The conference “Oorgandagarna – Inorganic Days” was held in Åhus in Sweden from 17-19 June 2013. Dalton Transactions sponsored two poster prizes, and the two winners were Erik Lewin and Matthew Wolf from Uppsala University. Congratulations to Erik and Matthew, and I hope all the conference attendees had a great time!
Last chance to submit your oral abstract 
You may have thought you had missed your chance to submit an abstract for Advancing the Chemistry of the Actinides – Dalton Discussion 14.
However, as a result of requests from the scientific community we are extending the deadline until 4 March – but please don’t delay!
This Dalton Discussion will highlight the burgeoning role and exciting prospects for actinides in modern, metal-based chemistry, focusing on the following themes:
• Probing structure and bonding in actinide compounds
• Actinide properties and materials applications
• Advances in actinide reactivity and catalysis
• Actinides in the environment
See full details of submitting your abstract
We do hope you will take the opportunity to join this Discussion where you will be able to hear from these excellent speakers:
| Keynote Geoff Cloke University of Sussex, UK Melissa Denecke Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany Laurent Maron Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France Jeffrey Long University of California, Berkeley, USA |
Invited Nik Kaltsoyannis University College London, UK Marinella Mazzanti CEA, Grenoble, France Paula Diaconescu University of California, Los Angeles, USA Jonathan Lloyd University of Manchester, UK |
In addition you can take advantage of networking with other delegates with interest and experience in actinide chemistry, at both the interactive poster sessions and the conference dinner.
With the start of the calendar year, its as good a time as any to get thinking about where our 2013 travels will take us…
We are planning to attend the following conferences. Will you be there too?
| Please do let us know if you think you’ll be attending – we’d love to meet you! |  |
 |
| Jamie Humphrey, Editor | Fiona McKenzie, Deputy Editor |
Now welcoming abstract submissions for Dalton Discussion 14 – Advancing the Chemistry of Actinides
16th–18th September 2013, Edinburgh, UK
| Confirmed speakers: | Geoff Cloke, University of Sussex, UK |
| Melissa Denecke, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany | |
| Laurent Maron, Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France | |
| Jeffrey Long, University of California, Berkeley, USA | |
| Nik Kaltsoyannis, University College London, UK | |
| Marinella Mazzanti, CEA, Grenoble, France | |
| Paula Diaconescu, University of California, Los Angeles, USA | |
| Jonathan Lloyd, University of Manchester, UK |
This Dalton Discussion aims to highlight the burgeoning role, and exciting prospects for actinides in modern, metal-based chemistry. Abstracts for oral presentations must be sent in before 15th February 2013.
Authors of the selected oral abstracts will then be expected to submit their work as a full paper, which will form the basis of their short presentation at the Discussion meeting. The paper itself must contain new, unpublished work and be submitted for review to the Editorial Office of Dalton Transactions by 16th August 2013. At the conference, each author will be given approximately 5 minutes to summarise the key points of their paper in order to leave the majority of time open for discussion
This year, Dalton Discussion 14 is adopting a new process. Papers presented at Dalton Discussions will continue to be published in a dedicated themed issue of Dalton Transactions, however article peer-review will now take place after the Discussion. This means that speakers have longer to make the finishing touches to their article before the papers are made available online prior to the meeting.
To find out more about Dalton Discussion 14 and to submit your abstract, visit the dedicated RSC webpage.
This year’s Dalton Transactions International Symposium was held in November in Singapore and Shanghai, with the theme of organometallic chemistry and catalysis.
Day One of the Symposium was held in a hot and humid Singapore, at the A* Star Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), where local host Professor TS Andy Hor welcomed both local and overseas speakers. After an opening welcome by Andy and Editor Jamie Humphrey, Professor Pak-Hing Leung, from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in the west of Singapore began the scientific talks, with his presentation entitled ‘Palladacycle-catalysed asymmetric hydrophosphination: direct and efficient synthesis of functionalised chiral tertiary phosphines’. After the morning coffee break, served Singapore style, Professor Philip Mountford (University of Oxford, UK, and Dalton Transactions Editorial Board Chair) gave a talk about ‘New terminal titanium hydrazido complexes: exploring the chemistry of the Ti=N-NR2 functional group’ and Professor JJ Vittal, from the National University of Singapore (NUS), took us up to lunch by describing his research on the ‘Design and reactivity of coordination polymers’.
