NJC Blog

We are pleased to present a selection of our authors of the March issue of NJC. We thank each of them for accepting our invitation and having kindly taken some of their time to answer a few questions for us.

Our first author is Thomas Maschmeyer who is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sidney (Australia) and Director of the Laboratory of Catalysis for Sustainability. His current research interests concerns all aspects of catalysis from new complexes, new materials and performance studies to process development and pilot plants – with the common theme of enhancing sustainability. Thomas and co-workers provide in his NJC paper a basis for the preparation of supported bismuth species and highlights unusual band gap shifts associated with supported cluster size variation.

Thomas chooses NJC as it is a journal that appeared ideal for the dissemination of this type of work that lies at the boundaries of a range of disciplines.

Outside of the lab, Thomas enjoys Kayaking. If he could not be a scientific researcher, he would be an engineer or a novelist.

Unprecedented blue-shift in bismuth oxide supported on mesoporous silica by Antony J. Ward, Anne M. Rich, Anthony F. Masters and Thomas Maschmeyer, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 593-600 ; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40847C, paper.

Our next author is Robert B. King, regents’ Professor Emeritus, University of Georgia (USA); and adjunct Professor of Chemistry, Babeş-Bolyai University (Romania); Associate Director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry, South China Normal University (China) and Academic Co-Director of the Research Center for Advanced Computation, Xihua University (China). Robert’s research interests are centred on computational inorganic and organometallic chemistry.

In this issue of NJC, Robert has authored the article Diverse bonding modes of the tetramethyleneethane ligand in binuclear iron carbonyl derivatives by Huidong Li, Hao Feng, Weiguo Sun, Qunchao Fan, Yaoming Xie and R. Bruce King, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 709-716 ; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40644F, paper. “A paper in which density functional methods is used to explore the chemistry of tetramethyleneethane iron carbonyl derivatives related to species originally obtained from reactions of allene with iron carbonyls” explains Robert who chooses NJC for publication of this article as this work is interdisciplinary since it applies methods from quantum physics and chemistry to an area of organometallic chemistry.

In his free time, Robert loves contract Bridge (Bronze Life Master), travel to unusual places and music.

Closing this month’s author selection, Dr. Feng Li is Associate Professor at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, P. R. China.

His current research interest is organic synthesis/design, exploration and development of environmentally friendly reactions and he has authored in this NJC issue the paper Regioselective N-alkylation with alcohols for the preparation of 2-(N-alkylamino)quinazolines and 2-(N-alkylamino)pyrimidines by Feng Li, Lin Chen, Qikai Kang, Jianguang Cai and Guangjun Zhu, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 624-631 ; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ41021D, Paper.

This paper shows that in the presence of the [Cp*IrCl₂]₂/NaOH system, the direct N-alkylation of 2-aminoquinazolines and 2-aminopyrimidines with alcohols afforded the N-exosubstituted 2-(N-alkylamino)quinazolines and 2-(N-alkylamino)pyrimidines with high yields and complete regioselectivities. The protocol is highly attractive because of easily available starting materials, high atom efficiency and environmental friendliness.

“NJC is prospective and promising journal in the field of chemistry”, says Feng.

Out of the lab, Feng’s favorite activity is sport. If he could not be a scientist, Feng would probably be an Art designer.

Prof. George Gokel

Our first author is George Gokel, a former NJC Associate Editor, who is Distinguished Professor of Science and Director of the Center for Nanoscience at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. George’s research is in the field of supramolecular and biological chemistry of membrane active and channel-forming compounds.

The article by George and his co-authors looks into the little-studied branched-chain chemistry of pyrogallolarenes. These compounds have led to at least one remarkable nanotube structure. The group’s NJC paper addresses the membrane behavior of resorcinarenes that have hard-to-obtain, very long chains that are aligned (rccc). The typical synthesis of pyrogallols depends on crystallization of a single product from a complex mixture. Long-chain pyrogallols or resorcinarenes crystallize poorly owing to their extended hydrocarbon chains. Jochen Mattay had previously prepared and characterized very long chain compounds containing varied headgroups. The collaboration with the group of Gokel probed the monolayer behavior (Langmuir trough) and membrane activity (bilayer clamp) to obtain new information about the amphiphilic behavior of these difficult-to-obtain derivatives.

One of George’s favorite films is KPAX. In this film, Kevin Spacey claims to be a tourist from the planet KPAX. Jeff Bridges plays the psychiatrist who seeks conventional explanations for a range of phenomena that point to Spacey’s alien origins. George applies the moral of this film to science: “It humbles one to think that we often try to make our data fit our preconceived notions rather than applying Sherlock Holmes’ advice in the Sign of the Four that ‘when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'”

Properties of long alkyl-chained resorcin[4]arenes in bilayers and on the Langmuir trough by Priyanka Ogirala, Saeedeh Negin, Ceno Agena, Christian Schäfer, Thomas Geisler, Jochen Mattay and George W. Gokel, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 105–111. DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40337D

Luca (on the right) indulging in one of his passions with two friends.

