Chemical Communications Blog

For clean water, just add sunlight

27 Jun 2012

Capillaries coated on the inside with photocatalytic materials induced a photocatalytic reaction by pulling up a solution under the action of capillary forces

Researchers from Japan have developed a photocatalytic reactor for a water purifier that does not require batteries. Rather than using an external power source to pump water through the reactor, the system uses diffusion and capillary action to achieve an entirely non-electric reactor.

In addition to water purification itself, it is also important to ensure a constant and efficient transfer of contaminated water into the reactor and clean water out. This is normally achieved by an electric or fuel pump, but in areas where the power supply is often disrupted or is scarce, another approach is needed.

Read the full article in Chemistry World

Link to journal article
Novel Photocatalytic Microreactor Bundle that does not Require an Electric Power Source
K Katayama, Y Takeda and S Kuwahara
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc33525e

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A new catalyst for asymmetric aziridination

26 Jun 2012

By Alice E. Williamson.

Aziridines are used extensively as intermediates for organic synthesis. The strained three-membered heterocycles reveal amino groups on ring-opening and therefore provide access to a variety of useful products. Enantioselective methods for forming aziridine rings are highly desirable because enantiopure amino-compounds represent important targets for both natural product synthesis and in the discovery of novel therapeutics.

Researchers from Kyushu University in Japan have reported a newly designed Ru(CO)salen complex (4), which acts as an efficient catalyst for asymmetric aziridination of alkenes.

Reaction of olefinic substrates (1) with 2-(trimethylsilyl)ethanesulfonyl (SES) protected azide (2) in the presence of the Ru(CO)salen complex 4 afforded enantioenriched aziridine products. 4 efficiently decomposes azides under ambient conditions and also catalyses asymmetric aziridination.

Judicious selection of an appropriate azide protecting-group also influenced the design of the catalyst. The researchers chose to include an appropriately located C–F bond within the ligand in order to improve tolerance of 4 to reacting electrophiles.

Low catalyst loadings enabled the highly enantioselective azirdination of a variety of substrates possessing conjugated or non-conjugated terminal or cyclic olefins.

Find out more – download the communication for free for a limited period.

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Additional benefit of cancer drug

21 Jun 2012

By Rachel Blakeburn.

A new clinically used cancer drug thought to work by inhibiting kinase enzymes also strongly inhibits carbonic anhydrase (CA) enzymes, reveal scientists in Italy.

Scientists did not evaluate the CA inhibition activity of pazopanib before its approval for the treatment of a variety of different cancers, including lung, breast and ovarian cancers. But Claudiu Supuran and colleagues recognised part of the drug’s structure – a primary sulfonamide moiety – is often found in drugs that can inhibit CAs. So they tested pazopanib along with some other related structures and found that the drug did indeed inhibit CAs. They estimate that a significant proportion of the drug’s therapeutic effect on hypoxic tumors is due to its strong CA inhibitory properties.

Link to journal article
Polypharmacology of sulfonamides: Pazopanib, a multitargeted receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor in clinical use, potently inhibits several mammalian carbonic anhydrases
J-Y Winum et al
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc33415a

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The Viewpoint: Help us with 100 years of ChemComm history!

18 Jun 2012

By Ross McLaren, Development Editor.

100 Viewpoints spanning 100 years of ChemComm history to celebrate 100 issues!

This year ChemComm became the first chemistry journal to move to 100 issues per year. To celebrate this achievement, the journal is launching a new article type – the Viewpoint – with the aim of publishing 100 of these very high profile articles over the coming months.

Each of the 100 Viewpoint articles will aim to reflect upon the impact and influence of some of the most renowned papers that ChemComm (or its predecessor journals) have published over the last 100 years but we need help from the community in determining which articles have been the most influential.

Although Chemical Communications was officially launched in 1996, the roots of the journal go much further back through its predecessors – all the way to 1862 with the Journal of the Chemical Society. In the last 100 years, we’ve published close to 100000 articles, with well over 1000 of these articles coming from Nobel laureates alone!

Trying to determine which articles have been the most influential is going to be a massive challenge which will require the help of the entire chemical community – after all, the community is the best judge of what has been truly influential.

We think we’ve managed to come up with some examples of papers that we feel have been significant enough to deserve a Viewpoint:

Hideki Shirakawa, Edwin J. Louis, Chwan K Chiang, Alan J Heeger and Alan G MacDiarmid’s 1977 communication reporting the first electrically conductive polymers.
Neil Bartlett’s publication in 1962 reporting the world’s first noble gas compound, xenon hexafluoroplatinate.
Mathias Brust, Merryl Walker, Donald Bethell, David J. Schiffrin and Robin Whyman’s 1994 communication on the functionalisation of gold nanoparticles with a thiol coating on the surface – ChemComm’s most cited paper of all time!
Geoffrey Wilkinson’s 1965 paper reporting a rhodium catalyst for the hydroformylation of alkenes.

Our hope is that the Viewpoint articles will really engage our readers from across the chemical sciences and will shed a personal light on some truly influential chemistry that we have published over the last 10 decades!

We would love it if you could e-mail us or tweet us (@ChemCommun) your suggestions of which articles (or even small group of seminal articles on one subject) from 1912 onwards, have been key to the development or history of chemistry.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.

