Archive for the ‘Hot Articles’ Category

Chemical Science HOT Articles: May 2023

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for May 2023. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our May HOT articles below:

Disulfide radical anion as a super-reductant in biology and photoredox chemistry
Qilei Zhu, Cyrille Costentin, JoAnne Stubbe and Daniel G. Nocera
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Light-regulating chirality of metallacages featuring dithienylethene switches
Shaomeng Guo, Mengqi Li, Honglong Hu, Ting Xu, Hancheng Xi and Wei-Hong Zhu
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Metal nanoparticles supported on a nonconductive oxide undergo pH-dependent spontaneous polarization
Yogesh Surendranath, Thejas S. Wesley, Max Huelsey, Karl S. Westendorff, Noah B. Lewis, Ethan Crumlin and Yuriy Roman-Leshkov
Chem. Sci., 2023, Accepted Manuscript

A conductive catecholate-based framework coordinated with unsaturated bismuth boosts CO2 electroreduction to formate
Zengqiang Gao, Man Hou, Yongxia Shi, Li Li, Qisheng Sun, Shuyuan Yang, Zhiqiang Jiang, Wenjuan Yang, Zhicheng Zhang and Wenping Hu
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Ion correlation and negative lithium transference in polyelectrolyte solutions
Helen K. Bergstrom, Kara D. Fong, David M. Halat, Carl A. Karouta, Hasan C. Celik, Jeffrey A. Reimer and Bryan D. McCloskey
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

 

 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: April 2023

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for April 2023. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our April HOT articles below:

Molecular dynamics study of plasmon-mediated chemical transformations
Xiaoyan Wu, Tammo van der Heide, Shizheng Wen, Thomas Frauenheim, Sergei Tretiak, ChiYung Yam and Yu Zhang
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Visible-light-induced chemo-, diastereo- and enantioselective α-C(sp3)–H functionalization of alkyl silanes
Lili Feng, Xiaofan Chen, Ning Guo, Yuqiao Zhou, Lili Lin, Weidi Cao and Xiaoming Feng
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Cascade autohydrolysis of Alzheimer’s Aβ peptides
Martin Wolfram, Manish K. Tiwari, Tue Hassenkam, Ming Li, Morten J. Bjerrum and Morten Meldal
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Exploring Au(i) involving halogen bonding with N-heterocyclic carbene Au(i) aryl complexes in crystalline media
Alexander S. Mikherdov, Mingoo Jin and Hajime Ito
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

On the existence of low-valent magnesium–calcium complexes
Jonathan Mai, Bastian Rösch, Neha Patel, Jens Langer and Sjoerd Harder
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: March 2023

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for March 2023. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our March HOT articles below:

Monitoring interfacial electric fields at a hematite electrode during water oxidation
Khezar H. Saeed, Dora-Alicia Garcia Osorio, Chao Li, Liam Banerji, Adrian M. Gardner and Alexander J. Cowan
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 3182-3189

Room temperature design of Ce(IV)-MOFs: from photocatalytic HER and OER to overall water splitting under simulated sunlight irradiation
Shan Dai, Eva Montero-Lanzuela, Antoine Tissot, Herme G. Baldoví, Hermenegildo García, Sergio Navalón and Christian Serre
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 3451-3461

Direct observation of magnetoelastic coupling in a molecular spin qubit: new insights from crystal field neutron scattering data
Maja A. Dunstan, Marcus J. Giansiracusa, Michele Vonci, Simone Calvello, Dehong Yu, Alessandro Soncini, Colette Boskovic and Richard A. Mole
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 3990-4001

Easily processable spin filters: exploring the chiral induced spin selectivity of bowl-shaped chiral subphthalocyanines
Jorge Labella, Deb Kumar Bhowmick, Anil Kumar, Ron Naaman and Tomás Torres
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

On the use of real-world datasets for reaction yield prediction
Mandana Saebi, Bozhao Nan, John E. Herr, Jessica Wahlers, Zhichun Guo, Andrzej M. Zurański, Thierry Kogej, Per-Ola Norrby, Abigail G. Doyle, Nitesh V. Chawla and Olaf Wiest
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Cooperativity between sodium ions and water molecules facilitates lipid mobility in model cell membranes
Madhurima Chattopadhyay, Emilia Krok, Hanna Orlikowska-Rzeznik and Lukasz Piatkowski
Chem. Sci., 2023, 14, 4002-4011

Molecular assembly of carbon nitride-based composite membranes for photocatalytic sterilization and wound healing
Xiaoxiao Peng, Jin Ma, Zhixin Zhou, Hong Yang, Jingjing Chen, Ran Chen, Kaiqing Wu, Guangcheng Xi, Songqin Liu, Yanfei Shen and Yuanjian Zhang
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: February 2023

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for February 2023. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our February HOT articles below:

Binding of exogenous cyanide reveals new active-site states in [FeFe] hydrogenases
Maria Alessandra Martini, Konstantin Bikbaev, Yunjie Pang, Christian Lorent, Charlotte Wiemann, Nina Breuer, Ingo Zebger, Serena DeBeer, Ingrid Span, Ragnar Bjornsson, James A. Birrell and Patricia Rodríguez-Maciá
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Computational evaluation of halogen-bonded cocrystals enables prediction of their mechanochemical interconversion reactions
Lavanya Kumar, Katarina Leko, Vinko Nemec, Damian Trzybiński, Nikola Bregović, Dominik Cinčić and Mihails Arhangelskis
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Direct formation of amide/peptide bonds from carboxylic acids: no traditional coupling reagents, 1-pot, and green
Kaitlyn M. Freiberg, Rahul D. Kavthe, Rohan M. Thomas, David M. Fialho, Paris Dee, Matthew Scurria and Bruce H. Lipshutz
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Multiscale quantum algorithms for quantum chemistry
Huan Ma, Jie Liu, Honghui Shang, Yi Fan, Zhenyu Li and Jinlong Yang
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Bond modulation of MoSe2+x driving combined intercalation and conversion reactions for high-performance K cathodes
Ting Lei, Mingyuan Gu, Hongwei Fu, Jue Wang, Longlu Wang, Jiang Zhou, Huan Liu and Bingan Lu
Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 2528-2536

Improved production of class I lanthipeptides in Escherichia coli
Hyunji Lee, Chunyu Wu, Emily K. Desormeaux, Raymond Sarksian and Wilfred A. van der Donk
Chem. Sci., 2023,14, 2537-2546

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: Janaury 2023

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for January 2023. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2023 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our January HOT articles below:

The spatial distribution of cobalt phthalocyanine and copper nanocubes controls the selectivity towards C2 products in tandem electrocatalytic CO2 reduction
Min Wang, Anna Loiudice, Valery Okatenko, Ian D. Sharp and Raffaella Buonsanti
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Compact hydrophilic electrophiles enable highly efficacious high DAR ADCs with excellent in vivo PK profile
Philipp Ochtrop, Jahaziel Jahzerah, Paul Machui, Isabelle Mai, Dominik Schumacher, Jonas Helma, Marc-André Kasper and Christian P. R. Hackenberger
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Germanium hydrides as an efficient hydrogen-storage material operated by an iron catalyst
Yoshinao Kobayashi and Yusuke Sunada
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

In vivo singlet state filtered nuclear magnetic resonance: towards monitoring toxic responses inside living organisms
Daniel H. Lysak, Flavio V. C. Kock, Salvatore Mamone, Ronald Soong, Stefan Glöggler and Andre J. Simpson
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

BOINPYs: facile synthesis and photothermal properties triggered by photoinduced nonadiabatic decay
Lizhi Gai, Ruijing Zhang, Xiuguang Shi, Zhigang Ni, Sisi Wang, Jun-Long Zhang, Hua Lu and Zijian Guo
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Low-cost machine learning prediction of excited state properties of iridium-centered phosphors
Gianmarco G. Terrones, Chenru Duan, Aditya Nandy and Heather J. Kulik
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

From symmetry breaking to symmetry swapping: is Kasha’s rule violated in multibranched phenyleneethynylenes?
K. Swathi, Meleppatt Sujith, P. S. Divya, Merin Varghese P, Andrea Delledonne, D. K. Andrea Phan Huu, Francesco Di Maiolo, Francesca Terenziani, Andrea Lapini, Anna Painelli, Cristina Sissa and K. George Thomas
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: December 2022

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for December 2022. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2022 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our December HOT articles below:

Multiple C–C bond formation upon electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 by an iron-based molecular macrocycle
Si-Thanh Dong, Chen Xu and Benedikt Lassalle-Kaiser
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

The anti-breast cancer stem cell properties of gold(i)-non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug complexes
Alice Johnson, Chibuzor Olelewe, Jong Hyun Kim, Joshua Northcote-Smith, R. Tyler Mertens, Ginevra Passeri, Kuldip Singh, Samuel G. Awuah and Kogularamanan Suntharalingam
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Vacancy-cluster-mediated surface activation for boosting CO2 chemical fixation
Wenxiu Liu, Lei Li, Wei Shao, Hui Wang, Yun Dong, Ming Zuo, Jiandang Liu, Hongjun Zhang, Bangjiao Ye, Xiaodong Zhang and Yi Xie
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Streptocyanine as an activation mode of amine catalysis for the conversion of pyridine rings to benzene rings
Tatsuya Morofuji, Shota Nagai, Airi Watanabe, Kota Inagawa and Naokazu Kano
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

