Eva Balentova, deputy editor

Author Archive

Capture of carbon dioxide by conjugated microporous polymers

05 Nov 2014

Towards the global efforts to reduce carbon emission, carbon dioxide capture is currently being investigated as a potential strategy towards this goal.

Conjugated microporous polymers (CMPs) as a sub-family of microporous organic polymers (MOPs) are good candidates for CO₂ capture because of the wide-ranging flexibility in the choice and design of components and the available control of pore parameters.

Dr Renqiang Yang and his colleagues (researchers at Chinese Academy of Science, University of Chinese Academy of Science and Taiwan National Central University) designed and synthesized three phospine oxide-based microporous polymers TEPO 1-3 owning strong affinity for CO₂. The effects of the rigid length and fuctionalization of the monomer skeleton on the performance of porous materials has been investigated. Although the BET (Brunauer-Emmett-Teller) surface area of the TEPOs are less than 600 m² g^-1, the three polymers exhibit relatively high sorption abilities for CO₂ (8.40 wt%) and ultrahigh hydrogen uptake (1.02 wt% at 77K/1.0 bar) compared to materials with similar BET surface areas. Interestingly, the polymers obtained exhibit remarkable performance in separating CO₂ over CH₄ as the selectivity of CO₂/CH₄ is a high as 15.5 at 273K.

This work reveals clearly that the gas uptake capacity of materials is highly depending on the length of rigid skeleton and the modification of functional groups in the monomer structure.

To find out more, read the full paper, which is free to access for a period of 4 weeks:

Phosphine oxide-based conjugated microporous polymers with excellent CO₂ capture properties: Shanlin Qiao, Wei Huang, Zhengkun Du, Xianghui Chen, Fa-Kuen Shieh and Renqiang Yang; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ01477D

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Congratulations to the NJC Poster Prize winner at ISXB-1

11 Aug 2014

NJC was pleased to honour Alavi Karim from the University of Gothenburg (Sweden) for her outstanding poster presentation at the 1st International Symposium on Halogen Bonding (ISXB-1) that was held in Porto Cesareo (Italy) on June 18–22.

Alavi Karim is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology where she works under the supervision of Dr. Mate Erdelyi. Her project currently focuses on Understanding Halogen Bonding in Solution.

In her award-winning poster titled “The Nature of [N–Cl–N]⁺ and [N–F–N]⁺ Halogen Bonds in Solution” she presented solution-phase NMR spectroscopy data and theoretical studies investigating the geometries and stabilities of the highly reactive, lighter haloniums in comparison to their well-studied iodonium and bromonium centered analogues. Alavi said: “We have characterized three-centre-four-electron halogen bonds, [N–X–N]⁺, in solution and demonstrated the iodine-, bromine- and chlorine-centred halogen bonds to be static symmetric. In line with fluorine, the [N⁺–F···N] system shows different behaviour in comparison to the heavier halogens. The complex is asymmetric and thus encompasses one conventional-covalent and one conventional-weak halogen bond. The fluorine- and chlorine-centred systems are highly reactive and could therefore only be stabilized in solution at low temperature. The conclusions drawn from NMR studies were supported by DFT calculations.”

The poster prize committee and winner (from left to right): Giuseppe Resnati, Francesca Baldelli-Bombelli, Alavi Karim and Pierangelo Metrangolo.

Many congratulations to Alavi on receiving her NJC poster prize. She also received a book from the Royal Society of Chemistry and a 1-year electronic subscription to New Journal of Chemistry.

You can read more about the ISXB-1 by visiting their website.

To keep up-to-date with all the latest research, sign up for the journal’s e-alerts.

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Fluorescent carbon dots from office waste printer paper

30 Jan 2014

Professor Boxue Feng and his co-workers from Lanzhou University in China present a creative idea for the recycling of waste paper.

