Due to an unfortunate accident, Dr Laurent Vial (NJC Assistant Editor) will not be able to attend the 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences (August 31 – September 3, 2011 in Budapest, Hungary) as announced.
The NJC Poster Prizes will be awarded, as planned.
Chemistry in the life sciences, nitrogen ligands everywhere, and catalysis are the themes of three conferences where NJC staff and board members will be representing the journal:
• 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences (August 31 – September 3, 2011 in Budapest, Hungary)
• 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands in Coordination Chemistry, Metal-organic Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Materials & Catalysis (September 4 – 8, 2011 in Granada, Spain)
• 21st Century Catalysis Science and Applications (September 29 – 30, 2011 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
Kicking off this final round of summer conferences, Assistant Editor Dr Laurent Vial will be in Budapest for the 4th European Conference on Chemistry for Life Sciences. As part of the sponsorship of this conference by NJC, he will present poster prizes to two young chemists*. (Contact Laurent if you would like to meet him in Budapest.)
The conference covers both bioorganic and bioinorganic chemistry with an interdisciplinary flavor. The scientific sessions will cover a wide range of topics, including biomolecules in 3D, metals in medicine, synthetic biology, bioinspired catalysis, glycochemistry and many more.
This 4th edition in the series of meetings is co-chaired by Tamás Kiss and András Perczel and will be held in the ELTE Convention Center located at Eötvös Loránd University.
Following close behind is the 5th EuCheMS Conference on Nitrogen Ligands, at which NJC is sponsoring a poster prize*. Associate Editor Prof. Mike Scott and NJC Managing Editor Dr Denise Parent will be attending and look forward to meeting you there. Drop us a line if you will also be in Granada.
Ten eminent scientists from throughout the world will present plenary lectures on nitrogen-containing ligands used in a variety of areas, including biology, medicine, energy and the environment, materials….and almost 50 other speakers will expand on the subject.
This European Association for Chemical and Molecular Sciences conference will take place in the Granada Congress Centre and is organized by Jorge A. R. Navarro with colleagues from Spain, Italy and Germany.
At the end of September the 21st Century Catalysis Science and Applications colloquium of the Entretiens Jacques Cartier will take place in Ottawa. NJC Board member Dr Odile Eisenstein, one of the speakers, will present an NJC poster prize*. (Contact Odile.)
Conference topics range from a fundamental understanding of catalysis, biocatalysis and biomass conversion, to applications in nanoscience and energy.
This two-day conference is organized by researchers in Canada and France, and in particular Professors Tom Baker, Nicolas Abatzoglou and Davit Zargarian locally.
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ACS Noteworthy Chemistry, in its August 15th edition, has highlighted an NJC article in a post entitled “Use cobalt(II) thiocyanate with TLC to identify cocaine” among the weekly selected publications presenting the most innovative ideas.
In this NJC article, O. Siri and co-workers from the University of Marseille (France) have designed a novel method for cocaine detection using cobalt thiocyanate reagent impregnated directly on TLC plates. This new strategy is rapid, low cost and offers perspectives for future use as a new field test kit for the identification of illicit substances.
Cobalt thiocyanate reagent revisited for cocaine identification on TLC
Rose Haddoub, Daniel Ferry, Philippe Marsal and Olivier Siri,
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1351-1354.; to read the original paper (if a subscriber)
June’s hit parade of downloaded articles from 2011 includes one Focus and three Perspective reviews.
Rare earths: jewels for functional materials of the future
Svetlana V. Eliseeva and Jean-Claude G. Bünzli
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1165-1176. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00969E, Perspective
An excellent BODIPY dye containing a benzo[2,1,3]thiadiazole bridge as a highly selective colorimetric and fluorescent probe for Hg2+ with naked-eye detection
Hui-Bin Sun, Shu-Juan Liu, Ting-Chun Ma, Nan-Nan Song, Qiang Zhao and Wei Huang
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1194-1197. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00850H, Letter
Application of ferrocene and its derivatives in cancer research
Cátia Ornelas
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20172G, Perspective
Lanthanide-based luminescent molecular thermometers
Carlos D. S. Brites, Patricia P. Lima, Nuno J. O. Silva, Angel Millán, Vitor S. Amaral, Fernando Palacio and Luís D. Carlos
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ01010C, Perspective
A rigid metallohexameric macrocycle composed of endo- and exo-cyclic bisterpyridine-metal complexes
Sinan Li, Charles N. Moorefield, Carol D. Shreiner, Pingshan Wang, Rajarshi Sarkar and George R. Newkome
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20195F, Paper
An efficient naphthalimide based fluorescent dyad (ANPI) for F– and Hg2+ mimicking OR, XNOR and INHIBIT logic functions
Mohammad Shahid, Priyanka Srivastava and Arvind Misra
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20058E, Paper
Preparation of graphene–TiO2 composites with enhanced photocatalytic activity
Kangfu Zhou, Yihua Zhu, Xiaoling Yang, Xin Jiang and Chunzhong Li
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 353-359. DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00623H, Paper
A noncovalently assembled porphyrinic catenane consisting of two interlocking [43]-membered rings
Maryline Beyler, Valérie Heitz and Jean-Pierre Sauvage
New J. Chem., 2011, Advance Article. DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20294D, Paper (more…)
We invite you to read the latest issue of NJC. The 21 original research papers cover a wide variety of topics, amongst them: click chemistry applied to polymers, activation of fluorophores, correlation of weak bonding and antioxidant/anticancer activity, bimetallic nanoparticles on MWCNT with high catalytic activity, AIE-based fluorescent metal ion probes, energetic ionic liquids, hapticity in sandwich compounds, catenated macrocycles, and much more.
