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EuroBIC 14

10 Sep 2018

This August saw the occasion of the 14th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC), held at the University of Birmingham in the UK. With an excellent line up of internationally renowned plenary and keynote speakers the event was a huge success, attracting around 400 attendees.

The Royal Society of Chemistry was pleased to support the event, offering poster prizes of books and book vouchers. The winners of RSC vouchers were:

Raul Berrocal-Martin (University of Glasgow) – Dalton Transactions Poster Prize
Wilma Neumann (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) – Metallomics Poster Prize
Ying Zhou (University of Hong Kong) – ChemComm Poster Prize
Leon Jenner (University of East Anglia) – Chemical Science Poster Prize

The following presenters also won the RSC Highly Commended Poster Awards:

Gloria Vigueras Bautista (University of Murcia)
Nicolai Burzlaff (Friedrich-Alexander University)
Samya Banerjee (University of Warwick)
Riccardo Bonsignore (Cardiff University)
Philip Ash (University of Oxford)

Dalton Transactions associate editor Nils Metzler-Nolte (Ruhr-Universität Bochum) and Chemical Science assistant editor William King were on hand to award the prizes.


Raul Berrocal-Martin (left) receiving the Dalton Transactions prize from Nils Metzler-Nolte (right)	Ying Zhou (left) receiving the ChemComm prize from Nils Metzler-Nolte (right)

Leon Jenner (left) receiving the Chemical Science prize from William King (right)	Gloria Vigueras Bautista (left) receiving a Highly Commended Poster Prize from William King (right)

Riccardo Bonsignore (left) receiving a Highly Commended Poster Prize from William King (right)	Philip Ash (left) receiving a Highly Commended Poster Prize from William King (right)

The RSC offers a hearty congratulations to all poster prize winners!

Next year the 19th International Conference on Biological Inorganic Chemistry (ICBIC 19) will be held in Interlaken, Switzerland – August 11th to 16th. The next European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC 15) will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in August 2020.

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ChemComm and Chemical Science Poster Prize winners at the 28th International Symposium on the Organic Chemistry of Sulfur

10 Sep 2018

The 28th International Symposium on the Organic Chemistry of Sulfur (ISOCS 28) was held in Tokyo, Japan, from 26th – 31st August.

Over 220 delegates attended the symposium which was chaired by Professor Kei Goto (Tokyo Institute of Technology). ISOCS symposia are prestigious international scientific events with a tradition of over 50 years that cover the whole fascinating range of sulfur chemistry from theory to practical applications. ISOCS-28 has offered a scientific program dealing with the latest developments in sulfur chemistry presented by leading international experts including six Plenary Lecturers and twenty Invited Lecturers. The next symposium, ISOCS-29, will be held in 2020 in Ontario, Canada, under the chairmanship of Professor Adrian L. Schwan (University of Guelph).

Mr Ryosuke Masuda from Tokyo Institute of Technology was awarded the ChemComm Poster Prize for his piece titled ‘Model Study of a GPx-derived Selenenic Acid with Thiols by Utilizing a Cradled Selenocysteine’.

Mr Tomohiro Sugahara from Kyoto University was award the Chemical Science Poster Prize for his piece titled ‘Chalcogenation Reactions of 1,2-Digermacyclobutadiene’.

Congratulations to both!

Mr. Tomohiro Sugahara was awarded the Chemical Science Poster Prize by Hiromitsu Urakami

Mr. Ryosuke Masuda was awarded the ChemComm Poster Prize by Hiromitsu Urakami

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HOT ChemComm articles for August

05 Sep 2018

All of the referee-recommended articles below are free to access until 5th October 2018.

