Chemical Science HOT Articles: February 2021

New month, new HOT articles!

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for February 2021. We hope you enjoy reading these articles, congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free to read & download.

You can explore our full 2021 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our February HOT articles below:

Towards the rational design of ylide-substituted phosphines for gold(i)-catalysis: from inactive to ppm-level catalysis
Jens Handelmann, Chatla Naga Babu, Henning Steinert, Christopher Schwarz, Thorsten Scherpf, Alexander Kroll and Viktoria H. Gessner;
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Ruthenium-catalyzed formal sp3 C–H activation of allylsilanes/esters with olefins: efficient access to functionalized 1,3-dienes
Dattatraya H. Dethe, Nagabhushana C. Beeralingappa, Saikat Das and Appasaheb K. Nirpal
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Symmetry-related residues as promising hotspots for the evolution of de novo oligomeric enzymes
Jaeseung Yu, Jinsol Yang, Chaok Seok and Woon Ju Song
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Desymmetrised pentaporphyrinic gears mounted on metallo-organic anchors
Seifallah Abid, Yohan Gisbert, Mitsuru Kojima, Nathalie Saffon-Merceron, Jérôme Cuny, Claire Kammerer and Gwénaël Rapenne
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

The atomic-level regulation of single-atom site catalysts for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction
Qingyun Qu, Shufang Ji, Yuanjun Chen, Dingsheng Wang and Yadong Li
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Chemical tuning of spin clock transitions in molecular monomers based on nuclear spin-free Ni(ii)
Marcos Rubín-Osanz, François Lambert, Feng Shao, Eric Rivière, Régis Guillot, Nicolas Suaud, Nathalie Guihéry, David Zueco, Anne-Laure Barra, Talal Mallah and Fernando Luis
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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Associate Editor highlight – interview with Professor Ning Jiao

Ning Jiao, Chemical Science Associate Editor

In 2021, Chemical Science was delighted to welcome Professor Ning Jiao as an Associate Editor, handling manuscripts within the area of organic synthesis. To celebrate this occasion, we met virtually with Ning to discuss his area of research and what he hopes to achieve through his new role with the journal.

Ning’s research focuses on new methodology development in synthetic chemistry. His group mainly focus on heteroatom incorporation reactions, such as oxygenation, nitrogenation and halogenation reactions towards the synthesis and discovery of functional molecules.

What excites you most about your area of research and what has been the most exciting moment of your career so far?

In contrast to well-developed C-C bond forming reactions, selective C-C bond cleavage is still one of the biggest challenges in organic chemistry, and is highly attractive because it can bring innovative solutions to a number of different applications including coal liquefaction, petroleum cracking, polymer degradation, and biomass conversion.

One of the most exciting moments of my career was when we were able to achieve inert C-C bond activation. Following on from this, we have developed some novel C-C bond functionalisation reactions over the past 10 years through selective inert C-C, C=C and C≡C bond cleavage. We have successfully incorporated nitrogen and/or oxygen atoms into a variety of starting materials, even very simple hydrocarbons, producing some interesting value added nitrogen- or oxygen-containing compounds. I therefore really like this area of research.

What has been the most challenging moment of your career so far?

The most challenging moments for me have been when the results we obtain are not necessarily the same as what we expected, which has happened at various times throughout my research career. The challenge is that you must be able to clearly explain what happened for this new chemistry. It can be incredibly challenging to fully understand and prove new mechanisms, because sometimes you aren’t always able to isolate the active intermediate so therefore can’t always monitor the real reaction process. I have been really challenged by mechanistic studies in my career, but I have learnt to look for answers in detailed studies of the by-products and in the in-situ detection of intermediates. I’ve also learnt to verify the answers obtained through the design of new reactions.

What is your favourite reaction and why?

My favourite reactions are those which are easily operated under mild and environmentally friendly conditions, and can turn waste into value materials. In my opinion, if somebody can use carbon dioxide as the oxygen source for the preparation of oxygen-containing compounds, with the release of carbon monoxide as a by-product that can then be used as an energy source, then this would be one of my favourite ideal reactions that I would like to realise.

Which of your Chemical Science publications are you most proud of and why?

