Chemical Communications Blog

Artificial enzyme outperforms nature

01 Dec 2011

Scientists from China and the US have made an artificial enzyme that may provide new hope for the treatment of Lou Gehrig’s disease (a degenerative neuromuscular disease that destroys nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord). In tests, the apoferritin–CeO₂ nanocomposite cleared harmful reactive oxygen species – which have been linked to the disease – in living cells better than the natural antioxidant enzyme superoxide dismutase.

Reference:
Apoferritin-CeO₂ nano-truffle that has excellent artificial redox enzyme activity
X Liu, W Wei, Q Yuan, X Zhang, N Li, Y Du, G Ma, C Yan and D Ma, Chem. Commun., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1cc15815e

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Scattering layer for dye-sensitised solar cells

28 Nov 2011

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

We are all aware how important it is to find new improved ways to generate sustainable energy. One very promising candidate is the dye-sensitised solar cell which is particularly attractive due to its low production cost and mechanical robustness.

Scientists from East China Normal University have found a way to increase the efficiency of dye-sensitised solar cells by introducing an additional layer on top of the TiO₂ photoanode. The extra layer, made up of Y₃Al₅O₁₂:Ce down-converting microparticles, causes the conversion efficiency to increase from 6.97% to 7.91%.

SEM image of the Y₃Al₅O₁₂:Ce layer and the J-V curves for the solar cell with and without the additional layer

Likun Pan and his team have attributed this improved performance to the increased light absorbing and scattering properties of the microparticle layer (meaning more suitable photons are available for absorption by the dye) and reduced electron transfer resistance.

Download the ChemComm article to read more about the fabrication of Pan’s solar cell device.

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REMINDER: Approaching deadline for ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship

28 Nov 2011

By Joanne Thomson.

Recognising and rewarding the very best emerging talent within the chemical sciences

***DEADLINE FOR NOMINATIONS: 9th DECEMBER 2011***

We are delighted to invite nominations for the 2^nd ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship, which is awarded annually, will recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career.

To qualify
To be eligible for the ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship, the candidate should have completed their PhD on or after 5th September 2003.

The candidate should also have published at least one article in ChemComm during the course of their independent career.

Award details
The recipient of the award will be invited to present a lecture at three different locations over a 12 month period. It is expected that at least one of the locations will be a conference. The recipient will receive a contribution of £1500 towards travel and accommodation costs. S/he will also be presented with a certificate and be asked to contribute a ChemComm Feature Article.

Nominations
Those wishing to make a nomination should send the following details to the ChemComm Editorial Office by 9th December 2011:

Recommendation letter, including the name, contact details and website URL of the nominee.
A one page CV for the nominee, including their date of birth, summary of education and career, list of up to five independent publications, total numbers of publications and patents and other indicators of esteem and evidence of independence.
A copy of the candidate’s best publication to date (as judged by the nominator).
Two supporting letters of recommendation from two independent referees. These should not be someone from the same institution or the candidate’s post doc or PhD supervisor.

The nominator and independent referees are requested to comment on the candidate’s presenting skills.

Please note that self nomination is not permitted.

Selection procedure
The ChemComm Editorial Board will draw up a short-list of candidates based on the information provided by the referees and nominator. Short-listed candidates will be asked to provide a supporting statement justifying why they deserve the award. The recipient of the award will then be selected and endorsed by the ChemComm Editorial Board.

Previous winner
2011 Dr Scott Dalgarno (Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK) – Find out about his Emerging Investigator Lecture tour in China

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Catalyst to wash tarnished metals in industry

24 Nov 2011

By Rachel Blakeburn.

A simple and cheap way to clean tarnished metals using a UV activated photocatalyst ink has been developed by UK scientists. Removing steel corrosion is a major concern in many industries. Most metals are thermodynamically unstable in air and aqueous solution but owe their durability to metal oxides that form on the surface. However, when the metal oxides thicken, it leads to contamination with undesirable corrosion products that need to be removed. Aggressive chemicals such as strong acids and chelating agents are usually required to remove them.

The photocatalyst ink was applied to the tarnished metal and then UV light was shone onto it. This produced conduction band electrons and valence band holes. An electron donor species in the ink reacted with the holes, leaving the photogenerated electrons to react with absorbed metal ions. The metal oxide layer could then be removed with water.

: Photographs of an annealed stainless steel coupon without (A) and with (B) a rectangle of the inks cast on its surface. UVA irradiation of sample B through a brass ‘TiO2’ template (C) revealed an image of the ‘TiO2’ template on the coupon, (D)

Reference:
Photocatalyst film and ink for cleaning tarnished metals
A Mills and D Hazafy, Chem. Commun., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1cc15774d

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One nanoparticle, two nanoparticles, three nanoparticles, four!

