News – Page 21 – PCCP Blog

Archive for the ‘News’ Category

New finding throws doubt on interpretation of single molecule fluorescence imaging data

09 Nov 2012

Single molecule fluorescence measurements hold great promise for studying biological processes on a very small scale. These experiments are typically conducted using a scanning confocal fluorescence microscope.

The data rely on the focusing of excitation light to a specific point on a molecule, with the fluorescence output being collected using the same objective lens. The fluorescence output can be varied by changing the external electric field. But an out-of-focus excitation light, say scientists in Singapore, due to the not uncommon occurrence of damage to the type of thin film devices used in such experiments, can result in a decrease in the output fluorescence – which could potentially be misinterpreted as a significant effect.

The results indicate that researchers measuring fluorescence modulation using this electric field method should be aware that this type of artefact could interfere with their results.

Read more details about these interesting findings:

Other origins for the fluorescence modulation of single dye molecules in open-circuit and short-circuit devices
Edwin Yeow, Jefri Sanusi Teguh, Michael Kurniawan, Xiangyang Wu and Tze Chien Sum
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP43284F

Comments Off on New finding throws doubt on interpretation of single molecule fluorescence imaging data

New theoretical method to model anisotropy in weak magnetically coupled systems

05 Nov 2012

Scientists in France and Germany have come up with a method to model the electronic and magnetic properties of polynuclear complexes. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy is used to measure magnetic anisotropy, but in weakly coupled systems, the signal can be very complicated or absent altogether.

Older methods using a spin ladder approach were only accurate at the lowest temperatures. The new method allowed the team to interpret complex experimental EPR data at various temperatures.

Such complexes are important in molecular magnets and are found in nature, so their study is of wide interest.

Read this HOT PCCP article today:

A combined high-field EPR and quantum chemical study on a weakly ferromagnetically coupled dinuclear Mn(III) complex. A complete analysis of the EPR spectrum beyond the strong coupling limit.
Marius Retegan, Marie-Noëlle Collomb, Frank Neese and Carole Duboc
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP42955A

Comments Off on New theoretical method to model anisotropy in weak magnetically coupled systems

Professor Anne Zehnacker on a PCCP paper she recently enjoyed

31 Oct 2012

When asked about her favourite recent article in PCCP, Advisory Board member Professor Anne Zehnacker-Rentien of the Institut des Sciences Moléculaires d’Orsay chose “Effect of hydrogen-bonding on the excited-state reactivity of fullerene derivatives and its impact on the control of the emission polarisation from photopolic single crystals” by Guillaume Raffy, Debdas Ray, Cheng-Che Chu, André Del Guerzo and Dario M. Bassani.

She says “I really enjoyed reading the paper. Photopolic materials are objects whose emission polarisation can be controlled using light. This article gives an elegant example of such fullerene-built single crystals, in which the photo-induced switch of polarisation is not accompanied by any other change in the fluorescence properties.”

The article is part of the PCCP themed issue on Hydrogen bonding in electronically excited states, so if you enjoyed this article please do take a look a the rest!

Comments Off on Professor Anne Zehnacker on a PCCP paper she recently enjoyed

Nuclear spin Hall and Klein tunnelling effects during oxidation of graphene

29 Oct 2012

US scientists have studied spin Hall and Klein tunnelling effects during oxidation of graphene and few-layer graphene. Previous studies had suggested that the reductive properties of graphene change depending on the external magnetic field, with explosive redox reactions between graphene and strong oxidants accelerating following temperature reduction from 22 to 16 °C.

A typical way to oxidise graphene to oxide is to use a mixture of sulfuric acid, NaNO₃ and KMnO₄ (Hummers method). The Na⁺ and K⁺ ions of KMnO₄ /NaNO₃ have until now been assumed not to influence the redox reactions involved. This work shows that changing the cations has a big effect: replacing Na⁺ and K⁺ with Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺, the team observed faster, more electronically delocalised complete oxidation to CO₂ at temperatures between 16 and 21 °C. With Na⁺ and K⁺, they saw faster, more electronically localised oxidation to CO at temperatures >22 °C. These observations are attributed to the spin Hall effect (SHE) for the Na⁺ and K⁺ ions and Klein tunnelling effect for the Mg²⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions.

The observations will be very helpful in aiding understanding of the correlation between the structure and the properties of layered materials, such as graphene and boron nitride. The observed SHE gives an explanation of recently reported tunnelling of graphene electrons through boron nitride.

Read the full details of this fascinating PCCP article today:

Nuclear spin Hall and Klein tunneling effects during oxidation with electric and magnetic field inductions in graphene
Reginald B. Little, Felicia McClary, Bria Rice, Corine Jackman and James W. Mitchell
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP43276E

Comments Off on Nuclear spin Hall and Klein tunnelling effects during oxidation of graphene

Predicting New Molecules by Quantum Chemical Methods themed issue out now!

25 Oct 2012

We are delighted to announce that the PCCP themed issue – Predicting New Molecules by Quantum Chemical Methods has now been published online – take a look today!