The outside front cover illustrates the hydration of metal ions, studied in the gas phase by tandem mass spectrometry, and which can provide insights into chemical behavior in solution. The group of Scott McIndoe (University of Victoria, Canada) has found a strong correlation between solution acidity of lanthanide ions and the degree of hydration at which charge reduction occurs.
Blurring the line between solution and the gas phase: collision-induced dissociation of hypersolvated lanthanide trications provides insights into solution acidity
Jennifer Pape, Keri McQuinn, Fraser Hof and J. Scott McIndoe
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1582–1587
DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20105K
A polymer fiber functionalized with a phthalocyanine complex (inside front cover) shows promise as a material for self-disinfecting wound dressing. Tebello Nyokong and her coworkers at Rhodes University (South Africa) show that the lutetium complex incorporated into the fiber maintains its photoactivity and produces the very reactive singlet oxygen species.
Photophysical and photochemical behavior of electrospun fibers of a polyurethane polymer chemically linked to lutetium carboxyphenoxy phthalocyanine
Ruphino Zugle, Christian Litwinski, Nelson Torto and Tebello Nyokong
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1588–1595
DOI: 10.1039/C1NJ20126C
To be informed when the next issue appears, sign up for NJC’s FREE table-of-contents email alert.
This month we talk with a few authors from the Molecular Materials themed issue. Below, you can meet my selection of 5 authors from this issue. Many thanks to them for agreeing to play the game of “who are you?”!
An excellent BODIPY dye containing a benzo[2,1,3]thiadiazole bridge as a highly selective colorimetric and fluorescent probe for Hg2+ with naked-eye detection
Hui-Bin Sun, Shu-Juan Liu, Ting-Chun Ma, Nan-Nan Song, Qiang Zhao and Wei Huang
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1194-1197; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00850H
Our first profile is of Professor Wei Huang, who is Deputy President of Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications (P. R. China) and director general of the Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics & Information Displays. His research covers organic and plastic electronics, chemo- and biosensors, information materials and devices, nano materials and technology, bioelectronics.
In his NJC paper, Wei and colleagues propose a new probe to monitor mercury ions, an important polluant, using optical and electrochemical signaling to achieve high selectivity and sensitivity.
Wei notes: “We have been interested in the field of chemo and biosensors for many years and have published many research papers in this field. We wish to develop a series of excellent optical probes for cations, anions, and biomolecules, etc. The research idea of this work was stimulated and formed by our previous work. We chose mercury as the target analyte because of its high toxicity and BODIPY dye as probe because of its excellent photophysical properties.”
When asked what you wanted to be when he was young, Wei replied: “I was dreaming of being a scientist who may create some wonderful high-tech products for mankind. It would be very difficult for me to think of my not being a chemist since I am very fond of chemistry.”
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A monolayer of a Cu2+-tetraazamacrocyclic complex on glass as the adhesive layer for silver nanoparticles grafting, in the preparation of surface-active antibacterial materials
Piersandro Pallavicini, Giacomo Dacarro, Lucia Cucca, Frank Denat, Pietro Grisoli, Maddalena Patrini, Nicolas Sok and Angelo Taglietti
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1198-1201; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00829J
Piersandro Pallavicini is Associate Professor in the Chemistry Department of the University of Pavia (Italy). His research interests center on the synthesis of inorganic nano-objects, modification of inorganic surfaces, coordination chemistry and sensing in micellar nanocontainers.
Piersandro remarks that “classical coordination chemistry is rarely carried out on surfaces. Despite this, I believe that all the enormously developed coordination chemistry in solution, particularly in the macrocyclic ligands area, could bring brilliant and precious features to the chemistry of self-assembled monolayers on bulk surfaces. Our paper is just one suggestion of what can be done.”
This project came into being thanks to the collaboration of the Pavia group with that of Frank Denat at the Université de Bourgogne, in Dijon (France).
