August 2011 – PCCP Blog

Archive for August, 2011

Fall ACS update: Plenary lectures on air, space and water

30 Aug 2011

On Sunday, at the ACS meeting plenary session, we heard 3 inspiring talks which highlighted the importance of this meeting’s theme: air, space and water.

Russell J. Hemley gave a fascinating lecture on his research into space; namely planetary gases, liquids and ices and how chemistry can help us to understand what goes on out there in all that darkness!

Neil Donahue followed, talking about air and his work on bulk aerosol properties. You can read all about his exciting research in his PCCP Perspective article published earlier this year:

Adventures in ozoneland: down the rabbit-hole
Neil M. Donahue, Greg T. Drozd, Scott A. Epstein, Albert A. Presto and Jesse H. Kroll
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02564J

The final plenary lecture was given by Alan Townsend who highlighted the importance of water to all of chemistry and discussed its vital role in the nitrogen cycle.

Watch this space for more news from the Fall ACS in Denver!

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Fall ACS update: ‘HOT’ papers on SERS

28 Aug 2011

The 242^ndACS National Meeting started today in Denver, CO, USA, and the Physical Chemistry Division kicked off with a symposium on SERS which will run all week.

The Advances in SERS and Molecular Plasmonics symposium began with an exciting talk by Richard Van Duyne. His lecture entitled “Pushing the limits: Single molecule and single particle surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy”, followed by further talks on single molecule SERS and plasmonically-enhanced hot spots.

Read Richard van Duyne’s PCCP Perspective, which is from the recent PCCP web-themed issue on Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering:

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy of dyes: from single molecules to the artists’ canvas
Kristin L. Wustholz, Christa L. Brosseau, Francesca Casadio and Richard P. Van Duyne
DOI: 10.1039/B904733F

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Evaporating ionic liquids

23 Aug 2011

Ionic liquids (ILs) do not have a detectable vapour pressure at room temperature. But scientists at the University of Nottingham have managed to measure the enthalpy of vaporisation of a series of imidazolium-based ILs with the help of mass spectrometry.

The authors found that the ILs evaporated as neutral ion pairs.

Read this exciting research in PCCP:

The vapour of imidazolium-based ionic liquids: a mass spectrometry study
A. Deyko, K. R. J. Lovelock, P. Licence and R. G. Jones
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP21821B

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Ionic liquid research could help understand Alzheimer’s disease

18 Aug 2011

HOT PCCP Communication

The self assembly of proteins into fibrils has been implicated in conditions including Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists in Australia have shown that the amyloid fibrilization of the peptide Aβ16-22 – an important fragment used to model full length Aβ – is promoted in protic ionic liquids (pILs) containing phosphate or sulphate ions and suppressed in pILs contain mesylate ions.

Read the full PCCP communication at:

The impact of ionic liquids on amyloid fibrilization of Aβ16-22: tuning the rate of fibrilization using a reverse Hofmeister strategy
Natalie Debeljuh, Colin J. Barrow and Nolene Byrne
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP22256B

Changes in amyloid fibrilization over time

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PCCP Poster Prize at FEMTO10

16 Aug 2011

PCCP was delighted to sponsor the FEMTO10 conference held in July in Madrid, Spain. FEMTO10 is the 10th Edition of the Femtochemistry Conferences.

PCCP was delighted to award a student Poster Prize at the meeting – congratulations to Jan P. Kraack from the Universität Heidelberg, Germany who won with his poster on ‘Ground- and excited state vibrational coherence dynamics in all-trans retinal protonates Schiff-bases investigated with (pump) DFWM’.

PCCP will also be publishing a themed issue on Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics later in 2012. It will be Guest Edited by Neil T. Hunt (University of Strathclyde) and Klaas Wynne (University of Glasgow).

Submit your paper for this PCCP themed issue before 14 November 2011!

For more information see our website.

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Molecular Electronics themed issue

15 Aug 2011

PCCP is delighted to present its current issue which contains a collection of articles on the theme of Molecular Electronics, Guest edited by Itamar Willner, Roi Baer, Francoise Remacle and Shahal Ilani.

