Functionalised AFM tip helps researchers see crude oil in a new dimension
Following on from their previous work on identifying the structures of asphaltenes, researchers from Switzerland, the US and Spain have proven that they can identify tetrahedrally co-ordinated carbon backbones in model asphaltene molecules, and distinguish them from their planar aromatic counterparts.
Read the full story by Philippa Matthews in Chemistry World.
30 April – 4 May 2017 in Brunnen, Switzerland
Started in 1965, The ‘SCS Conference on Stereochemistry’, better known as ‘Bürgenstock Conference’, is an outstanding international chemistry meeting of high scientific quality, with a focus on inter-disciplinary discussion.
According to the conference’s tradition, the 52nd Bürgenstock Conference 2017 will be interdisciplinary, covering many areas of chemistry, and will be welcoming relevant highlights from neighbouring disciplines, with a strong focus on structural and mechanistic aspects.
Our Executive Editor Philippa Hughes will be attending the conference. Meet her there!
By Will Bergius for Chemistry World
Ortho-diethynylbenzene dianion is the strongest base ever made
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry
The superbasic ortho-diethynylbenzene dianion (red) readily abstracts protons from many weak acids
The methyl anion H3C– was the strongest known base for 30 years, until Tian and colleagues made the lithium monoxide anion in 2008, which has held the record since. Now, scientists in Australia have knocked LiO– down to second place, making a gas-phase dianion with the highest basicity ever found.
Superbases with high proton affinities like n-butyl lithium and sodium hydride are fundamental to organic synthesis. Chemists use them to deprotonate weak acids – the weaker the acid, the stronger the base needed to deprotonate it.
Read the full story by Will Bergius in Chemistry World.
B L J Poad et al., Chem. Sci., 2016. DOI: 10.1039/c6sc01726f
On 28 November 2016, the Royal Society of Chemistry and the American Chemical Society Publications Division, ACS Publications, both signed the ORCID Open Letter committing to unambiguous identification of all authors that publish in our journals.
The official press release can be found here: http://rsc.li/orcid
In brief, this partnership with ORCID will resolve ambiguity in researcher identification caused by name changes, cultural differences in name presentation, and the inconsistent use of name abbreviations, thereby ensuring their contributions are appropriately recognized and credited.
8th to 10th December, IIT Guwahati, India
The FICS-2016 conference is a national biennial conference hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati on 8-10 December 2016 in Guwahati, India.
The conference is mainly aimed at motivating and promoting aspiring young scientists in the field of chemistry and allied sciences, by giving them an opportunity to present their work alongside the stalwarts in the field.
All branches of chemistry and sister sciences will be covered, from theoretical to experimental and applied chemistry, as well as modern science and technology. The scientific program includes plenary sessions, invited talks, and poster presentations.
Chemical Science, ChemComm and Chem Soc Rev proudly sponsor this event: 3 poster prizes will be awarded at the conference on behalf of each journal.
Written by Fiona Tscherny for Chemistry World
Researchers in China have designed multi-talented materials with mix-and-match functionalities, such as shape memory, self-healing or colour changes, which can be triggered by stimuli such as heat, light or voltage.
Source: © Royal Society of Chemistry - The polymer can heal a scratch (top left) or hole (bottom left) within 10 seconds when exposed to light
Stimuli-responsive polymers adapt to environmental changes, making them useful for applications such as drug delivery systems that exploit differences in pH to direct medicines to the required organs or thermochromic coatings for windows reversibly tint the glass in response to temperature.
However, integrating responsivity to numerous stimuli in smart polymers ‘in particular when considering a simple and feasible synthetic route’, has been challenging, notes Patrick Théato, from the University of Hamburg, Germany, who wasn’t involved in this work.
Read the full article in Chemistry World >>>
Multi-stimuli responsive and multi-functional oligoaniline-modified vitrimers
Qiaomei Chen, Xiaowen Yu, Zhiqiang Pei, Yang Yang, Yen Wei and Yan Ji
Chem. Sci., 2016, Advance Article
DOI: 10.1039/C6SC02855A, Edge Article
11 January 2017, Kolkata, India
We are delighted to announce that the Chemical Science Symposium 2017 will take place in Kolkata, India on 11 January 2017.
This event will be chaired by Chemical Science Editor-in-Chief Dan Nocera (Harvard University) and it will bring together exceptional researchers – all leading names in their field – to share scientific developments covering broad research areas of renewable energy, environment, materials and inorganic and organometallic catalysis.