Thermally activated delayed fluorescence with dual-emission and pressure-induced bidirectional shifting: cooperative effects of intramolecular and intermolecular energy transfer
Chenyue Zhao, Zhipeng Ding, Yibin Zhang, Zhigang Ni, Shijun Li, Shaolong Gong, Bo Zou, Kai Wang and Ling Yu
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article

On-surface synthesis of non-benzenoid conjugated polymers by selective atomic rearrangement of ethynylarenes
Alejandro Jiménez-Martín, Federico Villalobos, Benjamin Mallada, Shayan Edalatmanesh, Adam Matěj, Juan M. Cuerva, Pavel Jelínek, Araceli G. Campaña and Bruno de la Torre
Chem. Sci., 2023, Advance Article
 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: November 2022

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for November 2022. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2022 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our November HOT articles below:

Synthesis and characterization of bi(metallacycloprop-1-ene) complexes
Wei Bai, Long Yiu Tsang, Yilun Wang, Yang Li, Herman H. Y. Sung, Ian D. Williams and Guochen Jia
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Native mass spectrometric studies of IscSU reveal a concerted, sulfur-initiated mechanism of iron–sulfur cluster assembly
Sophie P. Bennett, Jason C. Crack, Rita Puglisi, Annalisa Pastore and Nick E. Le Brun
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Endofungal bacteria boost anthelminthic host protection with the biosurfactant symbiosin
Hannah Büttner, Sacha J. Pidot, Kirstin Scherlach and Christian Hertweck
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Experimental assignment of long-range magnetic communication through Pd & Pt metallophilic contacts
Emil M. H. Larsen, Niels A. Bonde, Høgni Weihe, Jacques Ollivier, Tom Vosch, Thomas Lohmiller, Karsten Holldack, Alexander Schnegg, Mauro Perfetti and Jesper Bendix
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Placing gold on a π+-surface: ligand design and impact on reactivity
Wei-Chun Liu and François P. Gabbaï
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Chemical Science HOT Articles: October 2022

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for October 2022. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free for authors and readers.

You can explore our full 2022 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our October HOT articles below:

Discovery of a monomeric green fluorescent protein sensor for chloride by structure-guided bioinformatics
Weicheng Peng, Caden C. Maydew, Hiu Kam, Jacob K. Lynd, Jasmine N. Tutol, Shelby M. Phelps, Sameera Abeyrathna, Gabriele Meloni and Sheel C. Dodani
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Impact of a polymer modifier on directing the non-classical crystallization pathway of TS-1 zeolite: accelerating nucleation and enriching active sites
Jiani Zhang, Risheng Bai, Yida Zhou, Ziyi Chen, Peng Zhang, Jiyang Li and Jihong Yu
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

A broadly applicable quantitative relative reactivity model for nucleophilic aromatic substitution (SNAr) using simple descriptors
Jingru Lu, Irina Paci and David C. Leitch
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Tandem electrocatalytic CO2 reduction with Fe-porphyrins and Cu nanocubes enhances ethylene production
Min Wang, Vasilis Nikolaou, Anna Loiudice, Ian D. Sharp, Antoni Llobet and Raffaella Buonsanti
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Anthranilamide-protected vinylboronic acid: rational monomer design for improved polymerization/transformation ability providing access to conventionally inaccessible copolymers
Hiroshi Suzuki, Tsuyoshi Nishikawa, Hiroshi Makino and Makoto Ouchi
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

Controlling the fluorescence quantum yields of benzothiazole-difluoroborates by optimal substitution
Patryk Rybczyński, Manon H. E. Bousquet, Anna Kaczmarek-Kędziera, Beata Jędrzejewska, Denis Jacquemin and Borys Ośmiałowski
Chem. Sci., 2022, Advance Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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.

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

Multifunctional materials from tuneable nanoparticles

Metal-organic framework (MOF) nanoparticles combine with carbon microfibres to make large-scale materials with many possible applications

Assembling very small-scale nanoparticles into larger structures, commonly known as macroarchitectures, offers opportunities to exploit the nanoparticles’ unique chemical and physical properties while they are embodied within much larger components. Researchers in China, Australia and Japan developed a method that readily combines nanoparticles called metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and micron-sized carbon fibres into versatile macroarchitecture materials.

The team, at Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, the University of Queensland, Australia and the JST-ERATO Yamauchi Materials Space Tectonics Project, Japan, report their innovation in an article in the open access journal Chemical Science.

“While retaining the characteristics of the nanomaterial they are built from, our macroarchitectures also add in many new kinds of features such as high surface areas, high mechanical strength and low density,” says Professor Yusuke Yamauchi of the University of Queensland group.

From nano to macro in a simpler process

The manufacturing procedure begins with the MOF nanoparticles, which consist of metal ions or metallic clusters connected by organic (carbon-based) linker groups. Varying the metallic and organic components can generate a wide variety of MOFs with different chemical and physical properties.