The cover image of this issue features the work of Denis Jacquemin and colleagues on the combined effect of stacking and solvation on the spontaneous mutation in DNA (DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20946A).

Highlights in the issue include:

Perspective
Covalent networks through on-surface chemistry in ultra-high vacuum: state-of-the-art and recent developments
Grégory Franc and André Gourdon
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20700H

Communication
The origin of dips for the graphene-based DNA sequencing device
Yeonchoo Cho, Seung Kyu Min, Woo Youn Kim and Kwang S. Kim
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20760A

Broadening of the derivative discontinuity in density functional theory
F. Evers and P. Schmitteckert
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP21247H

Browse this high-profile themed issue today!

Find out more about PCCP themed issues on our website.

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Hydrogen Storage Materials: Faraday Discussions 151 published online

11 Aug 2011

Faraday Discussions 151: Hydrogen Storage Materials has now been published online

Take a look at this exciting volume today which covers the following themes:

Theory and spectroscopic methods to understand hydrogenation/dehydrogenation mechanisms
Novel approaches: hydrogenation/dehydrogenation of organic molecules, encapsulation of nanosized materials
Chemical hydrogen
Adsorbed/physisorbed hydrogen on or in MOFs and other materials with large surface area
Applications including uses for automotives and novel battery materials

Highlights from the volume include:

Performance of a metal hydride store on the “Ross Barlow” hydrogen powered canal boat
A. I. Bevan, A. Züttel, D. Book and I. R. Harris
Faraday Discuss., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0FD00025F

Performance of a full-scale hydrogen-storage tank based on complex hydrides
Terry A. Johnson, Scott W. Jorgensen and Daniel E. Dedrick
Faraday Discuss., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0FD00017E

Hydrogen as a fuel for today and tomorrow: expectations for advanced hydrogen storage materials/systems research
Katsuhiko Hirose, Introductory Lecture
Faraday Discuss., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00099C

Read about the conference highlights and see photos from the meeting.

You can purchase this volume as an individual book through our website.

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PCCP Poster Prize at Free Radicals Symposium

05 Aug 2011

PCCP was delighted to sponsor the 31st Symposium on Free Radicals, held last week in Port Douglas, Australia, where a PCCP student Poster Prize was awarded.

The symposium was chaired by Evan Bieske and Scott Kable and around 100 scientific participants attended the meeting, along with their families. The strong scientific activity was reflected through 35 talks and 60 poster presentations. The meeting had 80 scientists from Japan, Taiwan, USA and Europe, and around 20 from Australia.

Congratulations to James Ge who was awarded with the PCCP Student Prize.

Submit your lastest research to PCCP today!

James Ge being presented with the PCCP Student Poster Prize by Professor Scott Kable.

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Themed issue: Weak Hydrogen Bonds – Strong Effects?

01 Aug 2011

PCCP is delighted to present its current issue as a themed issue on Weak Hydrogen Bonds – Strong Effects?, Guest Edited by Wouter Herrebout (University of Antwerp) and Martin Suhm (University of Göttingen).

The cover image of this issue features the work of Dr Kisiel and co-workers on structure and properties of the (HCl)₂H₂O cluster, observed using chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy (DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20841A).

Highlights in the issue include these high-profile Perspective feature articles:

Weak H-bonds. Comparisons of CHO to NHO in proteins and PHN to direct PN interactions
Steve Scheiner
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20427K

The CH/π hydrogen bond in chemistry. Conformation, supramolecules, optical resolution and interactions involving carbohydrates
Motohiro Nishio
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20404A

“Union is strength”: how weak hydrogen bonds become stronger
Sonia Melandri
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20824A

Browse this high-profile themed issue today!

Call for papers: hydrogen bonding in electronically excited states

To complement this latest issue, PCCP is planning a themed issue in early 2012 which will focus on hydrogen bonding in electronically excited states.
Please submit your paper by 5 December 2011

Find out more about PCCP themed issues on our website.

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