Researchers in Spain have developed a light-driven catalytic process that offers a greener way to produce organic alcohols – important compounds used to manufacture pharmaceuticals and pesticides.
Researchers have developed a catalytic system to reduce aromatic ketones and both aliphatic and aromatic aldehydes that uses earth-abundant metals and light.
Read the full story by Jamie Durrani on Chemistry World.
The Chemical Science was awarded at the 15th Host Guest Supramolecular Chemistry Annual Symposium in Kusatsu, Japan, 3-4 June 2017, along with the ChemComm poster prize, the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry poster prize and 7 other poster prizes.
The Host Guest Supramolecular Chemistry Annual Symposium (website in Japanese) is an annual event that is organized by the Association of Research for Host-Guest and Supramolecular Chemistry. This year, the 15th occurrence of this symposium took place at the Ritsumeikan University on 3-4 June 2017. The event was attended by 230 people and counted 39 talks and 128 poster presentations.
The Chemical Science, ChemComm and Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry poster prizes were delivered to the 3 most outstanding poster presentations, along with 7 other poster prizes.
Nobuhiko Nishitani from Kyoto University was awarded the Chemical Science award for their poster titled: STM Observation of Cooperative Self-Assembly at the Liquid/Graphite Interface: Influence of Intercolumnar Interactions on Domain Size and Shape
Tsuyoshi Mashima from Osaka University was awarded the ChemComm award for their poster titled: Construction of Zn-substituted Hexameric Hemoprotein with Multiple Photosensitizers and Evaluation of its Light Harvesting Function
Tomokuni Kai from Tokyo Institute of Technology was awarded the Organic & Biomolecular Chemistry award for their poster titled: Polyaromatic Micelles: Emission Enhancement of Eu(III)-complexes in Water upon Encapsulation
From right to left: Prof. Tatsuya Nabeshima (University of Tsukuba), Nobuhiko Nishitani, Tsuyoshi Mashima, Tomokuni Kai, and the poster prize winners, along with Prof. Hiromitsu Maeda (Ritsumeikan University, left) (Click to enlarge)
Dr Hiromitsu Urakami, from the Royal Society Chemistry, gave a lauded presentation on Publishing on 3rd June.
Dr Hiromitsu Urakami
The first pentavalent praseodymium nitride–oxide that features a rare Pr≡N triple bond is the second ever lanthanide(V) complex to be made.
Lanthanide chemistry is dominated by the +3 oxidation state. There are some common +4 lanthanide complexes such as cerium oxide (CeO2), but +5 compounds have proven elusive. Praseodymium has long been considered as the most promising route to lanthanide(V) chemistry as it has five valence electrons, but the first pentavalent praseodymium complex, the oxide PrO2+, was only synthesised last year.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Calculations led to these representations of the molecular orbitals of the praseodymium(V) compound, NPrO
Read the full story by Aurora Walshe on Chemistry World.
A team in the US has designed a test for detecting influenza viruses in just 15 minutes using a glucose meter – a cheap, handheld instrument that is widely available.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Proteins sitting on the flu viruses’ surface cleave a carbon–oxygen bond in a modified sialic acid, releasing the sugar galactose
Suri S Iyer and colleagues from Georgia State University have now designed a test to detect influenza viruses A and B in just 15 minutes. The test only requires a nasal swab and a glucose meter – a simple instrument usually used for diabetes control. ‘Influenza virus can be deadly especially in weak or immunocompromised people. This diagnostic can help these people as vaccines for flu are not perfect,’ Iyer explains.
Read the full story by Adrian Robinson on Chemistry World.
Scientists have designed a macrocycle that can completely surround a small molecule like a suit and protect it from a strong base. This reversible suiting strategy could find applications as protecting groups in organic synthesis and the design of molecular machines.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The suit-1-ane: a macrocycle (orange) completely encloses a benzimidazolium cation (blue)
Protecting groups alter the reactivity of organic molecules by shielding functional groups from other reactants. Mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) are linked structures that require a covalent bond to be broken to separate them, which could make them useful protecting groups.
Read the full story by Harriet Brewerton on Chemistry World.
March 27-29, 2017 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center
The 2017 University of California Symposium for the Chemical Sciences (UCSCS) was held on March 27-29, 2017 at the UCLA Lake Arrowhead Conference Center and was attended by over 100 University of California graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.