Induced circular dichroism of monoatomic anions: silica-assisted the transfer of chiral environment from molecular assembled nanohelices to halide ions
Yutaka Okazaki, Naoya Ryu, Thierry Buffeteau, Shaheen Pathan, Shoji Nagaoka, Emilie Pouget, Sylvain Nlate, Hirotaka Ihara and Reiko Oda
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05449E, Communication

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Arsagermene, a compound with an –AsGe double bond
Vladimir Ya. Lee, Manami Kawai, Olga A. Gapurenko, Vladimir I. Minkin, Heinz Gornitzka and Akira Sekiguchi
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05630G, Communication

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Progress in selective oxidative dehydrogenation of light alkanes to olefins promoted by boron nitride catalysts
Lei Shi, Yang Wang, Bing Yan, Wei Song, Dan Shao and An-Hui Lu
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC04604B, Feature Article

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Photochemical and electrochemical hydrogen evolution reactivity of lanthanide-functionalized polyoxotungstates
Marzieh Arab Fashapoyeh, Masoud Mirzaei, Hossein Eshtiagh-Hosseini, Ashwene Rajagopal, Manuel Lechner, Rongji Liu and Carsten Streb
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC06334F, Communication

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A tetravalent sialic acid-coated tetraphenylethene luminogen with aggregation-induced emission characteristics: design, synthesis and application for sialidase activity assay, high-throughput screening of sialidase inhibitors and diagnosis of bacterial vaginosis
Guang-jian Liu, Beihan Wang, Yuan Zhang, Guo-wen Xing, Xiaoli Yang and Shu Wang
Chem. Commun., 2018, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC06300A, Communication

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A C–C bonded 5,6-fused bicyclic energetic molecule: exploring an advanced energetic compound with improved performance
Yongxing Tang, Chunlin He, Gregory H. Imler, Damon A. Parrish and Jean’ne M. Shreeve
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05987J, Communication

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MOFS, ZMOFS and Automobiles

05 Sep 2018

Mohamed Eddaoudi and co-workers at KAUST have synthesised a porous metal organic framework (MOF) constructed from carboxylic acid-functionalised imidazole linkers coordinated to yttrium and potassium cations. The researchers classified this material as a zeolite-like MOF (ZMOF) due to its topological resemblance to the naturally occurring zeolite mineral analcime.

The material’s architecture, with cylindrical channels and a pore aperture measuring 3.8 x 6.2 Å, promised utility as a molecular sieve, and the authors showed the ZMOF could be used to sort small chain alkanes based on their level of branching. Linear and mono-branched pentanes and butanes were adsorbed by the material for different lengths of time (linear isomers were retained longer than their branched counterparts) allowing kinetic separation, while the di-branched alkane 2,2,4-trimethylpentane was excluded entirely. The authors anticipate that this material could have practical applications in crude oil refining, to upgrade petroleum into more energy-efficient fuels with reduced emissions.

ZMOF zeolite-like metal organic framework crystal structure with analcime (ana) topology showing channels and pore aperture.

ZMOF crystal structure with analcime (ana) topology showing channels and pore aperture.

The petroleum used to power internal combustion engines consists of a mixture of low molecular weight, linear and branched alkanes. The research octane number (RON) is a standard measure of petroleum performance, and indicates how much pressure a fuel can withstand before self-igniting (knocking) in the engine. High compression engines, which are more energy efficient and release less emissions than regular engines, require high RON fuels.

The RON increases with the proportion of branched alkanes, so can be improved by supplementing fuels with branched isomers obtained by catalytic isomerisation. This process generates a mixture of linear and branched alkanes, so the desired products must be isolated via fractional distillation, which is energy intensive. This creates a dilemma: high RON fuels are more energy efficient, but their energy-intensive production reduces the net benefit.

The authors envisaged an energy-efficient strategy for increasing the RON of petroleum fuels: A low RON fuel is pumped into the engine, where it encounters a separation chamber consisting of ZMOF-based membranes. The membrane excludes and redirects di-branched alkanes, which have a very high RON, to the internal combustion engine. The low RON fraction, consisting of mono-branched and linear alkanes, passes through the ZMOF pores to undergo further reforming processes downstream. In other words: low RON fuels go in, but high RON fuels are combusted.

Scheme showing how ZMOF materials could be used to upgrade gasoline by separating alkanes based on their level of branching. zeolite-like metal organic framework petroleum reforming

Scheme showing the RON of common small-chain alkanes and the use of ZMOF membranes in upgrading gasoline by separating alkanes based on their level of branching

In this work the authors show the potential of ZMOFs to maximise the energetic potential and reduce emissions of petroleum based fuels, while also offering a glimpse of the more general strategy of energy-efficient separations of chemically-similar molecules using tailored materials.

