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.

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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!