Following lunch, Professor Aaron Sadow (Iowa State University) began the afternoon session, sporting his new Singapore haircut which he had the day before, presenting his talk on ‘Main group compounds supported by oxazolinylborate ligands in catalysis’. Aaron was followed by Professor Kuo-Wei Huang (King Abdullah University of Science & Technology), speaking about ‘A new class of PN3-pincer ligands for metal-ligand cooperative catalysis’. The final session of the day included a presentation by Professor Jean-Francois Carpentier ( University of Rennes), on ‘Discrete complexes of alkaline- and rare-earth elements: useful catalysts for cyclic esters polymerisations and hydroelementation reactions’ and Professor Han Vinh Huynh (NUS), speaking about ‘Non-classical NHC ligands and a new electronic parameter for the determination of ligand donor strengths’.
After the formal end of the Symposium, the speakers were given a tour of the facilities at IMRE, including a tour of the clean room (with a very strict dress code…). Day One of the Symposium was a great success, with a series of excellent scientific talks and many opportunities for those attending the Symposium to meet and discuss science with the speakers.
The next day the travelling speakers flew to Shanghai, where even though the weather was rather chilly, they received the warmest of welcomes, from local host Professor Guo-Xin Jin and other friends, beginning with a welcome dinner at the Jin Mao Tower in the Pudong district of Shanghai.
Day Two of the Symposium saw the return to the exact same venue where we had organised the very first Dalton Transactions International Symposium in 2009, the Fuxian Hotel at Fudan University. Following the same pattern of Day One of the Symposium, local host Professor Guo-Xin Jin welcomed those in attendance and opened the scientific sessions.
Professor Kuiling Ding (Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry) began with a presentation on ‘Chiral catalyst evolution: rational design and serendipity’, and was joined by Professors Mountford, Sadow and Carpentier, and local speakers Professor Jie-Sheng Chen (Shanghai Jiao Tong University, ‘Electron transfer and its effects in porous solid’), Professor Aiwen Lei (Wuhan University, ‘Oxidative coupling: chemistry between two “nucleophiles” ‘) and Professor Tao Tu (Fudan University, ‘Synthesis, aggregation and applications of pincer type organometallics’). The day concluded with some closing remarks by Jamie Humphrey and dinner in the Fuxian Hotel.
The 4th Dalton Transactions International Symposium brought together world class organometallic chemists, allowing old friends to be reunited and new friendships to be made. It was great to see so many discussions during the breaks, and especially to see local students discussing chemistry with the speakers.
Very many thanks are due to the local hosts, Professors Andy Hor in Singapore and Guo-Xin Jin in Shanghai, for their tireless efforts to ensure a successful Symposium, to the co-sponsoring host organisations, IMRE and the Singapore National Institute of Chemistry (SNIC) and Fudan University, for their generous financial support, and to all 11 speakers!
