Archive for the ‘News’ Category

NJC issue 9 out now

Sept OFC by Prof. R. KeeneThis month’s outside cover illustrates an article by Prof. Richard Keene (James Cook University, Australia) and co-workers in which they report important observations in the development of multinuclear ruthenium complexes as a new class of anticancer agents.

There has been little success in developing drugs that are active in cancer cell lines resistant to cisplatin. Consequently, there was a need in developing “non-classical” platinum complexes – complexes that can bind DNA differently than cisplatin and its analogues. Thus, multinuclear platinum complexes, where two or more platinum coordination units are linked by a variety of organic ligand bridges, represent a genuinely new class of anticancer drug.

This study shows that it should be possible to optimize cellular uptake and the kinetics of DNA binding, and thereby produce dinuclear ruthenium(II) complexes with significant clinical potential.

Multinuclear ruthenium(II) complexes as anticancer agents
Anil K. Gorle, Alaina J. Ammit, Lynne Wallace, F. Richard Keene and J. Grant Collins.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 4049-4059. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00545G.
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Also discover the four Letters comprising this issue:

Nan Cao, Teng Liu, Jun Su, Xiaojun Wu, Wei Luo and Gongzhen Cheng.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 4032-4035. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00739E.

Jinwei Yin, Huimin Shi, Ping Wu, Qingyun Zhu, Hui Wang, Yawen Tang, Yiming Zhou and Tianhong Lu.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 4036-4040. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00767K.

Hongyu Zhen and Kan Li.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 4041-4044. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00768A.

Yang Liu, Jianan Zhang, Shoupei Wang, Kaixi Wang, Zhimin Chen and Qun Xu.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 4045-4048. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00816B.

Access the full issue here.

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NJC call-for-papers: ‘Frontiers of Organo-f-element Chemistry’ themed issue

As part of the Pacifichem 2015 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA (December 15–20, 2015), there will be a symposium devoted to the topic ‘Frontiers of Organo-f-element Chemistry‘. This symposium will focus on recent advances and future directions in the organometallic chemistry of lanthanide and actinide elements. It is intended to cover all fundamental and technological aspects of organo-f-element chemistry.

Organo-f-element chemistry continues to be one of the most attractive fields for potential applications in homogeneous catalysis and organic synthesis. The main goal of this symposium is to bring together the world’s leading experts in the field to discuss and elucidate current trends in fundamental and applied organo-f-element chemistry and to identify the most promising future developments for the next decade.

Scope
New Journal of Chemistry (NJC), an CNRS journal published by the RSC, will publish a thematic issue on organo-f-element chemistry in October 2015, shortly before the symposium. The symposium invited speakers have agreed to contribute to this thematic issue. We cordially invite you to join them with your contribution in the broad area of organo-f-element chemistry.

All aspects of organo-f-element chemistry (lanthanides and actinides, theoretical and synthetic studies, catalysis and materials science) are welcome. Full Papers, Letters (communications with limited data and a single message; 4-page limit), Perspective  reviews (with no length limitations) and Focus reviews on a topic of current interest (6-page limit) will be accepted.
 

Guest Editors
Professor Dr. Frank T. Edelmann (Madgeburg, Germany)
Professor Peter Junk (James Cook University, Australia)

How to submit and deadline
Please use the manuscript templates for your contributions and submit using the NJC manuscript submission website. Please clearly indicate in the ‘Comments to the Editor’ section that the contribution is intended for the Organo-f Element themed issue.

Please select the correct format for your contribution. These are clearly defined in the table below.

All contributions will undergo the usual evaluation process (see the January 2014 editorial for further details).

 

The deadline to submit is March 1, 2015.
 Contributions received after this date will be considered but inclusion in the themed issue, if accepted, is not guaranteed.

 

Specifications for NJC manuscript formats

For further information:
Read NJC
More news
Submit to NJC
Contact us: NJC “at” univ-montp2.fr

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NJC issue 8 out now

Aug OFC by Prof. YamauchiOur outside cover, designed by Prof. Yamauchi (National Institute for Materials Science, Japan) and his colleagues, presents a Focus article dedicated to mesoporous fibers.