History of Chemical Communications 1862 – Present

Journal of the Chemical Society (1862 – 1877)

Journal of the Chemical Society, Transactions (1878 – 1925)

Journal of the Chemical Society (resumed) (1926 – 1965)

Chemical Communications (London) (1965-1968)

Journal of the Chemical Society D: Chemical Communications (1969 – 1971)

Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communications (1972-1995)

Chemical Communications (1996 – Present).

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Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines – free access to articles for limited period

13 Jun 2012

By Joanne Thomson.

ChemComm Editor Robert Eagling will be attending the seventh International Conference on Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines (ICPP-7) in Jeju, Korea on 1-6 July 2012.

Two of the conference co-chairs – ChemComm Associate Editor Jonathan Sessler and Changhee Lee from Kangwon National University – are the guest editors of ChemComm‘s Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines web theme issue, along with ChemComm Editorial Board member Penny Brothers.

To celebrate this exciting and vibrant area of research, we have made the whole of our Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines web theme FREE to access until 6th July. So don’t delay – view the web theme today!

Will you be attending ICPP-7? Email Robert if you’d like to arrange a meeting. Post your comments on the conference or the web theme below or tweet us @ChemCommun.

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Lighting the way to explosive detection

13 Jun 2012

By Rachel Blakeburn.

A mesoporous material functionalised with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens serves as an efficient and recyclable fluorescent sensor to detect picric acid (PA) in water

A reusable fluorescent sensor that detects explosives in groundwater or seawater could aid antiterrorist activities and environmental protection, say scientists in China.

Many techniques have been used to detect explosives, including gas chromatography, Raman spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy. The latter is considered the most useful because of its simplicity, high sensitivity and low cost. With this technique, fluorescent dyes are incorporated into a solid matrix on which they interact with the explosive molecules, causing them to fluoresce.

However, the dyes often aggregate within the matrix, leading to a substantial decrease in fluorescence, known as quenching. This loss of efficiency and sensitivity motivated the discovery of molecules whose fluorescence is turned on by aggregation rather than suppressed. Materials based on such aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens (luminescent compounds) have shown promise in explosive detection in organic solvents. Dispersion in aqueous solution has, until recently, proven difficult.

Read the full article in Chemistry World

Link to journal article
Supersensitive detection of explosives by recyclable AIE luminogen-functionalized mesoporous materials
Dongdong Li, Jianzhao Liu, Ryan T. K. Kwok, Zhiqiang Liang, Ben Zhong Tang and Jihong Yu
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC31890C, Communication

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Outstanding organocatalysis – An article collection

13 Jun 2012

By Joanne Thomson.

A collection of high impact articles on organocatalysis from the RSC’s ChemComm, Catalysis Science & Technology, Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry (OBC) and Chem Soc Rev

Catalysts are key to some of the most important reactions on the planet; a world without the Haber process or catalysts to crack crude oil is difficult to imagine. Not to mention the enzymatic reactions that are crucial to all life on earth.

Organocatalysts are an important class of catalyst and consist of carbon-based molecules often functionalised with oxygen, sulfur, nitrogen or phosphorus. They have shown promise in a range of reactions including hydrogenation, Diels-Alder, Michael and Mannich reactions, and are of particular interest in asymmetric reactions.

To help keep you up-to-date with the latest in cutting-edge organocatalytic research we have made the following articles free to access until 9^th July. After reading all these there will be little you won’t know about the exciting world of organocatalysis!

Click here for the full list of free articles

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Mirrors to improve dye sensitised solar cell performance

11 Jun 2012

By Rachel Blakeburn.

Mirror-like nanoparticles can boost the efficiency of solar cells. Scientists in Australia coated a solar cell’s TiO₂ photoanode with cubic cerium oxide nanoparticles. The nanoparticles’ large mirror-like facets are good at scattering light back onto the TiO₂ nanoparticles, resulting in a 17.8% improvement in the power conversion efficiency compared to regular dye sensitised solar cells.

Link to journal article
Cubic CeO₂ Nanoparticles as Mirror-like Scattering Layer for Efficient Light Harvesting in Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Lianzhou Wang
Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/c2cc32239k

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Challenging the consensus on nanotube electrochemistry

08 Jun 2012

By Rachel Blakeburn.

Field emission-scanning electron microscopy image of a single walled carbon nanotube forest

UK scientists have shown that the sidewalls and closed ends of carbon nanotubes can support fast electron transfer, challenging the belief that they are electrochemically inert.

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have wide ranging electrochemical applications for sensing and energy. Forests of vertically aligned CNTs have been proposed for use as electrodes, but it was thought that the inert sidewalls would have to be insulated and the ends opened to allow electron transfer.

Scientists from the University of Warwick have now challenged this position by showing that the sidewalls and closed ends of CNTs can support fast electron transfer.

See the full article in Chemistry World

Link to journal article
Electrochemistry at carbon nanotube forests: sidewalls and closed ends allow fast electron transfer
Thomas S. Miller, Neil Ebejer, Aleix G. Güell, Julie V. Macpherson and Patrick R. Unwin
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC32890A, Communication

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Chemical Communications Blog

For clean water, just add sunlight

A new catalyst for asymmetric aziridination

Additional benefit of cancer drug

Top ten most accessed articles in May

The Viewpoint: Help us with 100 years of ChemComm history!

Porphyrins and Phthalocyanines – free access to articles for limited period

Lighting the way to explosive detection

Outstanding organocatalysis – An article collection

Mirrors to improve dye sensitised solar cell performance

Challenging the consensus on nanotube electrochemistry

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