Chemical Communications Blog

We are excited to share the success of Shi-Qiang Wang’s first-time independent article in ChemComm; “Adsorbate-dependent phase switching in the square lattice topology coordination network [Ni(4,4′-bipyridine)₂(NCS)₂]_n” included in the full milestones collection. 

Read our interview with Shi-Qiang below.

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?

My research focuses on crystal engineering of metal-organic materials (PCPs/PCNs/MOFs) for gas storage, water sorption and hydrocarbon separations. In particular, the unusual “switching” behaviour of a series of square lattice coordination networks has fascinated me to work on this field.

Can you set this article in a wider context?

Gas storage is an important but energy-intensive process in industry. Although porous physisorbent materials hold significant promise in addressing this matter, they suffer from relatively low working capacity due to the Langmuir (type I) sorption isotherms. Flexible/switching coordination networks or MOFs featuring stepped sorption isotherms may provide higher working capacity and better thermal management than rigid sorbents with type I isotherms. However, their responsiveness to different adsorbates remains largely understudied.

In this work, we report the sorption properties of nine gases (N₂, CH₄, CO₂, C₂H₂, C₂H₄, C₂H₆, C₃H₄, C₃H₆, and C₃H₈) for a prototypal switching coordination network, [Ni(4,4’-bipyridine)₂(NCS)₂] (sql-1-Ni-NCS), which exhibits adsorbate-dependent switching pressures and sorption uptakes. The primary message from this study is that nonporous materials (as determined by their crystal structures and/or 77 K N₂ sorption data) should not be discarded as candidates for sorption-based applications as they may exhibit exceptionally high gas sorption working capacity through a phase switching mechanism.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?

In the coming year, I hope we can develop a simple and cheap, sustainable and environment-friendly method for manufacturing functional metal-organic materials in large scale that meet the needs of industry and society. We are also open for potential collaborations from different perspectives to make the world better together.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

I started my “chem journey” since I was an undergraduate at Hebei University (2009-2013) where I learnt fundamental knowledge of different chemistry disciplines (e.g., Inorganic, Organic, Analytical, and Physical Chemistry). I then majored in Inorganic Chemistry for my Master’s degree (2013-2016) and conducted systematic research under the supervision of Prof. Xiang-Jian Kong and Prof. La-Sheng Long at Xiamen University. I worked on 3d-4f metal clusters and studied their magnetism and chirality.

Although I changed my research topics to higher dimensional (2 or 3D) metal-organic materials during my PhD study, the skills I have learnt previously helped me a lot. Under the guidance of Prof. Michael Zaworotko at the University of Limerick (2016-2022), I developed a family of 2D switching coordination networks that can be potentially used for gas storage and hydrocarbon separations. Afterwards, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with A/Prof. Dan Zhao as a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore where I worked on advanced porous materials for air dehumidification.

Recently, I joined the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), which is a leading research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. As a Scientist at IMRE, I will continue my research, which is already part of my life, and hope to discover more advanced materials for real-world applications.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been give?

Negative results can be also informative and should not be just laid aside and neglected. Unfortunately, it is common that researchers are keen on publishing the best results and pursuing new records, while it is also meaningful and important to mention what they have tried or failed before reaching the targeted goals.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?

My first first-author paper was published in ChemComm in 2018 (https://doi.org/10.1039/C8CC03838D), and I was impressed by its rapid publication, excellent reputation, and broad audience. It thus prompted me to submit my first independent research (https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC06549E) to ChemComm as well.

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Dr. Shi-Qiang Wang (MRSC) is currently a Scientist at the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE) under the umbrella of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore. Before moving to IMRE, he served as a Research Fellow (2022.03-2022.10) in the Advanced Porous Materials Group (PI: A/Prof. Dan Zhao) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He completed his PhD (2016.09-2020.06) and continued as a Postdoctoral Researcher (2020.08-2022.03) in the Crystal Engineering Research Group (PI: Prof. Michael Zaworotko) at the University of Limerick (UL), Ireland. He won two “Young Scientist” conference Awards sponsored respectively by the European Crystallographic Association and the International Union of Crystallography in 2018/2019 and the 2020 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad. You can reach out to Shi-Qiang on Twitter: @ShiQiang_SQ, WeChat: sqwang0123, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sqwangchem or his personal website: https://sqwangchem.com/

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We are excited to share the success of Samuel Jones’s first-time independent research article in ChemComm;  Deoxyribonucleic acid polymer nanoparticle hydrogels – Chemical Communications (RSC Publishing)’ included in the full milestones collection. 