“The Dijon team has developed an arsenal of brilliant strategies for the synthesis of polyaza macrocyclic ligands, and we were working together since some years on functional tetraaza macrocycles for the assembly of molecular devices in micellar containers. In the meantime we had started working on the modification of surfaces to impart them antibacterial properties by means of the release of inorganic cations. The idea of preparing a surface with a SAM capable of bearing (and eventually releasing) two antibacterial cations, Cu2+ and Ag+, led us to this project.”
Piersandro is another chemist with an early vocation: “I was resolutely oriented towards chemistry since when I was a child. As a 9 years old boy I monopolized an entire room in our house, that became my laboratory and that I stuffed with all the Chemistry Sets available on the toys market. I love to be a chemist.”
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[K2Mn5{Mo(CN)7}3]: an open framework magnet with four Tc conversions orchestrated by guests and thermal history
Julie Milon, Philippe Guionneau, Carine Duhayon and Jean-Pascal Sutter
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1211-1218; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00860E
Our next author is Jean-Pascal Sutter, a CNRS research director in the Coordination Chemistry Laboratory located in Toulouse (France). He works on material-directed coordination and supramolecular chemistry, more specifically on molecular magnets and open-framework materials.
In commenting on his NJC paper, Jean-Pascal says: “It is often considered that porous frameworks and exchange-based magnetism are antagonist properties in terms of performances; the reported magnet demonstrates that a porous framework can be achieved with good magnetic performances. Modest porosity (28%) is sufficient to observe fast and efficient sorption processes by the framework that permit converting the attributes of the corresponding magnets.”
Jean-Pascal continues that this research project came about “as often in research, by serendipity! The idea to adapt the structural features to favor labile ligand exchange formed back in 2003, when we observed that the loss of a ligand by a metal ion did significantly increase the ordering temperature of a magnet.”
If he couldn’t be a chemist, Jean-Pascal replied: “Difficult question; most certainly something where creativity is also important.” He sounds hesitant to even envisage the possibility of not being a chemist!
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Controlled growth of core@shell heterostructures based on Prussian blue analogues
M. Presle, J. Lemainque, J.-M. Guigner, E. Larquet, I. Maurin, J.-P. Boilot and T. Gacoin
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1296-1301; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00857E
Isabelle Maurin is also a CNRS research scientist, working at the Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée at the Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau (France).
Isabelle has been working in the field of photo-induced phase transitions in molecular solids since 2003. “Together with a better understanding of the local and macroscopic structural changes associated to these transitions, I have been trying since 2009 to extend the concept of molecular photomagnetism to multiferroic-like heterostructures based on the combination of photostrictive and piezomagnetic compounds. The first key issue was the control of the chemical composition in the heterostructure, which is is the object of the paper published in NJC.”
Before choosing chemistry, Isabelle considered become “an archeologist to combine travels in territories with high cultural inheritance (Egypt, Persia …), history and research.”
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Electrochromic devices and thin film transistors from a new family of ethylenedioxythiophene based conjugated polymers
Zhongtao Li, Yuan Zhang, Amanda L. Holt, Borys P. Kolasa, Justin G. Wehner, Andreas Hampp, Guillermo C. Bazan, Thuc-Quyen Nguyen and Daniel E. Morse
New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1327-1334; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00837K
Our last profile is of Professor Daniel Morse, who is currently Emeritus Founding Director of the UCSB-MIT-Caltech Institute for Collaboratoive Biotechnologies, as well as Wilcox Professor of Biomolecular Science and Engineering at UCSB (University of California Santa Barbara, USA). His research theme is bio-inspired routes to materials with advanced functionalities.
In their NJC paper, Dan and his colleagues synthesized a new family of electrochromic polymers that show switchable absorption in the infrared in the absence of water. “These offer promise for electrically activated solid-state shutters and filters in the IR, since their high charge transfer mobility and ion injection efficiency permits relatively rapid switching and good switchable contrast, while their robustness and longevity exceed those of aqueous devices.”
This work had its inspiration in nature, as Dan recounts it: “We recently discovered the molecular mechanisms governing the dynamic, tunable changes in color and reflectance that squids and octopi use to change their color and reflectance for camouflage and communication. Our colleagues at Raytheon Vision Systems, Inc., approached us to ask if we might be able to translate these mechanisms to an electrically switchable, synthetic polymer-based filter and shutter for cameras operating in the infrared. This gave rise to the productive and close collaboration that produced the materials and devices described in our paper.”
Apparently this approach is a long-ingrained one for Dan: “I was always fascinated by the natural world, both organic and inorganic, and the mechanisms that make it tick.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this and getting to know some of your fellow chemists a little better. I’m struck how most of them were bitten by the chemistry bug at a very early age. What about you?
The NJC editorial office in Montpellier (France) expects to have an opening Summer 2011 for a Deputy Managing Editor. The Deputy Managing Editor will work in collaboration with the Managing Editor on the evaluation of manuscripts, commissioning of content, and promotion of the journal.