The authors review several works on non-siliceous mesoporous fibers synthesized with both soft- and hard-templates. They also discuss the orientation control of the mesochannels inside the fibers, which is important for considering the adsorption and diffusion of molecules, and they introduce their recent works on the novel synthesis of mesoporous fibers.

Recent progress on the tailored synthesis of various mesoporous fibers toward practical applications
Norihiro Suzuki, Jian Liu and Yusuke Yamauchi.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 3330-3335. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00016A.

Aug IFC by Dr ChahmaThe inside cover illustrates a paper by Dr Chahma (Laurentian University, Canada) and his co-workers in which they  describe the characterization of interactions between a free amino acid and chiral conducting surfaces using cyclic voltammetry and FTIR spectroscopy.

They report that being able to control the functionalities on conducting surfaces can help tune the chemical and electrochemical properties of the modified surfaces, thereby affecting the detectability of immobilized molecules on them.

Characterization of phenomena occurring at the interface of chiral conducting surfaces
M’hamed Chahma, Christopher D. McTiernan and Sara A. Abbas.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 3379-3385. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00489B.

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The second Focus article is written by Dr Nicolas Giuseppone (University of Strasbourg) and co-workers in which they present how chromatographic, spectroscopic, and microscopic techniques, as well as theoretical modelling and statistical data treatment, are instrumental in the new research area of dynamic combinatorial systems, a significant area at the interface of molecular biology and materials science. The authors illustrate the advantages of a number of experimental and theoretical methods by a non-exhaustive review of examples from the recent literature.

Experimental and theoretical methods for the analyses of dynamic combinatorial libraries
Maria Cristina Misuraca, Emilie Moulin, Yves Ruffa and Nicolas Giuseppone.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 3336-3349. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00304G.

To find out more, access the full issue

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NJC issue 7 out now

This month’s issue begins with a Focus article by Dr Fuwei Li (Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences) and co-workers in which the authors review reactions that introduce carbonyl groups into unactivated heterocycles. They highlight that various heterocycles could be utilized as simple starting materials to generate carbonyl group containing target molecules.

Carbonylative diversification of unactivated heteroaromatic compounds
Rui Lang, Chungu Xia and Fuwei Li.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2732-2738. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00099D.

This month’s front cover illustrates the Letter by Dr Soumen Basak (Saha Institute of Nuclear July OFC - Dr BasakPhysics, India) and co-workers who report an elegant, facile and green protocol for designing dendrimer-like assemblies of multicolor fluorophore-labeled peptides grafted on gold nanoparticles.

According to the authors, multicolour fluorescent labeling of both intra- and extracellular structures is a powerful technique for simultaneous monitoring of multiple complex biochemical processes. These multi-functional nanoparticles have shown great promise as new probes for biomedical imaging and carriers in drug delivery.

A multicolor fluorescent peptide–nanoparticle scaffold: real time uptake and distribution in neuronal cells
Kallol Bera, Shounak Baksi, Moupriya Nag, Subhas Chandra Bera, Debashis Mukhopadhyay and Soumen Basak.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2739-2743. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00265B.July IFC - Dr Loots

The inside cover was designed by Dr Leigh Loots (University of Stellenbosch, South Africa).

Dr Loots and her colleagues demonstrated that the synthesis of novel pyridinium zwitterionic compounds show a great potential as a new class of supramolecular building blocks for the formation of ionic as well as metal-organic frameworks.

Synthesis and solid-state supramolecular chemistry of a series of pyridinium-derived zwitterions
Leigh Loots, Delia A. Haynes and Tanya le Roex.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2778-2786. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00281D.

Read the full issue here

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Meet Our Authors from May and June 2014

Dr Thu HuongDr Tran Thu Huong focuses her research on materials science, especially rare-earth-doped luminescent materials and nano-structured materials for biomedical applications. She works at the Institute of Materials Science (IMS) within the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).

