18 posts · 8,584 views
This is the official blog of the 3rd EuCheMS Chemistry Congress 2010 in Nuremberg. It covers everything related to the conference and general chemistry.
Lars Fischer
18 posts
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- August 4, 2010
- 01:10 PM
- 557 views
Determining the structure by looking at the molecule
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
In many cases it is notoriously difficult to determine the exact structure of a molecule, especially with larger ones. Stereocenters tend to make things worse, and interesting molecules tend to have several of them. Have you ever sat up to the neck in a pile of inconclusive spectra and wished you could just hold it [...]... Read more »
Gross, L., Mohn, F., Moll, N., Meyer, G., Ebel, R., Abdel-Mageed, W., & Jaspars, M. (2010) Organic structure determination using atomic-resolution scanning probe microscopy. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.765
- July 20, 2010
- 09:25 AM
- 481 views
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
I have been on to self-healing materials for some time, usually writing about them in my german blog or for newspapers and magazines. Self-healing is what makes biology superior to technology. Organisms don’t just have astonishing properties – materials have, too – but they retain them by constant regeneration and while doing so even adapt [...]... Read more »
Li, Y., Li, L., & Sun, J. (2010) Bioinspired Self-Healing Superhydrophobic Coatings. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201001258
- June 28, 2010
- 11:40 AM
- 540 views
Azobenzene photoswitching in vesicles
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
The photoswitching capability of azobenzenes has recently been used extensively in photoreactive supramolecular materials. One of the most astonishing uses of azonenzene photoswitching is the reversible association of these molecules with certain cyclodextrines. Azobenzenes change their structure reversibly under irradiation. There’s a cis-form and a trans-form, and photoisomerisation happens reliably wavelengths of 350 (trans –> [...]... Read more »
Nalluri, S., & Ravoo, B. (2010) Lichtgesteuerte molekulare Erkennung und Adhäsion von Vesikeln. Angewandte Chemie. DOI: 10.1002/ange.201001442
- June 18, 2010
- 05:11 AM
- 380 views
A catalyst for axial chirality
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Axial-chirality or atropisomerism is a very useful property as demonstrated by various chiral catalysts containing BINOL, BINAP and similar groups, but not only there. Many important natural products like e.g. the antibiotic Vancomycin are also atropisomers, which makes this property a very important aspect of stereoselective chemical synthesis. Which is extremely difficult to achieve synthetically [...]... Read more »
Gustafson, J., Lim, D., & Miller, S. (2010) Dynamic Kinetic Resolution of Biaryl Atropisomers via Peptide-Catalyzed Asymmetric Bromination. Science, 328(5983), 1251-1255. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188403
- June 9, 2010
- 05:03 AM
- 539 views
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
With increasing demand for effective separation of small-molecule gases – think of carbon caption and storage – there has been a lot of research recently into strategies and materials suitable for those applications. The traditional way to separate gases like nitrogen, oxygen or carbon dioxide is to freeze them out one by one, which is [...]... Read more »
Shimomura, S., Higuchi, M., Matsuda, R., Yoneda, K., Hijikata, Y., Kubota, Y., Mita, Y., Kim, J., Takata, M., & Kitagawa, S. (2010) Selective sorption of oxygen and nitric oxide by an electron-donating flexible porous coordination polymer. Nature Chemistry. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.684
Huang, Z., White, P., & Brookhart, M. (2010) Ligand exchanges and selective catalytic hydrogenation in molecular single crystals. Nature, 465(7298), 598-601. DOI: 10.1038/nature09085
- May 31, 2010
- 04:53 AM
- 469 views
Amino acid crystallisation and the origin of life
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Recently I came across a number of attempts to explain the “handedness” of life – the fact that proteins consist only of L-amino acids – by the crystallization behavior of amino acids. The general idea is that something that happens at the transition between solution and crystal that favors one of the enantiomers over the [...]... Read more »
Lee, T., & Lin, Y. (2010) The Origin of Life and the Crystallization of Aspartic Acid in Water. Crystal Growth , 10(4), 1652-1660. DOI: 10.1021/cg901219f
- May 25, 2010
- 06:38 AM
- 466 views
The amazing spider silk