The themed issue was Guest Edited by Gabriel Merino (Unidad Merida) and Thomas Heine (Jacobs University).

The Predicting New Molecules by Quantum Chemical Methods themed issue features a broad range of perspective and papers and includes the following Hot articles:

Multi-decker tricarbonyl-bridged sandwich complexes of transition metals: structure, stability and electron-counting rules
Tatyana N. Gribanova, Ruslan M. Minyaev and Vladimir I. Minkin
DFT studies on the structure and properties of the carbon aluminium Al₃C cluster, a pseudohalogen superatom
Qiong Luo
Is C₆₀ buckminsterfullerene aromatic?
Zhongfang Chen, Judy I. Wu, Clémence Corminboeuf, Jonathan Bohmann, Xin Lu, Andreas Hirsch and Paul von Ragué Schleyer

Take a look at the issue today!

Comments Off on Predicting New Molecules by Quantum Chemical Methods themed issue out now!

HOT Perspective: hot spots in SERS

18 Oct 2012

In this HOT PCCP Perspective Prof. Richard Van Duyne and coworkers describe the contribution of hot spots to the enhancement of signals observed in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), including techniques for creating and controlling these hot spots.

Read this fascinating PCCP Perspective in full today:

Creating, characterizing, and controlling chemistry with SERS hot spots
Samuel L. Kleinman, Renee R. Frontiera, Anne-Isabelle Henry, Jon A. Dieringer and Richard P. Van Duyne
DOI: 10.1039/C2CP42598J

Professor Van Duyne is co-Guest Editor of our upcoming themed issue on Plasmonics and Spectroscopy.

Submit an article for this exciting issue by 1st November 2012 .

Table of contents image

Comments Off on HOT Perspective: hot spots in SERS

PCCP Asian Symposia: final leg Seoul

05 Oct 2012

The beautiful cake to celebrate the Korean Chemical Society becoming the 18th Owner Society of PCCP.

The final leg of the PCCP Asian Symposia series took place in Seoul Korea yesterday.

A large audience listened to the excellent scientific talks including on graphene by Professor Byung Hee Hong, on the excited-state dynamics porphyrins and other large molceules probed by single molecule spectroscopy by Professor Dongho Kim, and on very high power energy storage by Professor Sang Bok Lee.

A talk by Professor Zee Hwan Kim of Korea University on “Plasmonics for single-molecule photochemistry and optical nanoscopy” generated much discussion.

The symposium also included a special cake cutting ceremony to celebrate that Korean Chemical Society becoming PCCP‘s 18th Owner Society. This means that now every time a Korean author publishes in PCCP, the KCS will receive a financial sum.

You can find more details about the other symposia in Beijing, China and Tsukuba, Japan in our previous posts. Thank you to everyone who took part in these excellent events.

We look forward to receiving you future contributions to PCCP – submit your best work today.

Keep up to date with our latest news and published articles by signing up to receive our free e-alerts.

Comments Off on PCCP Asian Symposia: final leg Seoul

PCCP Editor’s choice: Professor Carlos Otero Arean

02 Oct 2012

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.

Comments Off on PCCP Editor’s choice: Professor Carlos Otero Arean

PCCP Asian Symposia – part two Tsukuba

02 Oct 2012

Speakers and delegates at the PCCP-MANA Symposium

Speakers and delegates enjoying the sun at the PCCP-MANA Symposium

Speakers and delegates alike enjoyed a successful second leg of the PCCP Asian Symposia series on Nanotechnology, Materials and Physical Chemistry in Tsukuba, Japan. The meeting was held in conjunction with the International Centre for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA).

The stimulating talks by speakers, both international and local, provoked lots of discussion. PCCP prize winner Kazuhiko Maeda (Tokyo Institute of Technology) took the opportunity to talk about his work on “Solar water splitting by modified oxynitride photocatalysts”.

The final leg of the symposia series will be in Seoul, Korea on Thursday 4th October. Please do join us if you can at Mogam Hall, Building 500, Seoul National University. Check out the PCCP-KCS Symposium schedulefor more information on this exciting meeting.

Comments Off on PCCP Asian Symposia – part two Tsukuba

PCCP Asian Symposia – first stop Beijing

28 Sep 2012

Some of the speakers at the PCCP-ICCAS Symposium on Frontiers of physical chemistry in Beijing

The first of three PCCP Asian Symposia took place today in Beijing. PCCP Editorial Board member Professor Lijun Wan opened the symposium. There was a varied and exciting programme of talks, with lots of discussion, with a very international flavour.

The scientific programme at all three meetings in Beijing, Tsukuba and Seoul features world class international and local speakers including gold catalysis expert Prof Graham Hutchings, predicted by ISI on 19 September 2012 to win the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

The next symposium will take place on Monday 1st October in Tsukuba, Japan with the final leg on Thursday 4th October in Seoul, Korea.

We hope you can join us in Japan or Korea – for more details on the locations and schedules of the meetings check out our previous post.

Comments Off on PCCP Asian Symposia – first stop Beijing

PCCP Blog