In their NJC Letter, they report a simple synthesis of water-soluble, fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) from waste paper as the carbon source via hydrothermal process at 180°C. They showed that the as-prepared CDs exhibit strong luminescence properties, good photostability, high photoluminescence quantum yield and fairly low toxicity. The green method described in this study indicates the potential applications of such prepared CDs in the field of bio-imaging.

Read the article now:
Simple one-step synthesis of water-soluble fluorescent carbon dots from waste paper

By Jumeng Wei, Xin Zhang, Yingzhuo Sheng, Jianmin Shen, Peng Huang, Shikuan Guo, Jiaqi Pan, Bitao Liu and Boxue Feng ; New J. Chem., 2014, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01325A, Letter

Interested in reading further? Why not download the full article now, FREE to access for a period of 4 weeks!

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Hot articles for January

23 Jan 2014

Here are the latest Hot Articles published in NJC, recommended by referees. All are free to access for next 4 weeks!

Using gel morphology to control pore shape by Jonathan A. Foster, David W. Johnson, Mark-Oliver M. Pipenbrock and Jonathan W. Steed ; New J. Chem., 2014. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01295F, Paper

Alkyl substituent effects in photochemical and thermal reactions of photochromic thiophene-S,S-dioxidized diarylethenes by Hiroaki Shoji, Daichi Kitagawa and Seiya Kobatake; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01246H

Enhancement of hydroxyl radical generation of a solid state photo-Fenton reagent based on magnetite/carboxylate-rich carbon composites by embedding carbon nanotubes as electron transfer channels by Tingting Han, Lingling Qu, Zhijun Luo, Xiangyang Wu and Daoxiao Zhang ; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00959A

Synthesis and optoelectronic properties of phenylenevinylenequinoline macromolecules by Reyes Flores-Noria, Rosa Vázquez, Eduardo Arias, Ivana Moggio, Marlene Rodríguez, Ronald F. Ziolo, Oliverio Rodríguez, Dean R. Evans and Carl Liebig; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01193C

Recoverable Cu/SiO₂ composite-catalysed click synthesis of 1,2,3-triazoles in water media by Cátia Schwartz Radatz, Liliana do Amaral Soares, Estéfano Roberto Vieira, Diego Alves, Dennis Russowsky and Paulo Henrique Schneider; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01167D

Arsinous acid as a thiol binding group: potential cysteine peptide tagging functionality that binds a single thiol by Xiaofei Liang and Dale G. Drueckhammer; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01462B

PEDOT nanostructures synthesized in hexagonal mesophases by Srabanti Ghosh, Hynd Remita, Laurence Ramos, Alexandre Dazzi, Ariane Deniset-Besseau, Patricia Beaunier, Fabrice Goubard, Pierre-Henri Aubert, Francois Brisset and Samy Remita; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01349A

Calcination-influenced interfacial structures and gas-sensing properties of multi-walled carbon nanotube–tin oxide p–n heterojunctions by Yong Jia, Pei-Yun Wu, Yin-Ping Jiang, Qun-Ying Zhang, Shuang-Sheng Zhou, Fang Fang and Dai-Yin Peng; New J. Chem., 2014; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01280H

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Meet Our Authors – November Issue 2013

21 Nov 2013

by Ling PENG, NJC Assistant Editor

Here is a selection of author profiles from the 2013 November issue of NJC. We thank them most warmly for accepting our invitation and having kindly taken their time to answer a few questions for us.