I definitely love every paper that we have published in Chemical Science, and I am especially proud of our publications over the last two years. These have provided contributions to the area of C-C bond functionalization reactions, in which we have achieved the incorporation of oxygen and nitrogen atoms into molecules through C-C and C=C bond cleavage, respectively, for the preparation of tertiary amines and cyclic imides. The one that I am most proud of will be our next publication in Chemical Science!

Chemical Science was delighted to welcome you to the Editorial Board in 2021. What are you most looking forward to when acting as Associate Editor for the journal?

Thank you! It was my great pleasure to take on this new role. We know that Chemical Science is one of the top multidisciplinary chemistry journals, being the flagship journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry. It is also one of the few top journals that is fully open access with all articles being free to read, and free to publish. This is very attractive and gives the journal very strong vitality. As an Associate Editor, I’m so delighted to be able to contribute to the journal with the rest of the Editorial Board members to help to continue to make Chemical Science the most progressive, exciting and impactful leading chemistry journal. I also hope to serve all authors and readers as well as I can with optimal publication times.

One other aspect of the role that I am highly excited about is having the opportunity to learn and read the latest research first hand, and to learn more about the various contributions and novel ideas that come out from the organic community.

What goal would you set for yourself over the next 10 years?

I have several goals for my research. I first hope that we can realise the direct transformation of carbon dioxide as an oxygen source in oxygenation reactions. I would also like to realise direct catalytic nitrogen-containing compound synthesis, using nitrogen gas as the nitrogen source under mild conditions. Overall, my biggest goal is to apply our methods for the efficient synthesis and discovery of drugs and other functional molecules, and to make contributions to the development of green and sustainable chemistry.

In celebration of joining the Chemical Science team, Ning has highlighted a selection of important organic chemistry contributions from the past few years. The collection can be viewed here.

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.

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Methylene in the middle: from Zn to Ti

Methylene (-CH2) is one of the simplest and most important building blocks for chemical synthesis. Methylenation reactions add methylene groups to molecules and often proceed using transition metal methylene complexes. Titanium methylene complexes are excellent for methylenations and have been used in a variety of reactions such as olefin metathesis, polymerisations or olefination of carbonyls. Early examples of such titanium methylenation reagents include Tebbe’s reagent that can generate a terminally bound mononuclear titanium methylidene, Cp2Ti=CH2 (Figure 1a), or a methylenation reagent prepared from CH2Br2, Zn and TiCl4 (with catalytic lead), referred to as ‘CH2X2-Zn(Pb)-TiCl4’.

Figure 1. (a) The titanium methylidene methylenating reagent from the Tebbe or Petasis reagents. (b) The first key step for the ‘CH2X2-Zn(Pb)-TiCl4’ methylenating reagent: generation of the zinc methylene. (c) The second key step for ‘CH2X2-Zn(Pb)-TiCl4’ methylenating reagent: reduction of Ti(IV) to Ti(III).

Researchers from Japan have been interested in the ‘CH2X2-Zn(Pb)-TiCl4’ methylenation reagent and in particular, deducing the molecular structure of the reactive species. Earlier studies have revealed two key steps in the preparation of this methylenating reagent: the first is that a zinc methylene species, ‘CH2(ZnX2)’, is formed by the reaction of CH2X2 with Zn and catalytic lead (Figure 1b), and the second is that the Ti(IV) chloride reagent is reduced to Ti(III) chloride by Zn(0) simultaneously (Figure 1c). The researchers hypothesised that a reactive titanium methylidene species (similar to that generated from Tebbe’s reagent in Figure 1a) should form via a transmetallation event between the zinc methylene species and the Ti(III) chloride, and thus be the reactive methylenating species of the ‘CH2X2-Zn(Pb)-TiCl4’ methylenation reagent.

Scheme 1. The synthesis of the titanium methylene complex 3 generated via transmetallation.

To confirm their hypothesis, the researchers studied the reactivity of multiple combinations of a zinc methylene species (1) and titanium(III or IV) chloride reagents, with and without additional ligands (such as phosphines, amines or ethers). The researchers found that most combinations of reagents resulted in methylene loss via the generation of methane or ethylene, but the combination of TMEDA adducts of the zinc methylene (1a) and Ti(III) chloride (2) gave clean conversion to a new titanium methylene species 3 (Scheme 1). Although the researchers originally hypothesised the formation of a mononuclear titanium methylidene via methylene transmetallation from zinc to titanium, the new species 3 was revealed to be a dinuclear, bridging methylene complex. The dinuclear species was characterised using NMR spectroscopy and single-crystal X-ray diffraction techniques, and the connectivity of the bridging methylene was conclusively established by the X-ray crystal structure.

