Congratulations to Rob Evans (University of Manchester, UK) who won the ChemComm poster prize at NMR-DG 2011 Postgraduate Meeting held earlier this summer at the University of Birmingham.
Rob presented his work entitled ‘Predicting Diffusion Coefficients for Small Molecules’. He receives a prize certificate and a one-year print subscription to ChemComm.
Scientists are trying to create molecular systems that mimic machinery components. The idea is for these molecular machines to exhibit mechanical movement once an external stimulus is applied.
With this in mind, Japanese researchers have grown crystals that bend upon shining UV light on them. The crystals are of a salicylideneaniline compound which changes its structure depending on the wavelength of light.
The molecular transformation from the enol to the trans-keto form causes the crystals to bend on the macroscopic scale, which is also accompanied by a colour change from pale yellow to reddish-orange. When the UV light is blocked, the crystals resume their initial straight form and colour. This reversible bending can be repeated for over 200 cycles.
To find out more, download Koshima’s ChemComm article.
Millions of people die each year from bacterial infections. Scientists have been searching for a low-cost way to quickly identify bacteria so disease can be diagnosed and treated at an early stage.
The chemosensors could be developed into quick, cheap and reliable reporters for early identification of bacteria in both patient samples and contaminated food, say the authors.
Want to find out more? Download Kool’s ChemComm communication to read more about how the chemosensors work. You might also be interested in the group’s recent Chemical Science Edge article, where they use fluorescent DNA to sense toxic gases.
Ionic liquid drugs can rapidly pass through the skin and may open the way to new, more effective medicines, say scientists in Australia. They could also be a solution to some of the most significant problems in the pharmaceutical industry, they say.
Ionic liquids (ILs) are amorphous compounds consisting of a cation-anion pair. One or both of the ions can be derived from pharmaceutically active compounds to create liquid forms of the drugs, which are more stable, soluble and bioavailable than the parent compounds. In some cases, the IL shows an enhanced pharmaceutical effect over the drugs from which it is derived. Also, being amorphous, ILs could be a solution to polymorphic interconversion, where one polymorph of a drug converts to another over time, which affects its properties.
The use of ILs has been limited because they don’t readily permeate skin and other biological membranes, thought to be because they are poorly soluble in lipids. Now, Jelena Stoimenovski and Douglas MacFarlane from Monash University have identified protic ionic liquids (PILs) – in which a pharmaceutically active acid is reacted with a biocompatible base to produce salts with dual activity – that can overcome this barrier.
Pharmaceutically active protic ionic liquids can permeate rapidly through model membranes as neutral hydrogen bonded clusters
Read the full Chemistry World article here
Link to Journal Article
Enhanced membrane transport of pharmaceutically active protic ionic liquids
Jelena Stoimenovski and Douglas R. MacFarlane
Chem. Commun., 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC14314J
Scientists based in Italy and Portugal have developed a new carrier system for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) based on yeast cell wall particles (YCWPs).
YCWPs are well tolerated in vivo because they have a cell wall based on a glucan polymer. However, previous attempts at using it as a carrier of hydrophilic and amphiphilic chemicals have failed due to the porous and hydrophilic nature of the membrane.
In this work the team, led by Enzo Terreno at the University of Turin, realised that they could use the YCWPs as microreactors. Once loaded with an imaging agent the particles were exposed to a sudden change in solvent polarity therefore forming a micro-emulsion inside the particles. Importantly this traps the imaging agent in the particle core.
When loaded with gadolinium, the particles were found to have an increased paramagnetic density and also enhanced relaxivity per paramagnetic centre. In all, this should lead to better contrast when used for imaging. In the future Terreno envisages potential applications in cell tracking experiments and particularly for cells found in the immune system.
Want to find out more? Then download the full ChemComm article for free today.
The countdown to 2012 has begun. There are only 100 days until ChemComm more than doubles its frequency to 100 issues per year.
To celebrate the countdown to this exciting change, we’ll be featuring some numerical ChemComm trivia over the coming weeks.
Did you know?……
100 is the number of citations Zhang-Jie Shi’s 2010 Feature article on Pd-catalyzed oxidative coupling with organometallic reagents via C–H activation has received (according to Web of ScienceSM).
