Did you know you can get an RSS feed of our Research Highlights?

Carbon nanotubes can do anything, it seems. And now vertical arrays of nitrogen-doped CNTs have been found to be effective oxygen reduction electrodes, for use in fuel cells. Another cheaper alternative to platinum, which is the usual material used.

According to valence shell electron pair repulsion rules (VSEPR – remember learning those in long-ago undergrad days?), what structure would you expect a compound with 10 Ge atoms around 1 Co? Distribute all those bonds equally and you’d get a bicapped square antiprism. But instead you get a nearly geometrically perfect pentagonal prism — even the Ge–Ge distances BETWEEN the pentagonal faces are nearly the same as those WITHIN the faces.

Platinum and corrosion are two words I don’t normally associate with each other — especially because during my PhD we had a (terrifyingly expensive) Pt crucible that could withstand anything, at any temperature. But it looks like chlorine can do it, and exposing certain Pt surfaces to chlorine gas results in PtCl₄ clusters forming as part of a highly ordered Cl-PtCl₄ layer.

And finally…watch this space for more from Stu later today!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Did you know you can get an RSS feed of our Research Highlights?

Carbon nanotubes can do anything, it seems. And now vertical arrays of nitrogen-doped CNTs have been found to be effective oxygen reduction electrodes, for use in fuel cells. Another cheaper alternative to platinum, which is the usual material used.

According to valence shell electron pair repulsion rules (VSEPR – remember learning those in long-ago undergrad days?), what structure would you expect a compound with 10 Ge atoms around 1 Co? Distribute all those bonds equally and you’d get a bicapped square antiprism. But instead you get a nearly geometrically perfect pentagonal prism — even the Ge–Ge distances BETWEEN the pentagonal faces are nearly the same as those WITHIN the faces.

Platinum and corrosion are two words I don’t normally associate with each other — especially because during my PhD we had a (terrifyingly expensive) Pt crucible that could withstand anything, at any temperature. But it looks like chlorine can do it, and exposing certain Pt surfaces to chlorine gas results in PtCl₄ clusters forming as part of a highly ordered Cl-PtCl₄ layer.

And finally…watch this space for more from Stu later today!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Let’s dive straight in: Catalysts’ performances can be tuned by including other metals – for example, a CuPt alloy. You might expect that, for an effective catalyst, the surface would feature more of the reactive metal – in this case, Pt. But no! The less reactive Cu atoms migrate to the surface, where they create islands of Pt atoms to do the biz with the CO molecules.

Catenanes are molecules of interlocked rings and are normally made by interlocking rings containing either pi-donor or -acceptor groups. What Jeremy Sanders and colleagues have done is put pi-donors AND -acceptors into both rings. The building blocks link together with a donor-acceptor-donor-acceptor pi-section.

One day, we’ll all be using quantum computers. But to get to that exciting future, we need quantum binary digits – or qubits as they are handily abbreviated to – and to control their entanglement. Now, two Cr7Ni rings have been linked together through a Cu-containing ligand system. This provides three qubits, and their entanglement could be controlled by microwave pulses.

And finally…Gav caught physical chemistry textbook guru Peter Atkins on TV yesterday morning. You may be able to watch on the BBC’s iPlayer here. Not a vast amount of chemistry, admittedly, but most definitely a chemist!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Let’s dive straight in: Catalysts’ performances can be tuned by including other metals – for example, a CuPt alloy. You might expect that, for an effective catalyst, the surface would feature more of the reactive metal – in this case, Pt. But no! The less reactive Cu atoms migrate to the surface, where they create islands of Pt atoms to do the biz with the CO molecules.

Catenanes are molecules of interlocked rings and are normally made by interlocking rings containing either pi-donor or -acceptor groups. What Jeremy Sanders and colleagues have done is put pi-donors AND -acceptors into both rings. The building blocks link together with a donor-acceptor-donor-acceptor pi-section.

One day, we’ll all be using quantum computers. But to get to that exciting future, we need quantum binary digits – or qubits as they are handily abbreviated to – and to control their entanglement. Now, two Cr7Ni rings have been linked together through a Cu-containing ligand system. This provides three qubits, and their entanglement could be controlled by microwave pulses.

And finally…Gav caught physical chemistry textbook guru Peter Atkins on TV yesterday morning. You may be able to watch on the BBC’s iPlayer here. Not a vast amount of chemistry, admittedly, but most definitely a chemist!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

With most of the UK enduring or enjoying a couple of inches of snow, normal Research Highlight service is resumed.

As we’ve known since The Graduate, polymers are the future – especially ones that conduct. But the way that electrons (or excitons to be a bit more accurate) move along polymer chains has always been assumed to be by ‘hopping’ between excited areas. It turns out that they might move more smoothly [the Perspective even says ‘surfing’] and even retain some ‘coherence’.

Metals from the d- and f-blocks are generally pretty different: directional bonding vs diffuse, a range of oxidation states vs stick-in-the-mud 3+, and so on. Compounds that have a metal from both families, therefore, can be pretty interesting – especially magnetically. And that’s just the case for some copper-lanthanide complexes that are (sort of) a trimer of dimers.

Apparently, there was some sort of big sports game thing on Sunday, and it meant Steve could get away with using the word ‘suprabowl’ in his headline. Topical. Anyway, back to the science. The bowls in question are tris(spiroborate)s that form supramolecular polymers with iridium complexes – at room temperature.