After elucidating the structure of the dinuclear titanium methylene complex, the researchers tested 3 as a methylenating reagent and observed successful methylene transfer reactions from 3 to esters, terminal olefins and 1,3-dienes. A further computational mechanistic study for the reactivity of 3 and a 1,3-diene was performed, where the DFT calculations indicated a mononuclear titanium methylidene as the reactive species, generated from the dinuclear titanium methylene complex. These calculations corroborate the researchers’ initial hypothesis and correlate with Tebbe’s reagent, where the reactive methylenating agent is also a mononuclear titanium methylidene that is generated from a dinuclear bridging methylene complex.

 

To find out more, please read:

Structural elucidation of a methylenation reagent of esters: synthesis and reactivity of a dinuclear titanium(III) methylene complex

Takashi Kurogi,* Kaito Kuroki, Shunsuke Moritani and Kazuhiko Takai*

Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

 

About the blogger:

Photograph of the author, Samantha AppsDr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

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Chemical Science HOT Articles: January 2021

New year, new HOT article collection!

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for January 2021. We hope you enjoy reading these articles and congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free to read & download.

You can explore our full 2021 Chemical Science HOT Article Collection here!

 

Browse a selection of our January HOT articles below:

Directed evolution of cyclic peptides for inhibition of autophagy
Joshua P. Gray, Md. Nasir Uddin, Rajan Chaudhari, Margie N. Sutton, Hailing Yang, Philip Rask, Hannah Locke, Brian J. Engel, Nefeli Batistatou, Jing Wang, Brian J. Grindel, Pratip Bhattacharya, Seth T. Gammon, Shuxing Zhang, David Piwnica-Worms, Joshua A. Kritzer, Zhen Lu, Robert C. Bast, Jr. and Steven W. Millward
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Conformational analysis by UV spectroscopy: the decisive contribution of environment-induced electronic Stark effects
Jeremy Donon, Sana Habka, Michel Mons, Valérie Brenner and Eric Gloaguen
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Identifying key mononuclear Fe species for low-temperature methane oxidation
Tao Yu, Zhi Li, Wilm Jones, Yuanshuai Liu, Qian He, Weiyu Song, Pengfei Du, Bing Yang, Hongyu An, Daniela M. Farmer, Chengwu Qiu, Aiqin Wang, Bert M. Weckhuysen, Andrew M. Beale and Wenhao Luo
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

A feasible approach for automatically differentiable unitary coupled-cluster on quantum computers
Jakob S. Kottmann, Abhinav Anand and Alán Aspuru-Guzik
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

A photoswitchable strapped calix[4]pyrrole receptor: highly effective chloride binding and release
David Villarón, Maxime A. Siegler and Sander J. Wezenberg
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Controlling multiple orderings in metal thiocyanate molecular perovskites Ax{Ni[Bi(SCN)6]}
Jie Yie Lee, Sanliang Ling, Stephen P. Argent, Mark S. Senn, Laura Cañadillas-Delgado and Matthew J. Cliffe
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

Structural elucidation of a methylenation reagent of esters: synthesis and reactivity of a dinuclear titanium(iii) methylene complex
Takashi Kurogi, Kaito Kuroki, Shunsuke Moritani and Kazuhiko Takai
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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Chemical Science welcomes new Associate Editor Jinlong Gong

Jinlong Gong, Chemical Science Associate Editor

We wish a very warm welcome to our new Chemical Science Associate Editor Jinlong Gong!

 

Jinlong Gong studied chemical engineering and received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Tianjin University and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Upon the completion of postdoctoral research at Harvard University, he joined the faculty of chemical engineering at Tianjin University, where he currently holds a Pei Yang Chair Professorship.

His research group work on heterogeneous catalysis and kinetics with a focus on catalytic conversions of small molecules, production of hydrogen energy, and syntheses and applications of nanostructured catalytic materials.