The second NJC board member is Luca Prodi, who is a Full Professor in the Chemistry Department “G. Ciamician” of the University of Bologna.

Luca explains how his research interests have expanded over the years, while remaining centered on light: “I have been always fascinated by luminescence-related processes. Because of this curiosity, I directed my interest to the design of luminescent chemosensors and labels, especially for biological applications. The advent of nanotachnology has allowed the design of brighter systems, and for this reason I have recently started the study of nanoparticles, in particular those possessing a silica core. The possibility to design multicomponent systems opens up a huge number of strategies to improve the analytical signal. It is not possible to get bored studying these materials!”

All of these topics come together in the Focus review contributed by the Prodi group. “The design of chemosensors able to give information about the concentration of a given analyte can have a tremendous impact on many disciplines, such as medical diagnosis, molecular biology, and environmental monitoring, to cite only a few. Since the use of chemosensors based on silica nanoparticles is, to our opinion, very promising for obtaining systems featuring better performances, we have reviewed some interesting examples of what is reported in the literature indicating also some perspectives in the field.”

Reading is one of Luca’s favourite activities besides chemistry (and cycling—see the photo!). He notes that he is a  “curiosity-driven reader” so his interests span many areas but in particular he likes detective stories by northern Europe writers, while one of his favourite Italian authors is Andrea Camilleri; Luca particularly enjoyed reading the first novel by this author, introducing Inspector Montalbano in La Forma dell’Acqua (The Shape of Water—sounds quite fitting for a chemist!).

Luminescent chemosensors based on silica nanoparticles for the detection of ionic species by Marco Montalti, Enrico Rampazzo, Nelsi Zaccheroni and Luca Prodi, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 28–34. DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40673J

David visiting Mgarr in Malta, with a view of the harbor and church.

Lastly let us meet David C. Magri, a recently appointed Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry, University of Malta (Malta is a small archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, with a long and fascinating history, having been ruled by a succession of powers going from the Phoenicians to the British crown). Getting back to David, his research is in the area of luminescent sensors and molecular logic gates.

In their NJC paper, David with student Thomas report the first examples of molecular AND logic gates that can simultaneously measure the pH and the pE (redox ability of a solution). In honour of Marcel Pourbaix, a formerly renowned electrochemist, they have named them Pourbaix sensors. Such probes could be useful in environmental monitoring, and also in cell biology and medicine, for example, as high concentrations of protons and redox active metal ions, such as iron, have been linked to certain types of cancer.

With a background in both photochemistry and electrochemistry David often contemplated how to intertwine elements from both to the field of molecular information processing.  Fluorescent logic gates for pH and pE was the result.

A book that has left its mark on David from his graduate training is The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn (published in 1962 by the University of Chicago Press).  David explains: “The book explores the psychology of science dealing with the acceptance of new paradigms.  I would recommend all researchers give it a read.”

‘Pourbaix sensors’: a new class of fluorescent pE–pH molecular AND logic gates based on photoinduced electron transfer by Thomas J. Farrugia and David C. Magri, New J. Chem., 2013, 37, 148–151. DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40732A

We hope you enjoyed meeting some of your fellow chemists. Check back next month on the NJC blog to see who we’ll interview next!

Our first author is Dr Kenta Adachi, who is Assistant Professor in the Department of Environmental Science & Engineering at Yamaguchi University, Japan. His current research interests focus on the optical and spectroscopic properties of organic/inorganic hybrid nanoparticles and clusters, along with the design, assembly, and use of nanoparticle-tagged biomolecules as analytical tools for sensing, imaging, and diagnosis. In his NJC letter, an approach is presented for the first time to induce chirality in aggregates of achiral organic dyes by chiral amino acid molecules pre-adsorbed on the metal oxide colloid surface. The authors believe that these findings, together with the possibility of fine-tuning both amino acids and organic dyes on the metal oxide colloid surface, open new promising ways towards the design of efficient chiral supramolecular sensors and devices.

Dr Cyrille Monnereau is Assistant Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon (France). Dr Monnereau is interested in molecular engineering of chromophores and fluorophores, especially for biophotonics applications. In recent years, the authors have been trying to develop two-photon absorbing chromophores for fluorescence bio-imaging and photodynamic therapy, which could be easily and efficiently delivered into cells or target organs. The simple and adaptable ATRP methodology used in their NJC paper allowed the authors to progress significantly towards this aim, with minimal synthetic effort.

Our last chemist for this month is Dr Marina Lezhnina, who is Research Fellow in the Institute for Optical Technologies at Münster University of Applied Sciences, Germany. Her research activity focuses on the synthesis of luminescent species in non-classical matrices, with applications in lighting technologies and analytics. Her NJC paper contributes to the search for efficient luminescing rare earth complexes with versatile potential for linkage to secondary substrates. The authors demonstrated that tris-ß-diketonate-Europium complexes could readily be co-ligated with epoxyphenanthroline, yet widely retaining the advantageous optical properties of higly efficient phenanthroline or bipyridyl analogues, while the epoxy group provides a fascinating prospect for coupling to polymer backbones, activated surfaces, and last but not least to biologically relevant substrates like proteins and peptides (see the glutathione model in the present publication).