Read a selection of recent Dalton Transactions articles by the Symposium speakers by following the links below:
Site selectivity and reversibility in the reactions of titanium hydrazides with Si–H, Si–X, C–X and H+ reagents: Ti Nα 1,2-silane addition, Nβ alkylation, Nα protonation and σ-bond metathesis
Pei Jen Tiong, Ainara Nova, Andrew D. Schwarz, Jonathan D. Selby, Eric Clot and Philip Mountford
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 2277-2288
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT12359B
Unusual structural motif in a zwitterionic Fe(II) complex of a tetradentate phosphine
Barun Jana, Megan Hovey, Arkady Ellern, Oleg Pestovsky, Aaron D. Sadow and Andreja Bakac
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 12781-12785
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT31437A
Allyl strontium compounds: synthesis, molecular structure and properties
Phillip Jochmann, Julien P. Davin, Stefanie Maslek, Thomas P. Spaniol, Yann Sarazin, Jean-Francois Carpentier and Jun Okuda
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 9176-9181
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT30743J
One-step entry to olefin-tethered N,S-heterocyclic carbene complexes of ruthenium with mixed ligands
Nini Ding, Wenhua Zhang and T. S. Andy Hor
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 5988-5994
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT12354A
Palladium(IV) chemistry supported by pincer type ligands
Heng Zhang and Aiwen Lei
Dalton Trans., 2011,40, 8745-8754
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10373C
A precursor route to single-crystalline WO3 nanoplates with an uneven surface and enhanced sensing properties
Xiao-Xin Zou, Guo-Dong Li, Pei-Pei Wang, Juan Su, Jun Zhao, Li-Jing Zhou, Yu-Ning Wang and Jie-Sheng Chen
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 9773-9780
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT30748K
Chiral cyclopalladated complex promoted asymmetric synthesis of diester-substituted P,N-ligands via stepwise hydrophosphination and hydroamination reactions
Ke Chen, Sumod A. Pullarkat, Mengtao Ma, Yongxin Li and Pak-Hing Leung
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 5391-5400
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT12379G
Correlation of spectroscopically determined ligand donor strength and nucleophilicity of substituted pyrazoles
Jan Christopher Bernhammer and Han Vinh Huynh
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 8600-8608
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT30526G
Bottom-up synthesis of coordination polymers based on carborane backbones and Cu2(CO2)4 paddle-wheel: ligand metathesis with metallotecons
Sheng-Li Huang, Lin-Hong Weng and Guo-Xin Jin
Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 11657-11662
DOI: 10.1039/C2DT30708A
The seventh International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry (ISOMC 2012) was held at Seoul National University in Korea between 1st and 3rd November, attended by Dalton Transactions Editorial Board Chairman, Professor Philip Mountford and New Journal of Chemistry associate editor Professor Peter Junk. Eighteen stimulating lectures were given by a range of established and emerging scientists from academia and industry, representing seven different countries. The poster prize was sponsored by Dalton Transactions and was awarded to Keishi Yamamoto from Professor Kazushi Mashima’s laboratory at Osaka University, Japan. The title of the poster was “Synthesis and structures of iminopyrrolyl and amidopyrrolyl complexes of Group 2 metals”.
|
|
 |
|
Philip Mountford and Keishi Yamamoto |
Delegates at the International Symposium on Organometallic Chemistry (ISOMC 2012) |
This year’s Dalton Discussion meeting was based at the University of Sheffield and focused on the topic of Inorganic Photophysics and Photochemistry – Fundamentals and Applications.
The 3 day programme was rich with contributions from Keynote speakers, Richard Eisenberg, Majed Chergui, Peter Ford and Luisa De Cola; Invited speakers, Craig Hill, David Parker, and Chantal Daniel; amongst numerous other excellent presenations from researchers across the international community.
 |
 |
 |
| Majed Chergui and Andrea Barbieri | Richard Eisenberg | Craig Hill |
The Dalton Discussion format differs slightly from other conferences in that speakers are alloted short 5-10 minute slots to deliver a snappy overview of their latest research based on the contents of their article which will shortly be published in a themed issue of Dalton Transactions.
For every 3 presentations, there follows an hour long discussion amongst the delegates – an excellent opportunity for researchers to get down to the gritty detail of the experiments, understand any tricky concepts, and offer alternative ideas to take the research forward. It was great to see even the graduate students asking questions – something that is sadly, rarely seen at conferences.
The poster sessions were also of great success. Many congratulations to Sven Hansen, Elizabeth Bagaley and Lucy Jones who won the Dalton Transactions, ChemComm and RSC Books poster prizes, respectively.
 |
 |
 |
| Otto Horvath in conversation with Peter Burks, student of Peter Ford at UCSB | From left to right: Lucy Jones (University of Manchester), Sven Hansen (Rostock University), Elizabeth Baggaley (University of Sheffield). | No conference is complete without networking at the welcome reception |
I am already very much looking forward to what next year’s Dalton Discussion meeting has to offer – which will be adopting a new and improved format for article submission. Watch this space…
Many thanks go to Mike Ward for providing photographs and also for organising such an excellent meeting!