 

Browse a selection of Jinlong’s work below:

Facilitating the reduction of V–O bonds on VOx/ZrO2 catalysts for non-oxidative propane dehydrogenation
Yufei Xie, Ran Luo, Guodong Sun, Sai Chen, Zhi-Jian Zhao, Rentao Mu and Jinlong Gong
Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 3845-3851
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC00690D, Edge Article

Gas–water interface engineered exceptional photoconversion of fatty acids to olefins
Qin Dai, Jingyi Lin, Hongbin Cao, He Zhao, Guangfei Yu, Chaoqun Li, Tianyu Wang, Yanchun Shi, Guangwei Wang and Jinlong Gong
Green Chem., 2020, 22, 7848-7857
DOI: 10.1039/D0GC02237C, Paper

Theoretical insights into single-atom catalysts
Lulu Li, Xin Chang, Xiaoyun Lin, Zhi-Jian Zhao and Jinlong Gong
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020, 49, 8156-8178
DOI: 10.1039/D0CS00795A, Review Article

Operando characterization techniques for electrocatalysis
Jingkun Li and Jinlong Gong
Energy Environ. Sci., 2020, 13, 3748-3779
DOI: 10.1039/D0EE01706J, Review Article

Core–shell structured catalysts for thermocatalytic, photocatalytic, and electrocatalytic conversion of CO2
Sonali Das, Javier Pérez-Ramírez, Jinlong Gong, Nikita Dewangan, Kus Hidajat, Bruce C. Gates and Sibudjing Kawi
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2020, 49, 2937-3004
DOI: 10.1039/C9CS00713J, Review Article

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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Magnesium activates all the halogenated benzenes

Activating a bond is the first step towards bond breaking processes for synthesis and catalysis. Despite the major role of transition metals in a variety of bond activation processes, C–X bond activation of halogenated benzenes (PhX, X = F, Cl, Br, I) is still challenging; there are very few examples of metal···XPh complexes, even though they are crucial for C–X bond activation and catalysis. There are even fewer examples of main group metal···XPh complexes, with no examples of main group complexes of bromobenzene or iodobenzene.

Researchers in Germany have been studying cationic magnesium complexes with the β-diketiminate ligand (RBDI, R = methyl or t-butyl), where their extreme Lewis acidity makes them ideal candidates for halobenzene complex formation for C–X activation. Building upon their previous findings of the formation of a Mg-chlorobenzene complex, the researchers have now demonstrated the preparation of the full series of halobenzene complexes, including the first examples of coordination of bromobenzene and iodobenzene to a main group metal, as shown in Scheme 1.

Scheme showing syntheses of Mg-XPh complexes (X = F, Cl, Br, I)

Scheme 1. Syntheses of Mg-XPh complexes (X = F, Cl, Br, I)

The researchers found that both the smaller methyl-substituted complex, (MeBDI)Mg+, and the bulkier t-butyl substituted complex, (tBuBDI)Mg+, were able to bind fluorobenzene to form Mg···FPh complexes (13 in, Scheme 1), owing to the high polarity of PhF that can compete with the Mg···B(C6F5)4 (the magnesium–anion) interaction. The other halobenzene complexes (Mg···XPh for X = Cl, Br, I; VI, 4, 5) could only be accessed with the use of the bulkier tBuBDI ligand. This was attributed to the fact that the bulky t-butyl substituents essentially turn off the Mg···B(C6F5)4 interaction, which in turn allows the less polar PhX halobenzenes to bind to the magnesium centre.

The researchers isolated and fully characterised the Mg-halobenzene complexes, and used X-ray crystallography and DFT calculations to further understand their properties. The interaction of the strongly Lewis acidic (BDI)Mg+ cation with the halobenzene resulted in C–X activation as shown by elongation of the C–X bonds in the crystal structures. Additionally, the solid-state structures showed that the Mg···X–Ph angle is the most linear for PhF and decreases in size (i.e. bends more) for the larger halogens. This increased bending for the larger halogens is explained by the halogen σ-hole, which is a region of positive electrostatic potential on the surface of the halogen opposite to the C–X bond, that increases with halogen size. As shown by the schematic in Figure 1, the presence of a larger halogen hole forces a more acute Mg···X interaction relative to the C–X bond.

Figure 1. Top: Schematic showing the halogen σ-hole (red = positive electrostatic potential, blue = negative electrostatic potential), with possible coordination sites for Mg. Bottom: Electrostatic maps for the halobenzenes.

Figure 1. Top: Schematic showing the halogen σ-hole (red = positive electrostatic potential, blue = negative electrostatic potential), with possible coordination sites for Mg. Bottom: Electrostatic maps for the halobenzenes.