Check back next month for more profiles of NJC authors!

We are pleased to present a selection of our authors of the October issue of NJC. We thank each of them for accepting our invitation and having kindly taken some of their time to answer a few questions for us.

Our first author is Khaleda Banu who is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of California San Diego (USA). Her current research interests are mainly focused on the synthesis of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles and their application in the fields of renewable energy and microbial fuel cells. In her NJC paper, Khaleda and co-workers report on how a simple modification to the solid-matrix method could generate large-scale transparent gold nanosheets up to 50 mm in size that are attractive for the development of new biosensors.

When asked what led to the publication of this article at NJC, Khaleda responds: “The present paper is an extension of previous work published in NJC. Our intention was to publish a series of papers on the proposed electroless method for the deposition of various metal nanoparticles which can receive the attention of the interested readers”.

Out of the lab, Khaleda enjoy kid’s gymnastic activities, teaching students and reviewing papers.

If Khaleda could not be a scientist, she would probably like to be an actress or a professional chess player.

Synthesis of large-scale transparent gold nanosheets sandwiched between stabilizers at a solid–liquid interface
by Khaleda Banu and Takayoshi Shimura, New J. Chem., 2012, 36, 2112-2120; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40478H.

Our next author is Huanshun Yin, Lecturer at the Shandong Agricultural University (China). Huanshun’s research interests focus on electroanalytical chemistry, electrochemical biosensors and electrochemical immunoassays.

In this issue of NJC, Huanshun has authored the article MicroRNA-21 detection based on molecular switching by amperometry by Yunlei Zhou, Zhaoyan Zhang, Zhenning Xu, Huanshun Yin and Shiyun Ai, New J. Chem., 2012, 36, 1985-1991; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40253J. “We developed an assay method that can discriminate complementary base mismatched microRNA sequences. More importantly, this biosensor assay reveals that microRNA-21 is highly expressed in human HeLa cells and in normal human hepatic cells. We think that such a method would be valuable in clinical diagnostics”, explains Huanshun who chooses NJC for publication of this article as NJC is an RSC important international journal.

In his free time, Huanshun loves spending time doing car rides. If Huanshun was not a scientist, he would have been a teacher.

Dyanne Cruickshang is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town (South Africa).

Her current research interest is the beneficiation of both agrochemicals and other active pharmaceutical ingredients using supramolecular methods such as co-crystallisation and cyclodextrin inclusion which has been her focus over the last few years.

In this NJC issue paper, Dyanne and co-authors highlight the ability of highly toxic and persistent agrochemical to form cyclodextrin inclusion complexes. The work presented focuses mainly on the single crystal structure of the complex between dimethylated b-cyclodextrin and endosulfan. It also shows how the potential of cyclodextrins in the agrochemical industry and how these molecules could be used for sequestering the insecticides from contaminated areas.

A solid-state study of the inclusion of endosulfan in native and derivatised cyclodextrins using X-ray diffraction and thermoanalytical methods by Dyanne L. Cruickshank, Susan A. Bourne and Mino R. Caira, New J. Chem., 2012, 36, 2007-2013; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40364A.

“NJC was chosen as it contains articles spanning a wide spectrum of interests to the scientific community. This journal seemed like an ideal way to demonstrate the relatively new area of cyclodextrin inclusion of agrochemicals and the potential applications of these complexes.”

Cycling, running or swimming along the Cape Peninsula in preparation for various triathlon events are Dyanne’s favourite activities. She also enjoys travelling and trying the local foods. If she could not be a scientist, Dyanne would probably be involved in some sort of teaching career.

Closing this month’s author selection, Marian Davolos is Full Professor at the Sao Paulo State University (Brazil).

Her current research interest is investigating optical properties of inorganic materials. She has authored in this NJC issue the paper Synthesis of a functionalized europium complex and deposition of luminescent Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films by Renata D. Adati, Felippe J. Pavinatto, Jorge H. S. K. Monteiro, Marian R. Davolos, Miguel Jafelicci and Osvaldo N. Oliveira, New J. Chem., 2012, 36, 1978-1984; DOI: 10.1039/C2NJ40199A. “An anionic europium complex stabilized by and amphiphilic cation was proven amenable to deposit as LB films with relatively intense luminescence and good stability” says Marian.

Out of the lab, Marian’s favorite activity is to grow and to care for orchids and if she was not a scientist, she would be a florist or a gardener.

Marian also says that “To grow and care for plants is fantastic, especially when they give beautiful flowers and fruits. Teaching, lecturing, advising scientific work of students and guiding them to work and to make scientific research part of their life is highly satisfactory compared to growing delicate plants. Renata D. Adati, a co-author in this paper, that is part of her thesis, was one of my specials PhD students.”