Chemical Communications Blog

We are excited to share the success of Kate Marczenko’s first-time independent article in ChemComm; “Polymorph driven diversification of photosalient responses in a zinc(ii) coordination complex” included in the full milestones collection. 

Read our interview with Kate below.

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

We are very interested in exploiting intra- and inter-molecular design strategies for imparting stability, unusual reactivity, and/or targeted responses in molecular crystals. This direction is largely built from my continuing interest in crystallography and structure-property relationships. Crystal structures contain a wealth of information that can reveal unique insights into the behavior and applications of crystalline materials. By understanding these structures, we can tailor their performance in various applications, such as stimuli-responsive materials, energy conversion, and sensing technologies. Our research aims to utilize these structure-property relationships to develop innovative crystalline materials.

Can you set this article in a wider context?

Light-responsive materials have gained significant attention in materials science due to their dynamic properties under light stimuli. They are valuable for diverse applications such as energy storage, biomaterials, sensing, and actuation. Recent studies have focused on tailoring the actuating properties of functional molecular crystals to regulate dynamic properties, including the Photosalient Effect (PSE). The PSE results from sudden and rapid observable actuation of crystalline materials in response to light. The degree, or magnitude, of the PSE is closely related to structural transformations during the photochemical reaction. However, details pertaining to these transformations are difficult to ascertain due to significant disintegration of the material and loss of crystallinity accompanying the PSE.

This article presents a novel phase of a Zn(II) coordination complex that undergoes a photochemical [2+2] cycloaddition reaction via one of its 1-(4-naphthylvinyl)pyridine ligands in the solid state. This transformation is accompanied by (i) a moderate photosalient effect and (ii) a single-crystal to single-crystal transition, allowing for continuous monitoring of the unit-cell parameters and therefore internal crystalline strain. Our novel form highlights the importance of structure-property relationships and serves as a bridge in understanding the diversification of photo-mechanical responses among polymorphs of the same compound. This work highlights the role of polymorphs in fine-tuning the magnitude of the PSE and challenges previous notions about the necessity of substantial anisotropic changes for observable photomechanical effects.

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

The next year will be very exciting for me professionally and personally! I am expecting my first child and will be taking some time off for parental leave. I hope this inspires people in STEM to continuously reach for fulfillment in all aspects of their life (whatever that may look like!). I also hope my lab can continue to find excitement and make strides in understanding and manipulating crystal structures to unlock new functionalities and applications.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

I obtained my B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Guelph (2016) and a M.Sc. in Inorganic Chemistry from McMaster University (2018). My Master’s research focused on transforming shock-sensitive xenon oxides to shock-insensitive materials. In 2018, I moved to Atlantic Canada to complete my Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry at Dalhousie University (2021). My Ph.D. research examined the chemistry of heavy Group 15 amides. In 2021, I returned to the University of Guelph as a Crystallographer and Instructor. I started my independent career at Carleton University (Ottawa, ON) a little less than 2 years later, on June 1, 2023.

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

Ironically, the best advice I’ve ever gotten is to not take every piece of advice I hear. Instead, I should pick and choose what works for me. By doing this, I’ve found that I can carve out my own path, using the advice that really fits with my own experiences and goals.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?

I chose to publish in ChemComm because it is an internationally recognized journal with a strong reputation within the field of chemistry. Its broad readership ensures that our research reaches a diverse and influential audience, which we hope will promote new collaborations.

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​Kate Marczenko obtained her B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Guelph (Guelph, ON). She completed an honours project in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Denk and held a work placement in the laboratory of Prof. Dmitriy Soldatov. Subsequently, Kate obtained a M.Sc. in noble gas and fluorine Chemistry under the supervision of Prof. Gary Schrobilgen at McMaster University (Hamilton, ON). She worked on transforming shock-sensitive xenon oxides to shock-insensitive materials. In 2018, Kate moved to Eastern Canada to join the group of Prof. Saurabh Chitnis at Dalhousie University (Halifax, NS). Her Ph.D. thesis examined the chemistry of heavy Group 15 amides. In 2021, Kate returned to the University of Guelph as a Crystallographer and Instructor. Kate started at Carleton University (Ottawa, ON) on June 1, 2023.

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We are excited to share the success of Arnaud Thevenon’s first-time independent article in ChemComm; “A π-extended β-diketiminate ligand via a templated Scholl approach“ included in the full milestones collection. 

Read our interview with Arnaud below.

