Faraday Discussions Blog

We would like to share with you some of the high impact international research recently published in Faraday Discussions.

Faraday Discussions are meetings which provide a unique international platform for the exchange of views and newly acquired results in developing research areas.

Faraday Discussions attract world-class speakers, including many Nobel Prize winners.

The papers and discussion are published in a Faraday Discussions volume. The latest Impact Factor is 4.5.

We have a packed programme of discussions in 2012. Please follow the links below to find out more:

• Tribology
• Molecular Reaction Dynamics in Gases, Liquids and Interfaces
• Soft Matter Approaches to Structured Foods
• Crystallisation – A Biological Perspective
• Ion Specific Hofmeister Effects
• Lipids and Membrane Biophysics

Read these high impact papers from recent Faraday Discussions for free today:

Realizing artificial photosynthesis
Devens Gust, Thomas A. Moore and Ana L. Moore
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00110H

Ionic Liquids: Past, present and future
C. Austen Angell , Younes Ansari and Zuofeng Zhao
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00112D

Interplay of theory and computation in chemistry—examples from on-water organic catalysis, enzyme catalysis, and single-molecule fluctuations
R. A. Marcus
DOI: 10.1039/B920917B

Multiscale simulation of soft matter systems
Christine Peter and Kurt Kremer
DOI: 10.1039/B919800H

Exploring nanoscale hydrophobic hydration
Peter J. Rossky
DOI: 10.1039/C005270C

Role of perimeter interfaces in catalysis by gold nanoparticles
Masatake Haruta
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00107H

Copper dioxygen (bio)inorganic chemistry
Edward I. Solomon, Jake W. Ginsbach, David E. Heppner, Matthew T. Kieber-Emmons, Christian H. Kjaergaard, Pieter J. Smeets, Li Tian and Julia S. Woertink
DOI: 10.1039/C005500J

New ionization methods and miniature mass spectrometers for biomedicine: DESI imaging for cancer diagnostics and paper spray ionization for therapeutic drug monitoring
R. Graham Cooks, Nicholas E. Manicke, Allison L. Dill, Demian R. Ifa, Livia S. Eberlin, Anthony B. Costa, He Wang, Guangming Huang and Zheng Ouyang
DOI: 10.1039/C005327A

Hydrogen as a fuel for today and tomorrow: expectations for advanced hydrogen storage materials/systems research
Katsuhiko Hirose
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00099C

Gold nanoparticle-polymer/biopolymer complexes for protein sensing
Daniel F. Moyano , Subinoy Rana , Uwe H. F. Bunz and Vincent M. Rotello
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00024A

Spectroscopy and astronomy: H₃⁺ from the laboratory to the Galactic center
Takeshi Oka
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00092F

Ultrafast laser control of electron dynamics in atoms, molecules and solids
Matthias Wollenhaupt and Thomas Baumert
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00109D

You can find all the papers and discussion from each of these exciting volumes of Faraday Discussions on our website.

HOT article from FD154: Ionic Liquids

This article by Deyko and Jones describes in detail the interaction of water at the surface of two ionic liquids. The authors found that the ILs were arranged so they had a hydrophobic surface layer. Water was able to absorb into the ILs at room temperature but no absorption into the frozen ILs was observed.

Read the full HOT Faraday Discussion article today:

Adsorption, absorption and desorption of gases at liquid surfaces: water on [C₈C₁Im][BF₄] and [C₂C₁Im][Tf₂N]
Alexey Deyko and Robert G. Jones
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00062D

Deyko and Jones' experimental setup.

HOT article from FD154: Ionic Liquids

Wishart and coworkers describe their studies of the effect of radiolysis in ionic liquids. They found slight differences in the behaviour of duroquinone in ILs compared to in conventional solvents and suggest that their insights may have potential applications in controlling photodegradation of solar cells and batteries as well as in dealing with spent nuclear fuel.

Read the full HOT Faraday Discussion article today:

Electron solvation dynamics and reactivity in ionic liquids observed by picosecond radiolysis techniques
James F. Wishart, Alison M. Funston, Tomasz Szreder, Andrew R. Cook and Masao Gohdo
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00065A

Faraday Discussion 153: Coherence and Control in Chemistry has now been published online.

Take a look at this exciting volume, which covers the following themes:

• Electronic coherence in biological supramolecular assemblies.
• Non-adiabatic interactions and molecular coherent control.
• Strategies for coherent control.
• Applications of coherent control.
• Strong-field high harmonic generation and alignment control

In the volume you can find all of the papers and fascinating discussion from the conference, which was held in Leeds, UK, in July.

A recommendation from the Chair:

Professor Ben Whitaker (University of Leeds, UK), Chair of Faraday Discussion 153, particularly recommends General Discussion section C because:

“A longstanding result is that coherent control over relative product cross-sections using one-photon excitation should not be possible… However, recent experiments (some of which are presented in this Discussion volume) using phase modulation of weak-field (single photon) excitation demonstrably result in control.  The contradiction with previously held belief and its resolution is debated by experts in the field in the General Discussion of this volume.”

To read the discussion about weak/one photon control, click here.

Highlights from the volume include:

Extracting dynamics of excitonic coherences in congested spectra of photosynthetic light harvesting antenna complexes
Justin R. Caram and Gregory S. Engel
Faraday Discuss., 2011, 153, 93-104

Coherent control of vibrational transitions: Discriminating molecules in mixtures
A. C. W. van Rhijn, A. Jafarpour, M. Jurna, H. L. Offerhaus and J. L. Herek
Faraday Discuss., 2011, 153, 227-235

Coherently-controlled two-dimensional spectroscopy: Evidence for phase induced long-lived memory effects
Valentyn I. Prokhorenko, Alexei Halpin and R. J. Dwayne Miller
Faraday Discuss., 2011, 153, 27-39

Coherent control of single molecules at room temperature
Daan Brinks, Richard Hildner, Fernando D. Stefani and Niek F. van Hulst
Faraday Discuss., 2011, 153, 51-60

You can purchase this volume as an individual book through our website.

HOT article from FD154!

The recent Faraday Discussion 154 on Ionic Liquids took place at Queen’s University, Belfast.

Margarida Costa Gomes presented her group’s work on the solubility and thermodynamics of solvation of ethane and n-butane in various ionic liquids. The authors found that the alkanes were more soluble in ILs with longer alkyl chains and observed preferential solvation in the non-polar part of the ILs.

Read the full HOT Faraday Discussion article today:

Using ethane and butane as probes to the molecular structure of 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis[(trifluoromethyl)sulfonyl]imide ionic liquids
Margarida F. Costa Gomes, Laure Pison, Alfonso S. Pensado and Agilio A. H. Pádua
DOI: 10.1039/C1FD00074H