In their paper, Tran and co-workers show the influences of chemical composition and pH on the size, shape, morphology and luminescence properties of EuPO4•H2O materials during the fabrication process. The authors also demonstrated that the materials act as an alternative labelling tool for recognizing the measles virus.

The project was initiated in response to a request from biologists for strongly luminescent materials for labelling. According to Tran, the success of the study relied on efficient teamwork, support and provision of research facilities from the IMS, and the wonderful collaboration with scientists at the Vietnamese Center for Vaccine Research and Production of Biologicals.

Tran is very proud of General Vo Nguyen Giap, one of the most important figures in the history of Vietnam and well known throughout the world as a prominent commander who won victories in the Dien Bien Phu battle as well as during the Vietnam War. She adds: “In my opinion, he was also a leader with a strategic vision as he showed a special interest for culture and science. He often attended cultural events and meetings with scientists where his speech always focused to favour development.”

Read Tran’s NJC article:

Fabrication and optical characterization of multimorphological nanostructured materials containing Eu(III) in phosphate matrices for biomedical application
T. T. Huong, L.T. Vinh, T. K. Anh, H. T. Khuyen, H. T. Phuong and L. Q. Minh
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2114–2119. DOI: 10.1039/c3nj01206a

Dr Marcela Gazitúa López works at the Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile and specializes in physical chemistry, chemical kinetics and computational chemistry.

Dr Marcela GazituaHer paper describes an experimental study of the effect of solvation on the mechanisms of nucleophilic substitution reactions. Marcela and her colleagues compared the results in water with those in 20 conventional organic solvents (COS) and 17 ionic liquids on the basis of solvent polarity indicators.

The work began in 2012 as part of a postdoctoral project covering the experimental-theoretical study of conventional solvents and ionic liquids as reaction media. Marcela is proud to present her first postdoctoral work in NJC which, according to her, is a “a chemistry journal that will rise in impact because of a wide scope that will appeal to a broad readership”.

Her favourite historical figure is Albert Einstein whom she admires for the importance and magnitude of his discoveries.

Read Marcela’s NJC article:

Mechanistic pathways in aromatic nucleophilic substitution in conventional solvents and ionic liquids
Marcela Gazitúa, Ricardo A. Tapia, Renato Contreras and Paola R. Campodónico
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2611–2618DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00130C

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NJC issue 6 out now

NJC June 2014 front cover

This month’s front cover illustrates the article by Dr Andrew Hunt (University of York, UK) and co-workers. The authors’ work demonstrated that microwave assisted extraction is an efficient green technology for the recovery of D-limonene from orange waste.

The study details the microwave assisted extraction (MAE) of D-limonene from oranges and focuses on understanding the MAE mechanism based on kinetic analysis of the process.

It was shown that microwave radiation favourably interacts with the sample during extraction, causing simultaneous cell rupture and diffusion and resulting in a greater yield. These results provide an important insight into the development of extraction processes for orange peel.

Microwave assisted extraction as an important technology for valorising orange waste
Thomas M. Attard , Baillie Watterson , Vitaliy L. Budarin , James H. Clark and Andrew J. Hunt.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2278–2283. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00043A.

NJC June 2014 inside coverThe inside cover was designed by Prof. Zofia Urbanczyk-Lipkowska (Polish Academy of Sciences). In their perspective, Zofia and her colleague Marta Sowinska wanted to provide insight into currently available synthetic methods that yield dendrimers with various morphologies, placing emphasis on the evaluation of their advantages and limitations.

The review outlines the spectacular benefits of recent applications of several novel approaches to the synthesis of dendrimers. In particular, accelerated methods and click chemistry have opened new alternative ways to obtain the high generation, defect-free dendrimeric molecules with high efficacy that was previously unreachable.

Advances in the chemistry of dendrimers
Marta Sowinska and Zofia Urbanczyk-Lipkowska.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 2168–2203. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01239E.

 

Access the full issue here.

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Discover the NJC themed issue on Advanced Complex Inorganic Nanomaterials

This month, NJC is delighted to present the special issue on Advanced Complex Inorganic Nanomaterials (ACIN), composing 10 review articles and 29 research reports. These articles provide an update of recent innovations in both fundamental and applied aspects of inorganic nanomaterials.  

