Chemical Science Blog

A water molecule can act as a spy to sense and expose the reasons behind the anomeric effect in carbohydrates.

Since it was identified more than 50 years ago, the anomeric effect’s origins have been hotly debated. Scientists have found it difficult to separate stereoelectronic effects from other potential influences, including solvation.

Using vibrational spectroscopy, researchers have studied doubly hydrated anomers of a mannopyranoside under molecular beam conditions in the gas phase. By substituting heavy water (D₂O) for H₂O, they separated the carbohydrate (OH) bands from the water (OD) bands, helping them to interpret differences in the anomers’ vibrational signatures. One of the water molecules acted as a remarkably sensitive reporter, able to sense and expose subtle stereoelectronic changes through the resulting changes in its hydrogen-bonded interaction with the substrate.

Eager to read more? Download the full Edge article in Chemical Science for free:
Heavy water hydration of mannose: the anomeric effect in solvation, laid bare
Nitzan Mayorkas, Svemir Rudić, Benjamin G. Davis and John P. Simons, Chem. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/C1SC00002K

Scientists in Germany have developed a strategy to visualise oxygen concentrations in cells to better understand its role in biological reactions such as metabolism.

Hans Gorris from the University of Regensburg and colleagues have embedded two luminescent dyes within polystyrene particles, which were taken up by cells. One is a red light-emitting indicator dye that alters its luminescence depending on the oxygen concentration; the second is a green light-emitting dye that acts as a reference and is not sensitive to oxygen. The colours enabled the dyes to be monitored on the green and red channels in a red-green-blue (RGB) digital camera, together with a fluorescence microscope.

Schematic drawing of a ratiometric oxygen-sensitive polystyrene PEBBLE

See Chemistry World for the full news story  

Link to journal article
Self-referenced RGB colour imaging of intracellular oxygen
Xu-dong Wang, Hans H. Gorris, Judith A. Stolwijk, Robert J. Meier, Dominik B. M. Groegel, Joachim Wegener and Otto S. Wolfbeis
Chem. Sci., 2011, DOI: 10.1039/c0sc00610f

amyloid fibrils

Group 9 metal complexes can inhibit amyloid aggregation, thought to be responsible for neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease patients.

Dik-Lung Ma (University of Hong Kong) and colleagues made iridium(III) and rhodium(III) complexes that can both inhibit the aggregation of Ab_1-40 peptides and acts as luminescent probes for the peptides. Their iridium complex is the first example of a transition metal complex that displays a ‘switch-on’ luminescence response upon binding to Ab_1-40 peptides; the magnitude of response can be used to distinguish between the peptide’s monomeric and fibrillar forms.

Read the full Edge Article for free in Chemical Science.

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Scientists have made a large-pored metal-organic framework (MOF) that they say provides a conclusive answer to a long standing issue: do catalytic reactions take place inside the pores?

Chiral MOFs are of great interest for enantioselective catalysis but they have had limited success as enantioselective catalysis in terms of catalytic turnover and stereoselectivity, partly due to their lack of void space. There are a number of reports of chiral MOFs with pores large enough to accommodate whole molecules. It has been assumed that the reactions occur both at the surface and also in the pores but until now the evidence has been circumstantial, according to Nakcheol Jeong at Korea University in Seoul.

Jeong’s MOF has organic linkers that maintain local chirality with functional groups that can be modified on demand to produce new catalysts. He used the MOF catalyst for a carbonyl-ene reaction and says he has conclusively proved that the reaction occurs entirely inside the pores.

You can read Jeong’s Edge article for free in Chemical Science.  Let us know if you agree with the conclusions by leaving your comments below.

I am pleased to announce that Professor Christopher Bielawski (University of Texas at Austin, USA) has joined the Chemical Science Editorial Board as Associate Editor for polymer science.

Professor Bielawski’s research program lies at the interface of polymer science and materials chemistry, and focuses on the synthesis and study of unique organic and organometallic macromolecules.

His Chemical Science Editorial Office opens for submissions on 1st March 2011. We look forward to working with him and welcome him to his new role.

Also of interest:
A benzocrown-6-calix[4]arene methacrylate copolymer: Selective extraction of caesium ions from a multi-component system
Brett M. Rambo, Sung Kuk Kim, Jong Seung Kim, Christopher W. Bielawski and Jonathan L. Sessler
Chem. Sci., 2010, 1, 716-722

Synthesis and self-assembly of poly(3-hexylthiophene)-block-poly(acrylic acid)
Zicheng Li, Robert J. Ono, Zong-Quan Wu and Christopher W. Bielawski
Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 197-199

The chemistry of graphene oxide
Daniel R. Dreyer, Sungjin Park, Christopher W. Bielawski and Rodney S. Ruoff
Chem. Soc. Rev., 2010, 39, 228-240

Rachel O’Reilly joins the Chem Soc Rev Editorial Board

David MacMillan, Stephen Buchwald, Dean Toste and Jeffrey Long have recently been identified as some of the world’s top 100 chemists. That’s great news for them and also great news for Chemical Science – we’re delighted to have so many world leaders handling manuscripts and setting the scientific standards for our flagship journal.

The top 100 list, compiled by Thomson Reuters, also contains a number of Chemical Science authors. Overall, this is an impressive position for such a new journal, putting us on a par with other more established premier journals in the general chemistry arena. So if you want your paper to be seen and handled by the best, submit to Chemical Science.