Read our interview with Samuel

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?

Research in my lab focuses on material/virus interactions with a specific focus on developing biocompatible virucidal materials and viral detection systems. I completed my undergraduate degree and PhD in Chemistry, so it is often a surprise to others that my research is now so closely linked to virology. However, the main focus of my PhD was the supramolecular assembly of nanoparticles and viruses are the ultimate self-assembled nanomaterial. Viruses can be thought of as non-living, making them merely an nanoscale assembly of genetic material, proteins and (in some cases) lipid envelopes. The self-assembly of these complex structures inside cells in fascinating but by treating virions as supramolecular assemblies it has been possible to design novel, destroy on contact, antivirals.

Can you set this article in a wider context?

Hydrogels are used in a wide array of research fields from contact lenses through to drug delivery systems. Physically cross-linked, and notably polymer-nanoparticle (PNP), hydrogels have been used for a wide range of application due to their dynamic nature and ease of manufacture. A gel like the one we published on here, made of abundant and cheap constituents that self heals, releases cargo and degrades upon addition of DNase has a broad scope of applications, including in drug delivery and tissue engineering.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?

Current work in my lab is focussing on developing the next generation of broad-spectrum biocompatible virucides and showing that they have significant potential for the real-world treatment of viral infections. We are hoping to publish on this and the development of new viral detection and sensing systems within the next year. This year will also see the first PhD student graduate from my group, which will be a very exciting time.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

As part of my undergraduate degree (MChem with professional Experience) at the University of Warwick, I spent 3 months in the research labs of Dr. Adrian Blackman at the University of Tasmania, Australia. It wasn’t until this period that I had even considered going into research, yet after my first real taste of scientific research, I loved it. I returned to Warwick to complete my degree, undertaking further research in the lab of Prof. Stefan Bon and my love of research grew. This was also where I saw first hand how to successfully run a research group.

From there, I joined the University of Cambridge in the group of Prof. Oren A. Scherman. The 4 years of my PhD were some of the best in my research career to date. I made life long friends, worked on interdisciplinary research with groups from across Europe and was fortunate to travel to many countries for research meetings and conferences. I was afforded a great deal of independence during this time and relished the opportunity to work collaboratively on new projects and ideas. I was also actively involved in the supervision of students from lab demonstrating in 1st year natural science labs through to supervision of masters students projects. I found that I really enjoyed the teaching and mentoring opportunities these roles afforded me.

Marrying the summer before my thesis submission and defending not long after returning from honeymoon, I was ready for my next research challenge. My new wife and I made the move across Europe to Switzerland. I joined the group of Prof. Francesco Stellacci to work on chemotactic nanomaterials, initially for a one year period. We both loved our time in Switzerland, and the Stellacci group, so much that we ended up staying for three years, had our first child and embraced the Swiss lifestyle as much as possible. During this time, my research focus shifted to the development and testing of virucidal materials, as I became fascinated with these non-living biological nanoparticles. I worked alongside some great scientists who were always open and willing to share knowledge and experience, ultimately allowing us to work together to produce novel antivirals.

When I was offered an independent fellowship at the University of Manchester, I was delighted and looked forward to bringing all my knowledge and experience together to produce my own independent research and train the next generation of scientists. Although the process of establishing an independent research group has its ups and downs, I would not change it. My research group currently consists of 8 PhD students and one PDRA and working with each of them to develop their own research is a joy.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been give?

Maybe not direct advice but over the course of my research career, I’ve learned the importance of a healthy work-life balance. At times during my career, the balance was not always the healthiest and over longer time periods this can have a negative impact. Ensuring that I take time to see friends, be with family and exercise are just as important as any work I may have to do. This is something that I now promote with my own students and I hope they are better off for it.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?

I have been a long time reader of ChemComm for the excellent and diverse range of manuscripts it publishes. My first ever research article was published in ChemComm, as part of an Emerging Investigator issue and we were fortunate to be able to provide the cover image there also, just like this paper. The broad-audience and communication format made it a good fit for this research and I hope to be able to publish with the journal again in the future.