 ACIN issue May 2014 OFCIn their perspective, Prof. Pascal Van Der Voort (Ghent University, Belgium) and his colleagues, who designed the outside cover, describe the Vanadium-containing metal–organic frameworks that have been developed since the first systematic reports on MOFs almost 15 years ago. According to their studies, these materials show interesting behaviour in oxidation catalysis and gas sorption, opening perspectives towards the development of even more active and selective catalysts.

  

Vanadium metal–organic frameworks: structures and applications
Pascal Van Der Voort, Karen Leus, Ying-Ya Liu, Matthias Vandichel, Veronique Van Speybroeck, Michel Waroquier and Shyam Biswas.
New J. Chem.
, 2014, 38, 1853–1867. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01130E. 

May 2014 ACIN IFC  

The inside cover was designed by Prof. Matthias Driess (Technische Universität Berlin, Germany). In their  article, the authors report the synthesis of multi-faceted versus irregular shaped Ag3PO4 microparticles for the visible light driven non-sacrificial water oxidation. According to the authors, non-sacrificial water oxidation with multi-faceted silver phosphate particles could lead to overall water splitting by successful coupling of the material with an efficient hydrogen evolution catalyst.

 

Visible light driven non-sacrificial water oxidation and dye degradation with silver phosphates: multi-faceted morphology matters
Arindam Indra, Prashanth W. Menezes, Michael Schwarze and Matthias Driess.
New J. Chem.
, 2014, 38, 1942–1945. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01012K.

Access the full list of articles comprising this dedicated issue here!

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Meet Our Authors – April 2014

Dr Abdul HameedDr Abdul Hameed, Assistant Professor at Kohat University of Science and Technology (Pakistan), focuses his research on the synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles and their applications in the field of medicine and analytical chemistry. 

According to Abdul and his co-workers, their NJC paper, dealing with the use of noble metal nanoparticles in the field of enzyme inhibition, opens the gates for future research into this field.

Abdul is a synthetic organic chemist who loves nanotechnology, especially noble metal nanoparticles. His work in this area is, however, hampered by the lack of facilities in Pakistan. This is one of the reasons why his group recorded TEM images for the paper in South Korea.

Abdul’s dream is “to dive in the depth of nanotechnology” by going abroad to work with other hard-working research groups. “I hope I will find it very soon”, he says, to which we wish him the best of luck! 

Synergistic enzyme inhibition effect of Cefuroxime by conjugation with gold and silver
Abdul Hameed, Sehrish Fatima, Faiz Ur Rahman, Tae-Ho Yoon, Andaleeb Azam,  Shaukat Khan, Ajmal Khan and Nazar Ul Islam.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1641-1646. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00974B (Paper)


 

Our second author, Dr Suresh Kumar Kailasa, is an Assistant Professor at the S. V. National Institute of Technology (India). Suresh is principally interested in nano- and bio-analytical chemistry, mass spectrometry, sensors and proteomics.Dr Suresh Kumar Kailasa

In their paper, Suresh Kumar and his colleagues report the use of p-amino salicylic acid dithiocarbamate functionalized gold nanoparticles (NPs) as colourimetric sensors for selective and sensitive determination of Fe3+ ions in plasma.

The results show that the Fe3+ ion induces the aggregation of the modified Au NPs via the formation of a covalent coordination bond between it and an organic derivative on the surface of the Au NPs, leading to a colour change from red to blue that can be observed with the naked eye.

They have developed straightforward methods for both the functionalization of Au NPs and the characterization of the NP aggregation induced by the Fe3+ ion. The functionalized Au NPs did not react with other metal ions and, therefore, were demonstrated to be selective for Fe3+ in both biological and environmental samples.

 Suresh Kumar’s dream is to develop miniaturized, nanomaterial-based analytical tools for inorganic, organic and biomolecule assays.