Also of interest…
See here for the RSC’s report on Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis: Science and innovation to change our future energy options
Photo 1. The participants of the 62nd Fujihara Seminar
The 62nd Fujihara Seminar titled “Frontier and Perspectives in Molecule-Based Quantum Magnets” was held this spring in Sendai, Japan. The Seminar was organized and hosted by Professor Masahiro Yamashita from Tohoku University with the financial support from the Fujihara Foundation of Science. The Fujihara Foundation of Science was founded in 1959 by Mr. Ginjiro Fujihara, the former president of Oji Paper Co. Ltd. who revolutionized the paper industry in Japan and has been recognized as “King of Paper-making”. The main goal of the Fujihara Foundation of Science is to encourage cutting-edge research, leading to significant scientific and technological progress in Japan.
The Fujihara Seminars are usually held at Tomakomai in Hokkaido, where the headquarters of Oji Paper Company is located. This year, however, the Council of the Foundation agreed to make an exception and decided to hold the 62nd Fujihara Seminar in Sendai – the heart of Tohoku area, which was struck last year by the destructive earthquake, followed by a devastating tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster – to support its recovery. The Fujihara Foundation of Science covered all expenses of the Seminar including travel fees, accommodation and organization expenses.
Thirty leading scientists in the field of molecular quantum magnetism from all over the world accepted the invitation and participated in this fascinating scientific event (Photo 1). The Scientific program featured 29 lectures covering all recent aspects in the development of molecular quantum magnets, introduction of multifunctionality into these systems, and the yet unexplored blank spots on the map of quantum magnetism. The atmosphere of the seminar allowed for many fruitful discussions and for significant strengthening of the molecular magnetism community. The scientific level of the talks was very high, most of the presented results were very recent, sometimes not yet published and stimulated vigorous discussions about the future possible developments and directions in quantum magnetism. The talks given at the 62nd Fujihara Seminar are subject of the special issue of Dalton Transactions titled “Frontiers and Perspectives in Molecule-Based Quantum Magnets”, due to be published later this year.
Photo 2. Discussion between Professor Masahiro Yamashita and Professor Dante Gatteschi
Professor Masahiro Yamashita (Tohoku University, Japan) opened the seminar with a lecture on the history of Single-Molecule (SMM) and Single-Chain (SCM) Magnets. Despite the fact that most of the participants were already familiar with the development of the concept, such introduction based on the “milestones” of quantum magnetism offered a valuable insight into the past, present, and future directions of the field. One future direction was introduced in the second talk given by Professor George Christou (University of Florida, USA). Prof. Christou noted that, for future applications of molecular quantum magnets in spin-based quantum computation and spintronic devices, coupling of two or more SMMs to each other is essential. Such coupling must be very weak in order to maintain the intrinsic quantum properties of each individual SMM, but strong enough to allow them to “feel each other”. Professor Christou presented several examples of SMM aggregates coupled with specially designed organic ligands. Some of them display an exchange-bias of the quantum tunneling of magnetization steps in the hysteresis loops, which is a hallmark of weak interactions between SMM units.
Photo 3. Informal discussions during the excursion to Hiraizumi – a World Heritage site
In the subsequent talk, Professor Michel Verdaguer (Université Pierre et Marie Curie, France) discussed early results in the field of SCMs and the usefulness of X-Ray Magnetic Circular Dichroism (XMCD) in the characterization of magnetic molecules (especially those deposited on various surfaces). He also presented research on the salicyamidoxime-based Mn6 SMMs and summarized the successes and failures of the cyanide chemistry of transition metals in the field of high-spin molecules and SMMs.