Sam completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge working with Prof. Oren A. Scherman, where he explored the supramolecular assembly of nanomaterials using cucurbit[n]uril. He then moved to the EPFL, Switzerland to the group of Prof. Francesco Stellacci where his research focused on chemotactic nanomaterials and broad-spectrum virucidal materials. In 2017, he was awarded a Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw Fellowship at the University of Manchester, which allowed him to establish his independent research programme. Now a lecturer in the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester, and resident member in the Henry Royce Institute, his research focuses on virus/material interactions with a specific interest in the development of novel virucidal materials and viral detection systems. Find Samuel on Twitter; @Scientist_Sam

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A warm congratulations to Stefano Cinti for publishing his first independent research article in ChemComm. Be sure to read Stefano’s #ChemComm1st article ‘Merging office/filter paper-based tools for pre-concentring and detecting heavy metals in drinking water‘ in our collection, ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Articles.

We recently caught up with Stefano to find out about his experience as a first-time author. Read about it in our interview below. 

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
The main areas are biosensors, smart materials and sustainability. I think the combination of printing technologies and nanomaterials is capable of providing people with very useful analytical tools for improving life’s quality.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
This article represents a general and simple approach for improving decentralized analysis and to strengthen the concept of citizen science.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
I hope my lab, the uninanobiosensors lab, would be able to generate smart solutions for everyone needs monitoring something, in all contexts.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
I was fortunate to work in the laboratory of Prof. Palleschi and Prof. Moscone at University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. They gave me all the fundamentals on biosensors and analytical chemistry, always supported me and allowed to spend time abroad. This gave me a wider, international perspective.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
I think the best advice has been given by observing my labmates at UCSD in the group of Joe Wang. I was a visiting PhD student, and it was clear that to make excellent research you just need your creativity and to work hard.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
It is a high-quality platform to highlight my research, and also I like the style of the journal.

Stefano Cinti is Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Naples “Federico II”. He obtained a PhD in Chemical Sciences in the group headed by Prof. Giuseppe Palleschi at University of “Tor Vergata”. He leads the uninanobiosensors Lab (uninanobiosensors.com) and his research includes the development of Electrochemical (bio)sensors, Paper-Based devices, Nanomotors and Nanomaterials. He spent periods abroad in Finland, UK, USA, Germany and Spain. He published more than 45 papers on peer-reviewed journals, with H-index of 27, >2000 citations. In 2018 and 2019 he has been named Best Young Researcher in Bio-Analytical Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry, respectively (by Italian Chemical Society), and in 2020 he has been inserted in World’s Top 2% Scientists. He is in the board of the Chemical Cultural Diffusion group and of the Young Group of Italian Chemical Society. He is the Chair of AMYC-BIOMED, a multi-disciplinary conference for young chemists in the biomedical sciences. He is active in communicating science to non-specialized audience through TV shows, radio and magazine. Find Stefano on Twitter: @S_Cinti87

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We are delighted to introduce Ashlee Howarth, our latest #ChemComm1st author. Ashlee’s first independent research article was published in ChemComm in May. Her Communication ‘Synthetic approaches for accessing rare-earth analogues of UiO-66‘ has now been added to our growing collection, ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Articles. Find out more about Ashlee in our interview with her below.

