Chemical Science Blog

Congratulations to the award winners at Durham University’s 2022 Chemistry Postgraduate Research Symposium, in Durham, England which took place from 22-23 June 2022!

Chemical Science was delighted to be one of the sponsoring RSC journals at the event, and the following awards were given:

• Chemical Science PDRA Oral Prize winner: Emma Puttock (Supervisor: Gareth Williams)
• Chemical Science Chemistry Photo Prize: Exequiel Porta (Supervisor: Patrick Steel)

Congratulations, from all of us at Chemical Science!

Cellulose nanofibers (CNFs) are used in large amounts in the paper and biomedical industry. The synthesis process, the nature of the catalyst used, and the recyclability of the catalyst has a direct impact on the cost effectiveness of industrial grade CNFs. CNF production follows carboxylation of the primary alcohol groups at the surface of the cellulose fibres mediated by catalyst 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidine-N-oxy radicals (TEMPO). The genotoxic nature of TEMPO suggests the requirement of a lower concentration of the catalyst used during the reaction.

Scheme for different synthesis strategies and characterization of TEMPO mediated CNFs.

Researchers across the world tried a green synthetic approach for CNFs preparation. This also includes successful removal of the catalyst from the product after completion of the reaction. One of the processes employs oxidation of wood pulp fibres using the magnetically recoverable Karimi’s catalyst (TEMPO@SiO2@Fe3O4). The products obtained using the modified catalyst is 5 nm thick cellulose nanofibrils like those obtained in the oxidation mediated by TEMPO in solution. Whereas, the catalyst was easily recovered with a magnet and successfully reused in 4 successive reaction cycles.

Differently modulated TEMPO like SiliaCat TEMPO (a commercial immobilized TEMPO catalyst) and others, show that hybrid sol–gel catalyst allows the synthesis of insoluble polysaccharide nanofibers of superior quality, eliminating waste.

New production strategies involve TEMPO-mediated oxidation followed by homogenisation. The residual hypochlorite can be quenched with 0.3% ascorbic acid to produce chloride and subsequently CNF is separated from the solid catalyst via simple filtration. This dramatically reduced the polysaccharide nanofiber production costs opening the route to large-scale production of functional products where their use has been limited by high cost.

For details: please visit https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/sc/d1sc03114g

About the blogger:

Dr. Damayanti Bagchi is a postdoctoral researcher in Irene Chen’s lab at University of California, Los Angeles, United States. She has obtained her PhD in Physical Chemistry from Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, India. Her research is focused on spectroscopic studies of nano-biomaterials. She is interested in exploring light enabled therapeutics. She enjoys travelling and experimenting with various cuisines.

You can find her on Twitter at @DamayantiBagchi.

Please note this blog post was originally posted on the Chemical Communications Blog.

We wish a very warm welcome to our new Chemical Science Associate Editor Theresa M. Reineke

Theresa was born in St. Paul, Minnesota and received a B. S. Degree from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, M.S. from Arizona State University, and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan working with Prof. Omar Yaghi.  She then completed a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology working with Prof. Mark Davis. She has held independent faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati, Virginia Tech, and in 2011 joined the University of Minnesota, where she is a Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Department of Chemistry. She also holds graduate faculty appointments in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science as well as Pharmaceutics. Her research interests lie in the fields of fundamental monomer and polymer synthesis and degradation, understanding structural ordering and directing molecular interactions of macromolecules with biological systems, and understanding fundamental physicochemical and biological properties of polymeric materials. Her group is focused on enabling fundamental chemical and applied technology advancements of polymers for sustainability, drug delivery, and gene/cell therapy and genome editing. In recognition of her group’s research, she has received the 2017 Carl S. Marvel Creative Polymer Chemistry Award from the ACS POLY Division, the 2018 DuPont Nutrition and Health Sciences Excellence Medal, and a 2022 Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award from the ACS, among many others. Prior to joining Chemical Science in 2022, she was a founding Associate Editor of ACS Macro Letters 2011-2022.

