Chemical Communications Blog

A team of scientists from Canada and Korea have developed a mutant glycosidase enzyme that can catalyse the synthesis of an O-linked sugar called isoprimeveroside in near quantitative yield.

Stephen Withers, at the University of British Columbia, Canada, and colleagues report their findings in their ChemComm communication, which is part of the ChemComm ‘Enzymes & Proteins’ web-based themed issue. The communication is free to access until 9th December 2010.

Simple aromatic compounds can self-assemble into low-dimensional aggregates with controlled architecture, according to US scientists.

Yi Liu, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and colleagues have shown that single molecule-thick two-dimensional nanosheets self-assemble from symmetric hexakis(alkoxy)triphenylene derivatives, and then further stack to give multilayered nanofibres.

Anisotropic nanostructures of organic semiconductors have good electronic and optical properties, making them suitable morphologies for advanced optoelectronic applications. But controlling the ordering of such materials at the molecular level remains a challenging task as it is affected by many structural and environmental aspects.

This simple solution process provides an attractive and convenient bottom-up path to hierarchical self-assembly nanostructures, Liu says.

For more information, read Liu’s ChemComm communication, free to access until 9th December.

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A collaboration of Finnish and Russian scientists has resulted in the creation of a gold-diphosphine helical cage that plays host to small organic molecules, like dichloromethane and carbon disulphide. Igor Koshevoy and colleagues from the University of Eastern Finland, and Sergey Tunikv and co-workers from St. Petersburg State University have shown that the assembly of these cages occur via an unprecedented transformation.

Why not discover what is so unprecedented about the transformation process and download the article today? The authors have published their results in ChemComm, which will be free to access until the 9th December.

Organic conjugated poymer networks are found to be promising candidates for photocatalytic water splitting, say scientists in Germany.

Klaus Müllen and colleagues from the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam, report a straightforward synthesis that leads to fully organic photocatalysts showing enhanced long-time stability.

Would you like to read more? Then why not download the article today, which has been published in ChemComm and will be free to acess until the 9th December.

Cellulose nanocrystals can be transformed into pH sensing nanoparticles by dual fluorescent labelling employing a one-pot procedure, explain scientists in the UK and Denmark.

In particular, Wim Thielemans, Jonathan Aylott and co-workers from the University of Nottingham alongside colleagues from the University of Southern Denmark, have shown that the thiol–ene click reaction can be used to modify the cellulose nanocrystals surface, leading to many future applications in sensing or tissue engineering.

Fancy finding out more? Download the article today and blog some comments on the science below. The communication has been published in ChemComm where it will be free to access until the 9th December.

Japanese scientists claim to be breaking new ground by making optimal use of limited noble metal resources with one of the most abundant, renewable bioresources – cellulose.

They made gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were made using crystalline cellulose single nanofibres (CSNFs), tailored from native cellulose. The AuNPs@CSNFs composite showed excellent catalytic efficiency, with a turnover efficiency of 840 times more than conventional polymer-supported AuNPs.

Takuya Kitaoka from Kyushu University and colleagues from the University of Tokyo, have published their findings in ChemComm, which is free to access until the 3rd December. So why not download the article today and blog some feedback below?

A new investigation into the self-assembly of a key anti-wrinkle cream component could lead to better skincare and regenerative medicine, according to the scientists who conducted the study.

Ian Hamley, at the University of Reading, UK, and colleagues looked at the suprastructures formed by a commercially available peptide amphiphile (PA) known as Matrixyl®. They found that it forms giant nanotapes with the peptide epitopes on the surface of the tapes, which they think is important in stimulating collagen production.

Find out more about in the group’s ChemComm communication.

A highly fluorescent and stable red organic light-emitting diode has been synthesised from an anthracene derivative containing a novel seven-fused ring system with two sulfur atoms acting as bridges.

Yunqi Liu and colleagues from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing have published their findings in ChemComm, which is free to access until the 3rd of December. So, why not download the article today and discover what is so illuminating about these results.