The Chemical Science symposium will be a part of the Symposium on Advanced Biological Inorganic Chemistry (SABIC) organised by the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS) and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), bringing together more than 600 scientists working in inorganic and bio-inorganic chemistry.
The venue will be The Stadel, Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan, Kolkata, India.
Find out more about this event.
Mark your calendar today and register now!
Many thanks to our reviewers and community
In celebration of Peer Review Week, with the theme of Recognition for Review, we would like to highlight the top 10 reviewers for Chemical Science in 2016, as selected by the editor for their significant contribution to the journal.
Top 10 Reviewers for Chemical Science:
– Professor Takashi Hisatomi – University of Tokyo, Japan
– Professor Jun Kubota – Fukuoka University, Japan
– Dr Thomas Snaddon – Indiana University, USA
– Professor Dr Frank Würthner – Universität Würzburg, Germany
– Professor Kazuhiko Maeda – Tokyo Institute of Technology , Japan
– Professor Stefan Matile – University of Geneva, Switzerland
– Professor Dr Gilles Gasser – University of Zurich, Switzerland
– Professor Jonathan Nitschke – University of Cambridge, UK
– Professor Atsushi Fukuoka – Hokkaido University, Japan
– Professor Chunhai Fan – Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS, China
– Professor Juyoung Yoon – Ewha Womans University, Republic of Korea
We would like to say a massive thank you to these reviewers as well as the Chemical Science board and all of the chemistry community for their continued support of the journal, as authors, reviewers and readers.
From April – June 2016, our most downloaded Chemical Science articles were:
Evaluating metal–organic frameworks for natural gas storage
Jarad A. Mason, Mike Veenstra and Jeffrey R. Long
Chem. Sci., 2014, 5, 32-51
DOI: 10.1039/C3SC52633J, Perspective
Rethinking the term “pi-stacking”
Chelsea R. Martinez and Brent L. Iverson
Chem. Sci., 2012, 3, 2191-2201
DOI: 10.1039/C2SC20045G, Perspective
Macrocycles: lessons from the distant past, recent developments, and future directions
Andrei K. Yudin
Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 30-49
DOI: 10.1039/C4SC03089C, Perspective
Reversible photo-induced trap formation in mixed-halide hybrid perovskites for photovoltaics
Eric T. Hoke, Daniel J. Slotcavage, Emma R. Dohner, Andrea R. Bowring, Hemamala I. Karunadasa and Michael D. McGehee
Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 613-617
DOI: 10.1039/C4SC03141E, Edge Article
Metal–organic framework-based CoP/reduced graphene oxide: high-performance bifunctional electrocatalyst for overall water splitting
Long Jiao, Yu-Xiao Zhou and Hai-Long Jiang
Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 1690-1695
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC04425A, Edge Article
Sulfonyl fluorides as privileged warheads in chemical biology
Arjun Narayanan and Lyn H. Jones
Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 2650-2659
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC00408J, Perspective
Accurate calculation of the absolute free energy of binding for drug molecules
Matteo Aldeghi, Alexander Heifetz, Michael J. Bodkin, Stefan Knapp and Philip C. Biggin
Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 207-218
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02678D, Edge Article
Pot economy and one-pot synthesis
Yujiro Hayashi
Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 866-880
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02913A, Perspective
Vitrimers: permanent organic networks with glass-like fluidity
Wim Denissen, Johan M. Winne and Filip E. Du Prez
Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 30-38
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC02223A, Minireview
Topochemical molten salt synthesis for functional perovskite compounds
Lihong Li, Jinxia Deng, Jun Chen and Xianran Xing
Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 855-865
DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03521J, Perspective
31 August – 3 September 2016 at EMBL Heidelberg
The EMBO Chemical Biology meeting is one of the leading conferences in Chemical Biology in Germany and not only attracts national but also many international speakers and attendees on a biannual basis.
Taking place 31 August – 3 September 2016 at the new Advanced Training Centre at EMBL Heidelberg, the conference provides a great platform for researchers working in the field of Chemical Biology, from tool development to biological applications, and from computational drug design to synthetic chemistry.
Chemical Science and Chemical Communications are delighted to support this meeting, and there’s lots to look forward to again on this 6th edition of the symposium:
… and many more excellent speakers. Access the full scientific programme here.
Meet the team:
Dr May Copsey (Executive Editor of Chemical Science and Chemical Communications) will be attending the event. She looks forward to meeting many of you in Heidleberg, and would love to hear about your research and meet with our readers, authors and referees. Please do get in touch with May if you would like to arrange a meeting in advance.