NJC Blog

NJC issue 4 out now

02 Apr 2014

NJC is delighted to present the April 2014 issue.
by Cynthia Challencin, Publishing Assistant

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.

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

20 Mar 2014

By Denise Parent, Managing Editor.

The March 2014 issue of New Journal of Chemistry is available online.

by Cynthia Challencin, Publishing Assistant

The 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 colleagues 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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Meet Our Authors – February & March 2014

20 Mar 2014

By Denise Parent, Managing Editor.

We would like to thank our authors from the February & March issues of NJC for their participation.

By Cynthia Challencin, Publishing Assistant

Katalin Ősz, Associate Professor at the University of Debrecen (Hungary), focuses her work on kinetics of inorganic (photo)reactions.

In their NJC Paper, Katalin and her colleagues studied the structure-reactivity relationships in the oxidation of water-soluble quinones, which are sensitive to light and may have an important role in utilizing solar power. It was learned that otherwise nonreactive substituents can change several redox and kinetic properties and thus tune the reactivity. She also explains that NJC seemed to be an ideal venue because it offers a nice selection of papers from all the fields of chemistry for a general audience.

During her spare time, Katalin enjoys listening to classical music, hiking (mostly downhill), reading and traveling. The latest is demonstrated by the photo picturing the first author of the article, Éva Józsa (on the left), and herself in front of Ernest Hemingway’s house in Key West (Florida), which they visited while attending a GRC conference on Inorganic Reaction Mechanisms.

Kinetic studies of hydroxyquinone formation from water soluble benzoquinones by Éva Józsa, Mihály Purgel, Marianna Bihari, Péter Pál Fehér, Gábor Sustyák, Balázs Várnagy, Virág Kiss, Eszter Ladó and Katalin Ősz, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 588-597. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01274C (Paper)

Bong-Hyun Jun, Assistant Professor at Konkuk University (Korea), works on the synthesis of nanoparticles (metal, QDs, silica) and their applications, but also on organic synthesis and surface modification.

In their NJC Letter, Bong-Hyun and co-workers report the fabrication of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) using silica-coated quantum dot-embedded silica nanoparticles (SiO2/QD/SiO2 NPs) as a light-harvesting layer. According to them, these nanoparticles, which are brighter than single QDs, enable an easier handling because of their bigger size. The fact that they can be prepared in large quantity shows that they could be applied to several fields such solar cells, protein detection and in vivo imaging.

Bong-Hyun studied at UC Berkeley in California and traveled to several places with his family. He reports: “I was impressed by the natural landscape of California. Especially, Yosemite National Park was outstanding and we had a really great time there.” He now would like to have the chance to visit Europe!

Dye-sensitized solar cell with silica-coated quantum dot-embedded nanoparticles used as a light harvesting layer by Won-Yeop Rho, Jung-Woo Choi, Hea-Yeon Lee, San Kyeong, Sang Hun Lee, Heung Su Jung, Seunho Jung, Yung-Eun Sung, Yoon-Sik Leeb and Bong-Hyun Jun*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 910-913. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01345F (Letter)

Our second author, Miss Shan Peng, Ph.D. student at the South China University of Technology, focuses her work on biomimetic/fabrication and performance characterization of superhydrophobic surfaces based on an Al substrate.

After the discovery of the hierarchical macroporous alumina template, Shan and her collegues introduced a simple template-wetting method to prepare superhydrophobic PMMA macroporous surfaces with diverse water adhesion reported in their NJC Paper.

Shan’s favorite place in China is Guangzhou, one of the most developed cities. She appreciates the convenience of the public transport and the warm weather even during winter, since she does not like cold weather. Moreover, Guangzhou is famous for its variety of flowers, which has given it the name of ‘Flower city’.

A facile approach for preparing biomimetic polymer macroporous structures with petal or lotus effects by Shan Peng and Wenli Deng*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 1011-1018. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01156A (Paper)

Panayiotis Andreas Koutentis (aka Pani) is Associate Professor in Organic chemistry at the University of Cyprus. His team focuses on heteroatom rich systems. There is no specific target, but rather they identify heterocyclic systems that are potentially useful but under-exploited. Students then develop their technical, theoretical and more importantly creative skills by exploring these systems. “I encourage my students to adopt an orthogonal approach to their work, except of course when they must publish!”

In their NJC Paper, Pani and co-workers describe the magnetic properties of a readily prepared and structurally interesting fused Blatter radical. According to them, the information provided could assist in the design of radicals with tailor-made solid-state properties, which can potentially find use in a range of organic electronic applications.

Pani would like to address special thanks to Prof. Fred Wudl as he worked for him on benzotriazinyls as a post doc. “Fred gave me his blessing to continue exploring the chemistry of the system once I started my independent career.”

Pani has travelled extensively and India is by far the most exciting country he has visited. According to him, the people are friendly and hospitable, the food is excellent and there is an incredible diversity on many levels.