Our ChemComm Milestones interview with Ashlee Howarth

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
In my research lab at Concordia, we are interested in the design and synthesis of new rare-earth metal–organic frameworks comprised of multinuclear cluster nodes. We take inspiration from the field of zirconium-based MOFs – materials that I worked with extensively during my postdoctoral studies – where the vast majority of Zr-MOFs contain hexanuclear cluster nodes as building blocks. We are interested in using rare-earth metals to construct MOFs because of the possibility to generate several multinuclear rare-earth clusters (e.g., tetranuclear, hexanuclear, nonanuclear, etc) with varying geometry and connectivity. The diversity of cluster building blocks that are accessible, allows us to synthesize structures that are not as easily attainable (or not attainable at all) using other metals. We are still in the early stages of this research, but our long-term goals are to study these materials for the adsorption, catalytic breakdown, and chemical sensing of hazardous analytes.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
UiO-66 is a zirconium-based MOF that was first reported by researchers from the University of Oslo in 2008 (https://doi.org/10.1021/ja8057953). Since this initial report, there have been over 4,000 publications on the topic of UiO-66. This is because it is a highly robust MOF, built from hexanuclear zirconium clusters bridged by simple terephthalic acid linkers, and has been shown to be potentially useful for applications ranging from gas capture to catalysis to drug delivery. In this article, we report on the synthesis and characterization of eight rare-earth analogues of UiO-66, specifically the Y(III), Eu(III), Gd(III), Tb(III), Ho(III), Er(III), Tm(III), and Yb(III) analogue. We hope to see these rare-earth analogues of UiO-66 become extensively studied over the next decade, just like the Zr-based prototype.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
In the upcoming year, I hope that we can continue to build foundational knowledge with regards to the tips and tricks for synthesizing rare-earth cluster-based MOFs. This includes expanding on knowledge of de novo as well as post-synthetic modification techniques, purification and activation strategies, and methods for characterizing the chemical and physical properties of these new materials.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
My journey to becoming an independent researcher began when I completed an Honours specialization project as an undergraduate student in the Corrigan lab at the University of Western Ontario. This was when I first learned about research, the possibility of graduate school, and the steps required to become an independent researcher in academia. From there my love for research, and specifically inorganic materials chemistry, continued to grow as a PhD student in the Wolf lab at the University of British Columbia. I was first introduced to MOFs during my postdoctoral studies in the Farha and Hupp groups at Northwestern University, and it was during my 3 years as a postdoc that I grew to love these materials. I was (and continue to be) fascinated by the fundamental aspects of MOF chemistry, discovering new building blocks, making new network structures, and growing crystals. I also love that MOFs have many potential practical applications due to their high porosities, surface areas, and tunable properties. As such, when finishing my postdoctoral studies I knew I wanted to continue working with MOFs – but I wanted to branch out from working with Zr-MOFs and start exploring the use of rare-earth elements. It’s been quite challenging working on a subclass of MOFs that are entirely new to me, but it’s also been very rewarding, and my students and I learn something new every day.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
It’s quite hard to choose just one piece of advice, since I have been given lots of great advice from my mentors over the years. One piece of advice that has always stuck with me, which came from my undergraduate supervisor John F. Corrigan, is to always be yourself. It sounds simple enough, but I was giving a practice presentation for my honours thesis defense and I had made pink PowerPoint slides. One of the other students in the group suggested I change the colour since pink might not be the most obvious choice for a professional scientific presentation. John told me to leave the colour if I liked it, and to always be myself. I’ve carried that advice with me throughout my scientific career and it has helped to give me confidence in myself as a scientist – even at times when I don’t always feel like I belong.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
ChemComm is a great journal with an excellent reputation in chemistry. I always wanted to publish in ChemComm when I was a graduate student but never had the opportunity. When my student, Pedro Donnarumma, was able to find the synthetic conditions necessary to make the first ever rare-earth analogues of UiO-66, I thought that ChemComm would be the perfect venue to disseminate the results quickly and have high visibility within the MOF and materials chemistry communities. I’m very proud to say that my first publication as an independent researcher is in ChemComm and I’m especially proud of the students Pedro Donnarumma (lead author, MSc graduate), Sahara Frojmovic (undergraduate Honours student), Paola Marino (MSc Student), and Hudson Bicalho (PhD candidate) who worked so hard to make it possible! The work also wouldn’t be possible without our awesome collaborator and expert crystallographer Dr. Hatem Titi.

Ashlee J. Howarth was born and raised in London, Ontario. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario in 2009, and then went on to do her PhD in inorganic materials chemistry at the University of British Columbia under the supervision of Michael O. Wolf. Before joining the faculty at Concordia, she completed an NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Northwestern University with Joseph T. Hupp and Omar K. Farha. In 2018, Ashlee was recognized by Forbes Magazine as a “30 under 30” in Science for her contributions to research in the field of wastewater treatment, and the detoxification of chemical warfare agents. In 2019, she won the UBC Chemistry Young Alumnus Award, which recognizes a young alumnus whose accomplishments are of such excellence that they provide inspiration and leadership to students and other young alumni. At Concordia, Ashlee is the Concordia University Research Chair in Metal–Organic Frameworks, and the Howarth group is focused on the design and synthesis of rare-earth metal–organic frameworks targeting applications in wastewater remediation, catalysis, and chemical sensing.

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ChemComm Milestones – Robert Godin

Robert Godin reached an exciting milestone this year when he chose to publish his first independent article in ChemComm. You can read Robert’s #ChemComm1st article ‘Experimental determination of charge carrier dynamics in carbon nitride heterojunctions‘ in our growing collection, ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Authors. We are also pleased to confirm that Robert’s significant research now features in our 2021 Emerging Investigators collection too.

To find out more about Robert’s experiences as a first-time author, watch the video interview below.

