Dalton Transactions Blog

A new system, using a solid state catalyst, to remove impurities from petroleum has been developed by US scientists.

With current oil consumption levels high, light crude oil reserves will be exhausted, giving way to heavy and extra heavy bitumen refinery feeds. These contain a higher proportion of large polycyclic hydrocarbons, together with N- and S-heteroaromatics, which need to be removed or transformed, without catalyst poisoning. Current methods to do this require high temperatures and pressures.

The catalyst made by the researchers, composed of ruthenium nanoparticles immobilised on a polymer, hydrogenates aromatic compounds under moderate conditions with no poisoning.

Hydrogenation of arenes and N-heteroaromatic compounds over ruthenium nanoparticles on poly(4-vinylpyridine): a versatile catalyst operating by a substrate-dependent dual site mechanism
Minfeng Fang, Nataliya Machalaba and Roberto A. Sánchez-Delgado
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10801H

Read this Dalton Transactions Hot article to find out about how uranium can reductively couple carbon monoxide, an interesting reaction in Fischer-Tropsch chemistry.

Jennifer Green and co-workers at Oxford University use density functional theory to look at the reductive di- tri- and tetramerization of CO. They look at the linear yne diolate complex which forms if there is no further CO to react with the dimeric C₂O₂ reaction intermediate, amongst other intermediates. With the insight provided by this computational study a better understanding can be gained of Fischer-Tropsch chemistry.

Read the full article for FREE until 15th September to find out more…

Reductive coupling of carbon monoxide by U(III) complexes—a computational study
Georgina Aitken, Nilay Hazari, Alistair S. P. Frey, F. Geoffrey N. Cloke, O. Summerscales and Jennifer C. Green
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10692A

Read Leonard Lindoy’s latest supramolecular host-guest formation research in this Dalton Transactions Hot article.

Lindoy’s group make helicates and tetrahedral Ni and Fe host complexes from quaterpyridine ligand derivatives, and look how they can control which products they get. They are particularly interested in the cavity volumes of the tetrahedral cages they make, and hope in the future to look at the host-guest chemistry of the cages with the largest cavities.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more…

New nickel(II) and iron(II) helicates and tetrahedra derived from expanded quaterpyridines
Christopher R. K. Glasson, George V. Meehan, Cherie A. Motti, Jack K. Clegg, Peter Turner, Paul Jensen and Leonard F. Lindoy
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10667H

This manuscript will be part of the issue celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Dalton Transactions. Click on the 40th Anniversary link on the right hand side to find out what else we are doing.

Radostina Stoyanova and co-workers have carried out detailed analysis of the zero-field splitting parameters (ZFS) of Mn⁴⁺ and Fe³⁺ ions in LiAlO₂ with a layered structure are analyzed both experimentally and theoretically by using high-frequency electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, Neuman superposition model (NSM), DFT and multiconfigurational calculations and reported their work in the recent Dalton Transactions Hot Article.

But why are they doing this analysis you might ask? Well, oxide-based materials, like doped layered LiAlO₂, are important components of lithium ion batteries. In order to optimise materials like this for energy storage applications it is necssary to look at their atomic arrangement on a very small scale as Stoyanova and colleagues successfully carry out and report in this paper, which you can read for free until the 5th September.

Local structure of Mn⁴⁺ and Fe³⁺ spin probes in layered LiAlO₂ oxide by modelling of zero-field splitting parameters
Radostina Stoyanova, Anne-Laure Barra, Meglena Yoncheva, Elitza Kuzmanova and Ekaterina Zhecheva
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10929D

Field emission displays (FEDs) have recently gained much attention as they are considered to be the next generation flat panel displays. FEDs have some fascinating features such as great brightness, wide horizontal and vertical view angles, good contrast ratio, high efficiency with a low power consumption and short response times.

