Archive for November, 2010

Tetsuro Murahashi awarded 2010 Dalton Transactions Asian Lectureship

I am delighted to announce that Professor Tetsuro Murahashi from Osaka University has been awarded the inaugural Dalton Transactions Asian Lectureship for his elegant work in the field of inorganic and organometallic chemistry, in particular his research in the areas of organopalladium chemistry and organic pi-conjugated systems.

The Dalton Transactions Asian Lectureship was established this year to recognise the achievements of an emerging Asian/Australasian inorganic chemist. We already had in existence two Lectureship Awards spanning the Americas and Europe and Africa, and this new award covers all of Asia and Australasia. ‘It is my great honor to receive the Dalton Transactions Asian Lectureship Award,’ said Professor Murahashi upon being notified last week.  Professor Murahashi plans to present the inaugural Dalton Transactions Asian Lectureship next year and we will keep you posted about the arrangements!

Tetsuro Murahashi studied chemistry in Osaka University, Japan where he graduated in 1995. He obtained a JSPS scholarship for graduate study at Osaka under the direction of Professor Hideo Kurosawa. After recieving his doctorate in 1999 for his work on reactive dinuclear Pd-Pd complexes, Tetsuro was appointed as an assistant professor at Osaka University. In 2003, he moved to MIT (Cambridge, USA) to carry out a JSPS research abroad program in the group of Professor Christopher C. Cummins, where he studied the dinitrogen activation by low-coordinate transition metal complexes. He returned to Osaka in 2005 and two years later,  was promoted to the position of associate professor at Osaka University. In the same year, Tetsuro was awarded the Chemical Society of Japan (CSJ) Award for Young Chemists.Tetsuro’s research concentrates on inorganic and organometallic reaction chemistry, particularly on the reactivity study of highly reaction transaction metal complexes.

 

Read more about Tetsuro’s research on his webpage at Osaka University.

And check out some of his recent articles:

Metallocenoids of platinum: Syntheses and structures of triangular triplatinum sandwich complexes of cycloheptatrienyl
Tetsuro Murahashi, Kentaro Usui, Ryou Inoue, Sensuke Ogoshi and Hideo Kurosawa
Chem. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C0SC00269K, Edge Article

Structures of two haptotropic isomers generated by the sliding of 1,3,5-triene ligands on a Pd–Pd–Pd chain
Tetsuro Murahashi, Yukari Mino, Koji Chiyoda, Sensuke Ogoshi and Hideo Kurosawa
Chem. Commun., 2008, 4061-4063 DOI: 10.1039/B806824K

A stable zerovalent palladium chain enveloped by a π-electron sheath of conjugated polyene ligands
Yasuki Tatsumi, Tetsuro Murahashi, Mitsue Okada, Sensuke Ogoshi and Hideo Kurosawa
Chem. Commun., 2008, 477-479 DOI: 10.1039/B714530F

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Could ‘nano-urchins’ be the key to greener batteries?

Montroseite, a vanadium oxide mineral first discovered 60 years ago, could be used as an anode for greener batteries, say Chinese researchers. 

Yi Xie and co-workers from the University of Science and Technology of China Hefei, Anhui, China, synthesised montroseite, which was named after Montrose County in Colorado where it was discovered. The mineral they made shows improved electrochemical properties compared to nanorod electrodes because of its sea urchin-like structure, making it a better anode for aqueous lithium ion batteries. 

Montroseite and paramontroseite could be used as anode materials

Montroseite and paramontroseite could be used as anode materials

Lithium ion batteries work by generating electricity through the movement of lithium ions between a negative electrode (anode) and a positive electrode (cathode). Aqueous lithium ion batteries use a water-based electrolyte (a chemical compound that conducts electricity when molten or dissolved in solution) and are a safer and cheaper alternative to electrolyte solutions in standard lithium ion batteries, which can be toxic and flammable. Xie says that aqueous electrolytes have high ion conductivities, which equates to high power densities. These conductivities are about two orders of magnitude higher than those of organic electrolytes, making aqueous lithium ion batteries promising ‘green’ batteries. However, aqueous electrolytes are not as stable as organic electrolytes so the choice of electrode is crucial to the battery’s performance. 

