RSC Advances Blog

Sara Coles is a guest web-writer for RSC Advances. She currently works for Johnson Matthey in Royston, UK.

Interesting research is being done on solid state lighting, organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), light emitting electrochemical cells (LEECs) and dye sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Eli Zysman-Colman’s group, which recently moved from Université de Sherbrooke in Canada to University of St Andrews in the UK, works on precious metals complexes for light-emitting applications.

The group has a wealth of publications in the field, among the latest are this paper in RSC Advances which correlates the structures of heteroleptic cationic iridium complexes with their electrochemiluminescence behaviour to gain insight into tuning their emission wavelength and intensity. The aim, of course, is to generate efficient complexes that could one day find use in various lighting applications, display screens and devices.

Find out about the Zysman-Colman group’s fundamental research in RSC Advances. Free to access for 4 weeks.

Correlating electronic structures to electrochemiluminescence of cationic Ir complexes
Kalen N. Swanick, Sébastien Ladouceur, Eli Zysman-Colman and Zhifeng Ding 
RSC Adv., 2013, 3, 19961–19964, DOI: 10.1039/C3RA43134G

A simple synthesis for environmentally benign carbon nanoparticles that could be used to control mosquito populations has been demonstrated by scientists in India.

Mosquitoes are found across the globe, with the exception of Antarctica and Iceland. A holiday nuisance, they are also a well-known vector for many diseases, including malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever and viral encephalitis. The transmission of diseases by mosquitoes is estimated to be responsible for 2 million deaths every year.

Control or eradication of the mosquito population could significantly restrict the spread of disease. Screens and nets can be used to exclude the pests, while traps or insecticides can be used to eliminate them. More permanent solutions include draining pools of stagnant water where mosquitoes like to breed, or the introduction of natural mosquito predators such as dragonflies.

Sabyasachi Sarkar and his team of inorganic chemists at the Bengal Engineering and Science University have now come across a new answer to the mosquito problem. When trying to take pictures of zebrafish, that had been fed on mosquitos treated with water-soluble carbon nanoparticles (wsCNPs) to help with the imaging, they noticed that the presence of the wsCNPs appeared to be retarding the development of the mosquito larvae.

After further investigation, Sarkar and his team were able to show that a concentration of these wsCNPs as low as 3mg/l prevents the larvae from ever reaching maturity, resulting in their death. At this concentration, the wsCNPs are otherwise harmless to the surrounding environment and can persist in stagnant pools of water for periods of several months.

Read what Sabyasachi Sarkar and Pilar Mateo had to say about the research in the Chemistry World story.

Read the original research paper in RSC Advances:

Water soluble nano carbons arrest the growth of mosquito, Manav Saxena, Sumit Kumar Sonkar and Sabyasachi Sarkar, RSC Advances, DOI: 10.1039/C3RA44100H

Functionalized allylamines are useful synthetic targets and important intermediates in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals such as cinnarizine (for the treatment of vertigo), flunarizine (for chronic migraine relief) and naftifine (antifungal for athlete’s foot treatment). The traditional synthesis of these compounds is atom-inefficient and requires the use of protecting groups and purification steps, so new and “greener” methods are still sought after.

In this work, Joseph Schmidt and co-workers from the University of Toleda, USA, have reported the synthesis of several allylamine compounds using a 100% atom economic hydroamination route. Their palladium complex catalyst [(3IP^tBu)Pd(allyl)]OTf could efficiently catalyse the reaction of allenes with alkyl amines at room temperature to produce the target compounds in good to excellent yields. Using p-fluorophenylallene as a starting material allowed for the selective isolation of either the branched or linear hydroamination product in high yield by adjusting the catalyst loading and reaction time.

To find out more, read the full article for free until the 16th October.

Palladium catalyzed intermolecular hydroamination of 1-substituted allenes: an atom-economical method for the synthesis of N-allylamines, John F. Beck, Danielle C. Samblanet and Joseph A. R. Schmidt, RSC Advances, 2013, DOI: 10.1039/c3ra43870h

The field of polymorphism is an area of growing importance, and the discussions around it and related terms are still on-going in the area of crystal engineering.

Here, Katharina Fromm and colleagues from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland look at the historical development of the definition of polymorphism.  This systematic review provides discussion of polymorphism as it relates to different classes of compounds: elements, inorganic compounds and organic and organometallic compounds with chosen examples. 

Look out for the three schematic flow diagrams included in the conclusions as useful tools for determining polymorphism for each class of compounds.

Read this article for free until 20th September 2013:

Polymorphism, what it is and how to identify it: a systematic review
Jean-Pierre Brog, Claire-Lise Chanez, Aurelien Crochet and Katharina M. Fromm
RSC Adv., 2013, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C3RA41559G

Researchers in Austria have made these three-dimensional hydrogel scaffolds in the shape of tiny frogs. The frogs help demonstrate the efficacy of new water-soluble photoinitiators, developed by Robert Liska from Vienna University of Technology and colleagues, for fabricating micrometre-sized hydrogels quickly in complex, predesigned shapes.

Click here to see the frogs featured on the Chemistry World Facebook page!

Read the full article for free until the 30th August 2013:

Initiation efficiency and cytotoxicity of novel water-soluble two-photon photoinitiators for direct 3D microfabrication of hydrogels, Zhiquan Li, Jan Torgersen, Aliasghar Ajami, Severin Mühleder, Xiaohua Qin, Wolfgang Husinsky, Wolfgang Holnthoner, Aleksandr Ovsianikov, Jürgen Stampfl and Robert Liska, RSC Adv., 2013, Advance Article  DOI: 10.1039/C3RA42918K