ChemComm Milestones interview with Robert Godin:

Explore more #ChemComm1st content on our Twitter: @ChemCommun

We were really excited to speak to Erli Lu about his #ChemComm1st article ‘A monomeric methyllithium complex: synthesis and structure‘. This recently published Communication is available to read in our full collection ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Articles. It’s also Open Access.

Find out about Erli and his research in our interview below.

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
The main research area of my lab is group-1 and group-2 metal coordination chemistry, for example, lithium, sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium. Since my PhD, I have studied coordination chemistry of some of the most obscure metals, such as rare-earth and actinide metals. Compared to them, group-1 and 2 metal coordination chemistry are thought to be ‘well-established’. But actually, if looking closely, there are many knowledge gaps in this area. To fill these gaps, I set our research targets towards these ‘familiar strangers’.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
This article is our first step to unveil the unknown face of some of the most common chemical reagents, in this case, organolithium reagents. Organolithium, for example, butyllithium, is arguably the most important organometallic reagents, and the parent of organometallic chemistry. The vital roles of organolithium in numerous organic reactions depend on their aggregates—they exist as oligomers but are postulated to react via the monomers. Chemists want to isolate the monomers, to understand the reaction mechanisms, but this is a formidable task: the monomers are super-reactive and very easy to decompose. In this article, we isolated the first monomer of the archetypical organolithium reagent: methyllithium.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
More exciting complexes, of course! And more papers, for sure! We hope to change an existing prejudice held by chemists that the group-1 and 2 chemistry are not as versatile as d-block and f-block metals, just because they have been studied for over a century.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
I decided to pursue a research career since my 2nd PhD year—when I made my first important discovery (the first scandium terminal imide) in Yaofeng’s group at SIOC. This work was published in ChemComm in 2010 and has inspired, influenced and encouraged me since then. The training of a coordination chemist is similar to a Jedi Knight for me: it’s nearly impossible to succeed without a local guru’s help and guidance. I was lucky to meet my two ‘Jedi Masters’: Prof. Yaofeng Chen and Prof. Steve Liddle, who helped me to grow into an independent researcher.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
‘Grit teeth and carry on’—It is very often (maybe too often) easy to feel frustrated, if not desperate, in a research career. But persistence will be rewarded eventually.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
I have published 4 Communications in ChemComm, including some of my most important results. From my experience, the two biggest advantages of ChemComm against competitor journals are the rapid reviewing procedure and the professional editorial teams. The handling editors of ChemComm are active academics and do the research themselves—this is very important to ensure a fair and reasonable scientific judgement about a manuscript. Another reason to publish in ChemComm is supporting our local Chemical Society—though it is a less popular practice nowadays than before.

Erli Lu was born in Hefei, China, in 1984. His university degree (BEng) was awarded in 2006 by Tianjin Polytechnic University (China) in Polymer Material Science and Engineering. He joined Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC), Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2006, studying rare-earth metal coordination chemistry in the Yaofeng Chen group and was awarded the PhD in 2012. In the same year, he moved to the UK as a postdoc researcher with an EU Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship to join the Steve Liddle group at the University of Nottingham, investigating actinide coordination chemistry. He had stayed in the Liddle group at Nottingham and Manchester from 06.2012-09.2019, before starting his independent career at Newcastle University, as a Newcastle University Academic Track (NUAcT) Fellow. Erli’s group at Newcastle investigates new aspects of group-1 & 2 metal coordination chemistry, including new highly reactive organolithium complexes, low-valent group-1/2 complexes, and their applications in catalysis and energy storage. Find Erli on Twitter: @erli_lu

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Congratulations to Pei-Xi Wang who has published his #ChemComm1st article ‘Lyotropic Liquid Crystalline Phases of Anisotropic Nanoparticles of Organic-Inorganic Metal Halide Perovskites: Photoluminescence from Self-Assembled Ordered Microstructures of Semiconductors‘ within the last month. We recently spoke to Pei-Xi about his experiences as a first-time independent author. Find out more in our interview below.