The UCCS is a symposium for current graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in all fields of chemistry from all campuses of the University of California. The whole conference is organised by graduate students and postdocs from the UC campuses. The first UCCS meeting was held in March 2016, at the Lake Arrowhead conference center in Lake Arrowhead.
Chemical Science is proud to announce that the Chemical Science lighting tak prize was awarded to Dr Noelle Catarineu from University of California Berkeley. The prize was awarded by Dr Jennifer Griffiths.
Dr Catarineu’s talk was on Reticular Chemistry of Asymmetric Organic Linkers and One-Dimensional Secondary Building Units in Metal-Organic Frameworks.
Congratulations Noelle!
Dr Jennifer Griffiths (left) awarding the Chemical Science prize to Dr Noelle Catarineu (right)
A method to functionalise complex molecules with catalytic radicals could expand chemical libraries of the drug and agrochemical industry
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry Even complex molecules like the anti-cancer drug camptothecin (top left) can be modified using Molander’s radical alkylation
US scientists have developed a visible-light mediated reaction that uses tamed alkyl radicals to functionalise complex molecules. This mild and selective method could allow chemists to explore new corners of chemical space and to discover new drugs and agrochemicals.
Read the full story by Jessica Dwyer on Chemistry World.
An efficient new computer brain can provide quick answers to computational chemistry problems
A computer that has been taught about organic chemistry can describe the forces in molecules as accurately as density functional theory (DFT), but hundreds of thousands of times faster. This combination of speed and accuracy could allow researchers to tackle problems that were previously impossible.
Chemists hoping to use computer simulations face a dilemma. Researchers commonly need to know the energy of a molecule, and the forces that control how it twists and bends. Accurate methods like DFT, which use quantum mechanics, take the most computer power and time. Approximations such as semi-empirical methods give faster but less reliable results. Although there is a spectrum of options, most techniques ask researchers to trade off speed and accuracy.
Read the full story by Alexander Whiteside on Chemistry World.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The neural network can predict molecular energies hundreds of thousands of times faster than DFT
To celebrate International Women′s Day on the 8th March 2017, IUPAC was pleased to announce the awardees of the IUPAC 2017 Distinguished Women in Chemistry or Chemical Engineering:
This award aims to acknowledge and promote the work of women chemists and chemical engineers throughout the world. All awardees have been selected based on excellence in basic or applied research, distinguished accomplishments in teaching or education, or demonstrated leadership or managerial excellence in the chemical sciences.
The award ceremony will take place during the IUPAC World Chemistry Congress in São Paulo, Brazil in July, coinciding with a special symposium on Women in Chemistry.
We are delighted to announce that Professor Jihong Yu, an Associate Editor for Chemical Science, has been awarded this prize. Congratulations!
Professor Jihong Yu
Professor Yu is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Secretary-General of the International Zeolite Association (IZA) and in 2015 was officially elected as Academician by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Professor Yu’s group’s research focuses on three main areas, including synthesis of new types of inorganic microporous materials, investigating new routes to the synthesis of inorganic microporous materials, and working toward the rational design and synthesis of inorganic microporous materials.
Antibacterial polyketides uncovered in the most unusual of places
Bacteria living on African ants make polyketides that are active against some drug resistant bacteria, new research shows.
An impending crisis due to the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria means there is high demand for new drugs to treat infections. Natural products shape the backbone of the antibiotics we use today, over half of which derive from compounds made byStreptomyces and other soil microbes. But researchers are now looking in more unusual locations for the next generation of antibiotics.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
Formicamycins are more potent than the previously reported and structurally related fasamycins
Matt Hutchings from the University of East Anglia and colleagues have discovered a new family of antibacterial polyketides, called formicamycins, in bacteria living onTetraponera penzigi, a species of fungus-growing plant-ant. Not only have the team found a new family of molecules but the bacteria that made them, Streptomyces formicae, is new to the scientific community too. ‘Plant roots have lots of Streptomycesbacteria in them, and lots of insects like ants, particularly fungus-growing ants, also pick up these bacteria,’ Hutchings explains.
Read the full story by Adrian Robinson in Chemistry World.
This article is Open Access.
Z Qin et al., Chem. Sci., 2017, DOI: 10.1039/c6sc04265a