Our first author is Dr. Jean-Pierre Majoral, who is currently an emerita Research Director of exceptional grade in CNRS. He is interested in all aspects of dendrimer properties and applications from biology to medicinal chemistry, material sciences and catalysis. His contribution to this issue is a concise review which presents not only the “state of the art” concerning the use of dendrimers as tools to tackle different aggressive types of cancers (from colon to brain ) but also to point out what should be (or will be) done using dendrimers to face important remaining challenges encountered by medicinal chemists. “It is difficult for me to imagine a different career than the one I had and currently I have!” says Jean-Pierre with a total satisfaction working as a researcher during all a career.
Prof. Larry Que is a Regents Professor of Chemistry at University of Minnesota, and focuses mainly on bioinorganic chemistry. In this issue, he contributed a paper entitled “Cyclohexene as a versatile substrate probe for the nature of the high-valent iron-oxo oxidant in bio-inspired nonheme iron-catalyzed oxidations”. “I love discovering new, unusually reactive compounds and understanding how they work. I also enjoy training young scientists very much” claimed Prof Que.
Prof. Michio Yamada is an Assistant Professor at Tokyo Gakugei University. He is interested in the chemistry of carbon-rich architectures such as fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, and acetylene scaffolds. Currently, he is pursuing the structure-based design and synthesis of novel molecular receptors to explore the supramolecular chemistry of nanocarbons. In his contribution to this issue, he reported a new method for functionalization of fullerenes using photolabelling reagents. “If I couldn’t be a chemist, I’d be a curator in a museum of natural history. Actually I spent a lot of time in museums with my parents in my childhood and the experience was valuable and unforgettable”, says Prof. Yamada.
Prof. Clotilde Policar is specialized in bio-inorganic chemistry and cellular inorganic chemistry and working at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. She contributed an article entitled “An Intrinsically Fluorescent Glycoligand for Direct Imaging of Ligand Trafficking in Artificial and Living Cell Systems” in the October issue of NJC. For her, the most exciting moment is “when a difficulty vanishes, at any level; from a simple technical problem solved to a deeper understanding of a phenomenon. It can be after a long process or in a short moment of insight. It is always enlightening and produces a deep joy and emotion that is, to me, the quintessence of research.”

Read November’s issue now.

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NJC Issue 11 online – in honour of Bernard Meunier

08 Nov 2013

NJC is delighted to announce that NJC issue 11 is available online.

This month’s issue features 27 contributions dedicated to Bernard Meunier, on the occasion of his official retirement from the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) in France.

This collection includes high quality articles on a diverse range of topics, including molecular chemistry, dendrimers, nanostructures, organometallic chemistry and catalysis. The issue was guest edited by Azzedine Bousseksou and Jean-Pierre Majoral (CNRS, Toulouse, France). You can read the Editorial to find out more.

In addition to the 44 Full papers and 9 Letters covering a different area of research, issue 11 contains 1 Focus and 3 Perspectives reviews – these review articles are free to access for 4 weeks.

Focus

Nanoparticles of molecule-based conductors
Dominique de Caro, Lydie Valade, Christophe Faulmann, Kane Jacob, Diane Van Dorsselaer, Imane Chtioui, Lionel Salmon, Abdelaziz Sabbar, Souad El Hajjaji, Emile Pérez, Sophie Franceschi and Jordi Fraxedas, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00555K

Perspectives

Dendrimers as macromolecular tools to tackle from colon to brain tumor types: a concise overview
Serge Mignani and Jean-Pierre Majoral, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 3337;
DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00300K

Positively charged phosphorus dendrimers. An overview of their properties
Anne-Marie Caminade and Jean-Pierre Majoral, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00583F

Organometallic approach for the synthesis of nanostructures
Catherine Amiens, Bruno Chaudret, Diana Ciuculescu-Pradines, Vincent Collière, Katia Fajerwerg, Pierre Fau, Myrtil Kahn, André Maisonnat, Katerina Soulantica and Karine Philippot, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00650F

We hope that you will find NJC issue 11 fun and thought-provoking!

Go to the issue now…

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New NJC Hot Articles

09 Oct 2013

Here are the latest Hot Articles published in NJC, as recommended by the referees. All are FREE to access for one month, so why not take your pick and have a read now?