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
Motivated by the charming microscopic orderliness of liquid crystalline phases, which provides a relatively simple and controllable bottom-up biomimetic approach to various fascinating hierarchical structures existing in plants and animals, we decided to focus on the development of novel lyotropic liquid crystals as well as the fabrication of functional composite nanomaterials based on them. Currently, we are trying to build a general synthesis method that can transform different types of organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites into colloidal liquid crystalline mesogens, and to further use these semiconducting soft anisotropic materials in optoelectronic devices.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
The functionalization of many types of conventional colloidal liquid crystalline mesogens, such as vanadium pentoxide nanoribbons, polypeptides, and cellulose nanocrystals is usually difficult, i.e., it is hard to endow them with specific energy band gaps or other desired physical properties by chemical modification. In this article, the feasibility of synthesizing mesogenic nanoparticles of organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites has been proven, as metal halide perovskites are a class of materials with excellent structural and compositional diversity, it would be possible to systematically develop a large family of colloidal lyotropic liquid crystals with semiconductivity, luminescence, ferroelectricity, magnetism, chirality, or other preferred features.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
Since late March, my first two graduate students, Ting-Ting Zhou and Cai-Yun Zhao have started to work in the lab. In the coming year, I hope they can find their real research interests either in the field of lyotropic liquid crystalline materials, where I would be able to support them with the experience and knowledge I have gathered during my Ph.D. and postdoctoral studies, or in any other fields attracting them or fortunately initiated by themselves, where they can enjoy the exciting process of making new discoveries every day.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
From 2007 to 2009, when I was a student in Henan Experimental High School, I learned a lot of classical and modern physics for the Chinese Physics Olympiad, during which time I was strongly attracted by the conciseness of physical principles such as the Maxwell equations. However, I did not have a clear understanding of scientific research until the completion of my first project under the supervision of Prof. Mark J. MacLachlan (I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Vitor M. Zamarion for his kind help with that project). There was a moment when I accidentally realized that the circular dichroism signal of a chiral nematic mesoporous silica film filled with a Prussian blue analogue should be the product of the absorption and CD spectra of the unfilled film, which was for the first time I noticed that there might be some interesting mathematical relationships behind the seemingly tedious experimental data. From then on, I learned how to build a comprehensive view of the materials and physical phenomena involved in my studies, and started to enjoy the hunt for undiscovered phenomena in the jungle of my experiments.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
It would be a Chinese saying “吾生也有涯, 而知也无涯, 以有涯随无涯, 殆已”, which means “my lifespan is limited, while knowledge is infinite, spending my limited time on pursuing unlimited knowledge is harmful”.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
In the past several years, I have been inspired by many classical research articles published in ChemComm, therefore I believe that ChemComm is a great journal for rapidly reporting new chemical discoveries with clear scientific significance and authenticity.

Dr. Pei-Xi Wang was born in China in September 1992. He received his B.Sc. in chemistry from Jilin University in July 2014. He then moved to Vancouver in August 2014 to pursue a Ph.D. and completed his doctorate in chemistry at the University of British Columbia in October 2018, where under the supervision of Prof. Mark J. MacLachlan, he studied the structures and transformation of chiral nematic liquid crystalline tactoidal microphases of cellulose nanocrystals by scanning electron microscopy. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the MacLachlan group at UBC (2019/01-2019/12) and in the Edward H. Sargent group at the University of Toronto (2020/01-2020/11). Pei-Xi started his independent research as an associate professor in early December 2020 at the Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, where he focuses on the development of colloidal lyotropic liquid crystals of semiconducting organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites.

Read Pei-Xi’s #ChemComm1st article and others in our growing collection, ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Article. Follow us on Twitter for all of the latest #ChemCommMilestones news.

Bartosz Lewandowski’s ChemComm1st article ‘Chiral recognition of amino-acid esters by a glucose-derived macrocyclic receptor‘ is available now. We wanted to find out more about Bartosz and what it was like to reach this ChemComm Milestone in our interview below.

Read our with Bartosz interview here.

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
The main topic which we are investigating is the use of monosaccharides as building blocks to create supramolecular receptors and assemblies. We want to take advantage of the intrinsic features of these biomolecules (e.g. water solubility, biocompatibility, modularity) and create new types of supramolecular systems and devices for controlled and selective encapsulation, transport and chemical transformations of molecular entities.