Professor Dante Gatteschi, one of the founding fathers of molecular magnetism (Univeristà degli Studi di Firenze, Italy) gave the last talk of the first day. Professor Gatteschi summarized the last 30 years of research in the field of nanomagnetism by focusing on the comparison of molecular nanomagnets MNMs with magnetic nanoparticles MNPs. He pointed out that there are still blank spots on the map of MNMs and strongly encouraged the exploration of the no man’s land of magnetic molecules comprising 100–1000 paramagnetic ions. In addition, he reminded the participants that there is “plenty of room” in between the MNMs and MNPs regimes. Synthesis and investigation of 100–1000 ion clusters might be challenging, but the emergence of new fascinating physical phenomena is expected (Photo 2).
The third and last day of the conference was designated as an informal discussion day. The participants could freely interact during an excursion to Hiraizumi (a World Heritage site) – temples, gardens and archeological sites representing the Buddhist Pure Land – and during a river cruise (Photo 3).
The 62nd Fujihara Seminar ended with a banquet at Shozankan. This final event began with a traditional ceremony of kagami biraki – opening of wooden casks of iwai-zake (“celebration sake”) (Photo 4). During the Banquet the host, Professor Masahiro Yamashita, asked all the participants to visit Sendai again in three years during the next conference on Molecular Quantum Magnets to “report” their advances in this particular field. He suggested that the next meeting would be a great opportunity to verify how fruitful the discussions and new ideas spawned during the 62nd Fujihara Seminar have been.
Photo 4. Ceremony of kagami biraki – opening of wooden casks of iwai-zake (“celebration sake”) – during the Seminar Banquet.
In summary, the 62nd Fujihara Seminar “Frontier and Perspectives in Molecule-Based Quantum Magnets” was a great opportunity for the top molecular magnetism scientists to interact and discuss how to further advance the field. Look out for the upcoming themd issue later this year.
Written by Dr. Dawid Pinkowicz (Tohoku University)
Growing herbs at the University of Toronto
The conference series International Symposium on Advancing the Chemical Sciences was launched in 2010, to celebrate the launch of the RSC’s new flagship journal, Chemical Science. ISACS8 was the eighth meeting in the series, and the second to have a focus on challenges in inorganic and materials chemistry. This year’s meeting was held at the University of Toronto, Canada.
A slight break in some unusually hot weather meant that for our time in Toronto, we were blessed with perfect weather – neither too hot nor too cold, but just right! The good weather was clearly being utilised by some members of the university , as was evident in the very healthy looking herbs being growing in the courtyard just outside lecture theatre. I was very good, and did not help myself to any (but I was sorely tempted!).
The conference began on the Thursday evening with an extra special event – a lecture by Profesor Joan Valentine , who was recently awarded an RSC Honorary Fellowship. Her award lecture ‘Manganese and superoxide: Curiosity-driven research at the inorganic chemistry-biology interface’, was a perfect way to open the meeting.
During the next three days, we covered a diverse range of inorganic and materials topics: main group chemistry, materials for chemistry, magnetism, porous materials and catalysis. The conference featured 16 Plenaries, by Warren Piers, Francois Gabbai, Viola Birss, Sossina Haile, Clare Grey, Simon Aldridge, Joe Hupp, George Christou, Russell Morris, Annie Powell, Noritaka Mizuno, Tom Baker, Kyoko Nozaki, Paul Chirik, Roberta Sessoli and William Dichtel. The conference programme was completed with a number of contributed talks. As you might expect from ISACS conferences, all the talks were of the highest quality. Snippets of information I learnt from the conference are that Uranium is the Jekyll and Hyde of the Periodic Table, Chemical Science Editors work on Christmas Eve and that we need about 80 of the elements to live our lives.
One of the social highlights of the meeting for me was the speakers’ dinner, held at the top of the CN Tower. With great food and stunning views, the evening was an excellent way to round off the first full day of the conference. The conference was a good size ( about 150 delegates) and this allowed many opportunities to meet new friends and catch up with old ones at the poster sessions, coffee/tea breaks and lunchtimes. It was good to see a number of people at the conference who I have not seen for a while, including previous Dalton Transactions Development Editor, Anna Roffey, who left the Editorial Office to study for a PhD at UCL, UK over a year ago!
