PCCP Blog

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) Advisory Board member Professor Carlos Otero Arean (University of the Balearic Islands), has picked his favourite articles recently published in PCCP.

You can read these articles for free for a limited period by clicking on the links below.

Publishing work of the highest quality in the broad fields of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry, PCCP is the ideal place to publish your research.

Be among the first to hear about the newest articles being published in PCCP – sign up to receive our free table of contents e-alerts.

On behalf of the Editorial Board we invite you to submit your best work to PCCP.

Read Professor Arean’s Editor’s choice selection today:

Perspectives

Ultrafast UV spectroscopy: from a local to a global view of dynamical processes in macromolecules
Andrea Cannizzo
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40567A

Adsorption of DNA onto gold nanoparticles and graphene oxide: surface science and applications
Juewen Liu
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41186E

Original research

Rapid calculation of protein chemical shifts using bond polarization theory and its application to protein structure refinement
Igor Jakovkin, Marco Klipfel, Claudia Muhle-Goll, Anne S. Ulrich, Burkhard Luy and Ulrich Sternberg
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41726J

Theoretical studies of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibition
Katarzyna Świderek, Sergio Martí and Vicent Moliner
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40953D

Pore size distribution and capacitance in microporous carbons
Fritz Stoeckli and Teresa A. Centeno
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41545C

Thin silica films on Ru(0001): monolayer, bilayer and three-dimensional networks of [SiO₄] tetrahedra
Bing Yang, William E. Kaden, Xin Yu, Jorge Anibal Boscoboinik, Yulia Martynova, Leonid Lichtenstein, Markus Heyde, Martin Sterrer, Radosław Włodarczyk, Marek Sierka, Joachim Sauer, Shamil Shaikhutdinov and Hans-Joachim Freund
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41355H

Cooperative effects at water–crystalline silica interfaces strengthen surface silanol hydrogen bonding. An ab initio molecular dynamics study
Federico Musso, Pierre Mignon, Piero Ugliengo and Mariona Sodupe
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP40756F

Enhanced stabilization of the Tobacco mosaic virus using protic ionic liquids
Nolene Byrne, Brendan Rodoni, Fiona Constable, Swapna Varghese and James H. Davis
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41625E

You may also be interested in our PCCP web collection of articles on biophysics and biophysical chemistry and our recent themed issue on the theoretical chemical physics of biological systems – please take a look.

We are delighted that the second Gold for Gold open access article describing a potential new method for producing ultracold fluorine atoms has been published in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP). Gold for Gold enables UK RSC Gold subscribers to publish their RSC articles via Open Science, the RSC’s Gold Open Access option, by giving them credits equal to the value of their subscription.

The article is by Dr Ian Lane of Queen’s University Belfast and is freely available to all. Read the full details of this exciting article for free today:

Ultracold fluorine production via Doppler cooled BeF
Ian Lane
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP42709E

Describing the Gold for Gold scheme, Ian says: “With research budgets tight, ensuring that exciting results reach the widest possible audience is often difficult. Allowing open access to my PCCP paper via the Gold for Gold initiative provides an opportunity to promote this research and I am therefore delighted to be the first recommended for this scheme by my School.”

More information on Gold for Gold is available on our website. If you have any further questions on the procedure, or are an interested customer from outside the UK, please contact us.

A PCCP paper which studies the vibrations of odorant molecules (or aroma compounds) and how these effect our sense of smell, has featured in Science Daily this week.

The ‘HOT’ PCCP article specifically looks into the vibrationally assisted electron transfer mechanism of olfaction, and whether this process is what really allows us to distinguish between different smells.

They found that olfactory receptors can pick up molecular vibrations to distinguish between odour molecules.

Previously, scientists thought that a lock-and-key mechanism was operating between different olfactory receptors and molecules. But then, it was noted that people could smell the difference between deuterated and non-deuterated compounds, which have the same shape but different vibrational frequencies. This paper provides further support for a vibrationally-assisted mechanism for smell.

Read the PCCP paper in full:

Vibrationally assisted electron transfer mechanism of olfaction: myth or reality?
Ilia A. Solov’yov , Po-Yao Chang and Klaus Schulten
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41436H

This paper will also feature on the cover of next week’s issue, which is a themed issue on electron transfer theory. The issue is Guest Edited by David N. Beratan (Duke University) and José Onuchic (UCSD) and also features an editorial commentary by Nobel Laureate and the father of the field, Professor Rudy Marcus:

Editorial
Electron transfer theory and its inception
Rudolph A. Marcus
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CP90116A

Sign-up to receive the free PCCP e-alert to see this themed issue first next week!

Scientists in China have used graphene oxide and polyoxometalate solution as ink to fabricate a composite film with a photo printer.

The film shows a linear relationship between the coverage and number of printing cycles, which indicates a steady-state film growth. The team performed a proof-of-principle experiment on the application of the composite for electrochemical sensing and successfully detected dopamine, with increasing current response to increasing concentration. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, levels of which are monitored to diagnose Parkinson’s disease.

Graphene films are used for transistors and sensors, and there is a need for efficient and facile strategies for large-scale fabrication; this method has potential in terms of reducing material waste, lower costs and scalability.

Read more about this exciting work in the full PCCP article:

Layer-by-layer inkjet printing of fabricating reduced graphene-polyoxometalate composite film for chemical sensors
Hui Zhang, Anjian Xie, Yuhua Shen, Lingguang Qiu and Xingyou Tian
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41561E

French scientists have prepared silica microspheres containing the commonly used drug ibuprofen using a spray drying and sol-gel process. The team found that the ibuprofen forms separate nano-domains within the silica microspheres.