To find out more please read:

Upgrading gasoline to high octane number using zeolite-like metal organic framework molecular sieve with ana-topology

M. Infas H. Mohideen, Youssef Belmabkhout, Prashant M. Bhatt, Aleksander Shkurenko, Zhijie Chen, Karim Adil, Mohamed Eddaoudi.
Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 9414-9417
DOI: 10.1039/c8cc04824j

About the author

Zoë Hearne is a PhD candidate in chemistry at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, under the supervision of Professor Chao-Jun Li. She hails from Canberra, Australia, where she completed her undergraduate degree. Her current research focuses on transition metal catalysis to effect novel transformations, and out of the lab she is an enthusiastic chemistry tutor and science communicator.

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HOT ChemComm articles for July

08 Aug 2018

All of the referee-recommended articles below are free to access until 5th September 2018.

Transformation of single MOF nanocrystals into single nanostructured catalysts within mesoporous supports: a platform for pioneer fluidized-nanoreactor hydrogen carriers
Ignacio Luz, Mustapha Soukri and Marty Lail
Chem. Commun., 2018,54, 8462-8465
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC04562C, Communication

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Defective Pt nanoparticles encapsulated in mesoporous metal–organic frameworks for enhanced catalysis
Qiang Wang, Xu-Sheng Wang, Chun-Hui Chen, Xue Yang, Yuan-Biao Huang and Rong Cao
Chem. Commun., 2018,54, 8822-8825
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC04485F, Communication

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Tetrahedral DNAzymes for enhanced intracellular gene-silencing activity
Hien Bao Dieu Thai, Fabienne Levi-Acobas, Soo-Young Yum, Goo Jang, Marcel Hollenstein and Dae-Ro Ahn
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05721D, Communication

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Strong carbon cage influence on the single molecule magnetism in Dy–Sc nitride clusterfullerenes
Christin Schlesier, Lukas Spree, Aram Kostanyan, Rasmus Westerström, Ariane Brandenburg, Anja U. B. Wolter, Shangfeng Yang, Thomas Greber and Alexey A. Popov
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05029E, Communication

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CdZnSe@ZnSe colloidal alloy quantum dots for high-efficiency all-inorganic perovskite solar cells
Qinghua Li, Jinke Bai, Tingting Zhang, Chao Nie, Jialong Duan and Qunwei Tang
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC05517C, Communication

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Upgrading gasoline to high octane number using Zeolite-like Metal Organic Framework molecular sieve with ana-topology
Mohamed Eddaoudi, M Infas Mohideen, Youssef Belmabkhout, Prashant Bhatt, Zhijie Chen, karim adil and Aleksander Shkurenko
Chem. Commun., 2018, Accepted Manuscript
DOI: 10.1039/C8CC04824J, Communication

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ChemComm to keep double-blind peer review option

31 Jul 2018

Since July 2017, ChemComm has been running an experiment; offering authors a choice on how their manuscript is peer reviewed. Authors have had the option to choose between the customary ‘single-blind’ peer review, where reviewers remain anonymous while knowing who the authors are or choose to keep their identity from reviewers, who will assess the work without knowing who the authors are – i.e., ‘double-blind’ peer review. 12 months on, as our experiment comes to a close, we want to share some of our findings, which have led us to decide to keep optional double-blind peer review on ChemComm.

Over the last 12 months, 10% of ChemComm authors chose the double-blind option at submission. In line with data published in the Peer Review Congress abstracts¹, authors from India and Iran had higher than average uptake, whereas USA, Japan, Germany and the UK all showed less than 5% uptake. During the trial we gathered feedback from authors to understand their motivations for choosing either single- or double-blind peer review. We found that those who chose double-blind, perceived this option to be more fair and all said they would choose it again next time they submit. Those who opted for single-blind peer review did so because of familiarity with the process, with a small proportion saying they would chose double-blind next time.

Authors are responsible for anonymising their own manuscripts, and we found that a significant portion of manuscripts were not fully anonymised, in many cases due to author and/or affiliation details being present in the main article. This is something we want to explore further to see if there are actions we can take to increase the proportion of manuscripts that are fully anonymised. If you do want to choose double-blind peer review for your submission, guidelines for successfully anonymising your manuscript can be found in our handy checklist along with more detailed guidelines for authors and reviewers.