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

Catalysis is playing and will play an essential role in the energy, resource, and material transitions that our society is facing. In my research group, we aim at developing new concepts in thermo- / electro- / photo-chemical catalysis to contribute to these transitions. Our main research areas cover three topics: 1) exploring homogeneous molecular mimics of Single Atom Catalysts for the electrochemical conversion of small molecules; 2) developing new catalysts to convert waste and renewable feedstocks into polymers that are intrinsically circular by design; 3) creating new (electro/photochemical) post-polymerization modification methods to incorporate new functionalities into polymers.

Can you set this article in a wider context?

The discovery of Single Atom Catalysts (SACs) is one of the most exciting recent breakthroughs in the realm of (electro-)catalysis. Constituted of isolated, individual transition metal atoms dispersed on, and/or coordinated with, the surface of a heterogeneous support, SACs enable the reasonable use of abundant metal resources and facilitate atom economy. Nowadays, they are widely used to catalyze many thermo-, photo- and electrochemical reactions (e.g., small molecules conversion, biomass valorization). However, the development of SACs with higher performances (e.g., new selectivity profile, higher activity) is now facing a wall. The heterogeneity of their active sites precludes mechanistic studies and the understanding of the structure/activity/selectivity relationship remain obscure. More precisely, it is still unknown how the coordination environment of active sites and how support/active site interactions affect the final performance of a SAC during a chemical reaction. In this project, we aim at creating molecular models of active sites of SAC and investigate their reactivity in presence of small molecules such as CO₂ to shed light on the synergy between the extended 𝛑-system and the metal center during catalysis.

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

In the coming year, I hope we will make good progress in investigating/understanding the reactivity of first row transition metals coordinated to our benzo[f,g]tetracene BDI ligand in presence of various small molecules under reductive conditions.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

My journey to becoming an independent researcher started at EPFL. During my undergraduate studies, I worked with Prof. Gabor Laurenczy on the Ru-catalyzed decomposition of formic acid. I then had the chance to conduct my Master thesis in the group of Prof. Paula Diaconescu, at UCLA, on redox-active catalysts for the polymerization of cyclic lactones. I subsequently moved to the University of Oxford, in the group of Prof. Charlotte K. Williams, where I obtained my PhD on the development of main group catalysts for the synthesis of oxygenated polymers. After completion of my PhD in 2018, I joined the group of Prof. Theodor Agapie at Caltech as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow. My research focused on the development of hybrid heterogeneous Cu electrodes for the electroconversion of CO₂-to-fuels. At the end of 2020, I moved back to Europe to complete my Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowship in the group of Prof. Stefan Mecking, at the University of Konstanz, where I worked on the development of catalysts for olefin polymerization. Since August 2021, I joined the Organic Chemistry and Catalysis group as an assistant professor.

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

At the start of my PhD degree, I received a birthday card from my daily supervisor, Dr. Jennifer Garden, with a quote: “Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae fuit”, attributed to Seneca. I console myself with that quote every time I come up with the next (unrealistic) Friday afternoon experiment to try!

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?

I chose to publish in ChemComm due to its high visibility and reputation within the scientific community.

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Arnaud Thevenon is an Assistant Professor at Utrecht University. He received his PhD (2018) from the University of Oxford under the supervision of Prof. Charlotte K. Williams. He was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral researcher at Caltech (2018-2021) in the group of Prof. Theodor Agapie and the University of Konstanz (2021) in the group of Prof. Stefan Mecking before joining Utrecht University in 2021. His research interest includes the development of homogeneous thermo/electrocatalysts for small molecules, biomass, and waste (plastic) valorization as well as the development of novel polymers that are intrinsically circular by design.

Explore more ChemComm Milestones news and updates on our X Feed (@ChemCommun) and LinkedIn (ChemComm Journal)

We are excited to share the success of Showkat Rashid’s first-time independent article in ChemComm; “Chemoselective oxidation of aromatic aldehydes to carboxylic acids: potassium tert-butoxide as an anomalous source of oxygen“ included in the full milestones collection. 

Read our interview with Showkat below.

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

Our lab is primarily focused on the synthesis of bioactive natural products having therapeutic potential against diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and AMR. Additionally, scalable synthesis of drugs/drug-like molecules, and the development of novel methodologies for building complexities are also pursued in our lab. During my high school days, I got the opportunity to watch some chemical reactions carried out by our science teacher which was highly fascinating to me. The impact of that exposure at the school level was so deep and I used to make crude soap from cooking oil and caustic soda at home. This interest in chemical reactions remained throughout my academic journey and motivated me to be an organic chemist.

Can you set this article in a wider context?

Carboxylic acids and their derivatives like esters, amides, and anhydrides represent quintessential building blocks for pharmaceutical, agrochemical, and polymer industries. The main chemical transformation to access carboxylic acids is the oxidation of corresponding aldehydes and these oxidations have been primarily implemented using stoichiometric amounts of various metal-based oxidants. Considering their serious toxicity issues, nascent H2O2 oxidations,
organocatalytic oxidations, and NHC-based oxidations have also emerged. Despite their promise, these methods suffer several limitations in terms of high catalyst loading, longer reaction times, limited substrate scope, and operational complexities.

