Then come and see us at the RSC Publishing booth 742!
Let us know if you are going to be there and visit our booth, where you can find out the latest news from PCCP and RSC Publishing – plus pick up some journal freebies!
I will be at the Biophysical Society Meeting in Baltimore and it would be great to meet you there!
Jane
Deputy Editor, PCCP
Spanish scientists have established how natural products protect plants from sun damage. The compounds could be used as active ingredients in sunscreens.
Using computational techniques on palythine – a compound found in coral – as a model compound, Diego Sampedro at the University of La Rioja, Logroño, investigated what happens to the molecule after it absorbs UV light.
Sampedro found that when UV light was shone on palythine, the molecule rapidly dissipated the light energy into heat energy without forming reactive, harmful, photoproducts. He looked at the mechanism in detail on both the protonated and neutral forms of palythine, as scientists were unsure which form was active in the coral. He found that both forms underwent a bond rotation to transform light into heat energy, but the protonated form was responsible for the main absorption of the radiation.
Mike Robb of Imperial College, London, an expert in computational chemistry, praises the timeliness of the study. “MAAs are already being studied as industrial photostabilisers. Understanding the details of the mechanism should help in the design of such species”.
Want to find out more?
Read the rest of the Chemistry World story by Yuandi Li
Or view the PCCP article by Diego Sampedro:
Computational exploration of natural sunscreens
Diego Sampedro, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c0cp02901g
Yesterday the RSC Faraday Division Physical Chemistry Awards Symposium was held at Cardiff University, and we wish to congratulate the winners!
It is also great to see that two of the winners feature at the top of the latest PCCP Top 10, take a look at their Perspectives today:
Theory of gold on ceria
Changjun Zhang, Angelos Michaelides and Stephen J. Jenkins
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 22-33
Titania supported gold nanoparticles as photocatalyst
Ana Primo, Avelino Corma and Hermenegildo García
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 886-910
The PCCP and Faraday Discussions team send our congratulations to all the winners!
Find out more about upcoming Physical Chemistry Award symposia www.rsc.org/ConferencesAndEvents
The latest top ten most accessed PCCP articles
See the most-read papers of January 2011 here:
Theory of gold on ceria
Changjun Zhang, Angelos Michaelides and Stephen J. Jenkins, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 22-33
DOI: 10.1039/C0CP01123A
Monomer, clusters, liquid: an integrated spectroscopic study of methanol condensation
US scientists have combined static pressure, spectroscopic temperature, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements to develop a detailed picture of methanol condensing from a dilute vapor-carrier gas mixture under the highly supersaturated conditions present in a supersonic nozzle.
This is significantly more than is predicted by a model that describes the vapour phase as an equilibrium mixture of methanol monomer, dimer, and tetramer. An energy balance suggests that a significant fraction of the cluster population is larger than the tetramer, while preliminary SAXS measurements suggest that these clusters contain, on average, 6 monomers.
In their experiments, methanol condensation can be divided into three stages as the gas mixture expands in the nozzle. In the first stage, as the temperature decreases rapidly, small methanol n-mers (clusters) form, increase in concentration, and evolve in size. In the second stage, the temperature decreases more slowly, and the n-mer concentrations continue to rise. Thermodynamic and FTIR experiments cannot, however, definitively establish if the average cluster size is constant or if it continues to increase. Finally, when the vapor becomes supersaturated enough, liquid droplets form via nucleation and growth, consuming more monomer and reducing the concentration of clusters. At the point where liquid first appears, cluster formation has already consumed up to 30% of the monomer.
Read the article in full for free:
Monomer, clusters, liquid: An integrated spectroscopic study of methanol condensation
H Laksmono, S Tanimura, H C Allen, G Wilemski, M S Zahniser, J H Shorter, D D Nelson, J B McManus and B E Wyslouzil
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c0cp02485f
Be at the cutting edge of developments in molecular spectroscopy…
Faraday Discussion 150: Frontiers in Spectroscopy
6 – 8 April 2011
Basel, Switzerland
Final registration deadline: 04 March 2011
This meeting will provide a forum to discuss cutting-edge developments and future challenges in molecular spectroscopy.