Overall, our findings suggest that the quality of the reviews received was comparable for both single- and double-blind review and author satisfaction levels were also equal for both. Although it is unclear at this stage whether double-blind peer review truly reduces bias during the peer review process, it has been clear to us that there is strong advocacy for it from some members of our community. Therefore, we want to continue offering our authors at ChemComm a choice and therefore the option to choose double-blind peer review will remain as a permanent feature.

We continue to welcome your comments and feedback and encourage you to try double-blind peer review for your next submission.

¹Elisa De Ranieri et al. Analysis of Uptake and Outcome in Author-Selected Single-blind vs Double-blind Peer Review at Nature Journals https://peerreviewcongress.org/prc17-0305

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PCET 2018 – a successful gathering for the chemistry community

27 Jul 2018

The 3rd International Conference on Proton Coupled Electron Transfer (PCET) was held recently from 10 – 14 June in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, USA. The meeting was a great success and one that ChemComm was very happy to support.

There were 128 attendees overall included attendees spanning 15 countries. The topics of the 81 posters and 34 talks presented covered all areas of Chemistry, one of which was presented by Ken Sakai, Kyushu University and sponsored by ChemComm.

The 4th PCET meeting will be held in 2021 in Catalonia, Spain, and will be hosted by Toni Llobet.

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An enzymatic Rube Goldberg machine: a bioluminescent switch for the detection of uracil DNA-glycosylase

06 Jul 2018

A team of researchers from Shandong Normal University in Jinan, China, have developed a highly sensitive and label-free assay for the detection of uracil-DNA glycosylase, a DNA repair enzyme that removes uracil from DNA molecules. Uracil is an RNA base, and when uracil appears in DNA through deamination of cytosine or misincorporation during DNA synthesis, the error can have mutagenic consequences.

Diminished activity of uracil-DNA glycosylase has been linked to a number of disease states including human immunodeficiency and Bloom syndrome, an inherited disorder associated with an increased risk of cancer (among other symptoms). Developing sensitive methods to quantify uracil-DNA glycosylase would enable early diagnosis of such conditions and improve understanding of the DNA-repair machinery. As a proof-of-concept, the researchers showed that this method could quantify the enzyme in the cell lysate of HeLa cancer cells.

Their method reminds me of Rube Goldberg machines, which achieve a task via a series of connected, mechanical steps. Completion of one step triggers the start of another: such as a line of falling dominos hitting a marble that, in turn, rolls down a track. In this work the action of one enzyme returns a product that is the preferred substrate of another enzyme. At the risk of deviating slightly, one of the more spectacular examples of a Rube Goldberg machine is seen in the music video for OK GO’s ‘this too shall pass’, a single-take shoot of a warehouse sized machine, featuring rolling cars, swinging pianos, flowing water and rolling billiard balls, all to perform the task of (spoiler alert) blasting the band members in the face with coloured paint.

The label-free strategy for detecting uracil-DNA glycosylase results in a bioluminescent signal via tricyclic signal amplification

The strategy starts with the action of uracil-DNA glycosylase and ends with a bioluminescent signal via a cascade of enzymatic reactions

The authors’ strategy involves a series of sequential steps employing seven different enzymes and three nucleic acid probes. It begins with a double stranded DNA probe containing one rogue uracil base: the perfect bait for uracil-DNA glycosylase. The action of this enzyme and two others, in a process involving base excision, DNA backbone cleavage and the addition of thymine-rich sequences, produces a large quantity of single-stranded DNA molecules with long thymine-rich tails. These molecules hybridise with adenine-rich RNA probes to generate RNA-DNA duplexes. An enzyme digests the RNA portion, releasing adenosine monophosphate monomers, which are converted to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a required energy input to activate firefly luciferase. Luciferase catalyses the oxidation of luciferin to form oxyluciferin, accompanied by a large bioluminescent signal. Thus, uracil-DNA glycosylase is detected with 1-2 orders of magnitude more sensitivity than state-of-the-art fluorescent and luminescent assays.

Unlike conventional Rube Goldberg machines, which are characterised by unnecessary complexity, in this ‘enzymatic Rube Goldberg machine’ each step has a specific purpose and serves to amplify the signal of the last. This is dubbed ‘tricyclic cascade signal amplification’ and it enables highly sensitive detection of the enzyme.