DFT calculations were also performed and were in good agreement with the solid-state experimental parameters. The researchers calculated complexation enthalpies between 11 and 13 kcal mol-1, which are weak but still indicate a Mg···X–Ph interaction. This interaction ultimately indicates C–X bond activation, signifying that these main group complexes show potential for C–X bond breaking processes in future catalytic applications.

 

To find out more, please read:

Magnesium–halobenzene bonding: mapping the halogen sigma-hole with a Lewis-acidic complex

Alexander Friedrich, Jürgen Pahl, Jonathan Eyselein, Jens Langer, Nico van Eikema Hommes, Andreas Görling and Sjoerd Harder*

Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

 

About the blogger:

Photograph of the author, Samantha AppsDr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

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The more the merrier for hydrogen bonds in selective fluorescent probes

Hydrogen bonding is all around us. The intermolecular force of attraction between a hydrogen atom bound to an electronegative centre (the hydrogen bond donor, HBD) and another nearby electronegative atom with a lone pair of electrons (the hydrogen bond acceptor, HBA) is present in many chemical structures and can be seen in many biological motifs such as in enzymes or proteins. Beyond a simple HBD-HBA pair (Figure 1a), hydrogen bonding can cascade between multiple HBD-HBA pairs (Figure 1b). In these paired units, the presence of a central proton mediator (e.g. imidazole) can induce polarisation to make the resulting hydrogen bonds stronger, promoting further reactivity and selectivity (Figure 1c).

Chemical structures depicting hydrogen bonds between donor (D, coloured blue) and acceptor (A, coloured pink), with the hydrogen bonds as dashed lines between the H connected to the D, and the A acceptor atom

Figure 1. Hydrogen bonding between donor (D) and acceptor (A) atoms, with the net dipole shown by the arrows beneath. (a) Simple HBD-HBA pair. (b) Cascade hydrogen bonding around a central imidazole proton mediator, that can promote further reactivity with a larger net additive dipole (c).

Some enzymes cleverly make use of cascade hydrogen bonding to control the strength of the hydrogen bonds that form between the limited number of available amino acids. One example is a class of enzymes with a ‘catalytic triad’, whereby a hydrogen bonding array exists between the hydroxyl group of serine, the imidazole group of histidine and the carboxylate group of aspartate residues (Figure 2a). Researchers from South Korea took inspiration from such catalytic triads to create a ‘synthetic triad’ with a biomimetic hydrogen bonding network (Figure 2b, compound 1). The researchers employed a central benzimidazole to their synthetic triad to act as a platform to align the HBD-HBA pairs, instead of the precise three-dimensional structure that would anchor these pairs in enzymes.

A) Structure shows central imidazole of a histidine, with hydrogen bond on the left from the imidazole nitrogen to a serine hydroxyl H atom, and a hydrogen bond on the right from the imidazole N-H hydrogen atom to a carboxylate O atom on the aspartate residue. B) Structure of the triad, with a central benzimidazole, and 4 sets of hydrogen bonding pairs around this.

Figure 2. (a) Chemical (left) and X-ray (right) structures of the ‘catalytic triad’ in the active site of the enzyme serine protease. (b) Chemical structure (left) and computational model (right) of the ‘synthetic triad’ designed by the researchers.

The researchers envisioned that their biomimetic small molecule could be used as a fluorescent probe owing to the photophysical properties of the chosen benzimidazole motif. They designed the probe for cyanide detection, where capture of a toxic cyanide ion turns on fluorescence in the probe (Figure 3c). The design of the probe was therefore influenced with the target application in mind, so the researchers systematically added each HBD-HBA pair around the benzimidazole, as shown in Figure 3b.

A) Another schematic of the HBD-HBA pair concept around benzimidazole. B) Chemical structures of the evolution of the probe, from compound 2 with one HBD-HBA pair, to compound 3 with two pairs, compound 4 with three pairs and compound 1 with four pairs. C) Structural mechanism showing greyed out ‘off’ fluorescence before cyanide attack, with arrow showing new structure with cyanide bound at the aldehyde, and blue coloured benzimidazole to signify fluorescence is turned on.

Figure 3. (a) Cascade hydrogen bonding around a benzimidazole core. (b) The systematic design of the probe, starting from one HBD-HBA pair up to four pairs. (c) Mechanism of capture of the cyanide ion to turn on fluorescence.