I was “hooked on sugars” during my Ph.D. studies in the group of Prof. Sławomir Jarosz where I explored the chemistry of sucrose. This was a great learning experience for me as I got to know the challenges associated with sugar chemistry, but was also able to appreciate the great potential of these biomolecules. And I felt that there are many exciting things that can be done with sugars, particularly in the context of supramolecular chemistry, which is exactly what we are working on right now.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
The ability to separate or detect enantiomers of bioactive molecules is of high importance since they very often have vastly different chemical and biological properties. Achieving this goal in aqueous media is particularly relevant if one wants to develop analytical tools for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Within our manuscript we demonstrated the efficacy of a simple glucose-based macrocycle for differentiation of amino-acid enantiomers in aqueous environments. Thus our results open up exciting opportunities for the development of molecular tools for chirality sensing and enantiomer separation of bioactive molecules.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
Firstly, I hope that we can build on the results we just published and develop further carbohydrate-based chiral receptors. We plan to utilize the modularity of monosaccharides and their potential for functional fine-tuning to create supramolecular receptors with additional attractive features (e.g. increased chemoselectivity, fluorescence). My other ambition for this and following years is to explore other research pathways with carbohydrate-based macrocycles and use them as building blocks to create novel functional supramolecular assemblies and perhaps even molecular machines.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
I think the moment when I started to seriously consider becoming an academic researcher was when I joined the group of Prof. David Leigh for my post-doc. Designing and creating molecular machines is a tremendous scientific challenge. But for me it also contained an element of pure joy and excitement coming from assembling small molecular fragments piece-by-piece into a device that can perform complex tasks. And the satisfaction when the final goal was achieved rewarded all the difficulties and frustration that came along the way. And that’s when I thought “Yes, this is what I want to do in life.” That thought was then reinforced when I joined the group of Prof. Helma Wennemers. Working on highly multidisciplinary cutting-edge research and being immediately entrusted with supervision and guidance for junior co-workers (both students and Ph.D. students) allowed me to greatly mature as a scientist. It also inspired me to create my own research plan for the future. And at the end of 2015 I successfully applied for the position of a Senior Scientist in the Wennemers Group at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich. This is a unique position which gives me the opportunity to build my independent research line while remaining an integral part of Prof. Wennemers’ team where we pursue exciting research projects.

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with many incredibly supportive people and I’ve received a lot of great advice from them. The two pieces that stuck with me the most over the years are:
“If you keep doing excellent work, good things will eventually come your way.” and “You should never talk yourself out of an experiment.”

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
First of all because it’s one of the leading chemistry journals in the world with a broad impact on the scientific community. It’s also among my favourite journals to read when I screen recent literature. Finally, I was very keen on publishing my first independent work in ChemComm as this is where the most significant results of my PhD were published.

Bartosz Lewandowski was born in Kętrzyn, Poland in 1981. He obtained his M.Sc. degree in Chemical Technology from the Warsaw University of Technology in 2004. He carried out his Ph.D. research on synthesis and complexing properties of sucrose-based macrocycles in the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw, in the group of Prof. Sławomir Jarosz. He successfully defended the Ph.D. thesis in 2009 and in the same year became the FNP (Foundation for Polish Science) Post-Doctoral Fellow in the group of Prof. David Leigh at the University of Edinburgh. There he worked on the design, synthesis and operation of molecular machines. In 2013 he joined the group of Prof. Helma Wennemers at the ETH Zürich as a Marie Curie Post-Doctoral Fellow, working on oligoproline-based macrocycles and supramolecular assemblies for molecular recognition and catalysis. In 2016 he was appointed as a Senior Scientist in the Wennemers Group. His research focuses on using monosaccharides to create supramolecular receptors and assemblies for selective binding, transport and chemical transformations of guest molecules.

Read Bartosz’s ChemComm1st article and others in our collection ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Article. Follow @ChemCommun for all of the latest journal and #ChemCommMilestones news.

We are pleased to let you know that Ellen Robertson has reached a ChemComm Milestone with her #ChemComm1st article: ‘Synthesis and characterization of plasmonic peptoid nanosheets‘.

Find out about Ellen and her research below.

What are the main areas of research in your lab and what motivated you to take this direction?
I’m a physical chemist by training and my research specifically focuses on colloid and interfacial science. In my lab, we are working to develop new classes of surface enhanced Raman scattering sensors based on the co-assembly of two-dimensional peptoid scaffolds and nanoparticles at fluid surfaces. Our goal is to use these sensors to detect environmental pollutants that are prevalent in Upstate New York. I’ve always been interested in using chemistry to solve environmental problems. In college, I worked on a service-learning project in my introductory chemistry course in which we collected soil and water samples from the community and tested them for lead. I realized from this example how chemistry can be used for the good of the environment and its inhabitants, and it is my aim as a chemist to do this kind of good.