Browse a selection of Theresa’s work below: 

Stereoregular functionalized polysaccharides via cationic ring-opening polymerization of biomass-derived levoglucosan
Mayuri K. Porwal, Yernaidu Reddi, Derek J. Saxon, Christopher J. Cramer, Christopher J. Ellison and Theresa M. Reineke
Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 4512-4522

Ring opening polymerization of β-acetoxy-δ-methylvalerolactone, a triacetic acid lactone derivative
Hussnain Sajjad, Emily A. Prebihalo, William B. Tolman and Theresa M. Reineke
Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 6724-6730

Facile synthesis of GalNAc monomers and block polycations for hepatocyte gene delivery
Matthew R. Bockman, Rishad J. Dalal, Ramya Kumar and Theresa M. Reineke
Polym. Chem., 2021,12, 4063-4071

Tuning PNIPAm self-assembly and thermoresponse: roles of hydrophobic end-groups and hydrophilic comonomer
Monica L. Ohnsorg, jeffrey M. Ting, Seamus D. Jones, Seyoung Jung, Frank S. Bates and Theresa M. Reineke
Polym. Chem., 2019,10, 3469-3479

Sustainable advances in SLA/DLP 3D printing materials and processes
Erin M. Maines, Mayuri K. Porwal, Christopher J. Ellison and Theresa M. Reineke
Green Chem., 2021,23, 6863-6897

Optimizing linear polymer affinity agent properties for surface-enhanced Raman scattering detection of aflatoxin B1
Victoria M. Szlag, Rebeca S. Rodriguez, Seyoung Jung, Marc R. Bourgeois, Samuel Bryson, Anatolii Purchel, George C. Schatz, Christy L. Haynes and Theresa M. Reineke
Mol. Syst. Des. Eng., 2019,4, 1019-1031

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.

We wish a very warm welcome to our new Chemical Science Associate Editor Zaiping Guo!

We are pleased to welcome Professor Zaiping Guo to the Chemical Science Editorial Board this month as a new Associate Editor for the journal.

Zaiping is an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the School of Chemical Engineering & Advanced Materials at the University of Adelaide. She received her doctorate degree from the University of Wollongong, Australia in 2003, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of Wollongong from 2004-2006. She received successive promotions to Associate Professor in 2010, Professor in 2012 and Distinguished Professor in 2019 at the University of Wollongong. She then joined the University of Adelaide as a Top-talented Professor in March 2021.

The interests of her research team focus on the design and application of electrode materials and electrolytes for energy storage and conversion, including rechargeable batteries, hydrogen storage and fuel cells. Her field of expertise includes electrochemistry, charge transfer and transport kinetics, electrocatalysis, solid-state chemistry, and materials synthesis and characterisation.

Browse a selection of Zaiping’s work below:

Constructing nitrided interfaces for stabilizing Li metal electrodes in liquid electrolytes
Zhijie Wang, Yanyan Wang, Chao Wu, Wei Kong Pang, Jiafeng Mao and Zaiping Guo
Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 8945-8966

Lanthanide doping induced electrochemical enhancement of Na₂Ti₃O₇ anodes for sodium-ion batteries
Jiale Xia, Hongyang Zhao, Wei Kong Pang, Zongyou Yin, Bo Zhou, Gang He, Zaiping Guo and Yaping Du
Chem. Sci., 2018,9, 3421-3425

A CoSe–C@C core–shell structure with stable potassium storage performance realized by an effective solid electrolyte interphase layer
Xin Gu, Li Zhang, Wenchao Zhang, Sailin Liu, Sheng Wen, Xinning Mao, Pengcheng Dai, Liangjun Li, Dandan Liu, Xuebo Zhao and Zaiping Guo
Mater. Chem. A, 2021,9, 11397-11404

Elucidation of the high-voltage phase in the layered sodium ion battery cathode material P3–Na_0.5Ni_0.25Mn_0.75O₂
Jiatu Liu, Christophe Didier, Matthew Sale, Neeraj Sharma, Zaiping Guo, Vanessa K. Peterson and Chris D. Ling
Mater. Chem. A, 2020,8, 21151-21162

Liquid metal batteries for future energy storage
Shilin Zhang, Ye Liu, Qining Fan, Chaofeng Zhang, Tengfei Zhou, Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh and Zaiping Guo
Energy Environ. Sci., 2021,14, 4177-4202

Submit to Chemical Science today! Check out our author guidelines for information on our article types or find out more about the advantages of publishing in a Royal Society of Chemistry journal.

Keep up to date with our latest articles, reviews, collections & more by following us on Twitter. You can also keep informed by signing up to our E-Alerts.