Many thanks to the organisers for arranging a great meeting, in particular local host Doug Stephan and Rachel Thompson from RSC, who in addition to ensuring a well organised meeting, also ensured that we had plenty of sweet treats to keep us going though the day (I have never seen so many cookies…)
Read some articles by the Plenary speakers by following the links below:
Probing the influence of steric bulk on anion binding by triarylboranes: comparative studies of FcB(o-Tol)2, FcB(o-Xyl)2 and FcBMes2, Inke Siewert, Philip Fitzpatrick, Alexander E. J. Broomsgrove, Michael Kelly, Dragoslav Vidovic and Simon Aldridge Dalton Trans., 2011,40, 10345 DOI=10.1039/C1DT10185D
Cyclisation of α,ω-dienes promoted by bis(indenyl)zirconium sandwich and ansa-titanocene dinitrogen complexes, Doris Pun, Donald J. Knobloch, Emil Lobkovsky and Paul J. Chirik Dalton Trans., 2011,40, 7737 DOI=10.1039/C1DT10149H
“Squaring the clusters”: a MnIII4NiII4 molecular square from nickel(II)-induced structural transformation of a MnII/III/IV12 cage Dimitris I. Alexandropoulos, Manolis J. Manos, Constantina Papatriantafyllopoulou, Shreya Mukherjee, Anastasios J. Tasiopoulos, Spyros P. Perlepes, George Christou and Theocharis C. Stamatatos Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 4744 DOI=10.1039/C2DT00030J
Structural and dynamical aspects of alkylammonium salts of a silicodecatungstate as heterogeneous epoxidation catalysts Sayaka Uchida, Keigo Kamata, Yoshiyuki Ogasawara, Megumi Fujita and Noritaka Mizuno Dalton Trans., 2012, Advance Article, DOI=10.1039/C2DT30492A
Metal–organic frameworks for the storage and delivery of biologically active hydrogen sulfide Phoebe K. Allan, Paul S. Wheatley, David Aldous, M. Infas Mohideen, Chiu Tang, Joseph A. Hriljac, Ian L. Megson, Karena W. Chapman, Guy De Weireld, Sebastian Vaesen and Russell E. Morris Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 4060 DOI=10.1039/C2DT12069K
Using the flexible ligand bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino–tris (hydroxymethyl)methane (“bis–tris”) to access a family of 3d–4f MnIII4Ln4 complexes Amin Khan, Yanhua Lan, George E. Kostakis, Christopher E. Anson and Annie K. Powell Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 8333 DOI=10.1039/C2DT30127J
Magnetic and optical bistability in tetrairon(III) single molecule magnets functionalized with azobenzene groups Thazhe Kootteri Prasad, Giordano Poneti, Lorenzo Sorace, Maria Jesus Rodriguez-Douton, Anne-Laure Barra, Petr Neugebauer, Luca Costantino, Roberta Sessoli and Andrea Cornia Dalton Trans., 2012,41, 8368 DOI=10.1039/C2DT30172E
There’s still just time to submit a poster for Inorganic Photophysics and Photochemistry – Fundamentals and Applications: Dalton Discussion 13. The deadline date is 6 July.
The fields of photophysics and photochemistry of metal complexes – and their associated spectroscopic methodology – have never been more topical. This Discussion will bring together people from a wide range of disciplines, from theory and ultrafast spectroscopy to medicinal chemistry and biology, but all with a shared interest in the use of light.
Registration is quick and simple via our online booking system, so act today and benefit from early bird savings.
Taking part in this Dalton Discussion is a great way to get your own research work better known. You can also have your own poster abstract space at the meeting – submit yours now.
I will be attending the Discussion and would love to meet you, so come and join this timely and thought-provoking discussion and hear speakers who are among the key scientists in the field. Contributions from all photophysics-based disciplines will be welcome.
Also of interest: The RSC’s policy report on Solar Fuels and Artificial Photosynthesis: Science and innovation to change our future energy options