Can you set this article in a wider context?
The research presented in this article clearly demonstrates how the power of interfacial self-assembly can be implemented to fabricate new nanomaterials with interesting properties. I believe the method described in the paper for forming plasmonic peptoid nanosheets can likely be extended to creating two-dimensional arrays of magnetic, semiconducting, antibacterial, and catalytic nanoparticles. This generalizable strategy has the potential for creating a new class of two-dimensional nanomaterials that have a wide range of optical, electronic, and magnetic properties.

What do you hope your lab can achieve in the coming year?
In the upcoming year, my lab hopes to test the limits of our peptoid-directed assembly mechanism for forming new two-dimensional nanomaterials. We are planning to see if we can fine-tune the properties of these nanosheets by varying the nanoparticle concentration, size, surface chemistry, and material used in the synthesis.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.
My journey to becoming an independent researcher was the result of my love of chemistry and some timely opportunities that I was able to pursue. I started my research path as an undergraduate at Kalamazoo College. I worked in Jeff Bartz’s lab studying the gas phase dissociation of NOx compounds. Jeff encouraged me to pursue summer research opportunities, and I was grateful to have the opportunity to work for one summer at Dartmouth College making cobalt nanoparticles in Barney Grubb’s lab, and one summer at the University of Oregon studying interfacial assembly in Geraldine Richmond’s lab. I loved the Richmond lab research so much, I returned as a graduate student to complete my Ph.D. research, which focused on understanding the assembly of polyelectrolytes at the oil-water interface using vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS) and interfacial tension measurements. While in graduate school, I worked on collaborative project between Geri’s lab and Ron Zuckermann’s lab at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in which I characterized peptoid monolayers using VSFS. The aim of these studies was to assign spectroscopic signatures to peptoid monolayers that were capable of forming peptoid nanosheets via monolayer compression and collapse. Working on this collaboration was a great experience and prompted me to apply for and accept a postdoctoral position in Ron’s lab. I spent two years working in Ron’s lab using interfacial tension and rheology to determine the factors that affect the ability of different peptoid sequences to form monolayers capable of collapse into nanosheets. Following my postdoctoral appointment, I returned to Kalamazoo College as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry. It was here that I realized my love of working with undergraduates in the research lab, and so I sought out a position at a primarily undergraduate institution. Now an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Union College, my independent research combines elements of my graduate research (self-assembly at the oil-water interface) with my post-doctoral research (using peptoids to create new materials).

What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?
Some of the best advice that I have ever been given is to embrace a growth mindset. With a growth mindset, we can always envision new ways to improve, both professionally and personally. Failure no longer becomes an obstacle, but an opportunity to learn something new and grow.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?
I chose to publish in ChemComm because this journal is well known for publishing novel research that is of immediate and broad interest to those in the field of chemistry. I was so excited when my lab discovered the plasmonic peptoid nanosheets described in our recent ChemComm publication. I realized that the synthesis of these novel materials through peptoid monolayer collapse at the oil-water interface opened the door for creating a brand-new class of two-dimensional nanomaterials. I wanted to share this discovery with a broad audience of chemists that could see the utility in these new materials and the method used to prepare them. I am grateful for the opportunity that ChemComm has given me to share my science story.

Back: Ellen Robertson, Chris Avanessian, Anna Mahony, Elizabeth Whitney
Front: Misty Zaczyk, Mindle Shavy Paneth, Jana Davis

Professor Ellen J. Robertson received her Ph.D. in physical chemistry at the University of Oregon where she studied the assembly of polyelectrolytes at the oil-water interface using vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy. Ellen then held a post-doctoral appointment at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab where she studied the assembly mechanism of peptoid nanosheets at the air-water interface. After serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Kalamazoo College for two years, Ellen was hired as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Union College, a small private liberal arts institution in Upstate New York. Here, she has established her research program, the overall goal of which is to develop peptoid-based surface enhanced Raman scattering sensors for detecting pollutants that are persistent in Upstate New York. Her work has been funded by The Community Foundation for the Greater Capital Region’s Bender Scientific Fund. Ellen is dedicated to undergraduate education in chemistry, both in the classroom and in the research lab. At Union, Ellen teaches courses in general and physical chemistry and works with undergraduates in her research lab. She also co-advises Union College’s American Chemical Society Student Chapter. Outside of chemistry, Ellen is an avid tennis player, competing both at the local and national level. 

You can find all of our #ChemComm1st articles in ChemComm Milestones – First Independent Articles. Follow @ChemCommun for all of the latest ChemComm Milestones updates.