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Even if you don’t follow materials research closely you may have come across the amazing properties of spider silk. The stuff is stronger than steel, yet more elastic than most artificial fibres, despite being made of proteins only. It owes its remarkable strength to hydrogen bonds and its microstructure of amorphous and crystalline domains. But [...]... Read more »
Askarieh, G., Hedhammar, M., Nordling, K., Saenz, A., Casals, C., Rising, A., Johansson, J., & Knight, S. (2010) Self-assembly of spider silk proteins is controlled by a pH-sensitive relay. Nature, 465(7295), 236-238. DOI: 10.1038/nature08962
- May 5, 2010
- 05:28 AM
- 566 views
Biodegradable organic nanoparticles
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Somehow this never occurred to me before, but nanoparticles don’t have to be made from metals or other inorganics. They can even be biodegradable. It’s something you tend to forget when you keep reading papers about how metal oxide nanoparticles penetrate cells and catalyze the formation of free radicals or whatever. But of course there [...]... Read more »
Guo, P., Martin, C., Zhao, Y., Ge, J., & Zare, R. (2010) General Method for Producing Organic Nanoparticles Using Nanoporous Membranes. Nano Letters, 2147483647. DOI: 10.1021/nl101057d
- April 28, 2010
- 10:51 AM
- 504 views
Mapping the wetting
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
When it comes to chemistry, surfaces are the places to be. Where two phases meet, interesting stuff is bound to happen. One of the phase interactions that received increased attention during the last few years is the peculiar meeting of a liquid and a solid. One rather interesting phenomenon encountered here is the lotus effect, [...]... Read more »
Voïtchovsky, K., Kuna, J., Contera, S., Tosatti, E., & Stellacci, F. (2010) Direct mapping of the solid–liquid adhesion energy with subnanometre resolution. Nature Nanotechnology. DOI: 10.1038/NNANO.2010.67
- April 22, 2010
- 04:25 PM
- 412 views
Supercooled liquid gold alloy
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
It’s well-known that many liquid metals can be cooled below their freezing point. This is, scientists assume, due to dense and symmetric, but non-periodic ordering within the liquid. This theory implies that the freezing point of supercooled metal liquids can be controlled, just like crystallization can be induced by a template – all it takes [...]... Read more »
Schülli, T., Daudin, R., Renaud, G., Vaysset, A., Geaymond, O., & Pasturel, A. (2010) Substrate-enhanced supercooling in AuSi eutectic droplets. Nature, 464(7292), 1174-1177. DOI: 10.1038/nature08986
- March 13, 2010
- 03:02 PM
- 640 views
Soft, wet and rather tough
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Hydrogels are the only materials that have the potential to be used as a replacement material for functional tissues like cartilage, sinews or muscles. However, while the biological wet and soft materials have impressive mechanical properties and are generally very tough, conventional hydrogels are rather brittle and tend to disintegrate under duress. With one exception, [...]... Read more »
Gong, J. (2010) Why are double network hydrogels so tough?. Soft Matter. DOI: 10.1039/b924290b
- March 6, 2010
- 03:22 AM
- 455 views
Blowing molybdenum sulfide bubbles
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
There has been a veritable hype around fullerenes and carbon nanotubes in recent years, so this modification of carbon has extensively researched. What’s a little less known, is that there are other, very similar structures, made of inorganic building blocks, usually transition metal chalcogenides. There is, however, a difference: In most of the inorganic fullerens [...]... Read more »
Yella, A., Panthöfer, M., Kappl, M., & Tremel, W. (2010) Snapshots of the Formation of Inorganic MoS Onion-Type Fullerenes: A “Shrinking Giant Bubble” Pathway . Angewandte Chemie International Edition. DOI: 10.1002/anie.200902481
- February 27, 2010
- 02:34 PM
- 468 views
Piezoelectric fabric… again
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
The latest edition of Nano Letters has yet another paper about some sort of piezoelectric fabric that generates electricity when deformed. In Theory, you could wear pants made from this stuff and power, say, your watch just by walking around. Admittedly this isn’t exactly novel. We heard about it already in 2003 (pdf), 2007 and [...]... Read more »
Qi, Y., Jafferis, N., Lyons, K., Lee, C., Ahmad, H., & McAlpine, M. (2010) Piezoelectric Ribbons Printed onto Rubber for Flexible Energy Conversion. Nano Letters, 10(2), 524-528. DOI: 10.1021/nl903377u
- February 21, 2010
- 09:37 AM
- 542 views
How dangerous are these crystals, then?