To view the full Highlights in Chemical Technology article, please click hereCould ‘nano-urchins’ be the key to greener batteries?

Link to journal article

From synthetic montroseite VOOH to topochemical paramontroseite VO2 and their applications in aqueous lithium ion batteries
Yang Xu, Lei Zheng and Yi Xie, Dalton Trans., 2010, 39, 10729
DOI:
10.1039/c0dt00715c

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HOT Article: Making inorganic crystal clusters with ionic liquids

Dominic Freudenmann and Claus Feldmann from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany,  have used an ionic liquid to obtain transparent red crystals of [Bi3GaS5]2[Ga3Cl10]2[GaCl4]2·S8.

In this Dalton Transactions Hot article they explain that the cation unit of the crystal [Bi3GaS5]2+ appears as a (Bi–S–Ga)-heterocubane, and unusually, the anion [Ga3Cl10] is in a star shaped form, with three (GaCl4) tetrahedra sharing a single central chlorine atom. This type of structure is particularly exciting as it has only previously been observed in fluoride complexes.

[Bi3GaS5]2[Ga3Cl10]2[GaCl4]2·S8 containing heterocubane-type [Bi3GaS5]2+, star-shaped [Ga3Cl10]−, monomeric [GaCl4]− and crown-like S8

Dominic Freudenmann and Claus Feldmann
Dalton Trans., 2010, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00985G , Paper

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ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship

ChemComm is delighted to invite nominations for the very first ChemComm Emerging Investigator Lectureship. The lectureship, which will be awarded annually, will recognise an emerging scientist in the early stages of their independent academic career.

Deadline for nominations: 28th February 2011.

Visit the ChemComm blog for more information.

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Hot Article: Nanoparticle thermoelectric materials

Sabine Schlecht and colleagues have used mixed polymer/precursor films to produce films of nanoparticles of PbSe or PbTe thermoelectric materials.  Find out more in their Dalton Transactions Hot Article.

READ FOR FREE! Until November 25th.

Polymer-assisted preparation of nanoscale films of thermoelectric PbSe and PbTe and of lead chalcogenide-polymer composite films 
Christoph Erk, Andreas Berger, Joachim H. Wendorff and Sabine Schlecht

Dalton Trans., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00745E

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Hot Article: Zig-zag magnets

In this Dalton Transactions article, Paul Kogerler and Xiao-Ming Chen discuss the first cobalt single molecule magnet with a linear core struture and featuring a zig-zag backbone.

 
READ FOR FREE! Until November 25th.

A tetranuclear cobalt(II) chain with slow magnetization relaxation 

Yan-Zhen Zheng, Manfred Speldrich, Helmut Schilder, Xiao-Ming Chen and Paul Kögerler
Dalton Trans., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00935K

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Hot Article: Changing magnetic behaviours

Christian Nather and Jan Boeckmann from the Universitat zu Kiel, Germany show that removing pyridines from [Co(NCS)2(pyridine)4] in the solid state to form [Co(NCS)2(pyridine)2]n actually results in a change in magnetic behaviour. Read how in this Dalton Transactions Hot Article….
 

READ FOR FREE! Until November 25th

Solid-state transformation of [Co(NCS)2(pyridine)4] into [Co(NCS)2(pyridine)2]n: from Curie–Weiss paramagnetism to single chain magnetic behaviour
 
Jan Boeckmann and Christian Näther
Dalton Trans., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00904K

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Hot Article: A new family of antimonides

Bayrammurad Saparov and Svilen Bobev, from the University of Delaware, USA, have synthesised a whole new familyof quaternary fluoro-antimonides A5Cd2Sb5F (A = Sr, Ba, Eu) and oxyantimonides
Ba5Cd2Sb5Ox (0.5<x<0.7).

READ FOR FREE! Until November 25th.

Synthesis, crystal and electronic structures of the new quaternary phases A5Cd2Sb5F (A = Sr, Ba, Eu), and Ba5Cd2Sb5Ox (0.5<x<0.7) 

Bayrammurad Saparov and Svilen Bobev
Dalton Trans., 2010, DOI: 10.1039/C0DT00595A

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