22 Nov 2011

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

Nanoparticles might be small but they frequent the pages of many a journal due to the ongoing boom in nanotechnology research. Whilst they are useful in a myriad of fields, it is still difficult to directly characterise these extraordinarily small entities. King among the visualisation techniques is electron microscopy but this often requires the isolation of the sample on a support – hardly sufficient for analysing a dynamic sample in solution! Dynamic light scattering is another potential technique but finds limitations when it comes to much smaller nanoparticle sizes.

Ideally, you want to be able to count and size individual nanoparticles at a rate which produces reliable statistics. To address this challenge, Richard Compton and his team, including Neil Rees and Yi-ge Zhou who conducted the experiments alongside Jeseelan Pillay, Robert Tshikhudo and Sibulelo Vilakazi from Mintek, Randburg, have used anodic particle coulometry (APC) to measure gold nanoparticle collisions with a glassy carbon microelectrode and thus count and size individual nanoparticles.

With the electrode potential set above +1.0 V, they were able to record oxidative Faradaic transients from nanoparticle collisions and calculate an average nanoparticle radius which compared extremely well to the radius obtained from scanning electron microscopy measurements. They were also able to observe nanoparticle aggregation, which holds great promise for monitoring dynamic aggregation reactions.

It shouldn’t be long before this technique is routinely used to gain more information on all sizes of metallic nanoparticles which are currently being used in a variety of applications.

Read the ChemComm article by Compton and team for more.

Posted on behalf of Iain Larmour, web science writer for ChemComm.

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Super-fast crystals

22 Nov 2011

By Fiona McKenzie, Executive Editor.

Using surface-enhanced crystallisation, scientists from Germany have established an unusually fast glass transition and polymorph transformation of a drug compound.

Identification of all solid forms of a pharmaceutical is important for drug delivery, due to the potential variability in the physical and chemical properties between amorphous and crystalline forms. The amorphous form of a compound is typically more soluble, but less stable than its crystalline counterpart. Not only that but different polymorphs of the crystalline compound can also have significantly different properties. To accurately characterise drug action, these polymorphs need to be identified.

Using small-scale crystallisation and in-situ Raman spectroscopic analysis of the antihypertensive drug, nifedipine, Franziska Emmerling and colleagues discovered an extraordinarily fast transition from the glassy amorphous state to the metastable β polymorph in less than a minute. The β polymorph is stable for less than ten minutes before transforming again, to the thermodynamically stable α polymorph.

The speed at which the transformations take place implies that classical diffusion is not responsible for the different polymorphs but could instead be the result of small intramolecular changes arising from a pre-ordered physical arrangement of the molecules.

In an industrial world where screening for solid drug forms is always leaning towards scale-reduction and time-reduction, three physical forms on a glass slide in less than twenty minutes is pretty impressive!

To find out more, download the ChemComm article.

Also of interest… Read Andrew Bond, U. Ramamurty, and Gautam Desiraju’s Chemical Science article on “Interaction anisotropy and shear instability of aspirin polymorphs established by nanoidentation“.

Posted on behalf of Scott McKellar, web science writer for ChemComm.

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40 days until 100 issues…

22 Nov 2011

By Joanne Thomson.

….and did you know….?

In 2005, ChemComm published a series of Focus Articles to celebrate its 40th anniversary. In the first Focus Article, Bert Meijer reviewed the career of Hans Wynberg, the author of the first ever ChemComm paper back in 1965. Coincidentally, Bert Meijer was the author of the first ever Chemical Science article in 2010.

Focus Articles aren’t the only ‘special’ article type to be published ChemComm. This year we’ve published a series of Highlights in Chemistry to celebrate the International Year of Chemistry. And next year, to celebrate our move to 100 issues, we’ll be introducing some exciting new content – stay tuned for our issue 1, 2012 Editorial to find out more!

Also of interest:
100 days to 100 issues
96 days until 100 issues…
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43 days until 100 issues…

18 Nov 2011

By Joanne Thomson.

….and did you know….?

43 is the number of cookies Editor Robert Eagling brought in to celebrate his last birthday. He assured us that this number was in no way linked to his age.

Also of interest
100 days to 100 issues
96 days until 100 issues…
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44 days until 100 issues…

18 Nov 2011

By Joanne Thomson.

….and did you know….?

ChemComm currently has 44 Advisory Editorial Board members, who, aside from being world-leading scientists, represent and promote ChemComm and advise the Editorial Board and authors on scientific matters. To find out who they are, visit the journal website.

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Chemical Communications Blog

Artificial enzyme outperforms nature

Scattering layer for dye-sensitised solar cells

REMINDER: Approaching deadline for ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship

Catalyst to wash tarnished metals in industry

One nanoparticle, two nanoparticles, three nanoparticles, four!

Super-fast crystals

40 days until 100 issues…

43 days until 100 issues…

44 days until 100 issues…

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