 Sensitive and selective colorimetric sensing of Fe3+ ion by using p-amino salicylic acid dithiocarbamate functionalized gold nanoparticles
Vaibhavkumar N. Mehta, Suresh Kumar Kailasa and Hui-Fen Wu.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1503-1511. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01468A (Paper)

 


 

With his research group, Prof. William Skene works on conjugated materials prepared via simple methods and assesses their optoelectronic properties at the University of Montreal (Canada). 

Prof. William SkeneMany organic materials undergo visible colour changes either when oxidized or reduced  however there are few materials which can do both. 

In their paper, Will and his co-workers demonstrated that a reversible colour change upon both oxidation and reduction was possible with an easily-prepared, conjugated construct consisting of motifs known for their reversible redox properties.

This research started as a summer project with a different aim before the unusual colour change behavior of the material was keenly observed by the student conducting the experiments.

 In order to delight taste buds, Will confesses that his dream is to be an outstanding pastry chef!

 Towards Multichromatic Electrochromes from Ambipolar Conjugated Azomethines
Michael E. Mulholland, Daminda Navarathne, Samim Khedri and W. G. Skene
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1668-1674. DOI: 10.1039/C4NJ00027G  (Paper)

 

Thanks to Abdul, Suresh and Will for sharing a bit of themselves with our readers. Join us again next month for more portraits in “Meet Our Authors”.

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NJC issue 4 out now

NJC issue 4 outside cover An article by Shiguo Sun (Northwest A&F University, China) and co-workers features on this month’s front cover. In their work, the authors of this paper employed the host–guest chemistry between CB[8] and acridine orange to investigate its interaction with DNA/RNA.

The results highlighted that the host–guest chemistry of CB[8] provides a convenient and efficient way to solve the autofluorescence problem of the tricyclic basic dyes, and that the method can be employed to fluorescence discriminate DNA from RNA and quantitatively detect trace levels of DNA.

Discrimination of DNA from RNA with the host–guest complexes of tricyclic basic dyes and cucurbit[8]uril
Fusheng Li, Yongqian Xu, Hongjuan Li, Chaoxia Wang, Aiping Lu and Shiguo Sun.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1396–1400. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01178J.

 

NJC issue 4 inside cover

The inside cover was designed by Magda Blosi (Institute of Science and Technology for Ceramics, Italy). In their paper, Dr Blosi and her colleagues focused on developing a green synthesis process for the production of PVP-coated noble metal nanoparticles in the form of stable nanosols.

The focus on the colloidal stability together with the eco-friendly method represents a key point in view of a large-scale production. In fact, dealing with nanoparticles in form of suspensions represents an essential goal both from a safety point of view and for the subsequent process steps.

According to them, the synthesis versatility and the strong variation of the catalytic activity detected for different metals, make this process very promising for the production of bimetallic nanostructures enabling synergistic effects.

Green and easily scalable microwave synthesis of noble metal nanosols (Au, Ag, Cu, Pd) usable as catalysts
M. Blosi, S. Albonetti, S. Ortelli, A. L. Costa, L. Ortolani and M. Dondi.
New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1401-1409. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00894K.

 

Read all 59 articles in this month’s issue here.

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Read the March issue of NJC

by Cynthia Challencin, Publishing Assistant

NJC March outside front coverThe March issue outside front cover was designed by Jonathan Steed (Durham University), former NJC Associate Editor, and Jonathan Foster (University of Cambridge). The two authors and co-workers wrote a paper dealing with supramolecular gelators with different fibre morphologies used as templates to form mesoporous covalent polymers with different pore shapes. These materials have found use in applications such as filtration, storage, catalysis, cell growth, drug delivery and as rewritable materials.

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, 38, 927-932. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01295F.

In their article, Seiya Kobatake, who designed the inside front cover, and his colleaguesNJC March inside front cover report on photochemical and thermal reaction behavior of thiophene-S,S-dioxidized diarylethenes having various alkyl groups at the reactive positions. Their results provide the new strategy for molecular design to make the molecules showing light-starting irreversible thermosensors.

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, 38, 933-941. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01246H.

Do not hesitate to read the whole issue available online at: NJC 2014, issue 3

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