A new way to tune relative humidity: by saturated ionic liquid aqueous solutions by Yuanyuan Cao, Yu Chen and Tiancheng Mu ; New J. Chem., 2013, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00661A, Paper

Serendipitous synthetic entrée to tetradehydro analogues of cobalamins by Richard M. Deans, Olga Mass, James R. Diers, David F. Bocian and Jonathan S. Lindsey; New J. Chem., 2013, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00574G, Paper

Octupolar chimeric compounds built from quinoline caged acetate moieties: a novel approach for 2-photon uncaging of biomolecules by Sébastien Picard, Emilie Genin, Guillaume Clermont, Vincent Hugues, Olivier Mongin and Mireille Blanchard-Desce; New J. Chem., 2013, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00833A, Paper

Synthesis of novel Mn₃O₄ concave octahedral microcrystals and their anomalous magnetic properties by Yong-Xing Zhang and Yong Jia; New J. Chem., 2013, Advance Article; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00840A, Letter

Fancy submitting an article to New Journal of Chemistry? Then why not submit to us today.

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Meet Our Authors – August Issue 2013

20 Aug 2013

Two authors of NJC’s August issue are interviewed for this month’s Meet our Authors feature.

Our first author is Dr. Faina Gelman, who is researcher at the Institute of Geological Survey of Israel, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her current research interests are environmental chemistry and stable isotope analysis. She particularly focuses on development of new analytical tools for stable isotope analysis and their applications for understanding chemical and biochemical transformations of organic compounds.

In their NJC paper, Faina with her colleagues demonstrated determination of bromine kinetic isotope effect on Grignard reagent formation –one of the fundamental reactions of brominated organics. ” Since our work combines novel analytical, theoretical and organic chemistry approaches, we wanted to submit it to a more general-focused journal, such as NJC is, from our point of view” commented on choosing NJC.

And what contemporary scientific issue is she most concerned about: “I am very much concerned about environmental pollution and would like to find an efficient way to treat this problem “she replied. Besides her research activity, Faina likes to spend time with her family.

Bromine kinetic isotope effects: insight into Grignard reagent formation by Lukasz Szatkowski, Agnieszka Dybala-Defratyka, Charlie Batarseh, Jochanan Blum, Ludwik Halicz and Faina Gelman ; New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 2241-2244; DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00197K.

The second author is Jürg Hulliger, who is a Professor of chemistry at the University of Berne, Switzerland. His research interest centers on Crystal growth, properties and solid state theory. His contribution to this month’s issue is Focus article that reviews on polar properties of solid molecular matter.”Here we review basic theoretical views on growth induced polarity in molecular crystals giving also all known experimental examples we have by today, which domonstrate polarity Formation. ”

If Jürg could solve any scientific problem, it would be: “Constructing equipment being able to say : a small Crystal of the size of a few 100 nm is (i) superconductive, (ii) is composed of these elements and (iii) shows this crystal structure. Such an Equipment may be used to analyze your combinatorial ceramic samples.”

In the non-lab world, Jürg is fascinated by interior decoration in the style of the 18th century, renovation of antics and art.

A stochastic principle behind polar properties of condensed molecular matter by Jürg Hulliger, Thomas Wüst, Khadidja Brahimi, Matthias Burgener and Hanane Aboulfadl New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 2229-2235 DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ40935J

We thanks to Faina and Jürg for accepting our invitation to talk about themselves and their work!

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NJC poster prize at 5th ECCLS

19 Jul 2013

We are delighted to present the recent poster prizes awarded at the 5th European Conference on “Chemistry for Life Sciences” (5th ECCLS) in Barcelona, that gathers an ensemble of scientists at the crossroads between chemistry, biology, biophysics and material science.

Two young scientists Montserrat Serra-Batiste and Sven Hofmann received NJC Poster Prizes that reward creative and multidisciplinary research works in the chemical sciences.

Montserrat Serra-Batiste is a postdoctoral researcher in the group of the Prof. Ernest Giralt at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, Barcelona (Spain) working under the supervision of Dr. Natàlia Carulla since September 2010.