Most of these reported methods utilize diverse primary or secondary oxidants (as oxygen sources) and proceed through Criegee intermediate which is difficult to handle, especially at an industrial scale. Any oxidation strategy that averts such an intermediate is highly desired. In this context, we have disclosed an unprecedented potassium tert-butoxide-mediated oxidation protocol for the conversion of aromatic/heteroaromatic aldehydes to their corresponding carboxylic acids. Interestingly, this method uses KOtBu as an oxygen source, and can easily oxidize a range of aldehydes to carboxylic acids under ambient conditions. The extraordinary chemoselectivity displayed by this method to oxidize a relatively less preferred functional group in the presence of more oxidation-prone functional group/s highlights the advantage of this protocol over the methods reported so far. Operational simplicity, fast reaction kinetics, fair substrate scope, and gram-scale operations are some of the highlights of this method.

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

In the coming year, we are committed to exploring novel strategies for assembling complex natural products and drug-like molecules. New reactions involving a high level of selectivity and economy will be our prime focus.

Describe your journey to becoming an independent researcher.

Formally my research career started with the M. Phil degree enrolled at the University of Kashmir-Srinagar and I was fortunate enough to have worked with Dr. Bilal A. Bhat at the CSIR-IIIM Srinagar. My initial training was in medicinal chemistry and, exploration of plant-derived bioactive compounds against cancer. Subsequently, I joined Dr. Bhat for my doctoral studies and worked on a collaborative research project between Dr. Bhat and Prof. Goverdhan Mehta in the area of Natural product synthesis at the University of Hyderabad. During this time, I got trained in multistep synthesis and eventually completed the total synthesis of several complex bioactive natural/non-natural compounds. After completing my doctoral studies in 2019, I did my initial postdoctoral training with Prof. Mehta at the University of Hyderabad, and later in 2020 moved to Prof. Shinichi Saito’s research group at Tokyo University of Science-Japan, wherein my research was oriented toward the design and synthesis of rotaxane based molecular machines. My journey to an independent researcher began in 2022 when I joined the Natural Product and Medicinal Chemistry Division (NPMCD) of IIIM Jammu as a senior scientist and my present research interests are centered on the synthesis of bioactive natural products of medicinal importance and development of new organic transformations.

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

Both of my Ph.D. supervisors, Dr. Bhat and Prof. Mehta trained me to be more realistic in life. Their advice used to be “There is no free lunch in life” and “It is always better to have one bird in the hand than two in the bush”.

Why did you choose to publish in ChemComm?

I believe that ChemComm is one of the highly reputed chemistry journals with a wide readership across all the disciplines of chemical science. In addition to being a competitive platform for novel and application-oriented research findings, the highly systematic and robust nature in terms of publishing these ideas are some of the factors that attracted me to publish in ChemComm.

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Dr. Showkat Rashid is currently working as a senior scientist at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (IIIM) Jammu-India. He pursued his Bachelor of Science, Master of Science, and M.Phil. in chemistry from the University of Kashmir, Srinagar. Subsequently, he joined Dr. Bilal A. Bhat (Principal Scientist, IIIM-Srinagar) for his Ph.D. program and worked under a collaborative research project between Dr. Bhat and Prof. Goverdhan Mehta in the area of Natural product synthesis. His doctoral research encompassed diverse areas of contemporary interest in synthetic organic and medicinal chemistry. After completing his doctoral studies in 2019, Dr. Showkat did his initial postdoctoral training with Prof. Goverdhan Mehta at the University of Hyderabad, with a prime focus on the synthesis of complex bioactive natural products and molecules of human imagination. Later on, in 2020 he moved to Prof. Shinichi Saito’s research group at Tokyo University of Science-Japan, wherein his research was oriented towards the design and synthesis of molecular machines. These studies eventually led to the synthesis of novel fluorenone-based [2]-rotaxanes with potential applications as smart drug delivery systems. While in Japan, Dr. Showkat was awarded the prestigious start-up research grant by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), Japan for the year 2022-2023. At CSIR-IIIM Jammu, Dr. Showkat’s research interests are tuned towards the total synthesis of bioactive natural products/drugs, new methods for building complexity, and multistep synthesis of biologically privileged scaffolds having the potential to combat Alzheimer’s disease and antimicrobial resistance.

Explore more ChemComm Milestones news and updates on our X Feed (@ChemCommun) and LinkedIn (ChemComm Journal)