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Recently I came across a very interesting article on the website of the German magazine Der Spiegel, which informed me that the current way of storing highly radioactive waste was unsuitable, and the reason for this is chemical. Says there:
Now a US-German research group, in an Article in Angewandte Chemie, raises doubts about the basic [...]... Read more »
Wang, S., Alekseev, E., Ling, J., Skanthakumar, S., Soderholm, L., Depmeier, W., & Albrecht-Schmitt, T. (2010) Neptunium Diverges Sharply from Uranium and Plutonium in Crystalline Borate Matrixes: Insights into the Complex Behavior of the Early Actinides Relevant to Nuclear Waste Storage. Angewandte Chemie, 122(7), 1285-1288. DOI: 10.1002/ange.200906127
- February 17, 2010
- 11:05 AM
- 447 views
Surface reconstruction in platinum covered with CO
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
Surfaces are full of surprises, and of course mysteries. Ertl described the intricacies of ammonia formation on flat platin surfaces decades ago and won a Nobel for it, but what happens between real catalysts and the reactions they accelerate remains largely unknown. When it comes to the behavior of steps, kinks and other surface features [...]... Read more »
Tao, F., Dag, S., Wang, L., Liu, Z., Butcher, D., Bluhm, H., Salmeron, M., & Somorjai, G. (2010) Break-Up of Stepped Platinum Catalyst Surfaces by High CO Coverage. Science, 327(5967), 850-853. DOI: 10.1126/science.1182122
- January 20, 2010
- 02:18 PM
- 474 views
The strange poison of the Platypus
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
The duck-billed Platypus is such an odd creature that one could get the idea that its survival depends on potential predators laughing themselves to death, but in fact it can rely on a far more potent defense. It carries a venomous sting on its hind legs. Envenoming by a male Ornithorhynchus anatinus causes not only [...]... Read more »
Kita, M., Black, D., Ohno, O., Yamada, K., Kigoshi, H., & Uemura, D. (2009) Duck-Billed Platypus Venom Peptides Induce Ca Influx in Neuroblastoma Cells . Journal of the American Chemical Society, 131(50), 18038-18039. DOI: 10.1021/ja908148z
- January 14, 2010
- 01:00 PM
- 389 views
Quantum Chemistry FTW!
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
There have been many new developments in quantum computing during the last few years, but last Sunday a paper appeared in Nature Chemistry that shows how far the area really has come. It seems that now things are getting really interesting: American and Australian scientists just built a quantum circuit that calculated the energy Eigenvalues [...]... Read more »
Lanyon, B., Whitfield, J., Gillett, G., Goggin, M., Almeida, M., Kassal, I., Biamonte, J., Mohseni, M., Powell, B., Barbieri, M.... (2010) Towards quantum chemistry on a quantum computer. Nature Chemistry, 2(2), 106-111. DOI: 10.1038/nchem.483
- December 12, 2009
- 05:16 PM
- 255 views
Smell the decay
by Lars Fischer in EuCheMS 2010 Blog
een to a library lately? Those of you who, like me, get their current literature via the internet, probably thoroughly repressed the memory of literature research without a search mask, but there are things that stay with you. Such as the smell of old books.
Turns out that there is more to this smell that meets the… uh… nose.... Read more »
Strlič, M., Thomas, J., Trafela, T., Cséfalvayová, L., Kralj Cigić, I., Kolar, J., & Cassar, M. (2009) Material Degradomics: On the Smell of Old Books. Analytical Chemistry, 81(20), 8617-8622. DOI: 10.1021/ac9016049
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