Montserrat’s winning poster dealt with well-defined Aß42 oligomers in a biomimetic membrane environment. The idea project started with the idea of Dr Natàlia Carulla of stabilizing Aß oligomers by using an environment similar to what this peptide have in vivo. Different conditions have been testing by different techniques in order to get a stable and homogeneous preparation of Aß oligomers. As a result, an Aß42 hexamer (named (Aß42)₆^Membrane) has been stabilized which adopts extensive ß-sheet secondary structure and exhibits specific Aß42-Aß42 interactions. Preparation of (Aß42)₆^Membrane should open the possibility to explore more in deep the role of Aß oligomers in Alzheimer’s disease.

Her future plans include working with Natàlia to characterize the structure and the biological relevance of this Aß42 hexamer and contribute in solving the puzzle of Alzheimer’s disease. Besides research activities Montserrat loves cooking and dancing.

The award-winning poster of Sven Hofmann was entitled “Carbaboranes in Short Neuropeptide Y Analogs – Redirecting BiologicalActivity”. Carbaboranes are icosahedral boron-carbon clusters mimicking phenyl rings. In particular, they present a three-dimensional hydrophobic structure and are capable of providing a special type of hydrogen bonding, the so-called proton-hydride bonding. Their unique chemical properties are perfectly suited for improving the biological activity of small bioactive molecules but also of peptide analogs.

Sven is a graduate student working in the research group of Prof. Annette G. Beck-Sickinger at the University of Leipzig, Leipzig (Germany) since October 2010. Working in the field of chemical modification of peptides to gain receptor subtype selectivity and biological stability, he especially focuses on the synthesis of short functionalized peptide ligands as selective diagnostic and therapeutic tools.

His future plans are not fixed yet. However, he will finish his Ph.D. in 2014 and he will apply for a postdoctoral research position abroad. Outside of the lab, Sven’s favorite activities are running, cycling, athletic sport challenges and travelling.

The two laureates received a one-year subscription to the journal and a RSC book. Our thanks go to the organizers of the conference for their help in organizing these awards, and our deep gratitude to all of the senior scientists who served on the jury to select the two following winners:

NJC wishes them continuing success in their research!

A list of all previous NJC Poster Prize winners can be found here.

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Meet NJC team at summer conference season 2013

28 Jun 2013

Summer Conferences are something we can’t afford to miss! The NJC editors will be attending a number of conferences in the coming weeks. We look forward to meeting you!

NJC is proud to support the following conferences:

	Denise will represent NJC at the 20^th EuCheMS conference on Organometallic Chemistry (EuCOMC), St Andrews, Scotland, 30 June-4 July 2013. NJC is the sponsor of the Young Plenary Lecturer Dr Florence Mongin from the University of Rennes.
	18th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry (ESOC 2013) will be held in Marseille, on the Mediterranean coast of France, at the beginning of July (7^th to 12^th). The Palais du Pharo Vieux Port will welcome about 900 participants, including NJC Assistant Editor Ling Peng.
	NJC Editor-in-chief Wais Hosseini will be at the International Conference on Advanced Complex Inorganic Nanomaterials, to be held in Namur, Belgium (15–19 July).
	NJC is delighted to sponsor the Tuesday evening Poster Session at the 16^th International Conference on Bio-Inorganic Chemistry (ICBIC), which will take place in Grenoble from 22–26 July 2013.
	The exciting chemistry conference for the Asian community, the 15th Asian Chemical Congress (15 ACC), is returning to its birthplace – Singapore – from 19–23 August. NJC Associate Editor Peter Junk will be there.
	We are delighted to be partner of the Groupe d’Etude de Chimie Organique (GECO), which will meet for the 54^th time this year. This conference, organized by Erwan Le Grognec, will take place in Croisic (France) at the end of August from the 25^th to 30^th.