) onto beta-cyclodextrin shows better adsorptive desulfurisation capacity than other more conventional methods, an important development for the petroleum refining industry, say scientists in China. Xiao-Qin Liu and colleagues from Nanjing University of Technology, have published their communication in ChemComm, read all about it here first!

Imitating micelles
A metal complex has been disguised as a micelle using amphiphilic phosphine ligands. The system cleverly switches between a coordination polymer and a discrete cage in response to solvent polarity or pH, acting just like a micelle. Want to know more? Then read Stuart James’ exciting communication published in ChemComm.

Let us know what you think to these hot articles by blogging some comments below. If you have some of your own hot research to publish, then why not submit to ChemComm today!

A green and simple method to make a sensor to detect one of the most toxic cyanotoxins, microcystin-LR, has been devised by scientists from China. Cyanotoxins are produced by blue-green algae and can contaminate drinking water.

In 1998 the World Health Organisation (WHO) set up a provisional guideline limit of 1 mg L-1 for  microcystin-LR in drinking water so detecting it in the environment is important.

Huangxian Ju and colleagues from Nanjing University made their sensor to detect  microcystin-LR by  assembling gold nanoparticles on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes. Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes are less toxic to cells and have better biocompatibility than un-doped carbon nanotubes, making them more suitable for use in biosensors. The nitrogen incorporated in the nanotubes also provides an active site to anchor gold nanoparticles onto. 

 The team immobilised an antibody for microcystin-LR on their nanosensor and used it to detect the cyanotoxin in water samples. They found that microcystin-LR could be detected at levels much lower than the limit set out in the WHO guidelines. 

Ju explains that although several methods can detect the presence of microcystin-LR, they are time-consuming, need expensive equipment and advanced technical expertise. Ju’s nanocomposite is cheap to make and shows a wide concentration range, low detection limit, good reproducibility and could successfully detect microcystin-LR in polluted water samples, said the researchers.

‘This system is more biocompatible than existing systems, so leads to enhanced sensitivity for microcystin-LR immunosensing,’ says Dianping Tang, an expert in electrochemical immunoassay technologies from Fuzhou University in China.

Ju hopes to immobilise different metal nanoparticles onto the nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes to make metal nanoparticle/nanotube composites as biocompatible platforms for biosensing and biocatalysis.

Rachel Cooper

Link to the ChemComm article:-

 In situ assembly of gold nanoparticles on nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes for sensitive immunosensing of microcystin-LR
Jing Zhang, Jianping Lei, Rong Pan, Chuan Leng, Zheng Hu and Huangxian Ju, Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 668
DOI: 10.1039/c0cc04198j

A pH responsive DNA walker has been designed by scientists in China.

Jingsong Ren and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have shown that the walker can reversibly transport specific molecules along an assembled track under environmental stimuli.

The team believe that this work is an important step in obtaining artificial nanomotors with precise motion control and will be highly beneficial for future applications and complex operations in diverse areas ranging from drug delivery to nanoscale assembly or patterning.

Interested in finding out more? Then download the communication today, published in ChemComm, it will be free to access until the 17th January 2011.

A dual host approach for co-transporting potassium chloride has been shown to be possible in lipid bilayers, using fluorescence-based transport assays.

Phil Gale and his team from Southampton University (and a collaboration with Kansai University) have shown that the addition of both a cationophore and anionophore can result in a significantly enhanced rate of anion transport through a lipid bilayer membrane.

To find out more, download the communication today, which will be free to access until the 17th January 2011. This communication is also part of the ‘Supramolecular Chemistry’ online collection, where Phil Gale (as well as Jonathan Sessler and Jonathan Steed) are guest editors for this web themed issue. 

If you enjoyed reading the ‘Hot’ communication above, you might also be interested in reading Phil Gale’s recent Highlight on “Anion receptor chemistry” (Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 82-86).

Whilst most of us are shaking snow from our coats and wearing extra layers in a bid to keep warm this winter, here at the ChemComm Editorial Office we’ve had several hot articles to keep us nice and toasty.

From nonporous to nanoporous
Scientists in the US have discovered that a well-known organic host, tris-o-phenylenedioxycyclotriphosphazene,
exists in two polymorphic guest-free forms; a thermodynamic nonporous high-density phase and the kinetic nanoporous low-density phase. To find out more, read the communication published by Jerry Atwood, Praveen Thallapally and their colleagues.

McMurry coupling
Hiroko Yamada and colleagues have made a metal-free and meso-free triphyrin compound via an intramolecular McMurry coupling reaction and used the ligand to form manganese and rhenium complexes. Read more in their communication.

Smart behaviour
Selective adsorption of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) onto patterned gold surfaces has been achieved by scientists in Belgium. Pascal Damman and Philippe Dubois have shown in their communication that pH-induced switching can occur, enabling both controlled positioning and release of CNTs, opening up future development opportunities for CNTs-containing sensing devices

Water-holding MOF
There is much research activity using metal organic frameworks (MOFs) as hosts to a variety of guest molecules. Richard Walton and colleagues have now shown that a flexible MOF, once immersed in water at room temperature, can form a crystalline hydrate and hold the water as a hydrogen-bonded tube. To see this clever research for yourself why not take a closer look at their communication?

Photogenerated holes
Transient absorption spectroscopy has been used to monitor the yield and decay dynamics of photogenerated holes in nanocrystalline hematite photoanodes. To find out what happens in the presence and absence of a positive applied bias you will need to read James Durrant and Michael Grätzel’s communication.

First replication NAND gate
In this communication, Gonen Ashkenasy and colleagues demonstrate the first peptide-based replication system that can be activated by shining light as well as being followed by fluorescence measurements.

Tailor-made mimicry
Thorsten Glaser and his team have designed a new dinucleating ligand system to mimic high-valent oxidation states of oxygen-dependent diiron enzymes. Read more on what they discovered in their communication.

Saccharide chemosensor
Gaku Fukuhara and Yoshihisa Inoue have synthesised a chromophore-modified saccharide chemosensor that can discriminate tetrasaccharide acarbose from 24 different mono-, di-, tri-, and tetrasaccharides. The sensors preferential selectivity for acarbose is pharmaceutically important as it is a drug used to treat diabetes and obesity. To read more, why not download the communication?

Let us know what you think of these articles by blogging some comments below. And if you have your own hot research, then submit to ChemComm today.