And finally…two links that could help improve the way publishing works. One is hosted by the RSC on behalf of a UK funding body (JISC) to understand how you communicate and use information. The other one is to help categorize the comments on PLoS ONE papers. Do your bit for Science 2.0!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

With most of the UK enduring or enjoying a couple of inches of snow, normal Research Highlight service is resumed.

As we’ve known since The Graduate, polymers are the future – especially ones that conduct. But the way that electrons (or excitons to be a bit more accurate) move along polymer chains has always been assumed to be by ‘hopping’ between excited areas. It turns out that they might move more smoothly [the Perspective even says ‘surfing’] and even retain some ‘coherence’.

Metals from the d- and f-blocks are generally pretty different: directional bonding vs diffuse, a range of oxidation states vs stick-in-the-mud 3+, and so on. Compounds that have a metal from both families, therefore, can be pretty interesting – especially magnetically. And that’s just the case for some copper-lanthanide complexes that are (sort of) a trimer of dimers.

Apparently, there was some sort of big sports game thing on Sunday, and it meant Steve could get away with using the word ‘suprabowl’ in his headline. Topical. Anyway, back to the science. The bowls in question are tris(spiroborate)s that form supramolecular polymers with iridium complexes – at room temperature.

And finally…two links that could help improve the way publishing works. One is hosted by the RSC on behalf of a UK funding body (JISC) to understand how you communicate and use information. The other one is to help categorize the comments on PLoS ONE papers. Do your bit for Science 2.0!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Tuesday already! How time flies… Wait no longer, here are this week’s Research Highlights.

The role of aromatic π-π interactions mustn’t be underestimated — they contribute to many biological functions, including pretty crucial ones like the stability of DNA, or drug binding. In previous studies benzene rings had received most of the attention, but you can now find out how heteroatoms affect these interactions.

How about a high-performance, photosensitive, nanoscale field-effect transistor? It is all possible thanks to the self-assembly of organic molecules into columns within the nanogaps of a carbon nanotube…

When it comes to ion recognition, selective binding to chloride (essential to human health) versus, say, cyanide (notably harmful) is essential. Steve tells us about a receptor that captures chloride and determines its concentration even in the presence of significant amounts of water, like in sports drinks.

And finally… although no metric can really quantify the value of scientific research, how can we estimate the importance of a particular paper? The number of citations? The Impact Factor of the journal? It looks like Google’s PageRank algorithm might be able to help…

Anne

Anne Pichon (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Like a cricket pitch with autumnal goal-posts, here’s a small sign of time passing: Research Highlights are now going to be more like 200 words than 250. Why? Because the print version of Nature Chemistry will require shorter stories, so we need to get in the habit now! I hope you’ve enjoyed the bonus 50 or so words per article – you’ll never have it so good again!

So anyway, onto the science. Of the few two-coordinate iron complexes known, most aren’t straight because the sneaky iron atom tries to increase its coordination by latching onto the other bits of the ligands. The tertiary-butyl amide complex recently made, however, IS linear. This gives rise to some slightly odd magnetic properties.

How proteins fold up into their beta-sheets is pretty important, especially because misfolding is implicated in some diseases/disorders. Some aminopyrazole derivatives could prevent misfolding, and now how they interact with peptides has been investigated in the gas phase. This led to all sorts of information about the conformation and H-bonding.

Graphene is the two-dimensional nanocarbon poster-child that lots of people are getting excited about – it’s even on the BBC website. But what if you could add hydrogen atoms to the sheets, and create ‘graphane’? Well…Andre ‘Mr Graphene’ Geim and Kostya Novoselov have hydrogenated graphene and found that it not only buckles up, but also changes into an insulator. Graphene for hydrogen storage, anyone??

And finally…while some things change (JACS has got cover “artwork” [mmm, nice spectra]), other things don’t (the RSC has got a press release with no discernable science)!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)

Like a cricket pitch with autumnal goal-posts, here’s a small sign of time passing: Research Highlights are now going to be more like 200 words than 250. Why? Because the print version of Nature Chemistry will require shorter stories, so we need to get in the habit now! I hope you’ve enjoyed the bonus 50 or so words per article – you’ll never have it so good again!

So anyway, onto the science. Of the few two-coordinate iron complexes known, most aren’t straight because the sneaky iron atom tries to increase its coordination by latching onto the other bits of the ligands. The tertiary-butyl amide complex recently made, however, IS linear. This gives rise to some slightly odd magnetic properties.

How proteins fold up into their beta-sheets is pretty important, especially because misfolding is implicated in some diseases/disorders. Some aminopyrazole derivatives could prevent misfolding, and now how they interact with peptides has been investigated in the gas phase. This led to all sorts of information about the conformation and H-bonding.

Graphene is the two-dimensional nanocarbon poster-child that lots of people are getting excited about – it’s even on the BBC website. But what if you could add hydrogen atoms to the sheets, and create ‘graphane’? Well…Andre ‘Mr Graphene’ Geim and Kostya Novoselov have hydrogenated graphene and found that it not only buckles up, but also changes into an insulator. Graphene for hydrogen storage, anyone??

And finally…while some things change (JACS has got cover “artwork” [mmm, nice spectra]), other things don’t (the RSC has got a press release with no discernable science)!

Neil

Neil Withers (Associate Editor, Nature Chemistry)