Effective exchange coupling in alternating-chains of a π-extended 1,2,4-benzotriazin-4-yl by Christos P. Constantinides, Andrey A. Berezin, Maria Manoli, Gregory M. Leitus, Michael Bendikov, Jeremy M. Rawson and Panayiotis A. Koutentis*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 949-954. DOI: 10.1039/ C3NJ01235B (Paper)

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Distinctions for NJC personalities

24 Feb 2014

By Denise Parent, Managing Editor.

Two board members and a recent guest editor of New Journal of Chemistry have been honoured.

NJC Editor-in-Chief Mir Wais Hosseini was awarded the Humboldt–Gay-Lussac Prize by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for 2013. This prize, given each year to active researchers in France, recognises their contributions to French-German cooperation and their scientific projects. Wais Hosseini, professor at the University of Strasbourg and director of the Molecular Tectonics Laboratory, was proposed as a laureate by Professor Stefan Bräse of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

Wais was one of 10 French scientists to receive the Humboldt–Gay-Lussac Prize in 2013. On the German side, Gay-Lussac–Homboldt Prize was discerned to two distinguished scientists.

More details (in French) on the 2013 laureates and these French-German awards can be found by clicking here.

Last December the French Academy of Sciences announced the election of 17 new members, including Odile Eisenstein and Azzedine Bousseksou to the chemistry section.

Odile Eisenstein, computational chemist and CNRS Director of Research working at the University of Montpellier, has been associated with New Journal of Chemistry since its founding, as Nouveau Journal de Chimie, in 1977. She served as Editor-in-Chief of NJC from 1993 to 2000 and has been a member of the editorial board since 2001, representing the CNRS.

The junior member elected to the Academy’s chemistry section is Azzedine Bousseksou, CNRS Director of Research in the Coordination Chemistry Laboratory in Toulouse. His research is focused on molecular magnetism and switchable molecular materials. Azzedine coordinated NJC‘s November 2013 issue celebrating the career of his Toulousian colleague Dr Bernard Meunier.

Congratulations to Wais, Odile and Azzedine for these honours!

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Hot article: Sub-nanomolar arsernate sensing

12 Feb 2014

By Laurent Vial, Assistant Editor.

Arsenic is a notoriously poisonous element and arsenate (HAsO₄^2-) contamination of drinking water is a problem that affects millions of people worldwide.

In this NJC Letter, Debasis Das (The University of Burdwan, India) and Jesús Sanmartín Matalobos (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Spain) present a Mn(II) complex that forms intermolecular hydrogen bonds with HAsO₄^2-, leading to higher molecular rigidity and fluorescence enhancement. This new “turn-on” fluorescent probe allows both the quantification of the HAsO₄^2- anion in aqueous media and its detection in contaminated living cells under microscope. The authors were able to measure HAsO₄^2- concentrations in the sub-nanomolar range, far below the World Health Organization’s standard for drinking water.

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

2-(2-Pyridyl) benzimidazole based ternary Mn(II) complex as arsenate selective turn-on fluorescence probe: ppb level determination and cell imaging studies
D. Das, S. Das, A. Banerjee, S. Lohar, B. Sarkar, S. K. Mukhopadhyay, J. Sanmartin and A. Sahana
New J. Chem., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01514A.

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Hot article: N-doped titanium dioxide for Li-ion batteries

10 Feb 2014

By Yannick Guari, Assistant Editor.

In their NJC paper, George Hasegawa and co-workers (Kyoto University, Japan) demonstrate facile synthesis of hierarchically porous N-doped TiO₂ and applications to the anode of Li-ion batteries.

The precursor titanium-based hybrid gels were prepared by crosslinking titanium alkoxide with ethylenediamine in a non-hydrolytic sol-gel route which leads to TiO₂ homogeneously doped with a high amount of nitrogen. The combination of N-doping into TiO₂ and hierarchically porous structure effectively improves electrode performance; the resultant N-doped anatase showed good discharge capacities higher than the capacity of conventional anatase electrodes.

Synthesis and Electrochemical Performance of Hierarchically Porous N-doped TiO₂ for Li-ion Batteries
George Hasegawa, Tatsuya Sato, Kazuyoshi Kanamori, Kazuki Nakanishi and Takeshi Abe
New J. Chem., 2014, DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01332D

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

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NJC issue 2 out now

07 Feb 2014

By Denise Parent, Managing Editor.

The February 2014 issue of New Journal of Chemistry is presented by Cynthia Challencin (Publishing Assistant).

NJC presents the February issue…

The outside front cover illustrates an Article from Mercedes Cano (Complutense University) and her colleagues who focused on the strategic design of new liquid crystal materials based on Zn(II) coordination compounds containing pyridine-functionalised pyrazole ligands of the type 3-(4-n-alkyloxyphenyl)-5-(pyridin-2-yl)pyrazole [HpzR(n)py]. According to them, these compounds constitute one of the scarce examples of metallomesogens containing tetrahedral or octahedral metal environments, so proving that the molecular core geometry is not always the main drawback for mesomorphism.

Tetrahedral and octahedral metallomesogenic Zn(II) complexes supported by pyridine-functionalised pyrazole ligands by Cristián Cuerva, Paloma Ovejero, José Antonio Campo and Mercedes Cano*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 511-517. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00755C.