An aldehyde functional group was selected for the first HBD-HBA pair, due to its ability to form hydrogen bonds that can quench the fluorescence in the absence of cyanide (compound 2). The researchers tested compound 2 for cyanide detection and indeed observed fluorescence, but found that the fluorescence also occurred in the presence of a simple Brønsted base. The design of the probe was then iteratively modified until fluorescence was selective for cyanide addition, with a total of four HBD-HBA pairs around the benzimidazole centre that mutually reinforced one another. This strategy shows promise for the design of other fluorescent probes and could also be utilised for other biological targeting applications.

 

To find out more, please read:

Biomimetic hydrogen-bonding cascade for chemical activation: telling a nucleophile from a base

Hyunchang Park and Dongwhan Lee*

Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article

 

About the blogger:

Photograph of the author, Samantha AppsDr. Samantha Apps recently finished her post as a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Lu Lab at the University of Minnesota, USA, and obtained her PhD in 2019 from Imperial College London, UK. She has spent the last few years, both in her PhD and postdoc, researching synthetic nitrogen fixation and transition metal complexes that can activate and functionalise dinitrogen. Outside of the lab, you’ll likely find her baking at home, where her years of synthetic lab training has sparked a passion in kitchen chemistry too.

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Chemical Science HOT Articles: December

We are pleased to share a selection of our referee-recommended HOT articles for December. We hope you enjoy reading these articles and congratulations to all the authors whose articles are featured! As always, Chemical Science is free to read & download. You can find our full 2020 HOT article collection here.

 

Efficacy analysis of compartmentalization for ambient CH4 activation mediated by a RhII metalloradical in a nanowire array electrode
Benjamin S. Natinsky, Brandon J. Jolly, David M. Dumas and Chong Liu
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05700B, Edge Article

Supertetrahedral polyanionic network in the first lithium phosphidoindate Li3InP2 – structural similarity to Li2SiP2 and Li2GeP2 and dissimilarity to Li3AlP2 and Li3GaP2
Tassilo M. F. Restle, Volker L. Deringer, Jan Meyer, Gabriele Raudaschl-Sieber and Thomas F. Fässler
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC05851C, Edge Article

One class classification as a practical approach for accelerating π–π co-crystal discovery
Aikaterini Vriza, Angelos B. Canaj, Rebecca Vismara, Laurence J. Kershaw Cook, Troy D. Manning, Michael W. Gaultois, Peter A. Wood, Vitaliy Kurlin, Neil Berry, Matthew S. Dyer and Matthew J. Rosseinsky
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC04263C, Edge Article

Fast reversible isomerization of merocyanine as a tool to quantify stress history in elastomers
Yinjun Chen, C. Joshua Yeh, Qiang Guo, Yuan Qi, Rong Long and Costantino Creton
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06157C, Edge Article

Peptide sequence mediated self-assembly of molybdenum blue nanowheel superstructures
Shan She, Weimin Xuan, Nicola L. Bell, Robert Pow, Eduard Garrido Ribo, Zoe Sinclair, De-Liang Long and Leroy Cronin
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06098D, Edge Article

Enhanced voltammetric anion sensing at halogen and hydrogen bonding ferrocenyl SAMs
Robert Hein, Xiaoxiong Li, Paul D. Beer and Jason J. Davis
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06210C, Edge Article

Magnesium–halobenzene bonding: mapping the halogen sigma-hole with a Lewis-acidic complex
Alexander Friedrich, Jürgen Pahl, Jonathan Eyselein, Jens Langer, Nico van Eikema Hommes, Andreas Görling and Sjoerd Harder
Chem. Sci., 2021, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/D0SC06321E, Edge Article
Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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Chemical Science welcomes new Associate Editor Ning Jiao

Ning Jiao, Chemical Science Associate Editor

We wish a very warm welcome to our new Chemical Science Associate Editor Professor Ning Jiao!

 

Ning Jiao received his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Shandong University in 1999. He obtained his Ph.D. degree (2004) with Prof. Shengming Ma at Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC). He then spent 2004-2006 as an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellow with Prof. Manfred T. Reetz at Max Planck Institute für Kohlenforschung. In 2007, he joined the faculty at Peking University as an Associate Professor, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2010, and is currently the Yangtze-river scholars distinguished Professor at Peking University. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.