Jun Lin and colleagues from Changchun, China are working on possible phosphors for use in FEDs and the group report a promising new Zn₂GeO₄:Mn²⁺ submicrorods which might make a useful phosphor in their recent Dalton Transactions Hot Article. The submicrorods were produced using a simple, low cost hydrothermal method without any surfactant assistance. Read the article to find out more – free for you to access until 31 August 2011.

(Zn, Mg)₂GeO₄:Mn²⁺ submicrorods as promising green phosphors for field emission displays: hydrothermal synthesis and luminescence properties
Mengmeng Shang, Guogang Li, Dongmei Yang, Xiaojiao Kang, Chong Peng, Ziyong Cheng and Jun Lin
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10673

In this Dalton Transactions Hot article Andrew Burrows and Frank Marken and colleagues from the University of Bath make MOFs of zinc^II and aluminium^III dicarboxylate frameworks with covalently attached ferrocene functional redox groups.

Burrows uses post-synthetic modification to attach the ferrocenyl groups to the frameworks using an amine to amide functional group interconversion. The metal-organic frameworks they made were found to have novel redox active properties, which is an interesting development in the search for designer-electocatalysts.

Read the full article for FREE to find out more, until 30th August…

Metal–organic frameworks post-synthetically modified with ferrocenyl groups: framework effects on redox processes and surface conduction
Jonathan E. Halls, Alberto Hernán-Gómez, Andrew D. Burrows and Frank Marken
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10734H

Read more about Andrew Burrows’ research by visiting his University of Bath homepage.

This HOT article describes the synthesis and crystal structures of four mono- or bi-cyclic Mo/S/Cu clusters from a pre-designed cluster [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)₂Mo₂(µ₃-S)₄(CuMeCN)₂]²⁺ with tetraphosphine or N,P mixed ligands.  The femtosecond third order non-linear optical (NLO) performances of the products are enhanced due to the increased number of cluster cores.  As both the cluster-based building blocks and the multiple organic linkers are pre-designed, it could be useful for the rational design and assembly of coordination frameworks, possibly allowing the preparation of other new materials with enhanced NLO performance.

Read more for FREE until 25th August 2011 at:

Assembly of bicyclic or monocyclic clusters from [(η⁵-C₅Me₅)₂Mo₂(µ₃-S)₄(CuMeCN)₂]²⁺ with tetraphosphine or N,P mixed ligands: syntheses, structures and enhanced third-order NLO performances
Zhi-Gang Ren, Sha Sun, Min Dai, Hui-Fang Wang, Chun-Ning Lü, Jian-Ping Lang and Zhen-Rong Sun
Dalton Trans., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10685F

In this HOT article, Harder and Spielmann describe some alkaline earth metal aminoborane ligands and their thermal behaviour.  By using their new ditopic bis(ketiminate) ligands, they have been able to synthesize binuclear complexes that are pre-organised for constructing bridging aminoborane oligomers as ligands. By heating the initial non-bridging complexes, the aminoboranes couple and lose H₂. The loss of hydrogen from aminoborane ligands has practical relevance to hydrogen storage chemistry and also to the fields of solid state and metal-organic chemistry.

Read more for FREE until 25th August 2011 about these interesting aminoborane ligands at:

Binuclear magnesium amidoborane complexes: characterization of a trinuclear thermal decomposition product
Jan Spielmann and Sjoerd Harder
Dalton Trans., 2011, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C1DT10694E

Jingping Wang and colleagues make the first examples of isopolyoxotungstates-supported carbonyl metal compounds. Read more about there three novel octatungstate-supported tricarbonyl metal derivatives in their CrystEngComm Hot Article – free for you to read until the 25 August 2011.

Novel octatungstate-supported tricarbonyl metal derivatives: {[H₂W₈O₃₀][M(CO)₃]₂}⁸⁻ (M = MnI and ReI)
Jingyang Niu, Linping Yang, Junwei Zhao, Pengtao Ma and Jingping Wang
Dalton Trans., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1DT11042J