The MOFs are then combined with hollow carbon-based fibres to form much larger centimetre-scale aerogels, which are highly porous and have extremely low densities. These unique materials can be generated in a variety of desired shapes, and possess great elasticity and compressibility, combined with chemical stability and physical strength.

Existing methods for making similar materials are problematic as their assembly usually yields products with relatively poor mechanical properties, and requires the use of adhesives or templates which have to be removed in additional steps. In contrast, the new method causes ‘zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8)-polyacrylonitrile nanofibers’ to directly assemble into centimetre-sized aerogels with controllable shapes and tuneable properties.

“The materials integrate the properties of one-dimensional nanofibers and three-dimensional carbon aerogels,” says Yamauchi.

Many possible uses

The macroarchitectures composed of three-dimensional porous interconnected networks could have commercial applications in many fields. The initial key to unlocking a wide range of practical uses is to design MOF structures that will achieve specific functions in each resulting aerogel. These could involve adsorbing specific chemicals into the pores of the final structure, catalysing chemical processes, or converting and storing energy, including electrical energy within capacitors.

Laboratory-scale trials have already demonstrated that some of the porous structures – which the researchers describe as “somewhat resembling that of a loofah sponge” – have impressive oil-retaining properties when exposed to mixtures of oil and water. This effect could be exploited to clean oil from polluted water. One version of the materials also has catalytic properties that could be useful for chemically degrading a variety of other pollutants.

The aerogels also have an impressive ability to absorb light and convert it into heat at high efficiency, which could be used to prepare drinkable water by desalinating seawater. “We believe that in the future our materials could be used for several large-scale and cost-effective water purification applications,” says Yamauchi.

The researchers now aim to develop the potential for moving from laboratory scale proof-of-concept demonstrations to commercially useful applications.

Chemical Science is open and free for both readers and authors.

Article details:

Zhang, Z. et al: “Modular assembly of MOF-derived carbon nanofibers into macroarchitectures for water treatment.” Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 9159-9164

nano particles to new multifunctional macroarchitectures infographic

 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)

A big shift for understanding molecular structure

A single molecule magnet could help us understand the biochemistry of health and disease

 

A single molecule that behaves like a powerful magnet could help chemists determine the structure of many other molecules. Researchers based in Italy and Brazil describe the development and potential of their unusually powerful Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) shift agent in the open access journal Chemical Science.

NMR uses a strong magnetic field to split the spin levels of the nuclei at the centre of some atoms. Monitoring the splitting can reveal the chemical environment surrounding individual atoms, allowing the structure of entire molecules, including large biological macromolecules to be determined.

NMR is based on the same physical principles as medical MRI imaging, but instead of generating images of bodies it creates graphical read-outs of atomic interactions that can be readily deciphered by experts. It has been a fundamental tool of chemistry research since long before the widespread application of MRI imaging.

One problem, however, is that the signals from atoms in large molecules can overlap and interfere in ways that blur the data. This can be resolved by introducing a tiny magnetic tag into a region of interest within a large molecule. The magnetism of the tag shifts the signals from nearby atoms in a predictable way, separating them out from signals from other regions that are not of immediate interest.

The tags are called shift agents and many are available, but researchers are seeking more powerful and effective shift agents to make NMR signals ever clearer and allow them to reveal new details of molecular structure within larger molecules.

The researchers in Italy and Brazil found inspiration for their new shift agent in an unusual place – chemicals used in research towards quantum technologies.

“By searching molecular materials designed for the miniaturisation of information storage and quantum technologies, we have identified and re-designed a molecule that shifts the NMR signals of the neighbouring atoms twice as much as the currently used molecules,” says researcher Roberta Sessoli at the University of Florence. Sessoli and her colleagues in Italy collaborated with researchers at the Federal University of Parana, Brazil.

The molecule they devised has a cage-like arrangement of organic (carbon-based) chemical groups holding an atom of the rare-earth element dysprosium at its centre. It was produced by a relatively simple chemical modification that hugely increased the desirable magnetic properties of the molecule the team began with. Experiments and computational modelling showed that this design modification ensures the new shift agent has a very high and directional magnetic field while being sufficiently stable to be used in solution at room temperature.

The researchers hope that their shift agent can contribute to the worldwide effort to understand the structure of the very complex biomolecules that control the chemistry of life.

“The more we can learn about the structure and functions of proteins, for example, the better and faster we will be able to design new therapies for old and new diseases,” Sessoli says.

Chemical Science is open and free for both readers and authors.

 

Article details:

Santana, F. S. “A dysprosium single molecule magnet outperforming current pseudocontact shift agents.” Chemical Science, 2022, 13, 5680-5871

 

 

Digg This
Reddit This
Stumble Now!
Share on Facebook
Bookmark this on Delicious
Share on LinkedIn
Bookmark this on Technorati
Post on Twitter
Google Buzz (aka. Google Reader)