His current research efforts are focused on:

1)  New methodologies development in Atom-Incorporation Reactions mainly on oxygenation, nitrogenation, and halogenation reactions
2)  The first-row transition metal catalysis and the inert chemical bonds functionalization
3)  Bioactive compounds synthesis and drug discovery

 

Browse a selection of Ning’s work below:

Intramolecular Csp3–H/C–C bond amination of alkyl azides for the selective synthesis of cyclic imines and tertiary amines
Xiaojin Wen, Xinyao Li, Xiao Luo, Weijin Wang, Song Song and Ning Jiao
Chem. Sci., 2020, 11, 4482-4487
DOI: 10.1039/C9SC05522C, Edge Article

Cu-catalyzed oxygenation of alkene-tethered amides with O2via unactivated C[double bond, length as m-dash]C bond cleavage: a direct approach to cyclic imides
Junhua Li, Jialiang Wei, Bencong Zhu, Teng Wang and Ning Jiao
Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 9099-9103
DOI: 10.1039/C9SC03175H, Edge Article

A metal-free desulfurizing radical reductive C–C coupling of thiols and alkenes
Qixue Qin, Weijing Wang, Cheng Zhang, Song Song and Ning Jiao
Chem. Commun., 2019, 55, 10583-10586
DOI: 10.1039/C9CC05378F, Communication

Efficient and practical synthesis of unsymmetrical disulfides via base-catalyzed aerobic oxidative dehydrogenative coupling of thiols
Xu Qiu, Xiaoxue Yang, Yiqun Zhang, Song Song and Ning Jiao
Org. Chem. Front., 2019, 6, 2220-2225
DOI: 10.1039/C9QO00239A, Research Article

 

Chemical Science, Royal Society of Chemistry

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ChemSci2020 Symposium @ IISER Kolkata

Over the past few days, the ChemSci2020 Symposium @ IISER Kolkata has been held (virtually). The Department of Chemical Science, IISER Kolkata organised the second edition of the RSC sponsored Chemical Science conference, ChemSci2020: Leaders in the Field Symposium. The symposium has included presentations by students and postdocs, and a twitter-based poster session.

We are pleased to announce below the winners of the poster session:

Materials Chemistry:

Debashree Roy – Seed-mediated Synthesis of Gold Nano-Earbuds

Navpreet Kamboj – A 10.8 V metal-free microsupercapacitor with highly stable laser-irradiated graphene electrode for integrated energy storage device

Sahanaz Parvin – An earth-abundant bimetallic catalyst coated metallic nanowire grown electrode with platinumlike pH-universal hydrogen evolution activity at high current density

Soumendu Roy – Surface Ligand Directed Nanoparticle Catalysis

Supramolecular Chemistry:

Anastasiia V. Sharko – Dissipative Non-Equilibrium Self-Assembly of Cyclic Peptide Nanotubes

Ayan Chatterjee – Complex Cascade Reaction Networks via Cross β Amyloid Nanotubes

Sk. Atiur Rahaman – Energy Relay Enhances Switching Efficiency in a Dendrimer-Azobenzene Supramolecular Assembly having an Anion-pi Motif

Synthetic Chemistry:

Kingshuk Mahanty – Manganese-Catalyzed Electrochemical Tandem Azidation-Coarctate Reaction: Facile Access to Azo-benzonitriles

Jyoti Dhankhar – Spatial Anion Control on Palladium for Mild C-H Arylation of Arenes

Soniya Rani – Stereoretentive and Enantioselective C–H Alkylation of Pyridines: Phosphite Catalyzed N to C Migration from N–Alkylpyridinium Salt

Satyadeep Waiba – Manganese catalyzed α-alkylation of ketones with secondary alcohols

Techniques in Chemistry:

Abinash Padhy – Amphiphilic Mannose-6-Phosphate Glycopolypeptide-Based Bioactive and Responsive Self-Assembled Nanostructures for Controlled and Targeted Lysosomal Cargo Delivery

Kushal Sengupta – A Single-Molecule Study of Two-Component System CusRS for Efficient Copper Homeostasis in E. coli

Theoretical Chemistry:

Abhishek Aggarwal – DNA versus RNA- which one conducts better?

Dhiman Ray – Free Energy Landscape and Conformational Kinetics of Hoogsteen Base Pairing in DNA vs RNA: Enhanced Sampling and Markov State Modeling

Congratulations, from all of us at Chemical Science!

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