NJC Blog

The October outside cover is proposed by Prof. Timothy P. Hanusa (Vanderbilt University, USA). In this article, the authors report a series of heavy alkaline-earth iodide coordination compounds containing various neutral donor ligands: phosphine oxides, ureas and the nitrobenzene dimer. These donors were chosen for their range of basicity and steric demand, to determine how well they could compete with the iodide ligand. The observed reactivity patterns suggest that ureas deserve more widespread use in group 2 chemistry, as they have a basicity that exceeds that of phosphine oxides, are available with a variety of substituents, and are inexpensive.

Selective modification of the metal coordination environment in heavy alkaline-earth iodide complexes
Lacey S. Fitts, Eric J. Bierschenk, Timothy P. Hanusa,* Arnold L. Rheingold, Maren Pink and Victor G. Young, Jr. New J. Chem., 2016, 40, 8229-8238. DOI: 10.1039/C6NJ01713D.

Do not hesitate to browse the entire table of contents of the October issue to discover the 9 Letters and 86 Articles. Click here!

This month, the outside cover is proposed by Dr Jinbao Guo (Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China). In their work, the authors develop a facile bilayered structural device composed of a silver nanoparticle array with a liquid crystal elastomer. The device is elastic and changes color by sensing deformations induced by changing temperature, attributed to alignment of the liquid crystal molecules induced by the nanoparticle array. This actuator design could be a promising candidate for smart environmental-responsive devices such as thermal-camouflage skin and color-changing actuators.

A color-changing plasmonic actuator based on silver nanoparticle array/liquid crystalline elastomer nanocomposites
Yang Shi, Chao Zhu, Juntao Li, Jie Wei and Jinbao Guo, New J. Chem., 2016, 40, 7311-7319. DOI: 10.1039/C6NJ00492J.

Miss Maruša Mazej designed the inside cover to illustrate a study by Dr Zoran Mazej and his colleague Dr Goreshnik (Jožef Stefan Institute, Slovenia). Based on a short communication published in 1976 presenting three compounds described as XeF₆·TiF₄, 4XeF₆·TiF₄ and XeF₆·2TiF₄, and on the synthesis of [XeF₅]₃[Ti₄F₁₉] (i.e. 3XeF₆·4TiF₄) published in 2009, the authors reveal in this study the crystal structures of these 3 compounds, which can be formulated as XeF₅TiF₅, [XeF₅]₅[Ti₁₀F₄₅] and [XeF₅][Ti₃F₁₃]. [XeF₅]₅[Ti₁₀F₄₅] contains the largest known discrete decameric [Ti₁₀F₄₅]⁵⁻ anion built from ten TiF₆ octahedra that share vertices and that are arranged in a double-star shape.

Largest perfluorometallate [Ti₁₀F₄₅]⁵⁻ oligomer and polymeric ([Ti₃F₁₃]⁻)_∞ and ([TiF₅]⁻)_∞ anions prepared as [XeF₅]⁺ salts
Zoran Mazej and Evgeny A. Goreshnika, New J. Chem., 2016, 40, 7320-7325. DOI: 10.1039/C6NJ00955G.

Discover the full contents of the September issue here.