Chemical Science Blog

Using theoretical calculations, researchers in the US and Japan, have cast a spotlight on the vital role that subtle, and previously overlooked, dispersion forces play in stabilising p-block heavy element bonding.

It was once thought that heavy elements could not form multiple bonds, but landmark work by inorganic chemists such as Mike Lappert in the 1970s blew the doors off this notion and opened up a whole new world for main group chemistry. Since then, the study of heavier p-block elements with multiple bonds has remained a topic of broad interest and exciting discoveries. One key development was that sterically large ligands block decomposition and stabilise bonds. However, questions over how and why these compounds remain stable continue to be debated. Read the full article in Chemistry World»

Read the original journal article in Chemical Science – it’s open access:
The multiple bonding in heavier group 14 element alkene analogues is stabilized mainly by dispersion force effects
Jing-Dong Guo, David J. Liptrot, Shigeru Nagase and Philip P. Power 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02707A, Edge Article

Durrant has proposed a simple but quantitative measure of hypervalency

A researcher in the UK has presented a controversial new definition for hypervalency that may ignite debates over atomic charge and allow students to draw nitrogen atoms with five covalent bonds.

Marcus Durrant from the University of Northumbria describes his account of hypervalency as going back to the drawing board. By bringing together electron counts on atoms in different resonance structures, he presents a valence electron equivalent parameter to indicate an overall number of electrons associated with each atom. A count greater than eight defines hypervalency. Read the full article in Chemistry World»

Read the original journal article in Chemical Science – it’s open access:
A quantitative definition of hypervalency
Marcus C. Durrant 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02076J, Edge Article

Here are some of the latest referee-recommended articles published in Chemical Science – all are open access and free to read:

Design rationale of thermally responsive microgel particle films that reversibly absorb large amounts of CO2: fine tuning the pKa of ammonium ions in the particles
Mengchen Yue, Yu Hoshino and Yoshiko Miura 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01978H, Edge Article

Singly and doubly ß-to-ß platinum-bridged porphyrin dimers and their reductive eliminations
Hua-Wei Jiang, Takayuki Tanaka and Atsuhiro Osuka 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02553B, Edge Article

Fluorescent carbon dot–molecular salt hydrogels
Angelina Cayuela, Stuart R. Kennedy, M. Laura Soriano, Christopher D. Jones, Miguel Valcárcel and Jonathan W. Steed 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01859E, Edge Article

Molecular computing: paths to chemical Turing machines
Shaji Varghese, Johannes A. A. W. Elemans, Alan E. Rowan and Roeland J. M. Nolte 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02317C, Perspective

Lab on a single microbead: an ultrasensitive detection strategy enabling microRNA analysis at the single-molecule level
Xiaobo Zhang, Chenghui Liu, Lingbo Sun, Xinrui Duan and Zhengping Li 
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02641E, Edge Article

An elegant strategy for detecting minuscule quantities of microRNA using just a single functionalised microbead could be an important innovation for biomedical research and molecular diagnostics.

Identifying biomolecules with vanishingly small copy numbers in cells is vital in deciphering the chemical blueprint for life. Homogeneous exponential amplification methods (such as the polymerase chain reaction), northern blotting, microarray detection and the isothermal exponential amplification reaction (EXPAR) are just some of the techniques that have undergone extensive tailoring to detect all manner of genetic material in cells as sensitively as possible. However, few approaches have even come close to reliably detecting nucleic acids at the single molecule level. Read the full article in Chemistry World»

Read the original journal article in Chemical Science – it’s open access:
Lab on a single microbead: an ultrasensitive detection strategy enabling microRNA analysis at the single-molecule level
Xiaobo Zhang, Chenghui Liu, Lingbo Sun, Xinrui Duan and Zhengping Li 
Chem. Sci., 2015, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02641E, Edge Article