For the full details about the properties of these fascinating materials read the PCCP article today:

Drug nano-domains in spray-dried ibuprofen–silica microspheres
Mohamed Fatnassi, Corine Tourné-Péteilh, Tzonka Mineva, Jean-Marie Devoisselle, Philippe Gaveau, Franck Fayon and Bruno Alonso
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP42092A

Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics (PCCP) Associate Editor Professor Seong Keun Kim, an expert in the field of biophysics and biophysical chemistry, has picked some of his favourite articles recently published in this area in PCCP.

You can read these articles for free for a limited period by clicking on the links below.

Publishing work of the highest quality in the broad fields of physical chemistry, chemical physics and biophysical chemistry, PCCP is the ideal place to publish your research.

Be among the first to hear about the newest articles being published in PCCP – sign up to receive our free table of contents e-alerts.

Read Professor Kim’s Editor’s choice selection for free today:

Perspectives

Mitochondrial biofuel cells: expanding fuel diversity to amino acids
Dushyant Bhatnagar, Shuai Xu, Caitlin Fischer, Robert L. Arechederra and Shelley D. Minteer
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01362E

Design and development of quantum dots and other nanoparticles based cellular imaging probe
Nikhil R. Jana
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP00726A

Seeing the forest for the trees: fluorescence studies of single enzymes in the context of ensemble experiments
Yan-Wen Tan and Haw Yang
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02412K

Optical imaging of excited-state tautomerization in single molecules
Anna M. Chizhik, Regina Jäger, Alexey I. Chizhik, Sebastian Bär, Hans-Georg Mack, Marcus Sackrow, Catrinel Stanciu, Alexey Lyubimtsev, Michael Hanack and Alfred J. Meixner
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02228D

Physics of protein–DNA interactions: mechanisms of facilitated target search
Anatoly B. Kolomeisky
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01966F

Revealing time bunching effect in single-molecule enzyme conformational dynamics
H. Peter Lu
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02860F

Combining optical trapping, fluorescence microscopy and micro-fluidics for single molecule studies of DNA–protein interactions
Andrea Candelli, Gijs J. L. Wuite and Erwin J. G. Peterman
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02844D

Electrostatic interactions in biological DNA-related systems
A. G. Cherstvy
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02796K

Original research

Effects of all-atom force fields on amyloid oligomerization: replica exchange molecular dynamics simulations of the Aβ16–22 dimer and trimer
Phuong H. Nguyen, Mai Suan Li and Philippe Derreumaux
DOI: 10.1039/C1CP20323A

Solvent-assisted conformational isomerization and the conformationally-pure REMPI spectrum of 3-aminophenol
Woon Yong Sohn, Minho Kim, Sang-Su Kim, Young Dong Park and Hyuk Kang
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02592E

Free energy evaluation of the p53-Mdm2 complex from unbinding work measured by dynamic force spectroscopy
Anna Rita Bizzarri and Salvatore Cannistraro
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01474E

2D IR photon echo of azido-probes for biomolecular dynamics
Matthew J. Tucker, Xin Sonia Gai, Edward E. Fenlon, Scott H. Brewer and Robin M. Hochstrasser
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01625J

On the different roles of anions and cations in the solvation of enzymes in ionic liquids
Marco Klähn, Geraldine S. Lim, Abirami Seduraman and Ping Wu
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01509A

Selective transport of amino acids into the gas phase: driving forces for amino acid solubilization in gas-phase reverse micelles
Yigang Fang, Andrew Bennett and Jianbo Liu
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP00823K

Extracting the underlying effective free energy landscape from single-molecule time series—local equilibrium states and their network
Akinori Baba and Tamiki Komatsuzaki
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP00694G

On the role of mercury in the non-covalent stabilisation of consecutive U–HgII–U metal-mediated nucleic acid base pairs: metallophilic attraction enters the world of nucleic acids
Ladislav Benda, Michal Straka, Yoshiyuki Tanaka and Vladimír Sychrovský
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01534B

Making gold nanoparticles fluorescent for simultaneous absorption and fluorescence detection on the single particle level
Alexander Gaiduk, Paul V. Ruijgrok, Mustafa Yorulmaz and Michel Orrit
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01389G

Photoblinking and photobleaching of rylene diimide dyes
Mathias Haase, Christian G. Hübner, Fabian Nolde, Klaus Müllen and Thomas Basché
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01814G

Single particle tracking in systems showing anomalous diffusion: the role of weak ergodicity breaking
Stas Burov, Jae-Hyung Jeon, Ralf Metzler and Eli Barkai
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01879A

Unfolding dynamics of cytochrome c revealed by single-molecule and ensemble-averaged spectroscopy
Jungkweon Choi, Sooyeon Kim, Takashi Tachikawa, Mamoru Fujitsuka and Tetsuro Majima
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02689A

Photoinduced pH drops in water
Matthieu Emond, Jing Sun, Jean Grégoire, Sylvie Maurin, Christophe Tribet and Ludovic Jullien
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02464C

Mechanisms and advancement of antifading agents for fluorescence microscopy and single-molecule spectroscopy
Thorben Cordes, Andreas Maiser, Christian Steinhauer, Lothar Schermelleh and Philip Tinnefeld
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01919D

Nanoscale chemical imaging of segregated lipid domains using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy
Lothar Opilik, Thomas Bauer, Thomas Schmid, Johannes Stadler and Renato Zenobi
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP02832K

In this fascinating PCCP Perspective Marina Kuimova of Imperial College London, describes the use of fluorescent molecular rotors to measure and image microviscosity within individual domains of live cells. Knowing about  this viscosity is important as diffusion plays an important role in many biological processes.

Read this exciting PCCP Perspective in full today:

Mapping viscosity in cells using molecular rotors
Marina K. Kuimova
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP41674C