Themes:
Faraday Discussion 150: Frontiers in Spectroscopy – don’t miss out – register today!
Faraday Discussion 151: Hydrogen Storage Materials
18 – 20 April 2011
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Didcot, Oxon, UK
***Last chance to register for early bird discount – Friday 18 February***
Early bird registration and poster abstract deadline: 18 February 2011
This meeting aims to bring together the diverse range of workers in the field of hydrogen storage materials, from those involved in materials discovery and characterisation, to those studying mechanisms or developing applications – register now to get discounted rates!
Themes:
Faraday Discussion 151: Hydrogen Storage Materials – Register today!
PCCP Advisory Board member, Mike Ashfold’s research has featured on Science Express this week. The paper by Mike Ashfold, Andrew Orr-Ewing and colleagues, was a collaboration between the University of Bristol and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
It is often difficult to get an accurate picture of the chemical dynamics of reactions that take place in solution, as the solvent also interacts with the system, which will often mask the true reaction free energy surface.
In this paper, they have compared the reaction of CN radicals with alkanes in the gas and solution phase, and using transient infrared absorption they have been able to observe the effect the solvent collisions have on the product’s vibrational motion.
Therefore, the transient infrared spectra can be used to probe solvent-induced modifications to the reaction free energy surface and chemical dynamics of reactions in solution.
Vibrationally Quantum-State–Specific Reaction Dynamics of H Atom Abstraction by CN Radical in Solution
Science, DOI:10.1126/science.1197796
You can also read more about their research in their recent PCCP Perspectives:
πσ* excited states in molecular photochemistry
Michael N. R. Ashfold, Graeme A. King, Daniel Murdock, Michael G. D. Nix, Thomas A. A. Oliver and Alan G. Sage
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 1218-1238
Velocity map imaging of the dynamics of bimolecular chemical reactions
Stuart J. Greaves, Rebecca A. Rose and Andrew J. Orr-Ewing
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 9129-9143
***Register by tomorrow for early bird discount registration!***
Faraday Discussion 150: Frontiers in Spectroscopy
6 – 8 April 2011
Basel, Switzerland
Early bird registration and poster abstract deadline: 04 February 2011
This meeting will provide a forum to discuss cutting-edge developments and future challenges in molecular spectroscopy – register now to get discounted rates!
Themes:
Faraday Discussion 150: Frontiers in Spectroscopy – register today!
PCCP is delighted to present an exciting themed issue on Controlled nanostructures for applications in catalysis – take a look today!
The issue was Guest Edited by PCCP Advisory Board member, Professor Ferdi Schüth, and hosts a great collection of articles, including Perspectives, Communications and full research papers.
Here are just a few to highlight:
Editorial
Controlled nanostructures for applications in catalysis
Ferdi Schüth
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 2447-2448
‘HOT’ paper
CO bond cleavage on supported nano-gold during low temperature oxidation
Albert F. Carley, David J. Morgan, Nianxue Song, M. Wyn Roberts, Stuart H. Taylor, Jonathan K. Bartley, David J. Willock, Kara L. Howard and Graham J. Hutchings
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 2528-2538
Perspective feature article
Colloidal metal nanoparticles as a component of designed catalyst
Chun-Jiang Jia and Ferdi Schüth
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 2457-2487
The controlled fabrication of nanostructures has seen tremendous development over the last ten years. This progress was made possible by a combination of findings from different fields, such as the synthesis of ordered mesoporous materials, controlled preparation of size controlled nanoparticles, patterned functionalization of surfaces, integration of nanoparticles and dendrimers, among others. Such controlled nanostructures have been used in a variety of fields, but one of the most interesting applications is catalysis.