For more details, please see one of the following:
NJC is delighted to present this month’s themed issue on Molecular Materials (MOLMAT2010), guest-edited by Prof. Joulia Larionova and Dr. Yannick Guari.
This themed issue of NJC, arising from the 4th edition of the MOLMAT Conference held in Montpellier (France) during July 2010, reflects the variety of approaches and methods used for the synthesis, studies of properties, modeling and processing of smart molecular materials.
The twenty-four articles in this issue, including 2 Perspective reviews, 5 Letters and 17 full Papers, provide broad coverage of various aspects of systems relevant to Molecular Materials.
The Perspective review by Luis Carlos and colleagues on lanthanide-based luminescent molecular thermometers illustrates the outside front cover.
Lanthanide-based luminescent molecular thermometers, Carlos D. S. Brites, Patricia P. Lima, Nuno J. O. Silva, Angel Millán, Vitor S. Amaral, Fernando Palacio and Luís D. Carlos, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1177-1183; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ01010C, Perspective
A second Perspective by Jean-Claude Bünzli reviews the use of rare earths for functional materials.
Rare earths: jewels for functional materials of the future, Svetlana V. Eliseeva and Jean-Claude G. Bünzli, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1165-1176; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00969E, Perspective
The inside front cover features the research of Juan Olguín and Sally Brooker on 3- and 5-formyl-4-phenyl-1H-pyrazoles for the generation of asymmetric imine ligands and mixed metal polynuclear complexes.
Synthesis of 3- and 5-formyl-4-phenyl-1H-pyrazoles: promising head units for the generation of asymmetric imine ligands and mixed metal polynuclear complexes, Juan Olguín and Sally Brooker, New J. Chem., 2011, 35, 1242-1253; DOI: 10.1039/C0NJ00774A, Paper
Take your pick amongst the several growing research fields making use of molecular materials that are part of this themed issue.
Profiles of 5 of this month’s authors will be posted shortly, so keep an eye out for these.
We are pleased to announce the recent appointment of Debbie Crans, Professor of Chemistry at Colorado State University, to the Editorial Board of NJC. Professor Crans’ research, published in ~150 refereed papers, focuses on transition metal ions (especially vanadium) and is driven by applications in medicine as well as understanding their toxicity.
Prof. Crans’ reaction to her nomination was that it would allow her to make a difference in new ways, indirectly referring to her 10+ year stint as Program Chair of the Inorganic Division of ACS.
Debbie began her studies at the University of Copenhagen, before undertaking her Ph.D. research in enzyme-catalyzed organic synthesis at Harvard in the group of Prof. George Whitesides. She then moved further west to UCLA for a postdoctoral project in mechanistic enzymology with Orville Chapman and Paul Boyer. In 1987, Debbie joined the faculty of Colorado State University, from which she received the Best Teacher Award for 2010–2011.
This is the latest in many distinctions that Debbie has been honored with, including an Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award and a Fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. In 2004 Debbie was the first laureate of the Vanadis Award, recognizing her contributions to vanadium science.
NJC’s staff and Boards extend a warm welcome to Prof. Crans as we look forward to a fruitful collaboration.
Find out who else is on NJC‘s Editorial Board!
We are pleased to announce the recent appointment of Prof. Jarugu Narasimha Moorthy of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur to the Editorial Board of NJC. Professor Moorthy is an expert in organic photochemistry, particularly in the solid state. He also works in the area of supramolecular chemistry, with a special interest for guest/host systems.
In accepting this position, Prof. Moorthy will work on promoting NJC amongst the Indian chemistry community in particular:
“I consider it a privilege to be part of the editorial board. As a member, I will try to critically analyze and offer suggestions that will contribute to increasing the impact of the journal. Of course, I shall endeavor to enhance the attention of the chemical community in the region in NJC as a very good journal for high quality topical and emerging interdisciplinary research.”
Narasimha Moorthy did his undergraduate and graduate studies in Bangalore, obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 1994 under the mentorship of Prof. K. Venkatesan. He then decided to visit the world, working successively at the University of Houston (Texas, USA), the University of Wuerzburg (Germany) and the University of Victoria (B.C., Canada) with Professors Jay Kochi, Waldemar Adam and Cornelia Bohne, respectively. In 1998 he returned to India, joining IIT Kanpur as an assistant professor in the Chemistry Department, where he was promoted to full Professor in 2007.
In addition to his Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship, Narasimha has received a number of awards and distinctions. Most recently he was awarded the 2009 Bronze Medal of the Chemical Research Society of India and was elected a Fellow of the Indian Academy of Science (FASc) in Bangalore in 2010.
NJC’s staff and Boards wish a warm welcome to Prof. Moorthy and look forward to a fruitful collaboration.