To find out more please read:

Label-free and high-throughput bioluminescence detection of uracil-DNA glycosylase in cancer cells through tricyclic cascade signal amplification

Yan Zhang, Qing-nan Li, Chen-chen Li, Chen-yang Zhang.
Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 6991-6994
DOI: 10.1039/c8cc03769h

About the author

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Come for the colour changing crystals, stay for the science

31 May 2018

Synthesis of copper bimetallic complexes from imidazolyl ligands, and the solvatochromic materials formed upon crystallization and solvent guest-exchange. The solvatochromic behaviour was quantified with visible-region diffuse reflectance spectra.

During the first inorganic chemistry course I took during my undergraduate degree, our professor started the class by passing around some mineral samples, promising us that if we pursued the chemistry of metals we could work with beautifully coloured crystals every day. At the time, colour seemed like such a trite detail amongst the complexity of the subject. Why would you choose a field of study based on something so simple? Well, after a PhD dominated by pale yellow oils, I think I get it now.

Nikolayenko and Barbour at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa bring us colour! The authors synthesised organometallic copper complexes, which crystallise to form porous single crystals that drastically change colour upon absorption of various solvents. The authors investigated the solvatochromic mechanism using X-ray crystallography, EPR, UV-visible spectroscopy and DFT calculations. Solvatochromic materials are not just made to look pretty; they have potential to be used as sensitive, selective and recyclable sensors to detect solvent vapours with useful applications in industrial process risk management, chemical threat detection and environmental monitoring.

The researchers synthesised a series of complexes comprised of a bidentate ligand with 2-methylimidazolyl groups coordinated to copper(II) ions. The complexes stack to form channels in the crystal, capable of trapping solvent molecules to give different coloured crystals: DMSO and THF-containing crystals are green (λ_max = 574 nm and 540 nm, respectively), those containing acetonitrile are red (λ_max = 624 nm), and crystals trapping acetone, ether and pentane are yellow (λ_max = 588), orange (λ_max = 598 nm) and red/brown (λ_max = 592 nm), respectively.

The authors revealed a correlation between the size of the solvent guest, coordination geometry of the copper complex, and the ligand field splitting. Small guests such as acetonitrile minimally perturb the metallocyclic framework, preserving a rhombic ligand field geometry (large δ_xy of g values in the EPR spectrum), small ligand d-orbital splitting and red-shifted optical spectra. Large guests such as THF have the opposite effect, giving ligand field geometries approaching tetragonal (small δ_xy), large ligand field d-orbital splitting and blue-shifted optical spectra.

By delving into the complexity beneath a seemingly simple phenomenon, Nikolayenko, Barbour and their co-workers have shown using a series of single-crystal complexes that there is nothing simple about colour (and nothing trite about detail).

To find out more please read:

Supramolecular solvatochromism: mechanistic insight from crystallography, spectroscopy, and theory

Varvara I. Nikolayenko, Lisa M. van Wyk, Orde Q. Munro, Leonard J. Barbour.
Chem. Commun., 2018, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/c8cc02197j

About the author

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4th International Conference on Scanning Probe Microscopy on Soft and Polymer Materials

24 Apr 2018

We are proud to reveal that ChemComm will be sponsoring the 4^th International Conference on Scanning Probe Microscopy on Soft and Polymeric Materials (SPMonSPM). This symposium will be held on the 20 – 24 August in Leuven (Belgium) and will cover research on SPM applied to soft matter, polymeric materials and biological systems. The conference will include a short course, plenary lectures, a range of talks and dedicated poster sessions on topics across this field.

Registration is currently open and the early bird registration deadline is the 1^st May!

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Chemical Communications Blog

Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

EuroBIC 14

ChemComm and Chemical Science Poster Prize winners at the 28th International Symposium on the Organic Chemistry of Sulfur

HOT ChemComm articles for August

MOFS, ZMOFS and Automobiles

HOT ChemComm articles for July

ChemComm to keep double-blind peer review option

PCET 2018 – a successful gathering for the chemistry community

An enzymatic Rube Goldberg machine: a bioluminescent switch for the detection of uracil DNA-glycosylase

Come for the colour changing crystals, stay for the science

4th International Conference on Scanning Probe Microscopy on Soft and Polymer Materials

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