In their Letter article, Eugene Pinkhassik (Saint Louis University) and co-workers, who produced the inside front cover of the second issue of the year, highlighted new strategies leading to successful synthesis of hybrid nanostructures containing molecules entrapped in nanocapsules for the creation of functional nanodevices, such as nanosensors or nanoreactors.

Catalytic Ship-In-A-Bottle Assembly within Hollow Porous Nanocapusles by Nasim Ehterami, Sergey A. Dergunov, Yenlik Ussipbekova, Vladimir B. Birman and Eugene Pinkhassik*, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 481-485. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ01449E.

This month’s Focus review outlines emerging applications of 1,2,3-triazolium cations, including: functional ionic liquids, organocatalysts, precursors of mesoionic carbenes, components of supramolecular assemblies and molecular machines.

Triazolium cations: from “click” pool to multipurpose applications by Jesus M. Aizpurua*, Raluca M. Fratila*, Zaira Monasterio, Nerea Pérez-Esnaola, Elena Andreieff, Aitziber Irastorza and Maialen Sagartzazu-Aizpurua, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 474-480. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00667K.

Access the February issue Now…

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Meet Our Authors – January 2014

07 Feb 2014

By Denise Parent, Managing Editor.

Four of the authors whose work appears in the first issue of New Journal of Chemistry for 2014 tell us about their work and what they hope to achieve in 2014

By Andre Cobb, NJC Advisory Board member

In an excellent review on the chemistry and applications of nanodiamonds (diamondoids), our first authors—Professors Peter Schreiner of the Justus-Liebig University, and Jean-Cyrille Hierso of the Institut Universitaire de France—explain how these fascinating structures are the next generation sp³-carbon materials supplied by nature (in gas and petroleum). These long overlooked “carbon gems” close the gap to the popular sp²-materials such as carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, and graphenes that have complementary properties.

Peter’s goals for 2014 are to establish two recently introduced concepts more firmly. The first is the tunneling control of chemical reactions, where he has shown in a series of papers that tunneling can override kinetic and thermodynamic considerations, and should therefore be considered as the third paradigm to rationalize chemical reactivity. His second goal is to decipher the role of London dispersion interactions for chemical structures and in chemical reactivity. At a personal level, he would like to become a better tennis player, although he believes he has already begun struggling with typical age limitations!

For his part, Jean-Cyrille plans to continue to promote science and to continue contributing to the “blossoming” of his co-workers.

Diamondoids: functionalization and subsequent applications of perfectly defined molecular cage hydrocarbons by Maria A. Gunawan, Jean-Cyrille Hierso,* Didier Poinsot, Andrey A. Fokin, Natalie A. Fokina, Boryslav A. Tkachenko and Peter R. Schreiner, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 28-41. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00535F (Perspective)

Professor Masanari Kimura of the Nagasaki University in Japan is interested in the development of new reactions based on transition metals and heterocyclic chemistry, as is demonstrated by his January contribution on the formation of C—C bonds using allylzinc species and carbonyls.

Masanari says his inspiration for this work comes of course from Philippe Antoine Barbier and François Auguste Victor Grignard.

A major goal for Professor Kimura in 2014 is the development of novel and efficient organic syntheses of useful compounds from carbon dioxide.

C–C bond formation via 1,2-addition of a tert-butylzinc reagent and carbonyls across conjugated dienes by Yuki Ohira, Maya Hayashi, Takamichi Mori, Gen Onodera and Masanari Kimura, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 330-337. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00992K (Paper)

Professor Katarzyna Ostrowska of Jagiellonian University in Poland and co-workers have published an investigation on the design and sensing abilities of a range of integrated azaheteroarene fluorophores designed to recognize a variety of different ions. Katarzyna says that, “As an organic chemist, I was fascinated to see how the minor modifications of structure affect the fluorescence emission and recognition of zinc and indium metal ions.”

As for goals for the coming year, Professor Ostrowska comments, “In a recent publication I described the two different mechanisms of ligand binding to zinc and indium ions. In 2014 I hope to find out why these receptors selectively recognize zinc and how resonance effects can influence the quantum yields of different substituted fluorophores”.

Ratiometric fluorescent Zn²⁺ and In³⁺ receptors of fused pyrazine with an aminopropanol chain in acetonitrile by Katarzyna Ostrowska,* Alicja Kaźmierska, Maria Rąpała-Kozik and Justyna Kalinowska-Tłuścik, New J. Chem., 2014, 38, 213-226. DOI: 10.1039/C3NJ00750B (Paper)

Many thanks to all our authors who contributed photos and comments for this article.

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Fluorescent carbon dots from office waste printer paper

30 Jan 2014

By Eva Balentova, deputy editor.

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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NJC issue 4 out now

Read the March issue of NJC

Meet Our Authors – February & March 2014

Top Ten most accessed NJC articles from October to December 2013

Distinctions for NJC personalities

Hot article: Sub-nanomolar arsernate sensing

Hot article: N-doped titanium dioxide for Li-ion batteries

NJC issue 2 out now

Meet Our Authors – January 2014

Fluorescent carbon dots from office waste printer paper

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