Find out more about the move to 100 issues >
This month sees the following articles in ChemComm that are in the top ten most accessed:-
A pyrene-based fluorescent sensor for Zn2+ ions: a molecular ‘butterfly’
Erendra Manandhar, J. Hugh Broome, Jalin Myrick, Whitney Lagrone, Peter J. Cragg and Karl J. Wallace
Chem. Commun. , 2011, 47, 8796-8798, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC13286E
Highly selective ion probe for Al3+ based on Au(i)-Au(i) interactions in a bis-alkynyl calix[4]arene Au(i) isocyanide scaffold
Franky Ka-Wah Hau, Xiaoming He, Wai Han Lam and Vivian Wing-Wah Yam
Chem. Commun. , 2011, 47, 8778-8780, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12677F
Nanostructured MnO2: an efficient and robust water oxidation catalyst
Venkata Bharat Ram Boppana and Feng Jiao
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 8973-8975, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12258D
Direct amidation of azoles with formamides via metal-free C–H activation in the presence of tert-butyl perbenzoate
Tao He, Hongji Li, Pinhua Li and Lei Wang
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 8946-8948, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC13086B
A facile one-pot synthesis of uniform core–shell silver nanoparticle@mesoporous silica nanospheres
Lu Han, Hao Wei, Bo Tu and Dongyuan Zhao
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 8536-8538, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12718G
Photolabile protecting groups in metal–organic frameworks: preventing interpenetration and masking functional groups
Rajesh K. Deshpande, Geoffrey I. N. Waterhouse, Geoffrey B. Jameson and Shane G. Telfer
Chem. Commun., 2012, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12884A
A novel low density metal–organic framework with pcu topology by dendritic ligand
Jiangtao Jia, Fuxing Sun, Qianrong Fang, Xiaoqiang Liang, Kun Cai, Zheng Bian, Huijun Zhao, Lianxun Gao and Guangshan Zhu
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 9167-9169, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12891D
Triazole: a unique building block for the construction of functional materials
Michal Juríček, Paul H. J. Kouwer and Alan E. Rowan
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 8740-8749, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC10685F
A new rhodamine based colorimetric ‘off–on’ fluorescence sensor selective for Pd2+ along with the first bound X-ray crystal structure
Shyamaprosad Goswami, Debabrata Sen, Nirmal Kumar Das, Hoong-Kun Fun and Ching Kheng Quah
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 9101-9103, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC12845K
Rational design of a nanometre-sized covalent octahedron
Junling Sun and Ralf Warmuth
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 9351-9353, DOI: 10.1039/C1CC13381K
Why not take a look at the articles today and blog your thoughts and comments below.
Fancy submitting an article to ChemComm? Then why not submit to us today or alternatively contact us with your suggestions.
Register now for attendance at the 2nd Unilever–RSC International Symposium on Functional Materials Science. The symposium takes place over 3 days at 3 different locations in China. Attendance at any of the meetings is free.
Monday 24 October 2011: Symposium at Tsinghua University, Beijing
Wednesday 26 October: Symposium at Wuhan University, Wuhan
Friday 28 October: Symposium at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai
Presentations will be delivered by the following international speakers:
The symposium will appeal to academic and industrial scientists with an interest in functional materials science. Student participation is also strongly encouraged and each symposium will offer students the opportunity to present their work during a poster session.
Poster abstract submission deadline is Friday 14th October.
Scientists in Canada have developed a simple chemical detector that could be used to detect airborne neurotoxic organophosphorus chemical warfare agents.
Exposure to organophosphorus agents blocks the action of cholinesterase enzymes, which causes the neurotransmitter acetylcholine to accumulate in the brain. This rapid reaction causes bronchoconstriction (constriction in the airways in the lungs, owing to a tightening of surrounding smooth muscle), seizures, and finally death. Some agents, such as sarin and soman, are odourless and colourless, which makes them difficult to detect. Current detection methods require specialist equipment and trained personnel, so are of limited use in the field.
The photoresponsive dithienylethene changes colour in the presence of an organophosphorus agent
Neil Branda at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, and colleagues, have designed a chemical detector made of a dithienylethene compound that binds with organophosphorus agents in the same way that the agents bind to enzymes in the body. When the detector is bound to an agent, its structure alters, causing it to change from colourless to blue when exposed to UV light. This simple colour change provides a clear signal. Visible light resets the system by triggering the reverse reaction.
Read the full story in Chemistry World and download the ChemComm article to find out more about Branda’s research.
We are very pleased to announce Dr Kevin Riley, from the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, as the winner of the ChemComm sponsored poster prize from the IUCr2011 satellite meeting on Categorizing Halogen Bonding and Other Noncovalent Interactions Involving Halogen Atoms. His poster was titled “Halogen Bonds in Thyroid Receptor Protein–Ligand Interactions”. Dr Riley will receive one year’s free online subscription to ChemComm.
Dr Riley receives his certificate. From left to right: Pierangelo Metrangolo (program committee chairman), Christer Aakeroy (speaker), Kevin E. Riley, Giuseppe Resnati (program committee chairman).
CrystEngComm also sponsored a poster prize at the meeting which was awarded to Arijit Mukherjee from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Congratulations to both winners!
